Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1902-10-03
DOLLIVER DON'T
FEAR TRUSTS.

have ISSUED, their gross capitaIiZa-
ton has been six and half billions
Of dollars. from which at least two
Jillions should be deducted to cover
spurious stock, which represents moth
ing except the swindling projects OF
advelturers and cheats at common
law. So that, putting all the CONSOLE
daticns which nave been effected in
the last IL years together, four and
half billions Of dollars may be set
down as their true aggregate CAPT
talization, including their bonds.
These corporations have enlarged our
productive capacity by the addition
Of new bona nde capital in a degree
hardly noticeable. They have merely
undertaken to dazzle the speculative
world by playing upon the popular
fancy for full page advertisements.
And in nearly every one of them the
motive CT the organization has been
mainly to shield capital already in
vested from the operation OF natural
forces ALWAYS present in the CONNER
ell world. II they have failed in that.
they have failed ia everything. and
the power which some have been
afraid would be used TO wrong and
burden the community has not even
proved equal to the task Ct taking
care Of itself.
Before anybody makes up his mind
that the so-called American trust is
a permanent institution - n con-
slider the long list Cf amoiti IS COM
binations which have alre ~ had
their affairs wound up ly the courts
of justice. The alcohol trust, tae lin
seed oil trust, the aikai trust, the
asphalt trust, the bicycle, trust, and
scores Of others whose very names
are now even forgotten. What was
the matter with these astonishing Gre
atoms CT the promoters art? Nine
out of ten of them were bogus, and,
without stretching the law very much,
could have been denied the use of the
nails in an ordinary fraud order.
Only yesterday one of the mammoth
establishments, the National Salt
company, had a little business before
a court of equity in New Jersey. The
organization Of that trust in 1889 was
loked upon everywhere as a step in
the direction CT monopclizing the ne
eessities Of life.
Thinks Many Trusts Will Fall.
competition the better it looks to me.
If the day of settlement has already
come to so many of these once
formidable institutions, how has it
Jared with those which have so far
survived the test? Already the evil
dence is accommodating from which the
doom Of the trusts can be foretold,
even the most solvent and best man
aged Of them all. The figures OF the
census show that neither in the mer-
camille nor manufacturing world has
the small dealer. who owns his busi-
ness and gives 1t his personal atten-
ton. anything to fear in competition
with the overgrown and top-heavy in
vestments of capital that surround
him.
There Is no room in this discus
for vain EXPLANATIONS of alarm and
despair. Up to this time the tariff
policy to which we owe the prosper
Gus conditions which now surround
us has been the ally of independent
capital, In the grapple with the mod
ern trust system, but If the day should
ever come when the productive ener-
gies Of the American people are I'M
potent in the presence Of monopoly,
the protection which for more than
a. generation our laws have given to
all our industries alike, is not likely
to remain to enrich such a conspiracy
of avarice and greed.