The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-03
CARPENTER TALKS
 OF TRUST PROBLEM
The Trades Unions Grow as Dc the Enormous Organizations
 Of Capital.

(Copyright, 1904, by Frank o. Carpenter)
 Washington. D. c.
 have been asked to make an interview investigation of some of the great bread and-butter questions which are now asi- tating the minds of most of the men and women of the United States. These Ques- tions are those relat to the new condi- tions of capital and labor: the question of the biz dealer swallowing the little one, of high wages and high prices. of long or short hours, of union and non-union. and especially whether the consumer is to be ground between the upper and neither mill-stones of employer and employe. These are problems which affect every mans pocket book. his chance to work for whom he pieases. hisl wages if he Is laborer and his profits If he Is q cap italist, and. in fact. the comfort and sue cess or failure of every one in the coun- try.
 A Tree-for-An.
 The interviews will be with representa- tive men of all classes. I shall have talks with some of our chief capitalists. includ- ing now and then @ millionaire or trust magnate, who will give us the benefits of organized capital; and shall have expfes- sions of opinion from the leaders of the trade unions. who in their mighty hands wieId the millions of organized labor The non-union mass will be represented by other thinkers, as will also the unor- ganized and long-suffering public, which pays all the bills and forms the very foundation of the existence of laborer and capitalist.
 I wish to say at the start that these in- terviews are not the expression of my opinion or that of this paper. In them the man who talks may say what he pleases, and the more forcibly the better. My only aim is to give a fair show to all sides without fear or favor. If labor Is denounced this week, capital may have its denunciation next The unionist and non n-unionist Is here on an equal footing. and the individual establishment and the great trust stand side by side. As for me I am the telephonic connection between the men interviewed and my readers-a mere receiver and transmitter my chief ambition being to distinctly convey the sound.
 The present letter gives some idea of the situation and the parties at issue. The interviews will begin publication nsxt Sunday.
 A land of Golden Giants. Tn the past the United States has been great through its individual citizen. It has been the land of all others where the single man could stand alone and fight his way up through any sphere to fame and | IOEIunS. lul3 COuuAtlOu A1 TaptAAt SA~AA0 ! ing. We are doing things in the large. Men work in bands. and dollars in mill lions. The land Is one of golden giants. of mighty masses of organized capital and herculean armies of organised labor. | First look at our combinations of cap | ital. They surpass in their accumuia- tions the widest dreams of a Croesus, an Aladdin or Monte Cristo. It Is not long since the niIlioDalres of the United | t.. faA ng, Ng1 6nRaFfi | and toes. Now they are numbered by | thousands, and we have individuals worth more than the aggregate wealth of some ! of the smaller European states.
 Take Carnegie! No one knows just what he has, but his three hundred mil lion dollars of steel securities bring him in an income of more than fifteen million dollars a year. or more than forty-one thousand dollars for every day of the week. including holidays and Sundays John Rockefeller scoops in something like two thousand dollars an hour all the year through from his stocks. real estate and mines. and the Vanderbilts. Astor' and Goulds have approximately large in' comes. There are today a number of mer in the United States worth fifty million dollars and upward and the organizations of capital whose stock runs into eight ol more figures are legion.
 Fifteen Billions in Trusts.
 We now have. in addition to the billion dollar steel trust. which. by the way. is { little shrunkea at the waist. and in addt ton to the gigantic Pennsylvania rail road. about eight hundred and fifty in dustrial combinations, which command all told, fifteen thousand millions of dol lars. We have two hundred and thirteen industrial trusts capitalized at seven thousand millions. and more than five thousand other corporations. These trusts are swallowing their smaller competitors They are branching out to include all businesses of profit. and in many cases are binding the hands of industry with trade regulations. Indeed. we are fast becoming a nation of pool-makers, rate fxers and profit sharers. and new ques. tions of enormous importance stare us ir the face.
 The Hercules of Organized Labor.
 At the same time our working men aTS organizing on a gigantic scale. The trades unions are growing as never before. ant they are combining into associations o enormous proportions. We have mor' than twenty thousand unions in one fed eration, and these unions cover ever. trade and hope to control every wag' earner. John Mitchell estimates tha there are from two and one-half to thre million workingmen in the various unions and Samuel Gompers tells me there ar more than two millions associated to Rether in the American Federation o Labor. This federation has national, in ternatiOnal. central, state and local un ions. which it hopes to wield as one ma on all great labor questions.
 Some of the unions are very strong and some are piling up funds in thei treasuries to use in the strikes and strug gles which may arise between capita and labor. The United Mine Workers, fo instance, has 100000 workers. and 1t ha one million dollars saved up The Ciga Makers Union has 40,000 members and annually handles. all told. more than million dollas. giving death benefits ant out-of-work payments to its unfortunat members. There are many other union of large size. but these win show nor or less what all are doing and the powe they may wield In the future.
 Twsnty-Four Thousand Trades Un-
 ions.
 These trades unions do not by any means include the majority of our work ing men. It is doubtful if they have more than 15 per cent of tmem. Nevertheless they are banded together under leaders and a we'll commanded army is stronger than ten times as many individuals
 have said there are A0oo unions. Tc show their variety I give you some oi those which are of a national or inter- national character. taking them from a list which have from the American Fed eration of Labor.
 | There are national associations Of bak' CTS. barbers. bill posters and black smiths. There are associations of blast furnacemen, boiler makers, bookbinders, hoot and shoa vvorkePs broom makers and