The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-06-05
A Day of Oratory
At the University.
Continued from Page Three)


tured articles, that now, profiting by
cheap transportation and turning to ac-
count superior resources, the American
workman, from his present standpoint,
energized by the spirit of free institu-
lions and with his ingenuity can easily,
aided by the enterprise of his managers
and without the aid of any laws, dis
lance his competitors But America,
partly because of the superior holiness
and push of her capitalists, though
chiefly because of a tariff that shuts out
competition, is likewise far ahead of the
world in combinations of industries. Our
country with the vast capital it has
aInassed, has become the home of trusts
that are amazing mankind. We have
trusts in rubber, in cordage, in photo
graphs, in plate glass, in wall paper. in
tobacco, in salt, in thread, in baking
powder, in paper, in iron and steel. in
smelling, in coal, in starch, in bobbins
and shuttles, in cycles, in caramels, in
window glass, in boraX in brewing, in
gas, in OIL in chemicals in asphalt,
in cotton oil, in milling, in leather, in
elevators, in sugar. in copper, and in
beef, and still they come, so rapidly
that no layman can keep count of them.
These trusts are constantly multiplying,
reaching out their tentacles in every
direction to gather in for the profit OF
mcnopolies whatever the American con-
sumer's necessities compel him to have.
They are capitalized at tens of millions
and hundreds OF millions, and the Steel
Trust has recently decided on an increase
of fifty millions, so that it's capitaliza-
tior, counting bonds and stocks, now
amounts to one billion. three hundred
and seventy-one millions of dollars,
which is $53,000.000 more than all the
money that was in circulation in the
Uri!ed States fifteen years ago.
The trusts dictate their own prices and
| charge higher rates at home than abroad.
The president of the Steel Trust declared
| before the United States Industrial Com
mission that this was necessary to en-
able these combinations to keep their
| plants continually occupied. Their theory
| is that American consumers must pay
| for the necessaries of life an increase OF
| price, which every man now feels. but
| no man can estimate. in order that the
| trusts may exploit the markets of the
| world. do not for one, believe that
|. the descendants of those who rebelled
| against tax of three pence a pound on
tea, because they believed it was i'll prin-
eiplc, will, when they have the power
| to prevent it by their ballots, submit
! to such a system as this. Mankind have,
| NJ Renan is quoted as saying, IAN in
vincible leaning towards Justice and
| all history shows that man entertainS
| an unconquerable aversion to monopolies,
! if controlled in the interest of private
| parties. For the law to encourage or
/ allow private monopolies is to tut one
/ man in the power of another-it is q de-
I private of liberty. One class of mono
1 poles our mother country has dealt with
! of recent years in particularly CT
/ fective manner. Street railways, city
water works, lights, ETC., called public
utilities" are. in their nature, monopolies.
4 They were formerly in England nearly
| all in the hands of private parties, who
| realized immense fortunes from them.
But the work of breaking up private
| holdings, by taking these utilities into
! the hands of municipalities. mas made
| such progress that whereas the capital
| in Great Britain invested in municipal
undertakings in 1875 was $465, O0J, 600, in
| fifteen year (1900) it had grown to ST.
| 500 900 900.
There are now in the Dominion 931
| municipalities owning water works SO
owning street railroads; 240 owning gas
works, and 1S1 supplying electricity. Half
the gas users in England use municipal
| gas.
The extension of municipal functions
does not stop here. bennington and
| Harrowgate own Turkish baths, Har-
rowgate and Glasgow provide musical
| lectures. Colchester possesses an oyste.
fishery. st. Helena provides sterilzed
milk. Hull owns a creamery Other
| towns own race courses, golf courses, one
a stone flag factory, and another gives
| organ recitals. has military bands, and
provides entertainments of all sorts In
Liverpool, London, Glasgow, and perhops
other towns, municipalities are demolish-
ing slums and providing houses for the
roCr.
These tendenses sway from Individual
ism and in the direction of paternalism.
are startling. Whether they are for good
or evil, if halted at their present station.
| is; for the present, beside the mark I
am but calling the attention of the
young gentlemen before me to the signs
| of the times in which they live, to the
evolution which is now going forward,
| lioC oHly III 1HSldnu, out throughout the
| world.
1t is undoubtedly true that another
reason for these public undertakings in
1 Great Britain is that these utilities are
| found to be cheaDened when taken out of
the hands of private monopolists 1t
does not mend matters to say that there
are two good reasons instead of ore, for
| this undoubted trend towards socialism.
| In city governments everywhere in
| Europe the trend is in the same direc-
/ ton. Berlin boasts that she is the best
governed city in the world, and her pub
| lie utilities are largely in the hands of
| municipal authorities.
| But the drift in that direction is not
confined to municipalities. The British
Parliament has taken up the education of
the common people. which was SO long
considered outside of the pale of the
| State; it has regulated the ages of labor,
and has among other things looking in
the same direction. passed Irish land
| laws that practically amount to the con-
| f.scaGon for State purposes of private
property. In Belgium the riots. of a
month since were the direct outcome of
| a socialistic. movement. In Germany the
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