The Owyhee nugget. ([Silver City], Idaho) 1905-1984, 1909-01-15
WHY SOCIALISM GROWS.
evening Capital News. Boise.)


last week that there is a dangerous
growth of sociaIistic teaching in the
public press and the pulpit of the
country.
Mr.. Shaw has been closely enough
connected with the government to know
that neither the press nor the
pulpit is responsible for the growth of
socialistic ideas. Socialistic practice is
now becoming quite frequent in this
country and it has worked out so we'll,
and it is claimed by those in authority
of no less standing than the President
himself in his message, has proved so
beneficial, that it cannot be prevented
but must be recognized as permanent
feature Of the country.
To be sure, these authorities, includ-
ing the President, do not recognize
publicly that it is socialistic practice
that they are endorsing, but is fact
just the same.
Great corporations, combines, trusts,
whatever you may wish to call them,
have taken control of the great natural
resources of the country aud are man
aging them all, as they claim for the
common good, but in reality for their
own good.
The great coal companies have formed
a trust whereby they own and control
the fuel supply of the country.
Rockefeller has long had monopoly
of oil and all its by-products.
The electric trust has seized control
of the electric power of the country.
The railway corporations through a
few men, have control Of the transpor-
tation.
The meat trust absolutely fixes the
price it pays for raisiug meat and the
price it will charge for selling the pro-
duct, so that the meat we eat is in the
control of few
Stock gamblers with their corners,
fix the price on cotton, wheat, corn,
oats and other cereal products.
Manufacturers in the great eastern
centers fix the prices of clothing, of
farm machinery, of building iron, and
all other manufactured necessities.
Now comes the information given
by 7. B. Walker the other day at Wash
iDgton that a lumber combine had
been formed by which practically every
stick of standing timberin the western
hemisphere" is to be controlled. This
follows the announcement from Chi
cago not long ago that Weyerhauser
O'Brien, Cook and Hines interests, the
great lumber interests of the country
were the nucleus about which the com,
bine was to be effected.
So we have the fuel, the oil, the cleo
trio power aud light, The food cerea S
the products from which clothing is
made, the manufactured articles, the
steel, the transportation of the county
and now every stick of timber in the
western hemisphere, all under the con
troll of Rockefeller, Rogers, Morgan
Hartman, Archbold, Baer, Weyerhau
ser and two or three others.
These are only instances Of the gen
eral combination which controls all W,
eat, all we wear, the fuel, the light, build
ing material, transportation, the min
eral wealth of the earth-all handled b,
master hands for the good Of the few
Is it any wonder to Mr.. Shaw and t,
President Roosevelt, who also in hi
message protested against Socialism
that men are thinking that if thes
men can combine to use all these thing
for their personal benefit, hence to tn
detriment of the vast mass of the pee
pie of the country, that other mer
equally honest with them, equall
competent, more humane aud les
tempted, could utilize the same thing
. for the benefit of all the people alike