Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1903-1919 | View Entire Issue (May 28, 1904)
TEN DAILY CAPITAL JOURNAL, SALEM, ORgdON, SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1604. tought on by drawing hfo salary, Biid panlc-strlckeni boards of directors will bo scouring in ovory direction looking for men of training and energy and intellect to tako up these great business responsibilities and go for ward witb the work of the modorn -world. If I could get the ear of thQ young men. of the United States I would say to thomi that thero was never a rnlnuto In tho history of tho liumanr race when a man taken by Jilniself stood as much And when a dollar vtakeni by itself stood for as little as It does today. I call your attention to this state ment I think it describes an authen tic case of the evolution of business. This firm' was established in 1852, and still exists with Us original part ners. Moreover, it has now under its control and its ownership more cotton manufacturing machinery than) was over owned by any business house or corporation In tho world. Robert Knight, tho younger brother, was tho first to becomo interested in manu facturing. Ho was born In 1820. Ho begnn work nt the ago of 8 years In tho Cranston Print Works, and from tho ago of 10 to 17 was employed In a cotton mill In Coventry. Then followed a period of study at an acad emy, a short session as a teacher, and a time of employment as a clerk. In I860 ho purchased, with- Zach arlah Parker, a mill Ira Warwick, which thoy ha.t been operating on lease for four yeara so successfully that thoy viad, during that time, earned tho purchase money, $40,000; in 1801 he bought out his partner, and in 1862 sold one-half to his older brother, Benjamin B. Knight. The partnership then formed has remained Unchanged. Benjamin Knight, was born In 1813, llko his brother, was employed for a time In tho Cranston Print "Works, but then became a clerk, and began business on his own account soon af ter coming of ago. Ho was a success ful merchant at ProvIJenco when ho first engaged in manufacturing. Tho brothers brought great skill and good Judgment to their enterprise, and have steadily enlarged tho Held of their operations. Their first purchaso was a mill at Hebronvllle, In Attleboro, Mass., and their next one was one at Dodgovllle, in the fame town. Since then thoy Jhayo como into possession of tho Grant Mill, at Providence; tho Man chaug, in Button, Mas3.; the White rock, at Westerly, It. I.; th6 Clinton, at WoonBocket; tho Jackson and Flsk vlllo at Scltuate, and tho Readvlllo, at Hydo Park, Mass.; and they own al most 200,000 spindles In the town of Warwick, in six large mlllB. Thoso last-named mills wore a part of tho Spraguo estate, and woro purchased from the trustee of tho ostato In 1883. At present tho Knights own In all moro than 400,000 spindles, of which About 300,000 aro in Rhode Island and tho rest In Massachusetts. Actual .Industrial Growth vs. Fiction. 'If twoiboys beginning Hfo as com mon hands ln a cotton mill can ac quire and build up tholr own names auch a business as that, without harm to any public Interest, who shall say that a corporation, wjth shareholders seattorod all over tho country, could not do tho same thing? Tho wagon works nt South Dcnd, Ind., tlato back to a little 'blacksmith shop on tho edge of the woods at Ashland, C-h'io, whore my colleague, tho senior sen ator from Iowa, as a boy used to watch tho old fathor of tho Studo baker Brothers working at his. forgo shooing horses jjnd setting tiros on tho tumblo-down .vehlelos of that fron tier vlllago of BO years ago Today his children and grandchild ren control a corporation" with, mil lions of capital, occupying 90 acres of land, with, thirty substantial buildings, in- which thousands . of well-paid American workmen aro turning out carriages fit-for tho luxury of kings, and wagons which aro helping to uo tho work of tho wholo armies In war. That looks to mo llko an evolution of business, and I havo sought in vain for somebody to fix tho exact point betwon that llttlo blacksmith shop yonder on tho odgo of tho woods, at Ashland, and thoso palaces of modorn American Industry at which tho safety of society requiros tho Intervention of tho politicians. ' Tho union of two or more establish ments In one, whothor effoctod by ono of thorn buying tho 'others out or by a third absorbing them all would be, bo for as the public Is concerned, a matter of comparative indlfferonco If the obligations left outstanding In the procosa correspond, In an economic eonso, to tho combined assets; and tho most flagrant oifonso of many ex isting trust, organizations llos In tho fact that they havo appearod In tho