Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-03-26
rrowERY WORDS CONCEAL EVIL

ored phrase in Wall street 1t is the substitute for the pool or trust that the laws of the nation and state have condemned.
 Instead of the written agreement to maintain prices or otherwise stifie com- petition, there is the ''cominunity of interest" plan. It is maintained by 'the gentlemen's agreement" What is that7 The chief or controlling stock holding interests in two or more sup posedly rival concerns agree among themselves that there shall be uniform rate or price. There is no signed agree ment. In some cases, at least, the ofi- cers of the corporation arc not parties to this "gentlemen agreement or directly cognizant of it. They can swear that their corporations are not parties to a trust.
 But the thing is effective just the same.
 For instance, it is immateria to which telegraph company you 80; the rates of the Postal and Western Union are just the same. And SO with the railroads. Competition is confined to efforts to get your business, dear reader. No matter what railroad or telegraph company you patronize you have to pay the same rates.
 Community of interest,"" and who Is in the "community?" Nobody but the capitalists, Let us tell you how 1t works. Here is railroad or telegraph company whose securities have been watered and whose physical condition has declined until it is tottering, and it would speedily fall if there was legiti- mate competitor. Tho gentlemen who make these agreements are interested in maintaining the prices of these in hated stocks and bonds. They fix the rate so as to secure return on all that water. Vastly lower rates could be given if reasonable return on the actual investment was all that was de- sired
 For instance, telegraph rates could Do cut one-half and better wages paid if only a reasonable profit on actual investment was called for. The gen tlemen by their agreements make us pay a profit on the water they have poured into the concern
 It is not merely public utilities which are thus used to rob the public. The game Is worked in every possible direc- tion.
 Publishers have suffered by it. The paper mills were combined at extrava- gantly high prices. Some of the plants were ready for the junk pile. But pub fishers are compelled to pay prices fer paper which give profit on these junk piles and on those inflated prices. If publishers were compelled to pay only such prices ss would return a fair profit on modern mill, equipped with up-to- date machinery, prices of print paper would he much lower.
 And the paper manufacturers are ask ing congress to maintain a high tariff on print paper so as to help them make a profit on their watered securities. The chief business of Wall street is to form and maintain these "gentlemen's agree ments' for robbing the public.
 But the people wlo suffer most by this "cou,nrnity of interest" scheme are the workers. While themselves main taining "closed shop" these gentle men cry aloud for an "open shop'' so far as labor is concerned. Then, while themselves stiHing competition and ab- normally increasing everything that the worker has to use, see to it that the steamship companies (which they own) offer low rates and every possible in- ducement to flood the labor market and depress wages.
 And when the consuming public final ly forces reduction in prices, the brunt of 1t falls on the worker-the clerk, mechanic and laborer. These gentlemen who maintain the community of in terest'' scheme boycott any business man who will not play their game, and render it almost impossible to secure capital for new public utility or large enterprise, and at the same time deny to the workers the right of publicity for these who will rot treat the workers fairly and send their leaders to jail.
 Community of interest and "gen- tlemen'o agreements" Gze generally merely polite phrases for devices to conceal theft