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

t
is entitled to fair share in the reduction OF the
! cost of production He is not getting it, The
vast bulk of profit caused by the introduction of
machinery and of modern improvements is con-
fiscated to the benefit of bare handful of men.
by the combination of capital into trusts and
| great corporations. The chief benefiCiaries the
multi mllionaires number less than 10000. Their
| dependents, their families their hirelings, may
possibly foot up to a total of half a million.
There 50 millions the other side. How
long will this state of things last? 1t only exists
/ now till the public be satisfied as to the
| best way to destroy the system without injury
to the established rights of property and to our
other constitutional guarantees.
The earnings of the United States Steel Com
pany, the Standard Oil Company and two or
three other trusts last year reported by them
selves were 1l20 of the total increase of wealth
in the whole country, and there 200 smaller
trusts TO satisfy before the consumers and pro-
ducers, the great body of the people can share
in the annual increase of wealth. Every man is
entitled to the advantages given him by his
| superior diligence, and ability, but every one
knows that Carnegie's 5000 600 600, Rockefeller 5
S400,OO0,O00 Morgans 100000, 600 have not been
obtained in that way but by methods which
have stripped countless thousands of their fair
share in the vast annual increase OF wealth.
Owing to machinery we far surpasS all proceed
! ing ages in the creation of wealth. In the just
distribution of this increase our methods are
defective to the last degree, and nowhere more
than in this country. We suffering from
economic Indigestion in its most aggravated
form. In all history, whenever the body polite
has suffered from such ills, if other relief did
not political commissions and revolution
have followed
BY the statutes of the United States and of
probably every State in the Union, Trusts
illegal ard their officers indctable In not a
single instance has trust been broken up by
the enforcement of statute. This shows that
while the popular will has forced its expression
by Congress and the State Legislatures there is
power greater than the law. Plain as is the
| Federal statute, this part of the country has
| known of but one attempt to enforce it. Then
! the District Attorney, a brave. honest and able
/ was the point of convicting the American
! Tobacco Company when he suddenly received a
| telegram from the Attorney General to come to
Washington. There he found the Attorney Gen
eral coSeted with the general counsel of the
| Trust and a United States Senator from that
! State. On the demand of these two, the AttOr
ney General ordered mol pros to be entered
which the District Attorney refused to obey till
| the order put in writing. The Senator had
made himself solid with the people by voting
publicly for the statute to make trusts ndict
able. Then through the back door of the temple
of justice he protected the trust from punishment
under it. Similar scenes have doubtless occurred
elsewhere. There must have been strong pressure
to prevent prosecution all these years. The
lawcssness of great wealth is felt daily, yet its
owners are the first to denounce any lawlessness
when directed against themselves, by appeal TO
the iniunctive process of the courts. and by
calls on the executive for troops. The Trusts
disregard the law.
In an assemblage of lawyers can we do better
than to discuss this anomaly, this imnerum in
imperio, which uses the law for its own protec
ton but does not obey the law. We may con-
slider
list What methods this lawless wealth uses;
2nd. Upon what does it rely, 10 maintain it's
supremacy the law;
Bird. BY what means can it be subjected TO the
control of the laws.
The mere formation of great corporations is no
ground of complaint. Indeed, larger corporations
often beneficial when they effect economies
enabling them to place the manufactured article
in reach of the consumer at a reduced price
without reducing the cost of the raw article in
the hands of the producers Great aggregatons
are due to the natural tendency of the age.
They do not necessarily mean greater individual
fortunes. When, however, great aggregations of
capital seek to secure still larger returns by
| forcing out competition and thus enabling them
| to reduce prices to the producer of the raw
| material and to raise prices to the consumer
| they place their hands upon the very throat of
| the people and by illegal and forbidden methods
| gather larger revenues than government. 1t is
! these last, the monopolies fixing prices, which
/ crush the life oct of the people.
One of the great agencies and perhaps exCu-
| sive of the tariff of which | need not speak,
! the greatest agency by which trusts attain this
! power is by railroad favortism. We know that
! it shown in a legal trial that a great rail-
! road system charged the Standard Oil Company
( ten cents for service for which they charged all
others 30 cents, and not only that but the extra
| % cents collected out of the latter paid
| over to the Standard Oil Company, a bonus!
When those thus Disseminated against built a
| pipe line, the railroad put down rates low
| that its general manager testified that the re-
= ceipts from oil transportation would not pay
! for axle grease on its Then when the
| pipe line was forced out, prices went back.
This and similar instances, familiar to you
1 ALL tell how the Standard Oil and similar Trusts
! have confiscated the property of thousands. The
| American Tobacco Company has Systematically
| pursued the Wherever it found a
man company occupied in selling manu-
featuring tobacco, it would sell its goods at a
! lower price or even give them away, until the
competitor destroyed and then Immediately
| prices to the tobacco raiser would go down and
| prices to the consumer would go higher. This is
! simply robbery of both classes Ii destroys be-
sides competition and with it opportunity for
! livelihood 20 thousands.
This is probably the most common method of
| oppression used by those irresponsible aggrega-
! lions of capital who use the corporate powers
given them by the public to the detriment of
| their creator.
| Another most prolific source of illegal ac-
| emulation has been the evasion by trusts and
| great corporations of the payment of a fair
! share of taxation to the support of government
/ Their great influence has enabled them to do this
nearly everywhere and thus to throw upon all
| others an undue share of the increasing burdens
| of government The Federal income tax, which
/ was held constitutional for century would have
realized about 500 100000 year but it was
| suddenly set aside by the change of view of
! one judge (who had previously held it consttu-
| tional), and thus that transferred from
| those best able to bear taxation and placed upon
| those least able to bear it. In the ten years
! since that decision the people at large have lost
| and aggregated wealth has gained one thousand
| millions dollars by this change of vote by one
| judge, high price to pay for the exercise of
/ irresponsible power by public servant in whose
| selection the people had voice A dissenting
| opinion in that case stated forcibly that the de
csion was a long step towards "a sordid despot-
/ ism of wealth" Then in not half dozen States
probably are the great corporations assessed at
| the fair value of their franchises and other
/ property. Several years ago public opinion
| forced the creation of Railroad Commissions to
| make just assessments of railroad franchises and
| property and regulation of their charges. Brit
! the expectation has been futile In nearly half
! a dozen States, not more, there has been an
! approximation to just taxation and regulation
| of rates but in no cases has it been due TO
| a railroad commission The Supreme Court OF
! the United States in the railroad tax cases, 81
| L. s. COL, speaking through Judge Miller laid
! down the simple rule for the valuation of cor
poration property 1.-THE market value of the bones
| plus the market value of the stock but how
many corporations thus assessed? The pro
ducing masses are made TO pay for them the tan
on the unlisted difference just as they make good
| out of their ScantY earnings the taxes great