The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 21, 1926, Page 12

~~ With the advent of the year 1898 an epochal movement for the consolida- tion and centralized ownership of transportation systems, industries, public utility plants and mines set in. The trust era was now in irresistible swing. After a warfare of nearly thirty years in the courts and in the active political and industrial arena, the middle class found itself complete- ly frustrated. The Plutocracy in Full Power. McKinley's election as president of the United States, with a eongress the majority of which was of his views, was a distinct notification that the plutocracy was in full power— a power won in a pitched combat, and therefore interpreted as a popular ap- proval of the rule by great magnates and trusts. Henceforth, it was well understood, the trusts need fear no governmental antagonism, even of a sham order; for while mock legal actions at no time impaired the basic sway of the trusts, yet they caused constant an- noyances and expense. When McKinley took office mag- nates of every description knew that the trust movement had full license, confirmed by private bargain, to go on unhindered and unmolested, except, rhaps, with an occasional inroad for pectacular popular effect. Consequent- ly the business of organizing trusts flourished in the open; one trust after another was formed embracing about every known product. The work was catried on with phenomenal celerity and success. The middle class looked on impotently while factories, rail- roads, gas and electric plants, street railway lines, telephone systems and mines were converted from a state of individual or mere corporate owner- ship into the trust form, owned by great single corporations with stu- pendous amounts of capital, and with “dictaforship over vast masses of workingmen. Im this revolutionary work, that of organizing trusts, J. P. Morgan was one of the foremost generalissimos. Indispensable as it is in this work to describe the methods by which he requisitioned his wealth, it is no less necessary to point out the services that he and his kind were doing for progress. In the exclusive considera- tion of progressive movements, it is immaterial what the motive was; the thing done is all that counts histori- cally. None can deny that these revo- lutionary capitalists were actuated wholly by ambitiously personal ends: greed, pelf and the lust of power. But after all they were revolutionists with- out knowing it, and precisely the sort of capitalist revolutionists needed at that particular time. Strong, ruthless men, bold in cun- ning and cunning in their boldness, were required for the work of crush- ing out the old cut-throat, haphazard, individualistic competitive system. *Extracts from the “History of the Great American Fortunes,” by Gustavus Myers, published in this magazine with the pesmission of author and the pub- lishers, Kerr & Co. | teenentrenetnnnnenseneennrnenns Morgan the “Peerless Captain of Industry” By Gustavus Myers* That sluggish, money-grabbing, petty- minded body, the middle class, preoc- cupied with the comfort of its belly and its narrow conventions, had set its self interest against the demands of progress. It declined to budge; it hedged itself behind walls of special laws; it sought to make matters travel backward. Under these conditions Morgan and his colleagues were the men for the task; forceful, dominat- ing, arbitrary men, not scrupling at any means to attain their ends, con- temptuous enough of law. when it stood in their way, and powerful enough to defy it. Very expert de- structionists were they. But they were also constructionists. They tore down to build up. A decayed, archaic industrial system they replaced with one of a far more systematic order, the forerunner of finer systems to come.” ‘Progress often works through queer instruments. In the years closely following 1898 Morgan was especially prominent in many of these trust creations. An ubiquitous magnate he was, pushing his industrial conquests and overlord- ship in many variegated directions. Each accumulating success added mil- lions of dollars to his fortune. With a choice list to select from, what bril- liant display of his financial acumen shall we take up first? Consecutively, the most pertinent is that noted Penn- sylvania Coal company transaction of his, The Unfailing Recipe for Making Money. The plan which he had begun some years before of gathering in coal min- ing properties and coal carrying rail- roads, and of merging them into a combination, he presistently, continu- ed. The most important of all of the remaining independent companies in the Pennsylvania arthracite region was the Pennsylvania Coal Co. It controlled some of the most valuable mines in the center of the richest deposits. While paying wretched wages to its workers, it had for years BITS AND BITES OH, UN-BE-LIEV-ABLE! “, .. it was the greatest, the most remarkable state convention of the socialist parity held in Wisconsin since 1918. The two-day session was re- markable for . . . the absence of blatant demagogy and personal wire- pulling.”"--The American Appeal, of- ficial organ Socialist Party, “Rev. Hale C, Davis, Oklahoma City minister, and Col, George Lewis told the local American Legion Tuesday night that ‘Reds’ in the pay of Soviet Russia were disseminating propaganda in the University of Oklahoma and the A. & M, srs against compulsory military training. . . . Among those now on record against compulsory mil- itary training is Calvin Coolidge.”