The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1902-03-21
TRUSTS THAT THRIVE BY
STEALING.


STEALING.
Mr.. Martin A. Knapp. chairman o
the Interstate Commerce Commission
in a speech at Cooper Union in New
York recently. broadly and unequiv
ocally took this position: That trust
thrive by stealing; that the railroad
are the backbone of the crimina
trusts; that by making unfair and ex
orbitant rates as against one individual
in favor of another, or one corpora
ton in favor of another, or one commu
nifty in favor of another. they crush
out mark the word crush they
crush out competition. This is how
the colossal Standard Oil monopoly has
been built up and maintained. 4" he
says. 1.-THE railroads and the trusts, /"
he says, "care nothing for the law.
For years they have laughed at the
Interstate Commissioner efforts to
interfere with their brigandage. D"
"Brigandage, mark you. If the
Herald were to use such word, how
some folks would talk about the
Herald's 'narrowness' and "preiu.
dice
Mr Commissioner Knapp further
says, Their officers, railroad officers
when forced upon the witness stand,
smile cynically and profess to have lost
their memory" Mr. Knapp ought
TO know. And he quotes from the late
Governor Altgeld. that "the danger
to our government lies in that corrup-
ton, insolence and oppression that go
hand in hand with vast accumulation
of wealth, welded by unscrupulous
men.
And what, do you suppose, is Mr..
Knapp's remedy for this confessedly
growing and dangerous evil? 1t will
make our Populist friends laugh when
they read it, as it is one of their much
maligned remedies; but like more than
one of their suggestions it has common
sense as the chief ingredient 1t is
this: "GOVERNMENT OWNER
SHIP" ''To make them" says Com
missioner Knapp, lin actual fact
what they are in theory, national high
ways, which would give equal service
to all citizens upon equal terms, as the
postoffice does.
Mr.. Knapp is right. His opposition
is not TO the railroads, per Sc. but to
the Trusts. 1t does not matter in the |
least whether it is the sugar trust, or
the oil trust or the railroad trust, or
the insurance trust, or the phosphate
trust, the TRUST is wrong injurious
to trade destructive to competition,
subversive of individual rights
liberties and opportunities pernicious
in doctrine; absolutely, wholly, un
conditionally wrong in doctrine, theory
and practice
One great trouble is that the Trusts
keep sleepless watch over their in
terests, while the interests of the
people, unguarded neglected and
uncared for, are often betrayed by
unfaithful public servants who court
favor.
Another trouble is that we'll mean
ing but misguided men, prejudiced in
their own interests, listen to the syre n
song that the combine they represent
is founded on natural and necessary,
fair and equitable business rules and I
demands. Railroad presidents and {
attorneys who damn the insurance !
Trust for it's exorbitant charges, justify
their own arbitrary rulings on "sound
business principles . While presi-
dents of insurance companies their {
special agents and adjusters, and some /
others of lesser light, think every man ,
an ignoramus who seeks to criticize '
their methods of business. But the /
people at large will soon or late come c
TO this conclusion, that all Trusts are t
wrong that combinations of capital
md corporate influence is contrary to
the public good; that this cen tralizing I
If power in the hands of few CAPT I
;alists, is destructive TO individual 7
,ffort, enterprise and ambition; and &
hat all Trusts being per SO wrong, all Il
Trusts must be abolished.
Just before his death, the late ex. n
1ov. John p. Altgeld spoke for hui t,
nan liberty and glorifed justice. His s;
asst eloquent words were these cut d.
hem out and preserve them, for they h
re as true rs holy writ: 81 am not
discouraged. Things will right them
elves. A pendulum swings one way :
nd then another, but the steady pull
f gravitation is toward the center of
he earth. Any structure must be =,
lumb if it is to endure. So it is !,
nth nations. Wrong may seem to y