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Che Conservative !
VOL. i. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , APRIL 27 , 1899. NO. 42.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 5,729 COPIES.
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One dollar and a half per year , in advance ,
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Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29th , 1898.
There is much
THE TRUST
. loose talk at the
PANIC.
present time , in
the newspapers and otherwise , about
trusts. But what are they ? What is
meant by a trust ? The best answer we
can think of to this question is , that a
trust is "Old Bogy , " a hobgoblin that
is really all a trust is.
Many years ago , certain persons in
Ohio did form a Standard Oil trust , by
combining a majority
Standard Oil.
jority of the shares
of a number of oil companies in the
hands of trustees. There was no con
solidation of the companies into one
company. This trust , unlike a company
or corporation , had no franchises con
ferred on it bylaw ; but it was simply an
arrangement , by which those owning a
majority of the shares of a number of
different corporations combined such
majority in the hands of trustees , who
managed the whole. This combination ,
by giving improved and cheap service to
the consumers , built up so large a busi
ness that the parties to it became rich.
But , as they greatly reduced prices ,
they incidentally forced out of business
various small producers of oil , because
the small men could not live at the low
prices charged by the trust. Then the
small producers did what has always
been done , and probably always will be
done , by men similarly situated they
complained that any adjustment of so
ciety which makes it possible for the big
fish to destroy the little ones is wrong.
They left out of sight , as they always
do , naturally enough , the welfare of the
great mass of consumers ; and they fin
ally succeeded in creating , with the
help of "Old Bogy , " and of the politi
cians , the preachers and the press , such
a feeling against trusts , that they forced
the Standard Oil people to give up their
trust method of management. They
made the people believe there was some
thing radically bad about trusts , that
they were different from ordinary cor
porations ; and so trusts of that kind
were made illegal combinations , the
alleged ground being that they were an
injury and a danger to the public , not
because they put up prices , for the re
verse was true , but because they drove
little fish out of business. These little
fish were able , with the help referred to ,
to get a majority of the consumers on
their side , although the real interest of
consumers was , and is , on the other
side.
Such is the genesis of the commercial
"trust. " But it came to an early end ;
and trusts of that kind are no longer
formed , because they are unlawful com
binations.
But it was a simple matter to form
corporations to do what commercial
"trusts" could do ; and that has been
done by the Standard Oil , the Sugar ,
and other similar combinations. So
now such of the little fish as cannot
compete with the big ones , because they
cannot meet low prices , aided by the
politicians , who are always looking for
hobbies to ride , and the cranks and re
formers , who forget , or perhaps never
heard , what Socrates said , that the es
sence of justice lies in attending to your
own business , are pointing in fact to
"Old " the hobgoblin
corporations aa Bogy ,
goblin , but calling them "trusts , " be
cause it is deceptive and sounds more
frightful than to call them corporations ,
which everybody knows we cannot get
along without.
ONE-THIRD OF A THRONE.
Under the administration of the state
department by James Q. Blaine during
the term of President Harrison a tri
partite treaty was entered into by Eng
land , Germany and the United States.
The avowed or principal object of this
treaty was to so civilize and Christian
ize savages aspiring to and claiming
kingships in the Samoan islands that
blood-letting after the crude and bung
ling methods of barbarism should be
abolished.
But since the United States became
one-third owner in the syndicated throne
ten years have elapsed. And notwitb-
standing the co-operation and fidelity of
England and Germany , the same kings
whom the tri-partite treaty provided for ,
and the three powers crowned , and paid
ninety dollars a month , in gold-standard
cash , have been dethroned and assassin
ated. Brnve English and American of
ficers have been murdered , too , while
endeavoring to act as mediators between
the contending savages of Samoa.
That tri-partite agreement was the
first venture of jingoism from the old
and conservative paths of our fathers. It
was the first "entangling alliance. "
President Cleveland was alarmed and
annoyed when he found that the repub
lican party the organs and orators of
which so roundly denounced him and
his administration for royalists because
justice was intended for Lilliuokalani
had itself been one of the three par
ties [ to selecting , enthroning , crown
ing and paying a king in Samoa. So
much did the Cleveland administration
fear the consequences of the ill-advised
alliance that Secretary Gresham in 1894
wrote :
"In our relations to Samoa we have
made the first departure from our tra
ditional and well-established policy of
avoiding entangling alliances with for
eign powers in relations to objects re
mote from this hemisphere. Like all oth
er human transactionsthe wisdom of that
departure must be tested by its fruits.
* * * Every nation , and especially
every strong nation , must sometimes be
conscious of an impulse to rush into
difficulties that do not concern it
except in a highly imaginary way.
* * * But our first
venture in that direction afforded most
signal and convincing proof that the
only safeguard against all the evils of
interference in affairs that do not spec
ially concern us is to abstain from such
interference altogether. * * * The
general act of Berlin has utterly failed
to correct , if indeed it has not aggra
vated , the very evils which it was de
signed to prevent. "
But now we are "benevolently assim
ilating" these infidel barbarians with
machine guns , loaded with civilized
powder and fired with Christian skill
and accuracy so as to spread the gospel
and the savages too with the utmost ex
pedition and velocity. Wo read now
the words of the far-sighted soldier and
prophetic statesman Gresham while our
guns in Samoa and in the Philippines
voice the verification of his wise and
patriotic forecast.
