Central High School - EN EM Yearbook (North Manchester, IN)

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18 MAPLE LEAVES. unlawful, as it would refuse citzenship to stockholders. Direct legislation has been advised, but many difficulties would be experienced in enforcing the laws and there would always be the question as to their legality. If direct laws should be passed they could, seemingly, break up the trust, but the different factories could still continue operation and be secretly held in the corporation. The decisions could be held off many years by demanding new trials and appealing to higher courts. As to the legality of the power of Congress to legislate on this matter there is no clause referring to it in the Constitution. It is true that the so-called elastic clause might be stretched to include this power, but still it would be difficult to conceive of this clause covering the power of Congress to interfere in matters of private business, and the Supreme Court, before whose tribunal the question must finally be argued, might decide that it did not lie in the province of Congress. The causes for the increased growth of the trusts in the past ten years have been the protective tariff, freight discriminations, unlawful concessions which their wealth has been able to buy, and the secrecy with which they have been able to conduct their business. There was a time when American produce could not compete with foreign manufactures, but that time is past. Under the present protective tariff, American manufacturers ship and sell their goods in Europe cheaper than they sell them in America. It has been truly said, “Tariff is the father of trusts.” By lowering or entirely removing the tariff on goods made by trusts the immense profits now realized by them will be decreased. With the profits greatly lowered there will be no inducements for investing money in the trusts. Freight discriminations and other concessions which are given them aid much in maintaining their unwieldy growths. For instance, the Standard Oil Company, besides receiving immense rebates on its own shipments receives from all railroads a certain amount on every gallon of oil carried for other companies. On account of their great wealth they are able to bribe legislators and judges to grant them unfair advantages and pass decisions in their favor. Again taking the Standard Oil Company as an example, it is known that they are often permitted to run their pipes through the most desired parts of a city or locality because they have persuasive influence with legislators. Publicity or the knowledge of the financial basis of a corporation will tend to prevent over-capitalization, and since over-capitalization is one of the causes of monopoly, publicity will tend to prevent monopoly. With the books of the trusts kept strictly private, the people have no way of knowing their profits, money invested, or their business methods. While the people at large might think they were making a goodly profit of fifteen or twenty per cent, they were really making a profit of forty or fifty or even a greater per cent. Were this known, competition would immediately arise and their profits, therefore, decrease. Can we expect smaller corporations to live under such conditions as these? Place them on an equal basis, give them a fair chance and they will easily take care of the trusts. Smaller companies are now literally “starved out” by the trusts, which either reduce prices so that the independent owners must close up, or sell out their plants. And so determined are the trusts to secure the monopoly of the commodity, that they are willing, often, to pay the owner many times the real value of the business. If we take away from the combinations the possibility to reap great profits they will be unable to buy or “starve out” all the smaller companies, and the latter can then exist. Much heavier penalties should be laid for the giving of rebates or discriminations in freight rates, and great care should be taken that no one evades this law. The law should require that all the business books of the trusts be made public. With the many inducements offered by trusts stopped, and with the assurance that they will henceforth do a strictly lawful business, receive no concessions, favors, or rebates, smaller corporations will revive and will eventually bring about the destruction of their destroyers. LEAVES FROM AN OLD DIARY. LULU L. STKICKLLR. | The following leaves are supposed to have been taken from the diary of an old man, one of the first settlers of Chester township, Wabash County, Indiana. Although the dates of the months may be incorrect, the dates as to years are history.] Sept. 10, 1830— I just returned home from Shippensburg from muster-day. I heard them discussing this new country west of the Allegheny mountains, and I was so impressed by the talk that I intend to look into the matter. Brother John expects even to start soon. Sept. 24, 1830— I went as far as Carlisle with Brother John and his five companions, who are on their way to Ohio. On account of father’s health, I am forced to remain here. August 1, 1831— Just received a letter from Brother John. He says: “I am located in Richland county, Ohio, some few miles southeast from Mansfield. Here the land is very rich, though the country is broken; even the

