The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1902-10-08

/ A Republican administration or.
gan, the Chicago Inter Ocean, says
THE evils ascribed to the trusts
are still little better than coDjeot,
nre," and that "The President
pleads for publicity in order that
he may discover what they are.
Think of it. the President of the
United States not knowing what
the evils of the Trusts are, will
you'll And that, when every CON-
sumner in the whole country has felt
what President Mckinley aptly
styled "the enhancing of prices to
the general consumer" at the hands
of these trusts!
Does any one believe tha. the
evils of the Coal Trust are imagi-
nary? Do the people who are
wrestling with the empty coal bin ''
problem think that il is yet an un-
discovered evil. this paying of out
landish. and in the case of the poor,
prohibitive prices for coalP Do
the people want any more ubIicity
to discover what the evil is? And
will they tolerate the suggestion
that we do not know what these
evils are2 An outraged public, a
public that has felt the cold and
crushing hand of Trust greed
grasping at it's throat, will not
stand contentedly by while Pres
ident goes on a voyage to discover
evils of which every coal buying
householder is thoroughly cogni-
zant.
And again, are the evils of the
food Trust, that corporation of or
ganized greed which, through it's
exorbitant prices, is keeping food
from the table of many poor man,
which, too, is reducing thousands
of poor people to open starvation,
are yet to be discovered? Is the
high and to many, prohibitive price
OF beef, growing out of the domina-
tion of the meat market by the
Beef Trust, simply matter of con-
lecture? Is it these things that
the President is after finding out?
And how about the Steel Trust?
Its president himself testified that
his corporation was paying FIVE dol
lars per ton freight on the steel
they shipped to England, and GEN.
sus statistics show it to have been
S93, 100000 during the past year,
and selling it there for S23 per ton,
as against $27 in our own home
markets. Is it necessary to start
out on voyage of discovery to
find this evil, which is not only
matter of common report, but
whose existence is confessed by the
lips of the President himself2
Perhaps the President has not
found out these things yet. In
that event we would refer him to
the utterances of his distinguished
predecessor, who said:
Combinations of capital which
control the market in commodities
necessary to the general use of the
people, by suppressing natural and
ordinary competition, thus enhanc-
ing prices to the general consumer
are obnoxious to the common
law and the public welfare. They
are dangerous conspiracies against
the public good and should be
made the subject of prohibitory or
penal-legislation."
And yet. if we propose to ignore
the only direct and effective reme-
dy for the Trusts, the revision of
the tariff, so that the Trusts will
cease to benefit by the shelter it
affords them; if we refuse to take
them from the power which Chair
man Babcock, while he was Con-
gresham Babcock, asserted, "sim-
ply enables them to fix exorbitant
prices in the domestic market,
what is the use of doing anything
at alp If we refuse an effective
remedy what is the use of casting
about for some Ineffective, and if
it is to take the shape of a consti-
tutionel amendment, impossible
remadu2