'Cbe Conservative *
A FATAL RESEMBLANCE.
IH the profllo of your son
Like tlmt of Napoleon ?
Do your host to spoil the typo ,
Wrench Ills nose with every wipe ,
Stretch his eyes and pull his chin ,
Puff his lips if they're too thin ;
As n patriot , 'tis your duty !
Never mind , the loss of beauty.
If the little fellow hears
That old Nap. in him appears ;
If the little fellow knows
That the likeness stronger grows ;
When the little fellow reads
Of the Despot's mighty deeds ,
He may think : "It is my duty
I must make the world my booty. "
Should he , after youth be spent ,
Come to bo our President ,
He may double import-taxes ,
Order guns and battle-axes ,
Go to war by land and sea ,
'Gainst a weaker enemy ;
Self-styled heir of old Nap's beauty
He may say : "It is my duty 1"
When we come to count the cost ,
Honor gone , Republic lost ,
Young lives H < iuandered , land in debt ,
Government by fears beset ;
Enemies on every side
Threatening our "imperial" pride ;
Wo shall curse Napoleon's beauty
Mourn too late neglected duty.
Therefore parents , have your sons
Profiles like Napoleon's ?
Let them fall down stairs , on ice
Lip and nose and forehead slice.
So may early , harmless ecars
Hinder later cruel wars :
Our republic needs not beauty
What it needs is faithful duty.
EMXAIIKTII E EVANS.
THE TRUST AND THE FARMER.
Agriculture is the vital interest on
which the whole business fabric of the
United States depends. What effect ,
beneficial or otherwise , will the "trust"
movement have upon the farmer and
the products of his labor ? Will industrial
concentration tend to lower prices of
wheat and corn and other food products ,
or to make them fluctuate , or will it
steady them and hold them up to a
reasonable figure ?
A constant demand for our diversified
farm products at reasonable prices
always means prosperous conditions for
the tiller of the soil , and indirectly for
the merchant , who depends so largely
upon agricultural prosperity for his
patronage. There is every reason to
believe that the great industrial com
bines will tend to produce this kind of a
demand. By preventing overproduction
they will prevent the stagnation that
always follows , and by holding indus
trial and wage prices from unhealthy
fluctuation they will tend to keep all
prices more steady , including those of
farm products.
At this moment all the primary indus
tries of the nation are actively and in
tensely engaged. Mills , factories , foun
dries , and shops are running on full
time. Some are running on over-time ,
and a few of the greater ones , such as
the iron industries , arc compelled to
work on double time in order to keep
up with the increased demand. As a
result the products of the farm are
bringing good prices in spite of the
largeness of the crops , and the farming
population is prosperous. If the now
and heavy foreign demand for our steel
and other manufactures can be main
tained through the coming years the
present degree of activity will be main
tained indefinitely. But even if all over
time work should cease , leaving only a
steady normal activity in our industries ,
farm products would continue to bring
profitable prices. When factories and
workshops close down the demand for
farm products slackens and prices fall.
It is the avowed object of the combines
to prevent overproduction , waste , and
failure , and in so far as they are honest
ly organized and financed they should
be able to attain this object.
The concentration of American rail
ways into great trunk line systems make
it possible for the United States to be
the granary of the svorld. Cheap and
rapid transportation makes it possible
for the farm products of this country to
compete in the open markets of Europe
upon a profitable basis. It is possible
and even probable that what the trunk
line systems of railways have done for
our grain export business industrial con
centration will do for our manufacturers
that is , open up the markets of the
world to them. Already the vast re
sources of our steel plants enable us to
fill a contract in Asia or Africa before
British plants can get the work half
done , and to fill them at lower yet profit
able figures. The same is increasingly
true of other lines of manufacture.
These industrial giants are the strongest
of their kind in the world. Why should
they not go forth into all the earth and
capture the markets of both hemi
spheres ?
If this is to bo the result of industrial
combination , then the tillers of the soil
will bo among the greatest beneficiaries
of the new order of things. Factories ,
furnaces , shops and mines constantly
employing a full quota of workers at re
munerative wages , supplying an ever
widening domestic and foreign market ,
would be of more advantage to the
farmers of this country than any num
ber of temporary booms and subsequent
collapses. THE CONSERVATIVE has shown
in former editorial articles why the in
dustrial combines are likely to check the
long series of panics that have shaken
the financial fabric of the nation during
the past century. The same elements of
stability and economical production that
promise this result will at the same time
steady the prices of agricultural pro
ducts. Overcapitalized trusts will have
their day and collapse , as the over
capitalized railways did , but the not re
sults will remain in the shape of central
ized industries capable of holding their
business and keeping their workmen
employed through dull times and brisk.
As long as the wage worker is getting a
living wage the farmer will get a living
price for his products.
Agriculture should welcome industrial
combination rather than feel any alarm
over it. The flour combine has not
lowered the price of wheat , and it could
not do so if it tried , but it has done
much to increase exports. Every meas
ure that prevents waste in manufacture
and keeps our industries on an even keel
from year to year is beneficial to agri
culture. Aside from the natural fluctu
ations of the crops there is good reason
to believe that the era of industrial con
centration will bring a more stable in
come to the American farmer than he
has ever had before.
WHY AND WHEN WAGES RISE.
The impression that strikes are neces
sary to secure an increase of wages has
become so general that the broad eco
nomic principles underlying the wage
question are liable to be forgotten. The
price of any article is the meeting point
of buyer and seller. Wheat goes up
when its consumers increase in number
and in appetite faster than its produc
ers increase their acreage. Wages in
the different circles of labor follow the
same lay. Wherever wages are highest
labor organizations are usually the
strongest , but the strength of the or
ganization is due to the prevailing condi
tions that make labor well paid rather
than are those conditions due to the or
ganization.
An abundance of capital seeking in
vestment at a low rate of interest stimu
lates the establishment of new indus
tries , and increases the competition of
employers for labor. This is the real
way that wages are raised , and even the
best work of the labor organizations is
only incidental to this. They can some
times , by watching industrial conditions
carefully , be ready to take advantage of
upward movements , and so bring about
an increase in wages quicker than if the
thing were left to the working out of eco
nomic law. The labor union shakes the
thermometer and the mercury which
had become obstructed rises to the place
which the outside atmosphere dictates.
Too much emphasis is placed upon the
efficiency of even successful strikes and
boycotts. They are only incidents.
Boston Transcript.
OFFICE HUNTING.
EDITOK OF CONSERVATIVE :
Your issue of August 10th at hand.
Your two editorial notes , "What" and
"Seeking Nominations , " are pertinent
inquiries , from a patriotic or honest
administration of state and national
government standpoint. But they are
impertinent interrogatories with which
to ply a people who look upon their
municipal , state and national govern
ments as legitimate spoils and their public
offices as a means through which and
by which to gratify their own avarice
