The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-03-28
COMMENT ON CURRENT EVENTS.
LOCAL, STATE AND NATION.

AND NATION. 4
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
| so-called trust pretends to give the
people some benefit from consolidation
| in cheaper prices, but a combination
of companies like the Beef Trust simp-
ly follows line Of plunder. Mercy is
shown in no quarter The stock raiser
| the laborer, the retail dealer and the
| consumer are all at it's mercy.
This may be true with "greater cor
porations''-the community of interests
kind-but they seem to be managed
more conservatively. Their system OF
| organization has cheapened the cost
| OF production, and no extortionate
prices are made. The packing concerns
are getting many by-products from
| meat. There is but little vast of any
kind in the slaughter of stock
The horns, hoofs, bones and every
thing else that was formerly waste is
| now utilized, and yet the people arc
| paying more for meat then when there
was SO much waste in a carcass The
| facilities for handling meat have like
wise been improved, but all for the
benefit Of the five large packing houses
that CONTROL the meat supply of prac.
| tically-all of America and Europe
We all may have different ideas about
! the trust question, but it seems that
all the people should welcome any
attempt to destroy any illegal conbi-
nation, such as the great trust
There is a whole lot of good thunder
! wasted on the negro question
! Every time President Roosevelt ap-
! points a colored man to office, some
southern newspaper raises a howl. and
| contends that it is a slap at the south
| President Roosevelt, however, seems
to be alive to the question, for he hit
! the nail on the head when he said:
| Mere color should no more be a bar
to office-holding than creed or birth
place. provided, that the applicant OF
incumbent is in other respects a
worthy and W'ell4behaved American
citizen.'
| The deep-rooted prejudice against
| negroes in the south is not consistent
with the idea that gave birth to the
nation. Whatever the southern negro
49, the southern aristocracy is respon-
sible for. They have made no effort
to improve his condition. Within re-
cent years the trade union idea has
found welcome among southern
workingmen and as the negro is a
competitor in the Industrial field where
the arlstocracy draws no color line
they have been obliged to deal with
the negro. The result is, there is nc
color barrier in the trade: union, and
the trade union will Il solve / the#swhele
l. Some of the Republican papers are
boasting about the passage Of the Ell
kins bill, and they claim that it is ia,
more reaching than was first supposed
But how are they to account for the
fact that the Elkins act with it's rigor.
Gus provisions against rebates. has pro
voked scarcely a word Of protest on thu
part Of the railroads aimed at? Possibly
| the railroad managers feel so secure
that they regard the detection of re.
bates or preferences as practically i'm.
possible.
When the law shall have been ir
force for some time it will be seen thai
1t was mere SOP handed out to the
people to check public sentiment. NJ
trust man like Elkins can be expected
! to do very much harm to the railroads
The railroads have reached the poin
where they care little about laws reg
u1ating freight rates. It is not 81
necessary to give rebates, in these day!
of constituent companies, and the Ell
klns law is twenty years too late tt
do any real good.
A paragraph is going the rounds Of
the press to the effect that the ques
ton whether the UNITED States
should be regarded as a plural or {
singular noun, has been definitely set
tied by the committee on Revision O.
the Laws, which, it seems in reviewins
the Federal Statutes, has presumed tt
decide that the United States IS. L
would seem that the constitution of thu
u. S. has settled this question.
In several sections the UNITED
States are referred to by words suc1
as their" and ''them.' AS an exam.
pie: Article III. Section III, Clause I
says, Treason against the United
States shall consist only in leyying wal
against them, or in adhering tt
'their' enemies. Again in the Thir
teenth Amendment which is as follows
Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment TO,
crime, whereof the party shall hav,
been duly convicted, shall exist with
in the United States, or any place sub
ject to their jurisdiction We have
here said enough to prove that limited
States" cannot be made a. singular
noun by any committee on revision o.
the laws, nor by Congress itself, no,
by any power on EARTH except thu
power embodied in the alternative
methods of constitutional emendatior
prescribed by the constitution itself