The Tucson citizen., 1902-03-07
The ERA OF TRUSTS.

4 dispatch from Washington pub
Iished Yesterday informed us that j.
Pierpont Morgan was so angry because
Of the Attorney Generals suit to test
the legality of the merger of the
Northwestern railroads. that he seri-
ously eons4uered recalling his accept
ance of an invitation to dine at the
White House. The President. however,
took occasion to assure Mr.. Morgan
that he contemplated no attack on
trusts now organized. This, in man
ner, sarlsfed Mr.. Morgan, but how
VIII the people feel about it?
According to a New York dispatch
to the San Francisco Call, Mr. Nor
gan's latest diversion as a tinancier is
to provide the "slnews of war" for a
vast combination of dry goods and de-
partment stores, which is to domin-
ate both the wholesale and retail
branches OF that trade in many of the
principal cities of the country. IF,
says the San Francisco Calls cor
respondent, the expectations of the
promoters of this syndicate are reali-
zed the prospective combination is
likely 10 become as powerful factor
in commerce as is the gigantic steel
and IRON syndicate organized through
the same financial house under the
name of the United States Steel Cor
poration.'
Mr.. Morgan's name is fast becoming
n household word in the United States.
The reports which are current about
him and the stories of which he is the
central figure represent him as YER
liable magician of finance, the good
genius of trusts, the guardian angel
OF syndicates and combines. Whether
his works shall prove him "a good
enough Morgan for the people of the
United States, or whether they shall
disclose him as a sinister influence in
trade and finance, time alone will
show. Undoubtedly he Is the hero OF
this commercial age-the colossal fig
industrial operations are of gigantic
proportions. Since this republic was
founded We have had heroes who
were soldiers and statesmen The
twentieth century introduces as the
most potent force the man of many
milliOns-the man who buys a rail-
road before breakfast; organizes an
industrial trust at lunch and corners
the stock market before dinner Be
side such a prodigy the Washingtons,
Jeffersons, Websters. Clays and Lin
cIons of past generations silk into
comparative insignificance. History is
made nowadays in our banking houses
and in the private Offices of our multi
millioniares. The financial magnate is
the monarch of all he suryeys-of steel.
of manufacture-of almost every
thing, in fact, of which mankind
stands in need and in which it is in
terested
During the past decade a revolution
has been in progress in the United
States. The many Industries established
by individual efforts or by the efforts
of associations of individuals, have
been gradually drawn into the control
OF a comparatively few men with a
fnr nj nl
ing, until it now appears that in an
other decade at the latest the CONNER
cial and industrial activities and re-
sources of 80,000,00 OF people will be
in the grasp of a grand central syn
dicate Of tinanciers. Ten years ago if
a man had predicted that the steel
manufacturing interests of this coun-
try could be welded into one corpora
tion he would have been regarded as
mentally unbalanced. Yet Mr. Morgan
and his associates performed the mir
acle with astonishing ease. A decade
ago the suggestion that the tobacco
manufacturing interests of the country
could be brought under practically one
management would have been laugh
ed at. Yet the Tobacco Trust is one
of the most powerful combinations in
the country today, as the planters who
have to sell their crops of tobacco at
prices fixed by the trust will testify.
Almost every department of produc-
lion and manufacture is controlled by
kru6tr-even the meat we eat and the
eel We consume for fuel. This is the
condition which confronts the people
3of ~ United States at the beginning
ok xhe twentieth century. Combina-
tton 16nk since ceased to be a theory.
- a1Ienced rapidly through the ex-
pax frientnl stages until 1t became a
fact from which there is apparently
rs pnraphrase trite saying, finance