The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1905-04-21
never a murmur about exhOrbitant

ton of the iron horse into our com
! mercial life. 1t was never supposed
that the necessity would ever arise
for the establishment of a commits
sion to adjust freight charges
! When Noah Webster wrote his die
tionary he gave the following defini-
. ton of ''benefactor, viz: lone who
confers benefit, especially one who
makes charitable contributions either
for public institutions or for private
USE
, Now, the Ocala Banner wasn't bold
enough to say that Mr.. Rockefeller
fell under this definition.
; 1t simply stated what he had done
! and left it to the intelligence of its
| readers to draw their own conclus-
! ions therefrOm.
1t said that he had lowered the
| price of oil from two dollars to TWEEN
ty cents per gallon, and it established
| the fact from the record that he had
given large sums of money for the
founding of churches, schools and
hospitals, as much as ten millions to
one university; that he always pre-
sente an open palm to the cry of
distress of those around him; that at
| this very moment he is on Bonded
knees asking the American board of
| foreign missions to accept another
| donation of 500, 900 to be used in the
work of Outstanding the heather.
| In Noah Webster's time the men
who performed these deeds of benev-
olence were classed as ''benefac-
tors" but they do not come under
| the modern definition of this word
| The modern definition of a bene-
factor is one who sits on the fence
or on dry goods box and calls names
| and makes faces at the man who
makes it his every day creed to per-
form these generous deeds.
William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell
Phillips. Charles Sumner, Horace
Greeley and Harriet Beecber Stowe,
didn't single out Tom Jones and Jonn
Smith, individual slave holders, to
/ q tyka hr,f hn,
| anathemas at the system itself-they
claimed that it was not an individual
but governmental sin.
If these reformers were living to-
day they would make war on the
| conditions that permit the organiza-
ton of trusts i'll all their varied forms
but would not cOnfine their argu-
ments to the abuse of individual
| members of these organizations.
As long as conditions exist that
permit these things We cannot rea-
sonably expect anything except their
| formation, and we need men like the
anti-siavery crusaders to strike at
the bottom and undo the evil, root
| and branch.
We intimated that perhaps this
could be done through the agencies
SO forcefully and fuentIy advocated
by Mr. Henry George, and we believe
that the evil can only be uproote1 by
the enactment of his theories, or
similar ones, into laws.
Il there We're no private ownership
| in lands and the rentals of the same
| were applied TO the uses of govern
ment, then the government and not
the individuals would reap the bene-
fits flowing from them.
The people as whole and not in
dividual members of a community
would reap the benefits of all of our
gold, silver, copper and iron ores.
coal, oil, phosphate rock, turpentine
and all the natural products of the
| earth.
As long as individual ownership in
land Is permitted the formation of
trusts will follow as natural conse-
| quence.
TO check this growth were as idle
as to have attempted to put down
! chattei slavery by abusing individual