The Washington herald., 1916-06-23

In March, 1897, a great consolidation OF
iron-mining properties, foundries. steel
mills, railroads. and steamship lines was
effected which brought the country's chief
supplies of iron, its chief steel produc-
ing plants, and its chief means OF trans
porting steel products to the markets of
the continent and of the world under a
single organization and management and
reduced the cost Of steel to a figure which
rut American steel factories beyond fear
OF competition. Steel had become the
structural stun Of the modern world
Commanding its manufacture. America
might command the economic fortunes OF
the world.
1t was this new aspect Of industry that
disclosed the problems Republican and
Democratic statesmen were to face for
the coming generation. The concentra-
ton of capital was no new thing; but
the new scale upon which It now began
to be effected made 1t seem thing novel
and unexpected.
The control now Of this industry and
again OF that by small groups Of capt.
talists, the growth of monopolies. the
union of producers in each line Of manu-
facture of the purpose OF regulating
prices to their own liking and profit had
been familiar circumstances, familiar
signs of the times, these twenty years
The farmers had seen them and had
formed their oranges, their Alliances,
their Peoples party to protect their own
interests by combination and political
agitation, against the huge corporate
powers that seemed to be gathering for
the conquest of fortune. The industrial
workingmen had seen them and had
widened their organizations TO meet the
threat Of subsection.
The great strikes which followed one
another. summer by summer. with such
significant regularity were but the reflex
Of what was taking place in Wall Street
where huge combinations Of capital were
being arranged; at the manufacturing
centers Of the country, where the inter
ests Of producers were being pooled; al
railway centers, where great systems OF
transportation were being drawn together
under q single management.
Mines, factories, railways, steamships
were now, it appeared, to be brought into
one corporate union as a single business
II was the elimination Of the process
and seemed to put a new face on all
that had gone before, on all that was to
follow.
No wonder thoughtful men, as well as
mere labor agitators. grew uneasy and
looked about them to see what control
the law could exercise. No doubt there
was risk OF deeply serious consequence
in these vast aggregatons OF capital,
these combinations OF all the processes
of a great industry in the hands OF a
single Trust" No doubt they did give
to few men a control over the economic
life OF the country which they mig ht
abuse to the undoing of millions Of men,
1t might even be to the permanent de-
moralization of society itself and OF
the government which was the instru-
ment OF society in the conduct Of its
united interests
The programs OF socialists and ex-
treuists proposed a remedy which was
but a completion Of the process: the vir-
tual control of all industry and OF all
the means OF transportation by the gov
ernment itself The leaders OF the Peo-
pies party, though they professed no
socialistic doctrine. demanded govern
ment ownership of the railway and tele-
graph lines OF the country, and their ex-
pressed desire with regard to the con-
troll OF Trusts" smacked OF the ex-
tremest purposes Of experiment in the
field Of legislation.
The Interstate Commerce Act had been
a beginning, a very conservative begin
ming. in the carrying out Of what they
wished to see undertaken. Neither the