The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1905-04-11
PREYING ON THE FARM.

PREYING ON THE FARM.
In August, 1902, the harvester trust
was resolved upon, and under the anne
of the international Harvester Company
Incorporated at Trenton, says Alfred
Henry Lewis in the Cosmopolitan. Be-
ing thus launched at those old familiar
shipyards of modern piracy, the New
Jersey-Trenton yards, the harvester
trust. without reserve or setback. has
marauded agriculture ever since. The
round production of the American farms,
in figures, is each year $4,000, 900, 600. 1t is
three times the gross earnings of all the
railroads. 1t is fourfold the on put of
all the mines-goid, silver, iron, upper
coal. 1t is six times the whole capital
of all the national banks. To produce
that annual crop, the aggregate value of
which is $4,000. 900, 900, the farmer spends
yearly 800. 900. 600 for tools, implements
and machinery, and it was for the con-
them to its own profitable favor. that
the harvester trust was conceived. 1t is
not too much to say that, now. in the
third year of its existence. the harves-
ter trust, from those s1O0. 900. 900. pockets
a yearly profit of over SAC, 900, 900, so per
cent of which may be counted as merest
shame a footpad and are wholly GRIM
inal in the eye of law.
There were perhaps ten American con-
Germs engaged In the manufacture and
sale of farm tools and machinery when
the harvester trust was formed. and of
these the Deering, the Mccormick, the
Milwaukee, the Plano and the Champion
companies were included therein. The
list carried the largest plants in the
country. There have been added to it
since, the Minnie the Aultman & Mil
Ter and the ID. NJ. Osborne companies.
AS now framed the harvester trust con-
trolls over nine-tenths of the farm-imple-
construction and lawbreaking, so domi-
mates the market situation as to compe!
what opposition is struggling against it
to do business at a loss.
1t was quite within the nature of
things when. at the very dawn of its
existence, our $120. 900, 900 harvester trust
turned to railroads and freight rates
with the purpose of a rebate. The trust,
in approaching rebates, waxed d plomat-
ic. not to say forbearing. 1t would not
rudely fall upon the law In front, break
ing 1t perforce. and thereby outrage the
sickly, sniveling sensibi ties of wha
shallow per cent of our citizens still
stood for the majesty and sacred char
acter of a public statute. No, it would
attack the law in flank. Having billions
behind it. the trust bought two railways
for itself. 1t went into the railroad
business. Since most of Its plants were.
so to speak, within stones throw of Chi
cago, with the most remote among them
no farther afield than Akron, Ohio, 1t
pitched upon Chicago as it's central
point OF ul5trlDu1on. That being deter
mined, 1t proceeded to purchase the hi
nois Northern railroad outright, and Sc.
cure the whip-hand of control in the
West Pullman Railroad Company. 1t
also so arranged that. whether a car
used for the shipments of it's wares wee
to run finally over the Alton. the Santa
Fe, the Baltimore and Ohio. the Pennsyl-
vania, or any other railroad. in leaving
Its central depots of farm-tool supplies
IL must first run a mile or two over one
of those railroads it controlled. BY this
sagacious practice the harvester trust
need never traffic with any railroad for
a rebate; its own railroad would be able
to make the deal. 1t is worth, in The
railroad market, from two to three Col
lars a car for the Illinois Northe.n rail-
road to shunt in and out a ear, designed