The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1994, 1 February 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1907.

Tub amity that usually prevails at public dinners was evidently absent from the annual function of the Gridiron Club at Washington on Tuesday night when Senator Foralcer roused the ire of the President of the United States This curiously named Club is composed of leading American journalists wlio "fraternise once a year (journalists do sometimes fraternise), sind when they do their meetings are seldom marred by hostilities or angry expressions of an.y kind because on those occasions it is a sacred law of the profession that they never “talk shop” or politics. On this occasion, however, the politician or tlio “Man with a grievance” crept in and made a mess of things by "spoiling tlio harmony of the proceedings and also the record of amity that has always characterised those functions. Of course the disturber was not a journalist but a politician, which accounts for the bad taste he exhibited in dragging personal feeling into the proceedings though he was there in the position of an invited guest. But he was there also, it appears, as the champion of the ringman and the millionaire monopolises who would “corner” the air and the sunlight if they could see the chance of doing so, for there would be money in it. The speech of that irate Senator which is described as “violent and offensive” must have been violent and offensive indeed to have drawn forth “an augry reply” from such a calm, level-headed, and diplomatic a gentleman as President Roosevelt, and the incident shows very - plainly the trend of matters in connection with those huge trusts which cannot lail to become in the near future the object of very determined attack by the exploited populace. The American trust may he described as a legal swindle about which there is no element of a gamble, because the consumer must have the “'cornered” article, and must pay for it the price placed upon it by the trusts. In ordinary speculations a person buys | on the chance of a rise in values

which aro in no wise subject to bis control; but tho businoss of tho ringmnn differs from that ol tho speculator inasmuch as tho ringmnn, having an unlimited command of capital, buys up all available supplies and leaves the consumer no other option than to pay him his own price for tho commodity or go without. Tho consumin' cannot go without, so ho lias to pay, and tho public aro thus compulsorily exploited to tho certain advantage of tho ringmnn. If a man compulsorily extorts money from another in any way but this tho laws of almost every country would adjudge tho extortioner guilty of a crime; but curiously onough, tho law has not been framed yet that declaros this kind of swindling to bo within tho definition of a crime as it ought to do. As wo have said, thoro can bo no objection raised to legitimate speculation where tho speculator is unable to dictate his own terms, and has to take his chances of a fall as well as a rise in prices,for then it is a matter of option with tho purchaser whether ho pays tho higher price or not, and ho is not bound to purchaso from any ono speculator while thoro otliors in fair competition; hut when tho whole supply of any ouo articlp is ‘'cornered” tho purchaser has no option hut -to allow himself to be blackmailed, for such operations cannot bo described by a more appropriate word. It will bo tho heartfelt desire of evory true citizen therefore to see President Roosovelt’s warning to Morgan, Rogers, and Company fulfilled to tho letter, and it needs no prophetic gonius to foresee its fulfilment. Even Nbw Zealand has its direct) interest in the matter, for the Standard Oil Company Ims already exploited this country in tho supply of kerosene, and tho operations of otlior such syndicates liavo affected the prices of other household necessities. The worst of it is that the monoy derived therefrom lias not gono back into the ordinary circulating channels, for if it did tho millionaire monopolists would not ho tho only gainers; hut it goes back into tho coifors of tho greedy people who have already more of it than they know what to do with, merely to bo used in further “cornering” operations or lent out to borroivors at a rate of interest, that makes the borrower the slave of the lender and does the public no good. It may bo argued that the millionaires employ labor to produce the commodities operated upon; but that does not affect' the question, for if thoro was not a trust extant there would be more labor employed for the very simple reason that tho public would have less to pay for what they buy and would possess a higher purchasing power, which would mean a higher consumption and consequently a greater amount of work employed in the production of the greater quantity consumed. Looked at from any standpoint except from that of the ringman himself, the trust is a social and commercial abomination, and any effort to strangle a trust in its incipient stages, and to make it a penal offence at any stage, should ho the fixed determination of every wellordered community.