Norwich bulletin., 1913-09-10
SOCIALIST SOLUTION
 OF TRUST PROBLEM
Explained by Oscar Ameringer, Chair man of the Party's National Com mittee.

The aim and purpose of the socialist party was explained in a most inter esting manner to a good sized audi ence in F'Toehlichkeit hall Tuesday evening by Oscar Ameringer of Mill Waukee. chairman of the national com mtttee' of the socialist party MT. Ameringer was presented by Albert A. Boardman and for an hour and half he helf the close attention of his hear
 ers drawing laughter and applause wit hhis frequent bits of humOr.
 MT. Ameringer devoted his address to the trust question and the dispOsi- tiOn of the question in the socialist way. Though the trust produces cheaper, he said, 1t does not lower the price in proportion. It pushed wages down and keeps the cost of living up. Between the low cost and the high selling price is the big profit which is rein%ested by the trust in another in dustry The circle of exploitation keeps growing larger. The Standard Oil company started with control of the oil fields then acquired the coal fields and the profits were bigger than ever. Natural gas wells. iron deposits were controlled in turn with ever increasing profits until finally the Standard Oil became allied with the steel trust. Thus today oil is small part of that which is controlled by the Standard Oil company.
 
 CTS. They reached out into other lines and the other day 1 saw bottle mark ed ArmOurS grape juice. The beef trust controls nearly every refrigerator car in the country. Fruit is transport ed in these cars and thus the beef trust gets control of the grape busl- ness.
 By the accumulating of capital rein vested again and again the trust crushes out the middle class; the small manufacturers, the bankers. the store keepers are coming tC depend upon the was really the last dying vail of the middle classes crushed to the wall by the trusts. Thus 99 out of every 100 persons are opposed to the trusts.
 The progressive republicans favor control of the trusts by the govern ment That idea is all right. but this beloved government of ours belongs body and soul, hair and hide. to the trusts, so the government cannot be used against it's Tightful owner. The democrats agree that the trusts are bad and would return to the good old days" of the democratic regime. They don't care where they go so long as they go back and do away with the trusts. This idea is fine. but for the last 5000 years the human race has been going forward, and the race or nation which attempts to go backward is just as insane as the man who walks backward along the street. The trust is the product of industrial evo- lutiOn and it is just as easy to put the oak tree back into the acorn as to go back to the days of competition.
 The socialist solution of the problem is not new. It dates back to 1847, when two young scientists wrote that com petition would one day result in a mo- nopoly which would become s0 Oppres- SiVe that the people would rise up and seize the trust, to be operated for the good of all. That is our idea today.
 We can get control of the trusts by confiscatiOn, though this is not the only way. The owners would probably be idemnitied, as were the feudal lords of Germany when they were dispos- sessed of their lands provided the change of ownership was peaceful. If | the change entailed bIoodshed. as did the cOnfiscation of the slaves in the south, then the trust owners would re- ceive about as much indemnity as did the slave owners.
 With a new government at Washing ton-made up not of the trust lawyers but of real representatives of the peo- ple-the government could acquire the trusts. Uncle Sam has started in the express business and has lowered the rates from 20 to 60 per cent If he goes a little farther and carries a lit tie larger package Uncle Sam can wipe out every express company in the United States in five days without paying a cent of indemnity. When we go to John D. Rockefeller and tell him we want to buy his business we will show him this example and he will be willing to sell. We will give him 100 millions for his Standard Oil, paying i him with two per cent. gold bonds. The profit of the business is a hundred mil 1 lion a year, so that within a year we 1 can redeem our bonds and own the trust If we can issue bonds to build i battleships which yield no returns, 1 surely we can issue bonds for a busi- l ness which pays as large a profit as 1 this We will run 1t with the same l people who run the business now and l after the bonds are redeemed we will | increase the salary of every one of 1 the 12,000 employees s2.00O a year and 1 distribute the other 72 millions of profit | to the rest of the people of the country | In cheaper products, Thus by change | of ownership we distribute the diVi- i dend between those who produce 1t and l the rest of the American public. TREES IN PARKLET