Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-05-01
LAWS AGAINST TRUSTS.

1890
learn this once and for all time.
LAWS AGAINST TRUSTS.
Delegate W. G. Fulton of Wise cOun
ty, has introduced in the. Legislature
a bill under that section of the consti
tuition which says: 1.-THE General
Assembly shall enact laws preventing
all trusts. com binations and monopo
lies inimical to the public welfare.
The bill presented is said to follow very
closely the Missouri law, under which
it was possib BILE to drive the meat trusts
at st. Louis to cover. The preamble
to the bill indicates the extent to
which it will 60 if enacted, and is as
follows:
A bill to prevent and declare illegal
all pools, trusts, agreements, cOmbina-
lions. considerations, conspiracies, and
understandings in restraint of trade;
to prescribe certain penalties against
any corporation or company. individu-
al. firm, or association of individuals,
violating the provisions of this act; to
provide remedies for the control and
restraint of such pools, trusts, agree
ments, combinations, considerations,
conspiracies and understandings in
restraint of trade; and to provide for
the taking of testimony in any action
proceeding hereunder; for the taking
of testimony before the institution of
any such action or proceeding for the
purpose of determining whether an ac-
ton or proceeding should be cOmmenc-
ed; and to provide remedy for any
person INJURED in his business or prop
erty by any other person or cOpora
ton by reason OF anything forbidden
Or declared to be unlawful by this act.
1t is needless to say that all the cor
porate influence in both houses and a
vast influence outside will be brought
to bear on the General Assembly to
prevent its passage, and if not suffi
cient to prevent the bill from passing
will attempt to so emasculate it as to
render it worthless when passed.
Let US stop here to enquire why has
nearly every State in the Union found
it necessary to en- act laws of this
character There can be but one
answer. 1t is because the corpora
tions of the country have banded
themselves together as so many pirates
to rob and plumber the public. There
is no denying the fact that they have
systematically undertaken to pillage
the public in every way shrewd cum
ming men can devise. The safe crack
er who devises a scheme whereby be
can blow the vaults of bank, is no
more thief than the man who in his
counting room or Office evolves a
scheme whereby he can take from the
public by pretext. combination, dis
or otherwise, money that
in the ordinary course Of an honestly
conducted business would not come to
him. Is the man who undertakes a
contract and compels his employees to
purchase supplies from him at prices
which are shocking to the conscience,
any less a robber than the man who
holds up another in lonely place and
makes him disgorge? Is the mine
owner who devised the long ton of
z, 240 pounds anything but a robber ?
Who ever heard of LONG ton when be
studied arithmetic? What principle
of justice Is there in compelling a
miner to mine 2,24O pounds of coal as
ton when the mine owner sells only
1000 pounds as a ton Has be not
stolen from the miner the labor and
time which it took to dig and load the
additional 240 lbs? In addition to this
theft, if in the darkness of the mine
some slate gets into the car which is
detected when it energies into the
light of day, the miner is locked one
fourth of ton, but the mine owner
sells slate and all just as if no slate
were in the coal. This any fair mind
ed person calls theft.
These are only few samples of the
kind of robbery those things known
as trusts and combines have been
practicing, until their conduct has 50
staggered the honest consciencess and
fair dealings of the people, that they
demand that something must be done.
1t is foolish to say that these very PEG
pie haveinot brought these troubles
on themselves. No plea for fair deal
ing, no exhortatiOn to honesty has
availed one jot or one little with them.
They have gone on deepening and
widening their sphere of crime until
the country is demanding a halt Any
body who has been far enough from
home to lose sight of the smoke from
his own chimney, knows how the
smartest men are hired for the pur.
pose and the whole thought of those
at the head of trusts is centered upon
schemes to get money without earn
Ing it, in other words to fleece an un-
suspecting and helpless public The
anthracite troubles revealed this in all
of its hideousness.
On the other hand let us look at La
Dor in contra distinction to Capital as
it Is termed. Have the working men
been rightfully accused of cheating
and robbing and plundering their en-
oloyers? Ii so, wherein could they do
It? The accusation would be absurd
t made, because they baye not the