Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1892 — LOOK AT THIS. [ARTICLE]
LOOK AT THIS.
tVhat th« McKinley Bill Dee* tor the Farmer*—Meuntatna of Tun on the One Side, end Bankruptcy en the Other Side. .. Present Proposed 40> duty. duty. Common window glass, 10 by 15 per pound $67 61 $73 78 Common window glass, 16 by 24 per pound 115 41 123 10 Common window glass, 34 by 30 per pound 128 58 135 84 Cotton ties per pound.... 86 00 116 08 Tinplate... 84 00 74 00 Steel ingots, etc., above 16 cents per pound 11 89 45 00 Wire-fence rods. No. 6 .. 45 00 54 00 Penknives, etc 50 00 75 00 Table cutlery 86 00 50 00 Hoisery.. 40 00 60 00 Shirts and drawers 40 00 65 00 Brown and bleached linens 85 00 56 00 Brown and bleached linens 85 00 60 Ofl Yarns 69 00 100 00 Woolens and worsteds, knit goods, etc 94 5$ 125 00 Worsted shawls 61 82 93 Ofl Belts for presses (printing) 58 14 101 00 Blankets, flannels and hats 89 70 110 00 Women’s and children's dress goods 68 00 108 00 Women’s and children’s dress goods 60 00 73 00 Women’s and Children's dress goods 85 06 110 Ofl Clothing, ready-made.... 54 00 84 Ofl Cloaks, dolmans, etc..... 60 00 82 00 Webbings, gorings, etc... 64 00 99 00 Cheap woolen shawls.... 88 00 185 00 How long will the people submit t« such piracy? ANOTHER COLOSSAL MONOPOLY. The Direct Result of High Protective Tariff.
60 00 73 00
We learn that arrangements are in course of preparation for consolidating the great western bituminous coal properties and the railroads therewith connected into a huge monopoly, fashioned after the anthracite combination recently consummated by the Reading company. The details of the scheme and the personnel of its promotion must remain for future ascertainment; but meantime the ultimate acomplishment of the project seems to admit of little doubt.
The really serious question suggested by this fact is whether the people of the United States consider that they have any interest in it and propose to have anything to say about it? Do they sup-pose-they have any rights affected by the scheme; and, if so, afe they prepared to Assert them? or do they choose to wait supinely until those rights have been put beyond the avail of protest or law?
What is coal to us? The chief source of industrial power; the propelling force of our railroads and steamships; the almost exclusive agent for converting our ores and working our metals; the source of our artificial light; the comfort of our homes; the means of preparing our food; it is, in short, the one agent that, next to the vital air, is above all others essential to the infinite ramifications of civilization.
It is a manifest purpose in the constitution of things that whatever is most indispensable to human subsistence and comfort shall be most absolutely free; and it is as essential that coal should be free to common acquisition as that the supply of air should be unrestricted. No possible affront to the common rights of humanity could match in boldness and injustice this attempt to put the prime source of human welfare under the exclusive control of a mere handful of capital owners.
Viewed in all ite bearings, this scheme, and equally the Reading combination, is one of the most flagrant attempts to constitute an overwhelming tyranny of wealth ever perpetrated. If monopoly is to be quietly permitted to thus fasten its grip upon the motive power of our industries and commerce, what may not be next attempted In fee way of subjecting the national liberties and fep national development to the will of a petty all-controlling class?
The question this new movement puts boldly and squarely before the people ia neither more nor less than this—shall eur industry and commerce be subjected to the unrestricted control of an absolute monopoly over each interest? Does the public common sense need to be informed that such control would be more arbitrary and more obtrusive to the development of this great country than the most despotic form of political government could possibly be?. AmJ having rejected despotic political institutions, are we prepared to tolerate a still more destructive despotism of wealth?—New York Commercial Bulletin.
