The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-09
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND ON TRUSTS.

ARCHBISHOP IRELAND ON TRUSTS.
In his address on Labor Day Arch
bishop Ireland of st. Paul, Mimi, dis
cussed trusts--trust formed by combi-
nations of capital and by combinations
of labor. In his remarks relative to
labor trusts there was nothing new or
striking, though the advice he gave la
Dor organizations was good. In what
he said about trusts of capital there
is room for a difference of opinion, and
perhaps his views will call out a great
deal of comment.
The Archbishop says that trusts are
necessary for the development of the
resources of the country, and that
there should be no interference with
them unless they become monopolies
and use their power to injure the peo-
pie 1t win be pretty generally admit
ted that combinations of capital are
necessary for the handling of the great
enterprises of the present time, and
that such great enterprises are i'm
peratively necessary to enable US to
keep abreast of the development that
is going on in other progressive nations.
But ought there to be no interference
with such trusts when it is evident
that their purpose is to become monopo-
lies and rob the people by fixing prices
of their products much above what
they ought to be?
The Archbishop seems to have had
the Northern Securities Company in
mind in discussing trusts of capital.
That company was formed for the
purpose of controlling the Northern
Pacific Railroad and the Great North
ern Railroad. The promoters of the
company declared that there was no
intention to prevent competition be-
tween the two great railroad systems
which it combined or to put up traffic
rates. According to the position taken
by the Archbishop, the law against
trusts ought not to have been invoked
against the Northern Securities Com
pany until it became evident that the
purpose of the company was to in
crease the burdens of the people de-
pendent upon it for transportation.
The position taken by the govern
ment was that the law prohibited such
a combination as was proposed and
it took steps to prevent it. But judg-
ing from what had been done by other
combinations of capital was there not
ground for believing that the purpose
of the Northern Securities Company
was to create a monopoly? There GER
tainly was, and it was because of the
fear of such a monopoly that steps
were taken to prevent the two great
railroad systems from being placed
under one management. If the gov
eminent had waited until the merger
of the properties had been effected it
might have been difficult if not i'm
possible to suppress the trust.
If prompt steps had been taken to
prevent the Standard Oil Company
from absorbing independent companies
that great trust would not be in ex-
istence, in all probability. The charge
has been made that that great trust
has driven out of existence a thousand
or more Independent oil companies and
taken pretty near the whole oil field
for itself
The other day the statement was
made in a Fort Worth paper on the
authority of a man who had just re-
turned from the Beaumont Oil field,
that the Standards agents were en-
gagged in a scheme to get control of
the Beaumont wells by running the in
dependent companies. OF course this
is only a charge, and doubtless will
be Investigated, but it is only one of
many charges that have been brought
against the Standard Oil Trust to the
effect that it is inimical to the in
terests of the people.
If Archbishop Ireland's view were
to prevail the chances are that the
trusts would become SO strongly en-
trenched in their positions as monopo-
lies that they could not be reached if
it should appear that they were vio-
lating the law.