market placo bearing tho burden of fictitious liabilities supported by an inventory of Imaginary property. Com paratively few of them havo added anything to the actual capital which they found Invested or rondo a sub stantial contribution to tho working Instrumentalities; of Industry. Thoy JmVo as a rule taken ovor plants al- encumbered them in advance bo far beyond their valuo aa to mako tho Jays of combination fow and full of troublo. Dividends the Only Test of Success. It has been for a generation regard ed aa axiomatic that of tho earnings of a railroad system a Bumf approach ing one-half must,be used to Improve tho property and fortify Its resources against tho evil day, On that prln clplo tho Pennsylvania Railroad com pany haa won the confidence of tho financial world, and what has been true of it has been In a large meas ure true also of tho well-managed railroad properties east and west. But a railroad system, for reasons arising out of the very character of its traf fic, Is not subject to thoso sudden fluctuations which aro likely to beset an ordinary Industrial enterprise. Tho MIdvalo Steol company worked wisely toward a dividend basis for ten years before it paid one. How, then, shall these shackly creations of the market place, with half tholr capitalization representing nothing beyond tho plea sure of hope, bound by every con sideration of good faith to produce dividends from tho start whether the stock r6presents anything or not, ob serve tho precautions everywhere known to bo essential for the preser vation of their tangible assets and for that reinforcement of tholr reserve which Is required to meet the ex igencies of their business. That they have not been able to do so, or at least that theyhavonot done so, is shown by tho fact that tho aver age sum carried to tho reserve ac count, taking all the trusts' whoso re ports aro accessible to tho public, is only 3.2 per cent of tho outstanding capital, tho permanent value of which It is intended to secure. Andrew Car negie did not become tho ironmaster of tho world by fixing prices and limiting output In times of depression. Ho followod the fortunes of the mar kot place ovon though In tho last ten years Of his business Hfo he had to wade through balance sheets' fluctuat ing all tho way from three to forty mil lions of dollars. Certain Cures Worse Than Disease. It Is a favorlto thoory that tho trusts depend for their life upon tho effect of tho tariff law mitigating the pres sure of foreign competition upon tho industries which employ our own la bor, and that, thorefore, free trade In trust-made goods would kill tho trusts. I confess that I do not see how any man can contemplate such a romedy without at least a grave approhenslon that disasters may bo Invited wotso tontion, is it asking too much Of the American people that thoy Inquire wltb somo caro Into that remedy for the abuses of the trust system which tho protective tariff provides? For whilo It Is true that out. of tho abun dance of capital Incident toytheso seven years of plenty the opportunity of the trust organiser has arisen, It Is also true that this vory abundance of capital in search of employment. offering Itself In a market place where the law of competition has been fight ing for its life, has completely vindi cated tho whole - doctrine of protec tion. National Salt, A Trust That Failed. Let us contrast for a moment tho romedy of free trade with the remedy of protection In tho case of some woll-known American trusts. We may take up for example the National Salt company. The National salt company commonly called the salt trust, was organized in the spring of 1899, and within a year had sufficiently monop olized tho salt business of the 'coun try east of tho Rocky Mountains to $100,000,000 increase in tho authorized capital of tho American Telephone and Telegraph company. What do these figures mean? They write tho doom Of tho speculative trust system'; -thoy mean that an ac tual d.ollar Is more than a, match for an imaginary one that tho modest, unobtrusive coinage of tho realm has nothing to dread from the free and un limited coinage of tho air. Already tho market place is strewn with the remains of arrogant Institutions which five years ago pushed honest men off the' sidewalks as they opened their books for tho accomodation of the restless and buoyant throngs. Glance at the proceedings of the courts and watch the lawyers picking the bones of corporations that five years ago were ostentatiously giving tips to in vestors with half-defined ambitions to own the earth. It is the first of Janu ary. What Is the governor of New Jersey doing yonder at Trenton? He Is crossing off the books of that thrifty and