Standard Oil Company; Trusts, Industrial -- United States
It was remarkable to see the revival of the passion of freedom of 1776
and 1861 in the editorials, speeches, resolutions of public meetings,
and the talk of the common people in Toledo as in Columbus. The example
of "the heroic liberty-loving people of Boston" was held up in every
aspect to fire the heart of Toledo not to be frightened into subjection
to the foreign power that threatened them. To resist "the domination
of an economic monarchy" was the appeal made in posters with which the
town was placarded.
"During all the time George III.'s soldiers were quartered in Boston
that monarch did not spend as much money to bring the city to terms as
has been spent in this effort to subjugate the city of Toledo," said
Alderman Macomber.
"A people like those of Toledo," said one of them in the press, "when
once united and determined as they now are, cannot be subjugated by any
combination of mercenaries yet known."
"It is evident," the Toledo _Sunday Gazette_ said, "that the people
of Toledo have come to a full realization of the truth that the money
saved by the independent pipe line, though great, is a matter of little
importance compared with the social and political issues involved. It
would be a thousand times better," it continued, "to utterly bankrupt
the city than permit the oil combination to win. The fight was not for
the present alone, but it was for the present and future, and for all
time to come. It was not for the people of Toledo alone, but it was for
the whole Union, though God had chosen the people of Toledo for the
struggle."
The Cincinnati _Commercial-Gazette_ said, in its editorial columns:
"In itself the Toledo enterprise is not a big one, but it will prove
an object-lesson for the whole country. It will show the open door
through which people may pass from under the yoke of a most gigantic,
unscrupulous, and odious monopoly. And it will be surprising if this
does not extend beyond gas and ultimately cover oil. We are only on the
verge of a revolution that is as sure to come as that which followed
the throwing overboard of a lot of tea in Boston Harbor. Neither the
power nor the vulgarity of capital can long rule the people."
Numerous letters of sympathy, congratulation, and indignation
were received by the Toledo committee appointed by the citizens'
mass-meeting to make a statement of their case to the people of the
United States. There were letters from chairs of political economy in
the universities, from scholars and students in history and politics,
and from men in affairs and finance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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