The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-10-11
STRONG EDITORIAL
ON TRUST QUESTION
The Work Of the American CongressThe importance Of
Selecting Men Who Represent the Peoples Interests
Democratic Platform on Trust Observation-Disclosures Of
Tariff and Trusts-Public Ownership Of Public Fran
chises

The Chicago American had the fol-
lowing very able editorial in last Sun
days issue:
Various influences have brought
ahout the present industrial situation
il, the United States and the threaten
ing power of the trusts and their man.
ayers.
Most influential has been the ma
tural, inevitable tendency toward con-
centration of power. Natural laws.
which can never be thwarted, have
brought about the elimination OF COM
petition and the substitution of wide
organization for the separate strug-
Cling. scheming and competing of in
dividuals.
Nothing could have prevented ulti-
mately the growth of great industrial
combinations. One feature OF our
economic system, the tariff. has ia
,ilitated the trust development, and
nushed it forward with rapidity un,
healthy in itself, and productive OF
recklessness and arrogance among
trust leaders.
The trusts have been organized to
exploit through elimination OF compe-
tition. And tariff laws. masqueradlnS
as measures Of protection for the
individual workingman," have pullt
= protecting wall around the trusts
and their extOrtlons.
The Beef Trust charges "hat II
n,eases. In reply to protests, 1t polnts
with y sneer to the tariff wall and
says:
PAY what l say, for that wall keeps
YOU in my power.
With the avaricious heads OF lndus-
trial trusts the great railroad corpora
+ions have co-operated faithfully and
effectively.
Now comes the great Ship Trust 10
ioin with the railroads in liking the
1rust net firmly over the whole coun-
try.
There. -is-.u.yerx,.. important work
marked out in the immediate future
for the people of this country WHICH
means for the national congress.
The most important man in the
country today is the candidate for con-
gress.
CONGRESS alone representing the
whole people, can deal with the sltu-
.tion And this is the situation, as II
stands at present:
In the state Of Pennsylvania are
hurled the beds of anthracite coal
upon which millions of people rely Tor
protection against the Winter. One
trust has in it's power all of these
coal beds. 1t is fortified by absolute
monopoly. by conspiracy In which
the railroads support it.
Steadily this coal trust has increas-
cd the price Of coal, and patiently the
neon1e have submitted to the success
sive increases.
But now comes new development:
There is a strike in the coal regions;
the men that dig the coal out Of the
ground demand decent treatment.
They have been overworked, under
Maid and notoriously robbed In the
weighing Of the coal which they dig
ont of the earth. The trust weighs
the coal itself and compels the miner
tn nroduce about nine hundred pounds
extra for every ton.
The trust calmly says that 1t Will
not make any agreement with 1ts
workmen. and it cannot mine the coal
without them.
And the trust says insolently to the
whole people:
you can pay twenty dollars ton
now and freeze afterwards. For you
shall have no coal until these miners
start to work under my orders at wages
fixed by me-
One of the coal trust managers, Mr.
Baer, has said to the people over his
own signature that God has given the
coal beds to handful Of trust mama
gers to use at their discretion.
They propose to starve their miners
into submission and incidentally to
freeze the rest Of the population to car
ry their point
In this Coal Trust situation We have
the natural evolution of the trust Ques-
ton. The same thing may be repeat
ed in any one of the trusts, while mon-
opolies, tariffs and railroads combine tc
exploit the situation.
The meat trust doubles prices anc
the patient, stupid people submit. What
will they do when a strike or some 9TH
er complication cuts off the meat OF
puts it absolutely beyond the reach o
nine-tenths of the people?
The industrial resources, and thu
natural wealth of the country, form
erly enriched many individuals Of pecu'
liar ENTERPRISE. They offered an oper
field to ambition, energy and specia
ability.
Now the country's wealth, the coun'
try's opportunities,gth gthe country's coal
iron, oil, sugar, meat, lead, ice-all ne.
ce.sities are in the hands of few indi.
viduals, and the nation is drifting to.
ward a condition which will give us {
few preposterously rich men and :
population Of clerks-a situation to b,
aggravated by coal or meat famine'
and by the rioting of workinsmen made
desperate through monopoly of the la
Dor field
There can be no doubt in the mint