The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-01-17
The Business Situation.

IN these days of rapid travel ant
transmission of news every part Of
the civilized world is affected by
/ disturbances in the great fnancia
centers-London and New York. A
financial crash in either of those places
would Immediately affect business OF
all kinds in Utah and the surround
ing states, although most of those
I whose business was affected would not
know the cause. This was well il
/ Illustrated in the panic of 1893. The
! banker tells the local merchant he
must pay his overdraft, and cannot
borrow any more money for a time,
/ The banker sees q storm coming and
must cali in his money, and the result
is local stringency and hard times.
The financial conditions in New York
and London at the present time are
critical. The cause is the same old
trouble--the trusts, those gigantic mo-
nopolies whose assets consist of one
part value to nine parts hot air, and
whose stocks have been selling at ten
times their actual value. The trusts
are at present worried over impending
Legislation by congress, which might
have the effect of depriving them of
their monopoly in production and
prices. and thus leave the field open to
competitors. Such legislation, properly
enforced, would send the stocks of
the trust tumbling down with a crash,
for they would bring only what they
were actually worth. The United States
Steel trust has been making the most
frantic efforts for the past year to
keep the price of it's stock UP and to
sell fore of it. The last move by this
combina ton shows the adroitness and
skill of it's managers. Under the
specious pretense of sharing profits
with employees" they allow their en-
ployes to subscribe for about $24,000,0O0
worth of stock in small lots, the price
payable in installments. This has been
eagerly taken up by the employees, who
are induced thereto by the eXpecta-
ton of finding favor with the man
ayers, and sharing in the dividends.
The trust has employed 236,000 men,
who by this process become strong sup
porters of the monopoly, because they
receive less than one-fortieth of the
dividends earned. This one-fortieth
could easily be made up later by
reduction in wages, and, of course. the
dividends of the wage earners being
involved they would not be likely to
strike. The jackal would naturally be
expected to have the lions meal ready,
without murmuring.
Amongst other trusts which viii
receive attention are the coal
and beef trusts. These are the most
of any, as they directly af-
feet the lives of the people, and es-
pecially of the poorer classes in the
crowded cities Coal is $50 per ton
in Chicago. and instances are daily
recorded of families dying from cold.
The price Of meat has been raised so
enormously high that poorer people
cannot afford to buy it at all, and
the result is many deaths from want
and actual starvation. 1t is no wonder
that the stocks in these trust cor
are dangerously near the
breaking point at this time. There are
enough honest men in Congress to heed
the mighty popular demand for regu-
lation of the trusts and It is conf
IDENTIFY expected that some measures
viii pass at the present session which
will clip the claws of the trust mon
sters, who stand between the people
and the enjoyment of the necessaries
of life which nature has furnished in
such abundance in this country.