The Irish standard., 1905-08-12
TRUST CONTROL
American Citizens Should
Arouse Themselves
TO the Dangers That Confront
Them on Every Hand.


demanding the earnest attention of
thinking men everywhere throughout
the land at this time, "The Control of
Trusts" how best accomplished. He
says:
In some of my former articles
called attention to the great necessity
of awakening our people from their
lethargy and of intoxicating spirit of
patriotism that will overshadow, or
those gigantic trusts, which are COM
posed of selfish men, whose selfish
clamor would rather see the country
at large lose a million dollars of bene-
fit than incur the possible risk of
losing dollar themselves. After the
close of the Civil war in 1865 it may
be remembered that our nation passed
through an era of great corruption.
Rings and cliques existed in nearly
every department for the purpose of
enriching themselves and their
friends; the Whisky Frauds, the
Credit Mobilier cases, the Star Route
cases. the Back Salary Grabs, and
countless other, if not, illegal, yet,
immoral and corrupt transactions
took place which became at last fes-
tering sore upon the body polite and
stencil in the nostrils of all right
thinking people to such an extent that
from one end of this land to the other
there went up the cry of Reform. One
of hte leading political parties took up
tho exclamation as a party slogan in
1876 and in one of the ablist plat
forms, if not the ablest, ever written
in this country, the grievances were
set forth at great length, and each
paragraph recounted the wrongs and
abuses which had crept into the sew
eral departments and each allegation
was preceded by those telling and
thrilling watch words. Reform is
Necessary" Now, again, the time has
arrived when it is manifestly our duty
as American citizens to arouse our
selves to confront the dangers that
beset us on every hand. We hear a
great deal said about Manifest Des-
tiny" about our "World-wide Mission
of Humanity" and that we must build
up an extensive navy TO traverse the
high seas from zone to zone; but did
it ever occur to you that while our
people are kept busy reading and talk.
ing of our Island possessions, our
great ocean liners, our cruisers, our
battleships and our cOnquests abroad,
a class Of commercial plunderers are
robbing our ..eople at home-not only
robbing them. but actually binding
them and their children for years to
come, by contracts, franchises ana
ordinances for gas power, electric
power and other unconscionable-and
| say illcgal-contracts that are sap
ping the very life blood out of our
people for the benefit of the favored
few.
Look at the great railroad corpora
tions, the Standard Oil trust, the
Sugar trust, the Beef trust and all the
other varied but allied combinations
which have in the past dictated all, or
nearly all enactments in state and ma
tion, and are still trying to dictate to
our lawmakers in every branch of
legislation from the Senate chamber
at Washington to the petty alderman
in our city councils
Tell our people to wake up. Let
them arouse themselves to activity
and be on the alert. Why allow men
to represent you whose individual in.
terests are Numerically opposed to
your own? Can you not see that emil
nent lawyers who command big fees
as corporation counsel are not suit
able persons to represent your inter-
ests either at the capital of the state
or nation? Can you not see that big
shippers who accept rebates from
transportation companies should not
be selected by the common people to
look after their interest in legisla-
ton? The same is true of every
minor Office in every municipality
throughout the land. When l read Of
the scandalous and infamous high
handed and illegal proceedings that
have been disclosed during the last
few years in so many Of our large
cities and the noble, but futile efforts
of many of our best people to put a
stop to it, | tremble for the safety of
the liberties of our people, and were
it not that l am firm believer in the
omnipotent power of the Most High,
and in the intelligence of our people
when duly apprised of their great
danger, l should almost despair of
final success, and would sorrowfully
exclaim: Alas we are already
bound hand and foot; the prison door
is closed and the bar is already in the
socket.
How much does a strike affect the
coal barons? Comparatively nothing.
The strike is permitted to take place
and in many cases is prolonged, no
doubt, for the very purpose of en-
abling them to say that there is a
scarcity of coal, and up and up goes
the price until at last, the millionaire
coal barons have doubled, yes, trebled