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MAPLE LEAVES. 17 Li have rounded the east end and found the picturesqueness of the northern aspect—it is only then we realize how truly English Canterbury really is. To the south the close was narrowed by the nearness of the city’s streets, and there there was no room to give the dependent structures this, their customary station. But on the north the domain of the monastery extended to the far off city wall. Here is the southwest tower. There is Christ Church gateway, through which one first approaches the cathedral; originally it had two turrets. Outside it is a monument to the dramatist Marlowe. On the fcouth is seen a porch; the nave, a beautiful design; and the pinnacle of the southwest transept. East of the Warrior’s chapel is the projecting end of Stephen Langton’s tomb. East of this the two lower rows of windows are those of Conrad’s choir; the upper row that of William of Sens. The middle windows in the southeast transept were the clerestory of Conrad; the windows above them are those of William of Sens. The three upper stages of the tower on the south of this transept are late Norman work. Farther east we have the simple French design; here for the first time in English architecture the flying buttresses are openly displayed. Then is the grand sweep of the apse and ambulatory which seems to send one straight back to France. Then comes the broken outline of the corona. Northeast of the corona are two groups of ruined Norman pillars and arches. The west end was an open dormitory, open to the roof, and the east end, separated off by a screen, the chapel.1 The Canterbury infirmary had a north transept, called the Table Hall or Refectory, in which the inmates lived. Then, too, there were the vast guest houses, here for the plebeian and there for the noble, and again for pauper visitors; the tall water tower; the library, the treasury; the stables, the granaries, bake-houses, breweries, and all the minor architectural belongings of so numerous a brotherhood, devoted to such comfortable living and lavish hospitality. Scattered everywhere are fragments, large and small, of many kinds and dates, sometimes rebuilt to meet some alien purpose, sometimes merely ruins. But ruin in an English spot like this does not mean desolation and abandonment, and the lessening of charm. It means a pictorial beauty which to all eyes, save the serious student’s, well replaces the architectural perfection. The columns, the isolated, tall, arcades, the unglazed Svindows, and enigmatical lines of wall—all alike, are ivy-covered, and flower-beset, and embowered in massive foliage and based on broad floors of an emerald turf, such as England alone can grow. And above and beyond, as background to the exquisite wide picture, rises the pale-gray mass of the cathedral, crowned by its stupendous yet thrice graceful tower, telling that all is not dead of what was once living, speaking of the England of our day as in happy harmony again with the England of St. Thomas. A hundred other points of interest might be noted in Canterbury’s church, and many facts of a historical nature. One is inclined to dwell on the renown of the famous Thomas a’Becket, who was murdered before the high altar of the cathedral on December 29, 1170, and whose remains, fifty years later, were translated from the crypt to a shrine in the newly erected Trinity chapel. Also of the many interesting monuments—such as the tombs of Stephen Lang-ton; the Black Prince, of Henry IV, of the Archbishop Warham, and of Cardinal Pole—of the many archbishops from St. Augustine, in 597 A. D., and still continuing. But to enumerate the many, many things of interest is impossible, and so we will leave the old cathedral standing on the hills, against a gray sky and surrounded by a wilderness of bushes, trees, and vines. And as it stands there, magnificent and alone, it looks down and seems to say: Ye come and go, incessant; we remain, Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past; Be reverent, ye who flit and are forgot, Of faith so nobly realized as this. HOW TO DEAL WITH TRUSTS. A. F. HUNT. A trust is an industrial combination for the exclusive control of the production, manufacture, sale and price of certain articles In nearly all countries, and in practically all times, agreements have been made among local shops, factories, and manufactures for the regulating of prices. The guilds of mediaeval Europe were a kind of corporation composed of local merchants for controlling prices. From this most rude form of beginning the trust has grown until it has attained such magnitude and strength that one of the greatest problems now before the American people is how to deal with them. Many schemes have been advanced for their destruction, some of which are very plausible. It has been proposed to limit their dividends to twenty-five per cent of the actual stock invested. This is a method without foundation, for many private corporations doing a strictly legitimate business pay a much higher dividend than this, and besides they could “water” their stock and evade the law by other fraudulent means. Some advance the theory of requiring them to brand their goods, while others even wish to refuse them the rights to use the mail and law courts. These are manifestly absurd, for the first theory w’ould not help matters, and the second would be