hospitable commonwealth the names of scores of preposterous con- claim; In Its published reports 94 per schdatlon?, Illustrating all types cent of the entire output of evaporated salt. It started out with a capital stock of $12,000,000, five millions pre ferred, seven millions common, all of It very damp. It had to do business In a market place protected by a tariff law which for ovor a century had operated to Invite Independent capital to embark in the industry; and tho question tho trust had to face was this: Would Its size, Its pretentions to monopoly, tho mere swagger of its intoxicated capital prevent others from seeking the profits of that busi ness? In a sense tho National Salt com pany put tho protective tariff system on trial. Less than five years havo passed, but already the theory of pro tection has come out of that trial per fectly vindicated by the unanswerable finding of tho market place. Tho salt mental and moral hallucinations thrusting them out Into a cold world for the non-payment of dues. Capital vs. Capitalization. Open the Wall Street Journal for October 26, 1903, and read for your selves the bloodless verdict of the market place against the modern American trust system. It Indicates the Rresent lost condition of 100 cor porations whose stocks aro dealt in on the New York Exchange, taking no account of those which are too lit tle or too feeblo to make their way from tho curb to the headquarters. It shows a shrinkage in these bet ter class shares of nearly two thou sand millions of dollars. That Is to say, a loss of moro than 43 per cent of their advertised value. Is it any wonder that oven tho best of the In- tant investment to carry it on with success; money sufficient to bore a hole In the ground and buy fuel enough to pump tho water and heat is all that is needed to start a salt factory whorover salt deposits are found. . Is It any wondor, therfore, that tho Na tional Salt company should have been compelled to add a new depart ment to its business? A purchasing agont, to buy off competition; a per formance so continuous that accord ing to tho decree of tho court of equity that listened' to their tale of woe in the stato which gave them their charter. It reduced them from' apnar- that the disease. I never hear that lent solvency to unquestionable bank- clnstrlfil sharps nrn iinilor Riisntrlon. industry does not require an exorbl- s,nce tne pubjJc d,gc0Yered that wltQ conditions exceptionally favorable less than 50 per cent of the total trust capitalization has ever paid any simple panacea for the trusts recom mended without thinking of tho adver tlslng card of a travolln'g doctor, which I picked up tho other day In a coun try hotol. It reads: O. P. Vandorman, specialist In rheu matism) and neuralgia. A sure cure in Its tno3t aggravagated form. I do not deny that free trado may be counted upon with reasonable cor- tainty to cripple, If not to destroy, almost Industry which It como in con tact with. Tho whole world seems to understand that, for as wo enter upon our Presidential campaign the ministers of tho English crown, ruptcy within a fow months liabili ties ono million Ave hundred thou sand; assets threo hundred thousand barrels of wet salt. To complete this comedy of mis management, we are not surprlsed to see new promoters and now syndi cates coming forward to gather up the' remains, under tho high-sounding namo of "International Salt company.VJ with vague plans and specifications for bringing under, one control the salt worka of Canada, Italy, Spain and Great Britain, as well as of our own Country. It is astounding that a sane man could bo found, after the Lord awakened by tho docny of tho ancient has graciously located a reservoir of crafts of tho kingdom, are preparing salt under the whole earth and an an appoal to tho peoplo for a rqvls Ion of thoso sacred acts of Parliament which In tho course of 10 years havo left tho empire commercially dlsmem- ! bered and tho home market itself glut ted by, tho remnant Eales of other nations, Thoreforo ovon If It could bo shown that a trust has absorbed any given field of production, I would not coun sel my countrymen to turn that field ovor to foreign countries' for the pur pose of exterminating that trust, for oven It American capital has been so managed as to forfeit the consider ation of our laws, the employment untl wispa of tho American labor havo still their claim upon tho atten tion and good will of our government. Thoro is only ono sense in which tho protective tariff can bo held re sponsible for tho trusts, and that Is, that without protective tariff vthore would have been, fewer Industries to comblno and therefore fowor combi nations. Further than that, the