The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-08

lent of our 100 per cent profit,
for securities worth par, returning 10
per cent have a market value OF at
| least 200. When this had naturally
accrued, we had received all we were
legitimately entitled to for the use OF
| our money, and it was understood,
tacitiy, for at the time there was no
| thought of treachery or double deal.
| ing, that such additional earnings as
accrued through the increase of popu-
lation and the development OF the
country should be used to reduce the
rates Of fares and freightS to the peo-
pie. This was a perfectly fair arrange
ment between honest men, and by II
each side had an interest in the sue
cess of the venture. None OF you
doubt for a moment that If, when the
! begun, the people of Kansas ana OF
the other states which it traversed,
/ had said to the capitalists who were
building it, 1--WE will have a hard and
fast law enacted which will in effect
mean that for the next 1000 years to
| come, you shall be entitled to but lou
per cent profit on you investment ana
| that all other profit shall come back
to us in the form of reduced rates,
which means reduced prices for the
transportation of our necessities and
our luxuries''-you have no doubt that
| If such a law had been passed, it would
| have been perfectly satisfactory to the
capitalists and they would have done
\ for YOU in the matter of extensions
and improvements all that they have
done for themselves? But, fortunately,
no such law was passed, though you
know and I know that there is a great
moral law. which. if lived up to. would
work exactly the same result
| Railroad Robbering.
But what happened--the eastern cap
italist, finding himself in favored pos
session of railroad property travers-
ing fertile section of our country, con-
| ceived that no one had any right or in
| terest therein but himself, and when,
because of the generous rates he was
| allowed to exact from the people who
| patronized his line, its revenues rep
resented 10 per cent interest on his in
Vestment, he proclaimed that this great
success was the reward of his inherent
ability and unusual daring, and pro-
ceeded to educate the world to the be-
| lief that no one save the holders of
its stocks and bonds had any rights in
the railroad; that these were especially
sacred, being vested rights, and who
| ever attempted to interfere with them
was a law-breaker and an anarchist.
Forgetting the people to whose gen.
erous tolerance of his high rates his
success was due, and who, according
to all the laws of fair play, were tacit
partners in his venture, our capitalist
proceeded to add a second 100 per cent
profit to the capitalization of his rail-
road, and from time to time, as the
revenues of the property grew up to and
exceeded, or showed that they would
exceed, the interest charges on his stocks
and bonds, he added still further to
the capitalization until today this rail-
| road and all of its breed, together with
other forms of corporate wealth, have
out billions upon billions of stocks and
bonds, representing a total preposterous-
! ly out of proportion to the original in
VeStment, but upon which the public
must still pay fares and freight high
enough to yield interest. So here is an
- - \
prosperity of the country has been flch-
ed and diverted. ~.
Milking the People Through Banks.
I have told you generally how the
few, the system have got posses
sion of the wealth of the people. Let
me now show you, specifically, an in
stance of the SYSTEMS machine at
work. A citizen of Kansas puts his
money in the local bank, This bank
keeps it's deposits in the big banks in
Chicago, and the big banks in Chicago
keep their deposits in the Standard
Kansas does not know his money is
being used by the system He
knows nothing about where it is or
what is being done to it. He gets or
4 per cent for it.
Well, some votary of the system
conceives the idea that there would
be great profit in combining all the
great steel companies into trust, and
he pulS the DTOJGCL D6IOT0 Morgan anu
his associates, who take hold of the
project and borrow the money of their
own banks and the STANDARD Oil''
banks, and buy up the huge plants in
Pittsburg, Buffalo and Chieago-all
but Carnegie's. For these they pay
some 800 millions of dollars. Carnegie
looks over the situation and decides
that the new trust must have his
plants or fall to the ground, and he
says to Morgan and his associates:
you need what I have got to round
out your scheme, and you must pay
me for my mills, on which an option
has recently expired for 200 millions,
the sum of 800 millions. If you don't,
will block your game of robbing the
people, whereas, if you do, your mon
opoly will be perfect. You can food
the American people with stocks and
bonds to any amount. and, what is
of our products any price you care to
ask. and so make not only what I
bleed you for but hundreds of mill
| lions besides"
Steel Trust.
Morgan and his men paid Carnegie's
price. They could do nothing else, for
they were on the highway, bent on a
gigantic robbery, and, as he said, they
required what he had. A new COM
pany is organized, and what do you
think it was capitalized for? The 800
millions the other plants had cost and
Carnegie's 500 millions-600 millions
No. but for $1,000, 100000, bonds, pre-
ferred stock and common stock-more
pie of the United states. Thus the
United States Steel company the
greatest trust in the world, began bust
ness.
| My friends, just run over with me
what this huge trust must earn each
year, regardless of all conditions and
all economic fluctuations, to meet its
obligations. It must earn. per cent
on 4,923, 900 bonds and per cent
on 360,281,0 900 preferred. stock before
cent can be applied to the $50S,3O3,-
| 600 common stock issued.
| All over the country the newspapers
! and the brokers and the great chorus
| of financial touts began intoning to the
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