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MAPLE LEAVES. 19 chestnut ridges produce great trees from three to five feet in diameter. The bottom lands are so fertile that the timothy grass grows about four feet tall, and the other products grow in the same proportion; the beets weigh about one hundred and fifty pounds, and the potatoes are so large that a man may sit upon one end of it while the other is in the fire roasting.” These few items, together with our eagerness to investigate the territory for ourselves, soon caused father to want to come out as far as John’s, if not farther. August 28, 1831— We started early today on our journey. Father, Betsy and the little ones rode in the wagon, which carries our necessities; and the boys and myself, armed with the rifle and some axes, walked along urging the team over the rough ground, and provided food both for them and for ourselves. We camped at night, hobbling the mules to keep them from straying. Oct. 25, 1831-How relieved we feel! We have reached brother’s in safety. Father, who has been rather downhearted, has cheered up upon finding John’s all healthy and in good spirits. We leave the things in the wagon until we locate for ourselves. Today father seems interested in everything; he admires the large chestnut trees, and when, after asking about the beets, John told him that they were dead-beats, he could not conceal his surprise and distrust. Then he asked about the potatoes. John seemed not to understand him, for he asked, “What potatoes?” “Oh, those like you wrote about that you can sit on one end of while the other’s in the fire roasting.” “Oh, that is nothin; just cut them in two.” March 14, 1835— I am tired of trying to farm this broken and hilly country and as there is an opening of lands in Indiana, to be had at a dollar and a quarter an acre, I will sell out and investigate that. Sept. 30, 1835— The day is favorable for the journey to Indiana. I have sold my land and with Mike Secrist and Mr. Clever start on foot to see the new country. We carry an ax and a rifle apiece, but very little money and little more ammunition. Oct. 4, 1835— We had traveled for three days, and for about a hundred or a hundred and thirty miles we. had to follow our way along a line made by the surveyor’s blaze, until we came to a large river, which we learned from an Indian was the Wabash. He showed us a trail which soon brought us to a village which boasted one store and a tavern and a few dwellings. The little postoffice is called the “Treaty Ground Post-office.” The settlers here are hospitable and prevailed upon us to stay and view the land in the neighborhood and north for about fifteen miles. We put up at David Cassett’s Tavern, where we obtained a guide. He says the land south of the river is hilly, and rather rolling, but as he describes it, it does not form what I call good farm land, and so we will turn our attention to the north. Oct. 10, 1835— We traveled about four days, examining the land, before we came to the water-way our guide called the River Eel; and we had gone about twenty miles, though the direct distance is said to be but twelve. After ascending the bluff at Wabash Town, we immediately entered level country, which continued up to within about a mile from the River Eel. All this land is well timbered and full of underbrush. Our guide says there is a clearing several miles up the river where a Mr. Helvie is wintering; and so we forded the river, ascended the bluff on the other side, where we were surprised to find the barrens so much talked of in Ohio; and then followed the river until we found the opening. Mr. Helvie says the lands we passed through near the river are the best in the locality, for they are well drained. Our guide returned to Wabash Town, convinced that we would locate here, instead of near his town. We went with him until he struck our trail, and then we followed the river up its east side. About two miles from Mr. Helvie’s we found a good spring and a good place for a cabin. I, then and there, made up my mind that that land was to be mine. Mike will enter his land about a mile up from mine, but Mr. Clever don’t like the place and is anxious to return to Ohio, and so we will start back in a few days. Oct. 18, 1835-All three of us kept together until we reached the land office at Ft. Wayne, where Mike and I entered our lands. Clever got a horse and went on, but we followed on foot and beat him here by two days! Feb. 26, 1836— We got to our lands early this morning and unloaded near the spring. I felled an oak about four feet in diameter, which had several large branches, one high enough for us to stand under. Then I placed elm bark from the ground to the top of the branches so that it makes a tent-shaped shelter, which will be our home until I can get a cabin. May 4, 1836-Yesterday the neighbors, with a man from LaGros, came in to help build my cabin, and tonight I have a double cabin, with two good fire-places. I put Pete Ogan, Jesse Moyer, Teal and Mr. Lukens in the fatigue party, and Jim Abbot and John Ogan hauled the logs to the site and assorted them. Mr. Harter, Si-monton and Mr. Comstock hunted the roofing and fixed the puncheons for the floor. Sam Thurston,