THE TRUST DISEASE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 22, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 12.

"THE TRUST DISEASE."

UNDER the above caption the New York World says:—

"In the course of a discussion of the trusts from the Wall Street or purely financial standpoint in the Evening Post on Saturday these statements were made:— "That the output of new trust stocks and bonds last year was upward of $1,000,000,000. "That for the first two months of this year the output was $1,106,300,000. "That the indications are that the total output for this year will be six times as great as it was last year—upward of $6,000,000,000. "That as a typical illustration of the rapid growth of monopoly and the rapid decline of individual enterprise, Chicago had no more business firms in 1897 than it had in 1870; tho in those twenty-seven years its population had been multiplied by eight.' "The trust, therefore, is undermining the financial as well as the political health of the nation."

The foregoing are among the astounding facts that are before us to-day. If any man had said ten years ago that men could combine such vast amounts of wealth into large trusts before the end of this century, he would have been laughed at. It would have been thought out of the question altogether. And yet God ventured the prediction nearly two thousand years ago that in the last days men would heap treasure together. Read the fifth chapter of James and see how clearly and how literally it tells what is now to be seen all about us in the great amassing of wealth.