Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1902-10-10
his own signature that God has given
the coal beds to a handful of trust man.

the coal beds to handful OF truSt man
ayers to use at their discretion.
They propose to starve the miners
into submission and incidentally to
freeze the rest of the population to
carry their point.
In this Coal Trust situation we have
the natural evolution of the trust
question. The same thing may be re.
peated in any one of the dozen trusts,
while monopolies, tariffs and railroads
combine to exploit the situation.
The Neat Trust doubles prices and
the patient people submit. What
will they do when strike or some
other complication cuts off the meat
or puts it absolutely beyond the reach
of nine-tenths of the people?
The Industrial resources, and the
natural wealth of the country, firm
erly enriched many individuals of
peculiar enterprise They offered an
open field to ambition, energy AID
Speclal ability.
Now the counLry's wealth, the coua.
try 3 opportunities, the country IS coal,
iron, oil, sugar, meat, lead, ice-ALI
necessities are in this hands OF few
individuals, and the nation is drifting
toward condition which will give us
few preposterously rich men and a
population of clcrks-a situation to BE-
aggravated by coal or meat famincs
and by the rioting of workingmen
made desperate through monopoly Of
the labor field.
There can be no doubt in the mind
of any man that something has got to
be done to meet this situation.
The tariff gives the trusts their
power to certain extent-AND A CON.
GREss MUST BE ELECTED THAT WILL
DEAL SANELY AND FEARLEssLY WITH
THE TARIFF.
The tariff remedy alone will not
meet the situatioc. The tariff could
do nothing with the coal situation.
The congress of the United States
must deal with the question of owner
ship and control of the great national
monopolies, the railroads and other
public franchises.
This question of government owner
tship is no longera theory, is no longer
in the stage of discussion. 1t can nc
longer be sneeringly dismissed by the
ultra-prosperous as ridiculous COM
munistic dream. 1t is the impor tant
pressing question of.the. hour.
The democratic platform of the
State of New York, written under
conservative influences, demands that
the government shall seiza, own and
operate the anthracite coal beds
with due compensation to present
''owners.
Every sane person realizes and ad
mits the justice Of this demand. Ther'
is no question as to the soundness o
government ownership when the al
tentative is to freeze. The ogre
giously stupid coal trust must bs
thanked for presenting the issue O
government ownership SO squarely t.
the people.
| And democratic house Of repre-
: lsen tatives must be elected to realiz
the peoples will. There is no elemen
of partisan politics in this editorial
The politics of the United States ha
progressed beyond tie point of parti
sanship. There is nothing partisan
about this question.
Shall nine-tenths of the wealth O
| the wealth Of the United States b
owned by nine or ten trusts, or 10y tn
whole people?
| 1t is known that the trusts depen'
on republican supremacy for thei
lmonopolies, for their tariff, the i'm
|punity with which they defy such ant
trust laws as exist, and for futur
laws to facilitate their operations.
| Every honest republican, as we'll a
every democrat, knows perfectly
that every trust, without exception
hopes and works and spends its none
| for the election OF republican hous
LOT representatives.
Every republican knows in his hear
that he must vote to elect demo
Icratic congress or give up hope OF regu
Hating the present steady movemen
toward the abs rption Of the nationa
wealth In few individual hands.
The New York state democrati,
platform, which demands the govern
ment ownership and operation Of thu
anthracite coal beds, brings to focuI
the present great industrial question
1t will add energy and emphasis t
the desperate efforts Of the trusts tt
keep their hold on the United State
congress.
| The giant among trusts, the STAND
ard Oil company, issues certificate
which earn eighty per cent dividend
on hundred millions of stock.
| The only picture on these certifi
Gates is picture of the capitol a
Washington, in which congress sits
and that picture is an apt indication
Of the Standard Oil trusts principa
asset.
The same democratic platform tina
demands government ownership o