New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-17
A DANGER OF INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION |

The sudden prospect of the shortage OF meat
supplies on the initiation OF a strike In some
Western packing houses again brings us face
TO face with q serious problem incident 10 the
modern consolidationof Industrial interests. The
strike may be settled before any great hardship
is inflicted on the general public. Doubtless
also, in case of a,prolonged strike and the stop
page ofithe usual' channels OF food supplies, the
country would find that it had much larger
local resources thamit had, counted on, and after
some NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the trade habituated
TO handling Western meats, would turn for its
supplies in the old fashion 10 the Eastern farme
Nevertheless, the smere threat suddenly TO cut
off the Western supply must awaken grave
thought on our conditions OF living.
Americans to-day are more interdependent
than ever before In the history OF the nation
Our whole scheme of living is based on the
smooth working Of a. highly organized machine
the slightest disarrangement Of which may do
the greatest mischief. The artificial life of the
cities, dependent for water on an aqueduct
against the pollution OF which the individual
citizen has no safeguard, dependent for milk on
cows cared for he knows not how, dependent
for all his food the industry Of men over
whom he has no control. is proverbial But now
even many rural districts dependent on
the beef packer, the vegetable Gamer the
milk condenser andithe anthracite mining com
pany as the Yeriest cockney. In many a coun-
try village Chicago dressed beef alone will be
found la nging in the market while the sur
rounding meadows might support numberless
cattle and only timed fruits and vegetables
can be found at the grocery even at the height
of the season. while garden plots are neglected
When the Chicago beef supply runs short then
/ the people blame the packers, but when it IS
coming regularly they think of them as a great
convenience and themselves neglect and dis
| courage the local stock raiser gardener VIII
might make their community in q measure IN
dependent and whose hard lot at the hands Of
the trusts they so deeply mourn when semi
occasionally they are in need of him
or course. they will answer that the West
ern packer gives them better and cheaper meats
| than the local graZier. The market man par
| ticularly is able TO buy the parts he wants all
| dressed, and sell with little loss That is sim
| ply TO confess that the creation of the COM
| plicated industrial machine is along the natural
| lines Of evolution. People need not blame bust
ness men for developing great packing houses
and department stores which crowd out small
| traders when they themselves want just what
| the large corporation alone can give them and
are the first 10 desert the small traders, without
even waiting 10 see IT, in the long run. their
| preservation is not worth while This consoIi-
dalton of business seems TO be ineyitab BILE 1t is
| not confined TO capital Labor is Just as much
| consolidated. And the labor trust is lust as
much of a menace TO the poor creature de-
! pendent distant supplies of life's necessares
| as any other trust. In fact the danger of the
/ average citizen is of falling a victim between
| the two trusts, whereas he might hold his own
| against only one. Now, If the combined pack
| ers had merely TO deal with individuals or sepa-
rate labor unions, the business in general would