Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1904-01-14
NOT RESISTLESS
ROCKEFELLER COMBINATION TO
MONOPOLIZE STEEL.
Chicago Record. Herald Says Rockefeller Has
Become Resistless Force In the Industrial
World. The Admission is a Confession or
Governmental Weakness.

The Pittsburg Post printed a story t
the effect that Mr.. Rockefeller and hi.
associates are devising combination o
the steel and railroad interests which
will develop in monopoly of the stee
traffic. Commenting upon this announce
ment, the Chicago Record. Herald, 6
republican paper. Gays that whether the
scheme is near perfection or not, it points
"merely to a natural evolution" The
Record Herold draws striking picture
when 1t says:
"Mr. Rockefeller's enormous fortune il
founded upon the most complete and
elaborate system of combination that has
ever been established in the country
Very early in his career he conceived the
idea Of destroying competition, and he
carried it out with extraordinary skill
and relentless persistence. His rivals
were crushed one after another in theil
futile campaign for independence, the
chief instrument used against them be.
ing the railroad rebate. He should have
been an expert in rate juggling before his
investments made him powerful factor
in the directorate OF railroad companies.
"He starts now in this new enterprise
with much greater advantages than
those which he enjoyed as the builder OF
Standard Oil. His methods are approved
by phenomenal success. He has a
much larger capital at his disposal than
any other man in the country. He is
already credited with controlling inter.
est in the steel corporation, he is the
owner OF vast mining properties and OF
fleets OF lake vessels, and he is the hold.
er of large blocks OF stocks and bonds in
many railroads.
"Power to divert traffic follows as a
matter Of course, He can do as he pleases
with freight that might make or break a
carrier company. His investments play
into one another in such way that he
may favor this or that one as it pleases
him. That he should give the enormous
be at all surprising. That in his capacity
as a railroad director he should be kind
to the steel corporation would b. quite
in keeping with his old practices"
And then, after making this showing,
this republican paper makes melan-
choly confession as follows;
"The truth is that he has become a
resistless force in the industrial world,
and that he will proceed from one monop.
oily to another regardless of all that is
said and done to prevent. If he could
live to the age of the patriarchs the
United States would come to be merely
one OF his appurtenances."
| Is it possible that in this government
presumed to be of, by and for the people,
the man who has done the things des-
cribed by the Record. Herald has become
"a resistess force?"
| Is it possible that this man may "pro.
coed from one monopoly to another
regardless OF all that is said and done to
prevent"
If these statements be justified. then
who will say that popular government in
this country is not in peril?
This republican paper speaks truly
when it says: eff Rockefeller could live
to the age of the patriarchs, the United
States would come to be merely one OF
his appurtenances." But, remembering
what this man has already accomplished,
realizing the great plan he is now under
taking, and reading in one of the great
newspapers of the country that he has
become "a resstless force" and that he
will "proceed from one monopoly to an
other regardless of all that is said and
done to prevent" then it may be said Mr.,
Rockefeller need not live to the age Of
the patriarchs in order to make the
United States OF America "merely one Of
his appurtenances." That deplorable
condition for this proud government
would, at the present rate, be brought
about within comparatively few years.
But the Record Herald is entirely toe
pessimistic. Mr.. Rockefeller only seems
to be "resistless.force." The time will
come when the American people will call
him and all the other men who seek 10
manipulate this government to their own
selfish ends to rigid accounting.