— The Oklahoma Leader, “IN HEAVEN WITH THE 0. B. U, “Life is flowing very peacefully here; the days are full of pleasant happenings, and the nights of refresh- ing sleep, . . . There are exactly forty in camp now, all enjoying life to the full, We contrive a little economic and philosophic conversation every day and are attempting a short drama this evening on the lawn. So all our time is not taken up by just play.”— “From O, B. U, Camp at Gimli,” in the One Big Union Bulletin (Canada), WHAT INTELLIGENT BOSS WOULDN'T? “The wage philosophy of the A, F. of L, as embodied in the Atlantie City declaration was expounded and de- fended by a prominent rican em- ployer in an address fey: the heesl convention of the Canadian Gas Asso- ciation here.”—Detroit Labor News. been reaping sixteen per cent divid- ends on a capital of $5,000,000. Stowed away in its treasury it had, in the form of a surplus, a fund of $10,000,- 000.. Here was a noble opportunity. Could any alert financier withstand the temptation? As soon as Morgan ac- quainted himself with the attractive facts, a plan of campaign speedily developed. He sent akents to scour the northeastern region of Pennsyl- vania, with orders to pay any price demanded for shares of the Pennsyl- vania Coal company, Unobstrusively these discreet emissaries went about their mission, For months they tra- versed Pennsylvania, finally getting enough stock to insure Morgan’s con- trol, for which stock an average of $532 a share was paid. What did Morgan next do? He sold the property to the Erie Railroad com- pany for $32,000,000. This payment was in the form of four per cent col- lateral trust bonds secured by mort- gages on the Pennsylvania Coal com- | pany’s property and by the New Yorlg Susquehanna and Western railroad, a line acquired a short time previously by the Erie. Nor was this all; an is- sue of $5,000,000 of preferred stock was thrown in. But who controlled the Erie railroad? The eminent J. Pierpont Morgan. As an individual he bought the coal property, and then, as dictator of the Erie Railroad, de cided what he should be paid for it. “Criticism,” observed the industrial commission, with the dainty restraint characteristic of all such euphemistic¢ official reports, “has been directed against this operation on the ground that the price paid by the Erie Rail road to J. P. Morgan and company was excessive. Testimony before the in- dustria] commission indicates this was in fact the highest price paid for such properties in the history of. the busi- ness. What this commission. feebly and so gently dismissed as “criticism” was, in reality, a general growl of in- dignation at Morgan’s ease and au- dacity in calmly transferring to him- self millions of dollars in so-called “profits.” It was of this kind of trans- action and similar varieties that the industrial commission elsewhere re- lieved itself of this declaration: “The possibilities of fraudulent profit are something enormous under such con- ditions.” For once, in making this clear statement, the industrial commis- sion almost overcame its habitual timidity of phraseology, and called things by their true names. Yet -what availed it to say that fraud was fraud when the beneficiaries were not even questioned by law? The amount pocketed by Morgan in this perform- ance cannot be learned. “To what extent the banker’s profit rose,” the industrial commission ‘satisfied: itself with reporting, “was not developed in the testimony before the commission.” We many well judge that the profit could be estimated in millions. THE TINY WORKER A Weekly Edited by Dorothy Red, Minneapolis Johnny Red, Assistant. Vol. 1, Saturday, August 21, 1926 No. 13 A LITTLE SONG By Rose Horowitz Rochester, N. Y- (Sing to the tune “Oh, It Ain’t Gon- na Rain No More’’) Harry Sinclair bribed officials So - could get the ° & poor worker, live in luxury If they ain’t gonna rob any more, John was fishing. -__ HEY, DOROTHY! Your nice little Story In this Issue makes you honor- ary editor. But just what is your ‘mame? We know you are a it, But won't send us your name and address? And of course some more contributions. ee NEXT WEEKI A Fairy Tale by Ro 8 @ Horwitz Watch for iti It's a dandyl THE POOR FISH By Doroty Red, Minneapolis, Minn, Fred and John went fishing. Fred’s father was rich and John’s father was _- Fred had a nice fish- | {nd Oma sends us ing pole and a pail with bait in it while John had only a stick and a piece of string. It was a hot day and Fred laid dowm under a tree while te go home. As they were walking home, Fred started to quarrel and said he wanted all the fish but John | Land said he could not have any because he did not help catch them, ——. And he was lucky John did not push him overboard and he did not get bumped in the nose by a rough fish HERE’S THE NICEST LITTLE LETTER Dear Comrades: ! herewith en. close a poem for the TINY WORK. ER (My first one). is a parody on the American hy mn called “America” | have tried to illus. trate the real America, “tam 12° years old and am a mem. ber of the Upper Bronx Pioneers, Oma Passikoff, poem which is See if you don’t think so. Here it is: Capitatiet country, "tis of ‘ 4 Bitter land of mis- ery, For thee we slave. where the workers toil, Land where t till the soil From eve: f pti ry coty josses the work. ers beat. Soon it was time gee Another Newcomer erona, Pa,, a 18, sends us’ th verse: Two boys | know, Aro Joe Smith and Joe Loper oe Who a n ba In this poem which *