The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-10

| Another example of class-iesislation is found in a study of our transporta. tion system.
 We have given to the various corpora ephone, express and railroad business such enormous powers that the gov. ernment itself Is . dwarf among the giants: Their revenue are greater power to tax falls not only upon the public, but upon the government It. self. In the late conflict with Spain
 n wSlss snsy RTaysa ful In its rapacity. And, the constant practice they have of charging the government for the annual use of Q of the car, Is but one evidence of the undisputed fact that the government dares not deny them anything. They almost openly use the frank" of mem- bsrs of Congress to add to the weight | of mail matter during that annual pe- Tiod when the mail is weighed to ad- | just the average" Hundreds of tons | few days; and upon this fraudultnt mail matter the average for the entire wear is based: the taxpayers have to psy; tSsmsaiys. Tns = confressmsn who lend passes, and other good things. Tn ex- press charges. freight rates, telephone l and telegraph tariffs the public is plum manner in which they submit to 1t is one of the marvels Of the age. No other people among civilized nations are so cursed with corporate tyranny think that any remedy is possible !. Half a dozen corporation kings can meet in the ofiice of J. P. Morgan, and the s1 uned ssss sf any or city the pen they can add hundreds of mil | lions of dollars to the burdens, of the people. They enable the trusts to siay special rates. which make competition ais by their methods of gaining what they want from Governors, Lesisla- os oSsrGes, eai.ors' politicians and members
 Napoleon once rose from a study of interest tables with the remark, When l consider the deadly principle which that 1t has not devoured the human race." That deadly principle is pre- cisely what has devoured so great 8 principle does devour a portion of the human race every year. The big for tune. by the law of its nature, tends mutation represents what one victor gained and ten thousand victims lost . For, in fortune of a hundred millions there can be no such thing as fair re- tune, or anything like 1t. represents, as a rule. the. spoil of the successful ma rauder in the fields where others had toiied., ,. such a man is a free -booter; more lives, more tears, more broken hearts and ruined homes than are found in the track of actual war. bed the Tss peopIs of sss M SVfs zoe n ren one day. they felt entitled to the admira- ton of the business world. On the same day. perhaps. hungry women stole to prison for It. J. P. Morgan, An drew Carnegie. Charles Schwab and other conspicuous captains of industry pockens %Rch othsr iess Sy conspicuous cons . persons confided to the at one of those libraries which Carne- | land, admission was denied to one of | the best books of one of the best Rus sian authors, because it gave a vivid description of the condition of the strous product of governmental favor itism and protection" no book which exposes and denounces class legisiation can be satisfactory to this man who has in his coffers so many millions 1 which should have been left in the | pockets of those whose honest indus try produced them.
 | With a standard Oil accumulation, a Carnegie accumulation, and other sim liar accumulations represented by sucb men as J. P. Morgan, August Belmont
 
 l the deadly principle of compound in- terest" from operating with appalling l results in this country? By the law
 neI win nat1Te srow TSose and for
 the owners of this huge wealth have taken more than their share from the common stock. of the nations wealth. so there must be increasing millions Of men who get less than their share '. 1 What will be the end of it? No stu dent believes 1t can go on as 1t is for That rising tide of angry discontent | Is pouring over the country can not be disputed. The evidences of it are visible everywhere. If H. H. Rogers. men of that type think there is no act of spoilation to which the people will not submit they are making for them selves sH S,, fools fools paradise: If the Stand crowd think that the American people are going to stand idly acauiesc ant while thoy .gobble up all the wealth of ire. 1t viii not be permitted. "ai" Al, ready more than half the annual in- crease of wealth Is absorbed by less men so rich they they could buy up the entire property contained in one of our States. If the deadly principle of compound interest" continues to work plunderers will soon own the whole of 1 the United States. They and theiT | confederate kings will have such a grip upon our entire system. commer- cial, financial and political, that the government will amount to little more l than a piece of necessary mechanism to the Standards system: The Federal administration will take orders from | some future Rogers just as boards of l directors of dozens of huge corpora ttons now do. The very life of the re- | public demands the curbing of those gigantic combinations. and every as gressive step they, take, from hence forth, will hasten the day when impor- 1 ative public opinion will compel the | constituted authorities to protect the public from ruthless spoilation of this | kind.
 third party has no right to exist unless there are abuses in government | which the two great parties" refuse to reform. Unless both the two old par ties are wrong. there Is no room or ex- | cuse for third. But if both the old | parties are equally guilty of class leg | tslatlon, and are equally subservient to | the benefciaries of special privileges | triot to form party of protest, but a | duty. Civil liberty Is at once a herit- | age and trust. We are recreant to | the higher requirements of citizenship | if we fail to realize our responsibility | The ballot is one of the weapons with | which we must hold our ground. The | contention of the peoples party being that both the old parties are wrong | we wage war on both. Ours Is the l two edged sword. In our campaign it | may happen that we do greater dam l age to the Republicans than to the | Democrats-as In 1892, when MT. Bry- | an and other Western Democrats were instructed by the Cleveland managers | to vote for Weaver In another cam | paign, it might chance that the greater