Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1922-09-27
. Strike Was Justified

THE executives as they style
themselves, really the ..'overseers" for
the capitalistic owners in London and
New York, evidently deemed that they
were the government Of this country,
and that the public and the operatives
of the railroads, coal mines and other
public utilities existed solely for the
profit of the owners OF these corpora
tons.
The men of this country resisted
similar control by the plutocracy of
Britain in ,1776. There was far more
reason why the operatives Of the coal
mines and railroads of this country
should now have struck, as they have
done, than there was for the action
by our ancestors in 1875.
In making this strike the operatives
were fighting the battles Of civilization
and free government. If the govern
ment can operate, as it does, the post
! office with 100000 employees; and if it
can operate it's navy and army, with.
out private ownership and not for pri,
vate profit, it can certainly operate
its public utilities in the same man.
ner.
Evil Of Private Monopoly
The great necessity as to all public
utilities is that they shall be operated
solely in the public interest and upon
purely ''cost system without pro.
tit-just as the postofhce, the army
and navy and other necessary institu
tons are being operated.
The result of the present system OF
operating public utilities as a source
of private profit has been to accumu
late enormous sums in private hands
with corresponding restitution am
ong the many-those who do all the
work in operating them.
There are over 200 fortunes in this
country estimated at over $50,O0O,O0C
or $100,000,000 each-one of them is
as high as ,So0;ooo,0oo, and many
annual incomes exceeding S5,000,O0O
each. Not one of these could have
been accumulated except out of the
enormous profit derived from public
utilities.
These enormous fortunes control
politics, furnish the means of filling
legislatures, congress and public Off
.ces Of all kinds with the agents Of spe
cal privilege, and to execute the ord
ers of predatory wealth. Like a snow
ball, the larger these aggregations, the
more rapidly they increase.
| Deadly Wealth Concentration
They corrupt public life, destroy
equality and debauch public morality
and public opinion by systematic pro
paganda. They take from the young
men the equality of opportunity which
should be the boast, and is an abso
Lutte necessity for the maintenance
of free institutions.
! These vast accumulations are the
blight of both public and private
honesty. To check these vast and
deadly aggregations, which are fatal
to liberty and our free institutions, we
have resorted to graduated income
tax. But all men know that this is
an abiding fraud and delusion., II
is evaded and has become merely a
fruitful source of corruption.
The perpetuity Of our institutions
requires that these vast accumula
tons shall cease Government by the
people cannot survive such enormous
power placed in few hands and Oh
tanned, as all men knew they must
be, by illegal methods and in disre-
gard of law. The legislation against
trusts has proven useless. Like the
income and inheritance taxes, it is
simply evaded.
Accumulation illegal
There is not one of these accumu.
lations which has been legally made
To take an example: A well-known
man died in New York recently, ad
mittedly owning over 100000, 600 &C
cumulated within the last 40 years
He had done nothing for the public
benefit and when he died bequeathed
nothing for public purposes. His only
notable transaction that recalled him
to mind was that some years ago when
he was sought by the law to obtain