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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1902)
ft. io The Conservative * ABOUT TRUSTS. As business corporations developed aud multiplied , the number of alarm ists who wore able to foretell the evil they .would do kept pace with their increase. But the quiet men of thought , who philosophically appre ciated the power of organization , and who knew the liability of power to abuse , followed with the restrain ing influence of the law. Since the rise of that form of in dustrial combination called the trast , this history has been repeated. The country is full of political physicians Tvho can diagnose the disease , but their prescription of remedies is either wanting altogether or is purely empirical. Every recent campaign has been vocal with denunciation of the trusts. The vocabulary of fear aud passion has been tapped and run dry in such discussion of the1 subject. And yet how little real information have the people received from this affluent source. The philosopher always searches first for a natural reason for what is. Ho is aware that in all the myriad complexities which appear in the affairs of men there is always , some where , a natural law of limitation and direction. The astute French man who organized the first copper trust called "Le Sooiete des Metaux , " proceeded in disregard of natural law. He combined all the copper properties in the world that pro duced down to a certain minimum of pure metal from their ores. He then arbitrarily and artificially put up the price of copper , disregarding the sup ply and demand. Unwittingly he ad vanced it to a point at which it paid to work the outside properties that were below his minimum. Before he SMI was aware of it these properties had nearly as much copper on the market as the trust , aud were getting its price. His combination was broken , and , appalled by his mistake , he committed suicide. Here was the working of a natural law. The power of a trust 'combina tion lies in its capacity to economize production. In certain ' . . .38 mills aud manufactories are built at disad vantageous points , to which the raw material used must be carried at high transportation' , and whence dis tribution is expensive. But their projectors are lured to misiocato their plants by local subsidies , exemption from taxation , and other induce ments. If the line to which such plants belong is combined in a trust , they are shut down , because their production ia not economical. They are worked against the natural law of production and exchange. The production is economized by confin ing it to plants - that have the least expensive acoess to rawjnaterial and the cheapest means of distribution. This economy is the profit of combi nation , and it need not take its gains out of the consumer by arbitrary in crease iu the price he is compelled to pay. The community iu which the disused plant is located suffers , aud is affronted. It is held up by the political physician as a mournful ex ample of the tyranny of trusts , but the whole body of consumers is bene fited by the greater economy of pro duction aud the capital invested gets a more certain return. It is of interest to recall the fact that this law operated in cheapening railroad freights and fares. When trunk lines were unknown , and.'sys tems" were not dreamed of , a multi tude of small corporations owned the roads of the country. Though sev eral links were projected in the same direction , there was no through checker or ticket. There was no law to com pel one link to receive and transport the frieght cars of another. Each link had its separate operating and administrative organization. Soon the law compelled them to haul" the freight cars for one another , and thus they were taught combination. The links were absorbed into trunk lines , the through check aud ticket ap peared , a standard guage for tracks was enforced , and the separate oper ating and administrative organiza tions disappeared aud were combined in one It all 'meant economy in operation , the rendering of a better service at a less cost , and the econ omy was carried forward into lower rates for the benefit of the shipper. Yet , this was combination. It im plied greater power. But its liabil ity to abuse was followed by every legal restraint necessary to preserve its power for good and to destroy its power for harm. It is not without interest to recall that this economizing combination was followed by appeals to popular prejudice and fear , and was made the subject of wofnl prophecies , now and recently current , concerning the projection of the same system into the industrial mechanism of the coun try. Yet it proved the beginning and the cause of cheaper rates. If ship pers were compelled to return to the methods and the rates of the roads of forty years ago the value of com merce would be exhausted in the cost of its transportation. Are the pro phecies of evil any more valid now than then ? Wo will see. Washing ton Post. ALFALFA EXPERIENCES. [ By T. L. LYON , of the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station. ] During the winter of 1902 a list of between 600 and 700 successful alfalfa raisers in this state was collected , aud to each was sent a report blank calling for a definite statement , re garding a number of the processes ho employed in obtaining his stand of alfalfa , and also regarding his subse quent care of the crop. More than five hundred satisfactory replies were received , representing eighty counties in the state. A study of this large number of reports from successful alfalfa raisers gives some valuable information respecting alfalfa cul ture. There wore 288 stands reported upon upland , and 273 upon bottom land. Even in the western portion of the state the amount of alfalfa on the upland is shown to be consider able , and very satisfactory results are evidently obtained , although naturally the yields of hay are smaller than on the bottom lands of that region. In the eastern part of the state some what heavier yields appear to be ob tained from bottom land , but loss from winterkilling or other cause is greater. Twenty-throe reports state that upland is moro satisfactory than bottom land. These come princi pally from the eastern portion of the state or the irrigated land of the western portion. An astonishing feature of the re plies is the large amount of alfalfa that they show to be growing on land , with a clay subsoil. Sandy clay , clay loam , clay and lime , etc. , were not counted as clay. In spite of this limitation , 245 clay or gumbo subsoils are reported. A-clay or even a gumbo subsoil does not appear to be a barrier to successful alfalfa cul ture. The seed bed was prepared by plowing and further working in 878 cases , and by disking or cultivating in 75. Among the latter is one method that appears to bo popular and satistactory. This consists in thoroughly disking corn laud after all trash has been removed from the field. In the western part of the state there are a number of good stands * of alfalfa obtained by break ing prairie sod , disking it , and har rowing in the seed ; al o by disking the unbroken sod , and harrowing in the seed. The latter commends. it self as an easy way of supplementing the native grasses in pastures. The tendency to dispense with plowing on unirrigated land increases with the , distance westward from .the Missouri. A study of the dates of sowing al falfa seed in the spring shows a range from early March to late June , although - . though where advice was volunteered it was practically unanimous in favor of early sowing. There wore only eight reports of summer or fall sow ing , of which one was sown in July , four in August and three in Septem ber. ber.In In 108 oases a nurse crop was .used ,
