LABOR'S WRONGS. 51 



workmen, or 'lockouts' on the part of employers, are 

 things of almost daily occurrence; while combinations, 

 'trusts' and monopolies of various kinds, affecting almost 

 all the necessaries and comforts of life, multiply in number 

 and increase in power, when a fair competition, which is 

 the life of trade, would enable the consumer to purchase 

 his supplies at a rate much lower than the monopolists 

 demand. 



"This the great mass of people are beginning to 

 learn. They feel it. They writhe under and despise it 

 This monopolizing spirit has extended to the lands of the 

 country, and millions of acres have been bought by 

 companies, some at home, and some from abroad, or 

 granted to railroad companies; and, in either case, the 

 price has been raised to double, or five times, or ten times 

 that at which it could have been procured from the govern- 

 ment. Consequently the poor man's chances for obtaining 

 a home are lessened in proportion to this advance of price. 

 All of which is 'a sore evil under the sun.' By such 

 means the poor man has been more and more embarrassed 

 in his affairs, and finds it more and more difficult to meet 

 the demands for the necessaries and comforts of life. All 

 the while, the earth 'yields her kindly fruits for the 

 sustenance of man and beast,' the Father of all deals 

 bountifully with us, nor pestilence nor famine abounds; 

 and yet, because of the combinations referred to, the fruits 

 of the earth are grasped and monopolized, and dealt out 

 to the laboring man at extravagant prices. The flour, the 

 sugar, the butter, and almost everything else that supplies 

 the table come to the consumer with high prices, fixed by 

 the monopolists. So seriously have these things affected 

 the interests of the laboring class that the excitement 

 caused bodes no good, but only evil to the public welfare, 

 and the indications point to the worse rather than the 

 better. 



