The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-03-12
SENATOR BORAH HANDS ONE
TO HARVESTER TRUST PERKINS
he Defines A Monopoly and Shows How 1t Applies
In the Case of Mr.. Perkins, and His
Late Repentance.

day because of her children and when
asked how she got her sleep she ex-
planned that she stole few hours of
rest i'll the morning while her neighbor
cared for her children. She got six
dollars week. One of the investiga-
tors said, The women were worn and
pale and were disheartening sight to
look upon" This is only a slight in
dication as to what this report shows
as to the repusive and inhuman and
hellish treatment which these women
received at the hands of this combina-
tion-out of Difference to your sensi-
tive feelings l will not call it q mon
opoly. When your attention was cali
ed to his you are reported as saying
"This night work has been rendered
necessary largely because of the gov
ernment's perfectly unreasonable atti-
tude toward large corporations" Now,
sir, If YOU will take into consideration
the tremendous fortune which you took
out of this combination, the oppressed
and distressed condition and poverty
stricken wage of its employees, and
your crisp and cynical comment, 1t oc-
ours to me that you not only have here
a monopoly. but you have its utterly un-
feeling master who is always willing to
defend his position and to deny that he
Is engaged in such practices while at
the same time wrenching every dollar
from the employee and consumer that
an ingenious mind can contrive to get
hold of. Now, Mr.. Perkins, 1 may be
wholly in error but the facts of this
are published facts. have them before
me. and through and by means of them
l was misled. 1t seems, in what you con-
ceive to be an erroneous conclusion.
You were a member of the firm of ].
p, Morgan and company. 1 understand
when the steel trust was organized.
Out Of that wonderful bringing together
Of competitive plants which had the ef-
feet of destroying competition. the firm
of which you were a member took out
some sixty-two million dollars AS 1
understand, they admit having taken
out as result of their skill In bring
ing these combinations together twenty
five millions, and the evidence seems
to me show that they got about thir-
ty-seven millions in addition to the ad-
mitted amount Just what portion Of
these sixty-two millions you got / am
of course unable to state. But from
what your associates in business have
told me as to your caution in watch
ing the division of the proceeds I have
no reason to believe that you got any
less than your proportion. Those who
do not believe the United States steel
trust has been a monopoly simply re-
fine upon words and do not do so with
very much sincerity. A couple of years
ago I introduced in the senate a reso-
luton asking for an investigation as
to the condition of labor in this mon
opoly which you had helped to form.
The result of that Investigation is a
matter of public record. 1t is a report
sufficiently shocking to startle the most
callous mind 1t discloses that they
were working their men seven days in
the week from ten to twelve hours a
day and eighteen hours on change Of
shift. Considering the conditions under
which the men worked this was moth
ing less than inhuman torture. I under
take to say that a combination which
was not practically dominant in the in
dustry could not thus enslave and tor
ture men. But they had nowhere else
to go. They must work there, as some
of them told me, under those conditions
or starve. Yet I presume you will say
that this combination was not a mon
opoly and that you do not believe in
monorolies. WELL 1 presume that pos
sibly you are speaking of your present
state of mind.
1 am told also, and If am in error
about this, you will correct me, that
you were a member of the coterie of
men who organized and monopolized the
transportation Of New England In the
New York and New Haven deal
have no means Of knowing how much
you took out Of this. If you did not
get anything at ALL or whatever amount
you got, II you will inform me I will be
glad to state the figures to the voters
of the country in order that you may
have absolute justice. But l do know
that the history of the New York and
New Haven deal, as It is now reported
and we'll authenticated, was in viola
Continued on page 81