332 



THE, IIUtlGA TION A GE 



that domestic animals are pi-one to tuber- 

 culosis and that they in turn infect 

 humanity, has tuade the investigations of 

 direct interest to dairy men, as milk is 

 said to be one of the mobt common sources 

 of infection. The dairymen of Illinois are 

 vigorous in their denunciation of the 

 investigations carried on by health officials 

 among their cattle, some refusing to allow 

 their cows to be examined. 



Secretary Wilson was in Chicago a 

 week or so ago and was interviewed on 

 the subject of tuberculosis, with special 

 reference to the effect had upon the dairy 

 interests of the country. He was of the 

 opinion that the wholesale slaughter of 

 cattle on the supposition that they might 

 be tuberculous was unnecessary and unjust 

 to the owners of the herd. He mentioned, 

 to sustain his belief, the experience of 

 New York state, and said that while he 

 thought it right and necessary to have a 

 rigid and careful examination of the milk 

 sold to the public and of the cows pro- 

 ducing it, he thought there was no need 

 to kill a man's cattle unless they were 

 manifestly tuberculus. There should be 

 common sense used in everything of this 

 nature. Every now and then there is 

 great agitation over some medical dis- 

 covery or theory. Anti-vivisection socie 

 ties were followed by the anti- vaccination 

 movement and when there are no other 

 germs to fear we in Chicago still have the 

 lake water to dread and read ever and 

 anon the warning "Boil the Water." If 

 this great crusade against consumption 

 does no more good other than doing away 

 with the filthy practice of spitting now 

 so common of wearing long dresses, and, 

 best of all, if it succeeds in giving us 

 purer, cleaner milk, it will be worthy of 

 the effort being made. 



One of the greatest economic 

 problems of the day is that of 

 the trust. Public opinion 

 regards with alarm the increasing number 

 and strength of these mighty combinations 

 and means are being devised to legislate 

 against them. To do away with trusts by 

 law is as hard as it is to make prohibition 

 effectual. You may succeed in making 

 the laws, but the enforcing them is 

 another matter. As long as poor human 

 nature remains the same, some men will 



The 



Trust 



Problem. 



have more of this world's goods than 

 others, and if a law is passed against the 

 accumulation of too much wealth, men 

 will find some way to avoid it. According 

 to a recent article, the trusts are the out- 

 growth of legislative measures against 

 monopolies. 



To avoid that law, men formed "trusts" 

 that is, their different branches of 

 business were not sold outright to one 

 concern, thus giving that a monopoly and 

 making it come within the grasp of the 

 law, but were given in "trust." An evil 

 worse than the first. Now and then a 

 writer speaks a good word for the trusts. 

 He says that men receive batter wages, 

 work is more sure and the prices of com- 

 modities less than when buying of small 

 dealers. Perhaps, if let alone, the trusts 

 will eventually kill themselves. Senator 

 Warren, of Wyoming, in a recent inter- 

 view on trusts said: 



"In the West the people are com- 

 mencing to see that the trust business has 

 been overplayed, it will cease to have its 

 present terrors by the time the national 

 conventions meet. What are the con- 

 ditions, even today? Instead of new trusts 

 being announced every day and stocks 

 selling at fancy prices, we hear nothing 

 more than the completion of some com- 

 panies that had progressed so far that 

 they cannot back out, and stock selling at 

 lower prices. Trust certificates are not 

 the investments they were a short time 

 ago. The tendency toward combines and 

 trusts stopped short because the buying 

 public is no longer seeking industrial 

 shares and stocks as permanent invest- 

 ments. It was a fad, and like all fads it 

 has been overplayed, and the people who 

 supported them are tired of them. When 

 business is good, times prosperous, and 

 money plenty there is much interest and 

 more or less excitement. The short time 

 in which this fancy of running to trusts 

 existed shows the healthy condition Of the 

 public in regard to business. The ques- 

 tion may be too far in the past to have 

 any particular weight in the coming 

 election." 



The industrial commission created by 

 the late Congress and appointed by 

 President McKinley has been giving much 

 attention to trusts, but it is not probable 