pro tective tariff has created tho con ditions, that' unprecedented circula tion of monoy In tho handB of the jieoplo. without which tho trust se curities of our times could not havo boon ovon partly digested. So uni formly haa the approach of our tariff law to tho basis of free trade been accompanied by national poverty that Ita nccoptanco now might safely bo ro lled upon to Induce conditions which would effectually discourage tho trust movement. Seeing then, that the protective tar Iff Is responsible for tho exlstenco of some of tho industries which have been organized into trusts and at tho same tlmo for tho relntrbductlon among our people of tho gonoral use of monoy, without which these ven turesome exploits of modorn busl- ocean of brine all around It, to give, countenanco to a, proposition to supply tho whole world "with such a necessity of Hfo, undor tho auspices of an in ternational corporation which starts' out with a bogus capital of $42,000,000 profit of an underwriting syndicate, and its visible resources pre-empted' by an Indebtedness of $12,0OO,0dOr wltb. neither a provision nor a pros pect for evon a preliminary payment of Interest. If thero Is room In our market piaco for a project .llko that, why did tho Post Office dqpartnforit Issue a fraud ordor against the amiable clergyman. who boiled a bushel of pumpkin seedsfl and began a profitable business career by advertising that while In the Holy Land ho had secured a limited number of seeds of tho gourd mentioned in Sacred Writ and was willing to dis tribute them to devout persons at a dollar apiece? dividend at all? When stocks which have never fallejd to make a snow of 7 per cent per annum settle down be tween 30 and CO cents on the dollar, what la likely to become of the mls cellareaus assortment of speculative Investments which have never been able o draw a full breath In their lives : We will quit talking one day about the conflict between capital and la bor, for we all Join In the hope that they are on tho way toward a better understanding, evon toward a treaty of permanent peace. But there is a conflict in which thoro can bo no truc2 the conflict between capital and capitalization the earnings and tho savings of labor against the coali tion of the promoters and the engra vers. . Wo do not .neeed to call tho Old World to take tho -fight off of our hands. Independent American enter prise Is equal to the strategy of our commercial defense. A victory ovor the trusts won by enlisting tho armies of the aliens against them is not an American vic tory Such a victory would prostrate our market placo in inconceivable dis aster, in tho midst of which labor and capital would suffer a common af fliction. The victory which we seek tho only victory that can be of any value to the industrious millions of our people Is tho victory of our own capital, fighting its battle under the a largo portion of It set apart for thofprotect,on of our own ,aws and shar in the fruits of its achievements wltb our own market placo. Certain Delusions and Certain Facts. The experience through which wo are passing has not, of course, been without Its depressing effect upon business and commerce. But If the prosperity of our people were an ar tificial thing of the Amorlcan mar ket place wore not founded upon a rock how could It have stood when those winds blew and these rains de scended and thoso floods came? Tho process of stripping 'the uni form front tho militia captlans of in dustry and dressing, them up in citi zens' clothes has not been entlrnlv 'unattended with inconvonlence, but No Unlimited Coinage of the Air. Joking at tho whole country together I Insort a Btudy of Industrial statls-i w,th tno roconquest of the market tics made for tho end of tho year sum mary by Mr. Luther Conant, Jr., fin ancial editor of tho New York Jour nal of Commerce. This writer says: It was oyldent by the end of 1902 that a decided check had oeen given to tho industrial consolidation move ment, and during the past year tho oi ganlzatlon of thoso so-called "trusts" was restricted to a total which ap-a pears lnsignlficont by comparison with tho returns of preceding years. The pronounced halt In this consoli dation of Industrial properties dur ing the year 1903 may be appreciated from tho fact that from, a total capi talization of more than $2,600,000,000 in 1901thls including. tho $1,400,000, Steel Truot there has been a drop Iro the year now ending to less than &WWp&A&ffoSa .Wi-noS.lqM.ftV i0$0,0,00, thls figure including a place by tho reserve corps of Amerl can energy, that Indefinable moral quality which claims tho prerogative of signing Its own name, has already Justified tho faith which our peoplo from tho