The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-04-09

I H~Gstrils of the sleeping elk rs The
same token. q feeding deer graztS M
the wind. Never have / seen the public.
IN It's destinie~and
make my money. like a naturalist. by
observing and recording it9 habits
evince anything resembling The saga
ciousp prudence Of those antlered folk.
40, faltht the public IS d bird In whose
vain sight the fowler may spread his
nets win every assurance Of success
some Of our rich men say that tho
pubiic hate wealth, ara the rich o4a<
WIZ" nave it. Il j. H.. OF lat /
have talked with many men They
were Of HanN walks and MANY re
slohs. Among them mere editors.
politicians. manufacturers. promoter.
merchants, lawyers. rich men, poor
men. Senators in tDgas. judges III
robes. one ana all, they confirmed
the recent word Of Judge Gaynor.
that The public does not hate wealth.
but only the robbcr wealth that plum
dcrs it, IN public no more hates gold
Than il mates q gun. It is when the
gold or the gun Is aimed at the pub
lies own destruction that the public
~ begins to sparkle ana the popular
anger stir.
While | found no condemnation Of
mere wealth, 1 was not. however.
without discovering a popular suspi-
cion. fast-groNing ana towering. ad-
dItSSti - Dig companies, pQDilc ser
vice and trade. And even a HarrinHl
must admit that this attitude Of pop
uisif diStruSt has much to keep II IN
Countcuancc. With public service
corporations paying forty per cent
with pOiS0BS sold rs medicines. with
peculiar beef. with 300 adultera-
tons. with rebates ANA the like
mon0polies spawned of them on daily
exhibition il would be strange if tn
peopl" we're both blind ana deaf -
the inVidiouS lesson there taught.
Yes, there is some glimmer 81
hope. There be signs Of reform. IN
Missouri, in Illinois, in Texas, IN
Massachusetts. in Ohio, III New YORK.
In Pennsylvania, criminals II oil and
sugar and coal and beef and railroads
are being paraded for punishment.
This is the age Of an ophiaian COM
merce. AS illustrative of certain of
our trade pythons, tax that boa con-
s~trictor the steel Trust. It's stock ana
bond issnes.Sn a fgef gnfs yeaf ar
The whole debt Of the United states
was bat $9Ol.470,9 $50. IN interest and
J dividends for that year, the steel trust
paid out $5S.74S.392. The interest
payments of the government during
the same period We're 2S,55G,34S.
That year the gross earnings Of the
steel Trust were $536,572,S71. while
the income Of the govcrnment-slght-
ly topping twas $3.50, 396,674. The
operating of the Steel Trust
during those twelve months We're
$500, 26S, 500, and the expenses Of the
government were $411,542,65O. The
Steel Trust surplus at the close Of that
year was $12.304 ,916, the surplus Of
the government was roundly $4,000
600. These figures should give the
public some notion of the size of at
least one of these creatures that, day
in and day out, are living in the
same cage with it. If money be power
and | think no n doubts -
q black world Of harm, whether latent
or active, resides with such a colossus
Of money as the steel Trust, And yet
it is only one of many; the woods are
full of its gigantic kind.
Consider, as to the Atlantic Sea-
board, the lesson of a soft coal Situa-
ton. Speaking broadly, in that region
there are fOur fields. one is tapped
by the Pennsylvania, one by the Balti-
more and Ohio, one by the Chesapeake
and ohio, one by the Norfolk and
Western. The Two northern fields are
inferior, quantity and quality, to the
two southern. If railways and coal
miners competed, in their mining and
their haulding. on their merits, as
both nature and the laws of the land
demand, bituminous coal in Boston. in
New York, in Philadelphia and in
baltimore. to say naught of hundreds
Oh btIlcI toNi iS, N'dli w tIlctiIttIith
to the consumer to the pleasant tune
of q dollar 4 ton This Woul mean
warmth to poor folk. Also it would
mean q deal to the Yankee manufac-
turer. And don't forget, oh reader
living anywhere between Passport and
san Diego, Vancouver and the Florida
KEYS. that il is you when YOU buy his
products, who pay the coal bills of the
Yankee manufacturer. Those frost
bitten DOR are local in their SILVER
ings: but it is your pocket that is
searched for the manufacturers extra
dollar per ton-that Illicit fruit of
Pennsylvania railway ~rapacity.
Pennsylvania Railway? Yes. And
IN tell YOU why: The Pennsylvania
railroad owns not alone itself, but a
controlling interest in the Baltimore
and Ohio, the Chesapeake and Ohio,
and the Norfolk and Western railway.
Through these, and by itself, it owns
a controlling interest in the bitumin-
Gus coal mining that goes on in the
regions served by the four lines.
Dominating. in this manner. the
bituminous coal production of The
East, the Pennsylvania ordains various
things as Illegal. To put up the price
of coai, it strictly limits the output.
THAT its own mines may not suffer
its method in limiting the output is
to Kill off mines wherein neither ii nor
its officers have an interest.
In killing competition the four rail-
roads-all under the thumb Of The
PennsylVania-resort to every sort of
tactics. They refuse side tracks: or.
where side tracks exist, they fail to
furnish cars, o. furnish too few. What
few they furnish are. by one duplicity
or another, delayed in hauling. Mean
while those mines which are owned
by the railroads. or by men who con-
troll the railroads, are given what ears
they need, and their product is sent
racing off to mark ct without hind
rance OF delay.
What is the result. the inevitable
result? Bankruptcy for all coal op-
orators in whose mines the railroad
men are not part Wners This last
is the biackmail reason why mine
oWnerS-aS sworn evidence has shown
have given blocks of their stock to
railway people, running from high otfi-
cialS in the main offices to gentlemen
in overails working about the yards.
Having limited the gross output, the
four railWaEs-alWayS under the
thumb OF the PannSNlVania-Settle
how much shall come from each Of the
four great coal regions served by the
railway quartette named. To make