The Sauk Centre herald., 1905-02-23

For myself and speaking for myself
1 am constrained to believe that all
trusts are bad and only differ in
degrees of badness.
The wants OF mankind can be
divided into two classes:
Desires,
Necessities.
Necessities are of three kinds:
Material,
Intellectual,
Spiritual.
Desires may be classed as those
things which we would like to have
but can get along without.
Material necessities are those things
essential to existence; food, raiment,
and shelter.
| Intellectual necessities and spiritual
necessities are those things, elements
and qualifications, that lift us above
savagery and make life worth living.
A trust affecting the luxuries of life
is bearable because it only affects the
few who as a rule are abundantly able
to bear the burden. The operation of
the silk trust does not worry the
farmer, the stock raiser, or the work.
ingman very much. Country editors
do not as general thing, worry for
fear the diamond trust will corner the
market.
A trust in the material necessities
of life is disreputable because it in
creases the price thereof and causes
hunger, sickness, disease, suffering
and death.
A trust in the intellectual and
spiritual necessities is damnable be-
cause it levies tribute on the morality,
the intellectually, and the religion of
the land, and thus increases ignor-
ance, fosters crime, and promotes sin
and sinful practices.
OF all the trusts with which this
trust burdened generation is
afflicted, the Paper Trust is most
tyranical and the most indefensible
of them all, the most tyranical because
it has the most complete monopoly
and the most indefensible because it
levies tribute on intellectually and
the religion of the land.
The Standard Oil Trust, although
it is powerful enough to defy a
sovereign state and to covertly threaten
the nation, does not control all the
sourcs of supply of light and lubrica.
ton.
The Meat Trust, although it is
powerful enough to compel the stock
raiser to sell his fat steers for two and
half cents pound and then pay
seventy-five cents a pound for steak
when he goes into the dining car on
| his return home from the market,
does not control the entire meat
supply of the country and we have
yet many independent sources from
which to draw.
The Paper Trust, by securing the
supply of the paper making material
in the United States and having out
side competition shut off by a pro-
hibitive protective tariff and by an
absurd and unjust law which prevents
any importation of paper pulp or pulp
wood from Alaska, has secured alb
solute control of the paper market in
the United States and every person or
concern that uses paper, must do
business with it or go into some busi-
ness in which paper is not required.
1t levies tribute on every source of
education. information and religion,
from the humblest country paper to
the greatest daily in the land. From
the primer out of which the babies
learn to read, to the most complicated
works of science; from the Sunday
school leaflet to the bible; upon
everything upon which words are
written Or printed, and written and
printed words are the one absolute
essential of education, enlightenment
and religion. Is such a condition
desirable? | think not. More than
that, ] have no hesitation in saying it
is absolutely disgraceful in civilized
land.
What is the remedy? Situated just
over the Canadian boundry are un-
limited forests of spruce and experts
tell us that they contain sufficient
supply of paper-making material to
supply the paper demand of the
world for a century. Take off the
tariff on paper, paper pulp and all
paper making materials and give us
the benefit of the outside competition
/ speak as republican and pro.
tectionist but the fundamental
doctrine of protection is that it shall
perform dual purpose, supply
revenue and afford protection. The
tariff on paper and paper making
material does neither. 1t only enables
combine to levy upon the things
that make our nation the creates
nation on earth, tribute in ordel
that a few may be enriched. 1t is &