Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-18

forces beyond the control of men.
Science and invention, the two great
factors in this situation, have not only
altered radically, human environment
and our relations to nature, but, in
their application, they have revolu-
tionized economic conditions. These
changed economic conditions have, in
turn, affected profoundly society and
politics. They have led, among other
things, to combinations of capital and
labor on scale and with a power
never before witnessed. They have
opened the way to accumulation CT
wealth in masses beyond the dreams
OF avarice and never before contemp-
lated by men.
The social and political problems
thus created, are wholly new. 1t is a
fallacy to suppose that because the
elements are old the problem itself
must, therefore differ only in degree
from those which have gone before.
The elements may be old but the prob
lem presented by change in the
proportion of the elements may be,
, and. in this case is, entirely new.
Nearly 1000 Years Ago Tax Farmers
of Rome Formed Trust.
Great individual fortunes and ricn
men, are, it is true, as old as record
ed history. Nearly two thousand
years ago the tax farmers of Rome
| formed trust for their own profit
and protection: the English people.
three centuries ago, reyolted against
the patents and monopolies granted by
Elizabeth and James to their courtiers
and monopolies, forestallers and spec
ulators in the necessities of life were
|
denounced by Washington. Yet, it is
none the less true that the same
things today present questions differ
ent in kind as well as in degree from
their predecessors.
It is the huge size of private for
tunes, the vast extent and power of
modern combinations of capital, made
possible by present conditions, which
have brought upon us, in these later
years, problems portentous in their
possibilities, and threatening not only
our social and political welfare, but
even our personal freedom, if they
are not boldly met and wisely solved.
The great body of the American peo-
pie, neither very rich nor very poor,
the honest, the thrifty, the hard-work-
ing, the men and women who earn and
save, have no base envy-no fanatic
hatred of wealth, whether individual
or corporate, if it has been honestly
gained and Is wisely and generously
employed with sense of responsible
ity to the public. But this great body
of our people, by habit and instinct
alike, wisely conservative, these peo
pie, who are the bone and sinew OF
our country and upon whom it's for
tunes and it's safety rest, began tc
observe, with deep alarm, the recent
manifestations of the new economic
: conditions. More and more they came
to believe that these vast fortunes AND
) these huge combinations of capita
were formed and built up by tortuous
and dishonest means and through {
synical disregard of the very laws
which the mass of the people were
compelled to obey. They began to feal
that political power was being ref
! from their hands and put into the pos
session of the money holders, tina
their dearest rights were in danger
: that their hopes of success and ad
: vancement were cut off by business
systems which they could not under
!, stand but which the individual wa
: sacrificed and held down.
;, To those who looked beneath tn
: surface an ominous unrest was az
: parent. The violent counsels o
; violent men, who aimed at the de
! struction of property and the over
: throw of law, began to be heard an,
hardened to. The great order-lovin
: Industrious masses of the American
y people turned away from these &C
= vocates of violence but, at the sam
a time, demanded that their government
\ should give them, in lawful, and res
= sonable ways, the protection to whic
they were entitled, against the dar
. gers they justly apprehended.
The great duty of fulfilling thes
= righteous demands, like all the grea
. public services of the last half eel
4 fury, was imposed upon the Republ
v can party and they have not flinche
! from the burden. Under the lead {
# the president, the Republican part
v has grappled with the new problem
l. born of the new condition. 1t ha
~ heep no light task DANGEROUS g,