Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-31

-H 49, tAa
Unfair and oppressive trusts are weeds in
the garden Of prosperity. 1t is easy to kill
them II you kill the flowers and the fruit
also but II you would keep the weeds down
ana nave the garden grow you must devote
yourself, not to desperate measures, but to
pulling out the weeds and leaving the USE
tul plants. So in curbing combinations Of
capital. care must be taken not to stop
great enterprises which have l~egitimately
reduced the cost OF production. not to take
An erica out of the race of competition tor
the markets of the world and deprive the
former of his market for the raw material
OF manufacture.
Trusts Accompany Prosperity.
The evils complained of are an outgrowth
OF the process OF indI strial development.
rhelr regulation Is also a necessary part of
that process.
The wonderful scientific discoveries and
Inventions of the last half century have
Enormously increased the productive power
OF mankind. There has been greater prog
ress in productive power during the last
| century Than in am thousand years before.
This MORMON addition 10 the productive
power of labor was due first to the brains
mat made the discoveries and inventions
and organized the great combinations of
Capltal necessary to use the new powers
ana the new methods necessary for their
use, and, second to the capital that built
the machines and the mills and the rail-
roads and was wasted In unsuccessful ex-
periments and took the chances of loss to
gain the, rewards of successful enterprise.
IL is plain that in the distribl ton of this
rewly acquired wealth the brains that In
vest and that organize should have their
share; the capital that constructs and
maintains should be rewarded for its risk;
the laborer should have higher wag be-
cause his labor is producing more, and the
consumer should have lower prices because
the product which he purchases Is produced
with greater ease and at less cost.
Capital and brains. always get the advan-
tage at first, But our industrial history
shows that the laborer and the consumer
slowly but surely wrest their share of the
advantage from capital. .
People BENEFIT by Combines.
The organizers OF the sugar trust made
mitch money for themselves, but we are
getting sugar now for less than Il cost to
make 1t before the trust was formed. The
organizers of the Standard Oil company
nave made a great deal OF money, but the
poorest American farmer Is lighting his
little house tonight at a trifling cost more
brilliantly than palaces were lighted a CEN
fury, ago. These are the consumers shares
of the wealth created by the brains and
capital of the sugar company and the
Standard oil company.
While the 951 1000 wage earners of 1850 In
creased to $4,000 in 1900 the wage paid in
creased from 1886, 900, 900 to $2,32S, 10000; that
Is 10 say, about hve times the number Of
Workmen received about ten times the
amount OF wages, or wages just about
doubled during the fifty years. On the other
| lures in 1880 had swelled to $685., 200, 900 in
1860, every dollar of capital so Invested re-
ceived less than one-third of the return re-
capital seem great because they are massed
and the returns of labor seem small because
they are scattered, capitals, proportionate
share OF the new wealth is decreasing and
labor's Is increasing.
The. result of this process is a diffusion
of wealth among the people, the contempla-
ton of which makes the comparatively lew
large fortunes seem of trifling Importance.
In the year 1901 there were $685., 723 sepa-
rate savings bank accounts in the United
States, with deposits amounting to 81, 501,-
094, bS0.- These were the accounts of people
ards, we cali poor. Go out into the country
and you will find that In 1901 there were
6,7S9,657 separate farms, a little more than
one farm to every nine of the rural popula-
ton. Taking the savings bank accounts
and farms together, there are owned by
the plain working people almost an average
of a farm or a bank account for every
family.
There were in 1901 1886, 44S life insurance
a sDatSiTS; in to $3.50 $50. i iSsa 9aoi Ev aT,yns one sne Of
these policies represented money laid up
by people who were not rich:
This steady increase in the earnings of
labor, this diffusion of wealth. has been
accomplished in spite of the continuous
immigration mig sisI,6 Of the poor of Of ether is Countries tbn fost
that we have commenced this new century
with over 1000, 600 children in school.
Let us not, in fixing our gaze upon small
evils, forget the greater good. The auto
mobiles are of little account. who own
the farm wagons?" is the important ques-
Weed out Bad.
The republican party proposes to regu-
late, curb and suppress the bad trusts,
rather than destroy the good and bad to-
brings such benehcient results to ali,
The, democratic party claims that It
should revise the tarif and so cure the
conine themselves TO cutting of duties
upon articles made by trusts, but their
ging them down in general ruin. You can
Kill the trusts, you can close their mills,
but you close the mills also OF all other
substitute for domestic production the I'm
portation of foreign articles. AS foreign
tproIled by trusts. You substitute a foreign
trust for an American trust. You abandon
the remedy of American competition and
substitute a foreign monopoly,
Competition Is Growing.
When the sugar trust was formed II took
over 30 per cent of the refining capacity of
the country. Immediately new reinertes
were started and today over 40 per cent OF
the sugar of the country is made by out
The latest and greatest combination. the
posed to be an overwhelming monopoly;
but the statistics of the American Iron
that already Independent companies pro-
duce over 81 per cent of the Iron ore of
the country, over 81 per cent of the total
pig iron, over 40 per cent of the Begsemef
tural iron and over % per cent of all rolled
Are You going to ruin all such lndepen-
dent industries for the purpose OF punish
| ing trusts, OF are you gong 10 nelp them
In their competition by wise regulation,
and by seeing to 1t that the big concern IS
fair to the smaller one2
When the democrats did obtain power, in
the second administration or Mr.. Cleve-
land, they were unable to use II, because
that administration was ingTained with
destructive habits and had no constructive
capacity. For half. a century the demo
cratic party has constructed nothing but
the southern confederacy and the Wilson
tariff bill. The Wilson tarin was so bad
that the democratic president would moi
sign IL, it's enforcement was accompanied
under republican rule has been followed by
Astounding prosperity; while the very men
who wreathed the STANDARD OF the lost
cause with imperishable renown declare
that the failure OF the cOntederacy was q
blessing to mankind.
Addressing himself to the continually re.
curing contests between capital and labor
Mr.. Root spoke OF the good understanding
enjendered by a recognition OF mutual and
reciprocal interests. In illustration Of
this he cited the friendly relations
between railroad owners and the as
ISOLATED engineers, hremen, trainmen ant
conductors. the agreement made the Other
day between the tin plate manufacturer
and their workmen and the agreement be.
tween employers and employees for the an.
nual REIMBURSEMENT Of wages throughout the
greater part Of the bituminous coal fields
ARE DOUBLE DESERTERS NOW