The National tribune., 1902-04-24
THE MEAT TRUST.


ing the price of beef all over the country,
and greatly increasing the cost of every
mans living, makes the whole question of
trusts an intensely interesting issue 1t
presents the question in q concrete and
Ineligible form, which any comprehension
can grasp. The pretense of the Trust
that this action was made necessary by
the rise in the price of cattle deceives no
one, because that rise is nowhere in pro-
portion to the advance in the prices of
meat, and, further, the price of cattle is
Trust as the price of meat. 1t fixes the
rates on cattle from month to month, and
nobody can compete with it.
1t will be readily seen that this NAM
moth corporation can exercise more direct
influence upon the lives of more people
than any King in Europe can. We are
in brief, in the power of mighty despot-
ism, and can only hope that it will use its
power moderately and humanely. This is
a Calling thought to people so jealous of
their freedom and independence as we
are. But when it comes to a practicable
remedy where shall we find it? 1t is rank
NONSENSE to talk about smashing trusts -
as if some strong-armed man or men
could attack them with sledge-hammers
and beat them to pieces. They cannot be
abolished, like slavery was The man who
talks thus only betrays his own childish
ignorance and incompetence.
We can make up our minds that the
trusts have come to stay. This is because
they are primarily founded on sound tus,-
ness rules and true economic principles.
They are the Towering and full develop
invBt of progress, which began with rhe
first efforts of mankind 10 manufacture
aLd trade. The first man vino ! uilt a
water-mill STATED the movement and
took away a great deal of work from the
men who We're grinding grain by hand Or
animal powe:, because he could grind
much more, more cheaply and better
thaH they. The men who invented the
power loom and the spinning icnIy and
attached steam engine TO item, took
away the occupation of millions of spin
ncrs and weuv:rs, and almost revOiUiiuu-
lied several countries. But they furnished
citth incOmpGraDiy cheaper than those
who spun aad Wove by hand could, and 50
the greatest coed of the greatest number
was infinitely advanced by cheapening the
necessaries of life. Therefore those utili-
ties came to stay. The foundation prin-
ciple of all the trusts is this great lessen
ing of the cost of production. Even the
Meat Trust is primarily based on this
idea. BY proper business. connections it
can pay the usual market price for a hog
or steer, transport him to Kansas City
or Chicago, slaughter him, and make
much more profit out of the sale Of the
meat than the ordinary village butcher,
work he never so cheaply. 1t could, there
fore, supply the meat cheaper than he
could, and by SO doing drive him out Of
business. As the first consideration is the
cheapening of the meat to the consumer,
the Meat Trust has come to stay.
The next question is for the people to
control the immense power which it has
absorbed, and make it use its superior
business facilities for the public good.
But how to do this is a perplexing prob
lem which no thinker has as yet offered
any approach to solution. FIatulent
speeches in Congress and laundering adi-
torials do absolutely no good. They are
rs vain as the Pope's bull against the
comet.
What is imperatively needed is for some
real thinker TO propose way in which all
the good that trusts do can be conserved
to the public, and yet the evils of such I'M
limited power as that exerted by the Meat
Trust be warded off.
Will not everybody stop vociferous talk
ing for a little while and devote them
selves to intense thinking upon practical
lines:
No one has done any very effective
thinking so far, and yet there WAS never
more need of it.