The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-23


! The most amusing thing (if the public
! not paying hundreds of thousands dollars for the
play), Is to see the low valuation corporations
place upon their property Tor taxation and the
higher valuation put by them on the same prop
erty to prevent regulation of rates. There is
railroad which runs through your State and
When your people were seeking TO compel that
company to charge lower rates, thelr hlgh oil
fcials filed affdayits that the road was worth
$4,000 to $50, 600 per mile, and entitled to earn
interest that sum- In our State when the
same road was assessed little over 81, 600 per
mile for taxation, its officers got an injunction
from a Federal judge Gas l have sald), on the
ground that it was too high Reference is made
to the railroads in this connection because they
| the greatest of all trusts, the transportation
Trust, the control of which has now been re-
duced to half dozen men practically. But time
! fails me to go through the long cataiog OF
iniustices which the masses suffer at the hands
of great aggregatons of wealth.
The methods by which they maintain their
supremacy the law is as long can only
! refer to those most prominent and best known.
| Some years ago the Trusts thought OF strength
ening their hold by educating young men into
| their views. This was advocated III memorable
speech before the American Bankers Association.
| Vast donations were soon thereafter given to
found sundry universities and colleges and to
obtain control of Others. The experiment las
! net been a startling success, for the graduates
have been soon educated out of their artificial
| ideas by contact with the public and their ma
| tive good sense.
The next attempt has been, recognizing the
supreme power of public opinion to perNert II
| by control of the press. They have acquired
| most of the great daies and latterly the country
newspapers and the religious press have not been
entirely passed But this shrewd American
| people have been quick to discern which EDITORS
| are lied captains and but recently the anti
| trust candidate elected mayor IN one OF our
| greatest cities with every newspaper but one
| against him, and in two other great cities the
anti trust candidate was chosen with every paper
|
| vast body of the press have stood by the cause
| of the people-to their eternal honor be it said
| Notwithstanding the bitter competition OF their
! subsidized opponents. The effect has been not
| to mislead the people but the Trusts who de
| ceived by the tootings of the own horns are
| ignorant of popular determination and purposes.
Another wel-known method of lawless wealth
| is to procure wherever they can the nomination
! to office of those subscryient to their views by
| each political party. This is cheaper and safer
| than backing either party and then Whichever
! side triumphs they have friends in office. Their
greatest stronghold of course is in the powerful
| lobby which they maintain at Washington and
! every State Capitol
| Their control of a large part of the Press with
| which they maintain touch through Press
! Bureau, amounts to no great deal for abuse from
! that source has become certificate of integrity
TO public with the masses. But their in
| fuence through their lobby and the selection OF
| those in ofice-especially powerful where the
office is appointye-has been very great
One trust, and only, | beheye-the Bag
| ging Trust-has been destroyed and that
| done by the farmers themselves who resorted to
| boycott, the weapon our ancestor used
against British tea and the stamp act. Our
! North Carolina people resorting just now to
| the same resource, boycott, against the Aneri-
can Tobacco Company, which has brought greater
| financial losses upon them than war, famine and
pestilence. 1t is too soon to predict what their
| success will be but much can be expected from
so patriotic and determined a people.
| Then, too, when the binding twine trust OPP
4.
| lection by the Governor changing the peniten-
| tiary temporarily into binding Irvine factory.
| And the State of Texas having also Govcrnof
| in sympathy with the masses, did put in force
\ her statutes which some OF the trusts, among
| them the Standard Oil Trust out of that State.
| But in view of the public opposition to Trusts
| and the numerous and fierce statutes against
| them, marvellously little, has been done TO
shake their control.
! Since secret influences have prevented so far,
| the execution of any criminal statute against the
| trusts we may well ask what remedies can be
| resorted to in this country where the people
| should be government and can be everything If
4 they will it, Even constitutions their handi-
work and can be abrogated or changed at their
| sovereign pleasure.
From Aristotle down it has been conceded that
| great inequalities of wealth are dangerous eSpe-
| ciall in Republics. Justice Brown of the United
| States Supreme Court, in his address to the
| American Bar Association, Cam. Bar AsSo., 1893,
| p PAD, struck at the motive underlying these
| of the Statute of Wills that could
| devise to of his children any other person
| more than a fixed provided by law-he sug-
gested one million dollars He pointed out that
| on the Continent of Europe. certainly wherever
| the principles of the Code Napoleon obtain, no
| one dispose by will of more than child's
part of his estate. While every one has natur-
| al right to his own earnings, he has, as Mr..
Blackstone says, right to direct its disposition
after he goes hence and each country settles the
| devoution of property by its own Statute OF
Wills, OF Descent and Distributions. These
| statutes can be modified repealed at will in
| each State. II by such statutes, only fixed
| sum, suggested by Justice Brown shall be dis
| possible by WILL or permitted to go to the heirs
| at law and next of kin, with provisions against
4 the evading of the statute by large gifts during
| life and directing that all the surplus shall go
into the State Treasury in reduction OF taxation,
| the evil of vast accumulations would cease. In
| England the evil is already largely met by
| heavy and progressive income and inheritance
| tax from which that country derives one-thrd of
| its annual revenue In some cases these combined
| taxes in England Australia, and some other
| countries amount to 20 per cent. OF very large
estates, while sparing smaller ones altogether No
| tax could be more greatly to the public benefit
/ or be more easily borne, or collected with less
| expense. 1t is competent for any State to shape
| its statutes this subject at will. There would
/ be smaller inducement TO Cypress the public, II
| the bulk Of the accumulations derived therefrom
| beyond a fixed sum must 60 to that public at
| the death of the accumulation, to tighten taxa
| ton.
| As to the Trusts themselves, different remedies
| are applicable. The gigantic Stel Trust could
| doubtless be suppressed or made harmless compe-
/ tition, by repeal of the tariff on the articles
| it uses and sells, and by taking away the trans
| portation favors by which it has thriyen. The
| destruction of transportation determinations and
| just taxation of its property with a progressive
| income tax would abate the vast Oil Trust.
| Indeed the modification OF the tariff in the
| particulars by which any specified Trust thrves,
| added to a fair property taxation, a progressive
| income tax and an effective prohibition Of rail.
| road favors to one shipper over another would
destroy probably nine-tenths OF the Trusts. Where
! the Trust like the Standard Oil. the Tobacco
| Trust and some others have also grown by re-
ducing prices to destroy competition a 'paw and
ratchet statute forbidding them to put back
the selling price whenever jury shall find that
the reduction was made to destroy competition
would be effective to prevent such oppression.
| As to the Whiskey Trust, 1t may be well
doubted if any better remedy, or indeed any bet
ter regulation OF the sale of liquor can be found
than the dispensary 1t originated IN Sweden,
| which was then the most drunken country in
| Europe 1t was a success there, reducing drunk
enness and crimes resulting therefrom to a
| minimum besides bringing in a large revenue to
| reduce taxation. 1t adopted then, with like
! results in Norway in Switzerland and elsewhere
and finally in South Carolina 1t has been adopt