THE STONE COMBINE IN CHICAGO.
By T.
THE combine that has been formed in Chicago to control the sale of building stone in that great city, has been able to make itself felt, as the following letter, addressed by a contractor to a firm that was not in the combination, will show:— "GENTLEMEN: We hereby confirm our verbal notification to you of some days to cease sending stone to Ninety-fifth Street job, and we insist on this formal notification being regarded, as our Mr. Evans was notified by the Chicago Mason and Builders' Association of being fined $1.00 a cord for buying stone from you on account of not being members of the Chicago Stone Dealers' Association. "Yours truly, _________." There can be no question as to the natural rights of men in associating themselves together to assist each other in trade. But when they so combine as to drive a fellow-man out of business unless he will deal with them and nobody else, they have transcended the bounds, and are on very dangerous territory. There must come a reaction. And when the complaint is quite general, and very bitter, the reaction will be a riotous revolution. And those who would like to read a graphic and perfectly true description of the revolution that is soon to overspread this world because of this present-day greed for wealth, should read the first part of the fifth chapter of James. The revolution that James describes will not cease, once it is started, until Jesus shall appear in person to put an end to it. How dark the prospects in this world would be were it not for the well-founded hope of the soon coming of Christ!