beginning have had in the industrial system' founded by our fathers. If changes aro required to bring tho tariff law of 1897 into a moro perfect relation to tho industrial progress of the American people, we propose to make them ourselves, when In our judgment tho work can be undertaken without doing moro harm than good; but wo shall not consent to any change which surrenders the rights of American labor or the advantage which overy man who makes a bona fldo Investment of his money In the United States ought to have over hit '!,, in nthor lands. Wo look forward with hope to tho progress of our commerce from the river to tho ends of tho earth', but we do not for get that the statistics or our ivi&u trade havo brought tho most encour agement td our people In those exact periods when our own producers h , j-wwv...... Buaruett against tho Injurious approach of the outsid world, and that tho law of 1897 f tho first tlmo In our history, has yle& ed us a favor able balance of our trado It manufactured goods. yd , TmVf'JK&i film n wiim im k m sWKa A LETTER AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 3 &s)y,(ytjtc( JLrvc( iUa&CJi, vAjJi 4tc( cdLu 5t- ?vt---ovy ' Writes Mrs. Augustus Emory, Treasurer New Century Club, 34 Dean SW (Roxbury), Boston, Mass. She centinues: "My work which before had secsud an easy task soon seemed like a heavy burden. Having no faith in doctort 1 decided to try Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription, which several of my frieadi praised so highly. I felt relief within a week, my appetite came back, the pilai gradually decreased and I enjoyed sound sleep. Within fourteen weeks I hid completely recovered my health. I seemed built up anew, my pulse, which hid been weak became normal, and new life animated my entire being. I glftdl; endorse your medicine." It is much easier for a woman to confide in the average man than in the average woman. She knows that the man will respect her confidences and keep them ta himself, and not one woman in ten places implicit confidence in her own ttx. There is every reason why women should not trust their delicate constitutions in the hands of unskilled persons. It requires a thorough medical education to.ap preciatc and understand the womanly organism, When a woman has ills and pains that she cannot bear when life seems dark for any woman, she should con fide her troubles to a physician of standing in the community or one who hai national reputation. Certainly it would not be the part of wisdom to confide in an ignorant person without medical education simply because she was a woman. There is every reason why she should write some great specialist, one wbo bu made the diseases of women a specialty for a third of a century like Dr. R. V. Pierce, founder of the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute of Buffalo, N. Y. AU correspondence is held sacredly confidential, and he gives his advice free end without charge. Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription restores weak and sick women to sound health, by curing the local womanly diseases which aie generally responsible for the fail ure of the general health. A woman's entire being is centered in her womanly nature. When the delicate womanly organism is attacked by disease; when there is irregularity or a disagreeable drain; when inflammation burns and ulcers gnaw the general health will reflect the progress of disease, in increasing weakness, nervousness, backache, headache, loss of appetite and sleeplessness. Dr. Pierce's Pavorite Prescription cures all these ailments, and cures them pet fectly and permanently. It wipes out the record of suffering as a child wipes 1 sum from a slate. It makes the vromaneel like a new woman, and look like one, because it rounds out the form and restores the healthy color to the face. So sure of it is the World's Dispensary Medical Association, of Buffalo, N. Y. proprietors of Dr. Pierce's Favorite Prescription, that they offer a I500 reward for women who cannot be cured of Leucorrbea, Female Weakness, Prolapsus, or Fall ing of womb. All they ask is a fair and reasonable trial of their means of cure. J. A. AUFPERLE, President E. W. HAZARD, Cnhler. A. F. HOFER, Vice President. regon State Sank Incorporated Jefferson, Oregon, Transact a general banking business; makes loans, bis- counts bills and receive 'leposits. Deals In foreign and domestic exchange. , Collections mad on favorable terms. Notxriea Public We tender our services In all matteru of conveyancing. Real cstatf 'oans negotiated at low ratea of Interest YOUR BUSINESS SOLICIT Theo. M. Barr Bocceseor to Barr b Petxel. -AMD- SALEM, v Hnt Air Un UriA l Steam fieating a Specialty. OREGON A