Trusts, monopolies, and the concentration of wealth: Lee Francis Lybarger

              SIX LECTURES
ON
Trusts, Monopolies, and the Concentration of Wealth
BY
Lee Francis Lybarger

Figure


PHILADELPHIA BAR




MONDAY:
THE TOILER AND THE THIEF


TUESDAY:
CURE FOR POLITICAL GRAFT


WEDNESDAY:
RAILROADS AND TROLLEYS


THURSDAY:
POWER OF THE TRUSTS


FRIDAY:
HOW THEY GOT RICH


SATURDAY:
LAND, LABOR, AND WEALTH



A Series of Non-partision Lecures on the Cause and Cure of Our Swollen Fortunes



Here is an intellectual treat—a presentation of the CONFLICT OF LABOR AND CAPITAL never before made on the Chautauqua Platform.

These lectures deal with THE VITAL ISSUES OF THE HOUR.  The problems so frankly and clearly discussed have occupied the attention of Congress for months.  They are the constant theme for newspapers and magazines.  They will be the political issues of the future.  All over the world are the evidences of a great moral awakening.  Everywhere are heard the rumblings of a mighty protest.  What are the facts and conditions against which this protest is made?  Hear these great lectures and you will know.

Each lecture is complete in itself, abounding in FACTS, INCIDENTS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS.  And there is no repetition.  It has required the investigations and personal research of a score of years to glean and organize the volumes of vital facts, the historical data, and the INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS which these lectures present.

Mr. Lybarger brings to bear upon these great issues not only the argumentative power and training of the skilled lawyer, but the enlightened methods and research of Modern Science.  His work throughout the course is not only that of the Lecturer and Orator, but also of a great CONSTRUCTIVE SOCIOLOGIST.  It is the work of a scientist who has devoted the best years of life trying to reduce the chaos, called Political Economy, to an orderly System of Thought—trying to find THE NATURAL LAWS GOVERNING THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.

These six lectures—with their eloquent and logical presentation of vital facts and ethical principles, of industrial laws and social tendencies—are AN EVENT IN THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE of every Chautauqua that hears them.  FACTS, PRINCIPLES, ARGUMENTS, CONDITIONS, all stated in language so attractive, beautiful, and clear as to charm and inspire every intelligent hearer.  THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.

Wherever they have been given their reception has been marked by unflagging interest, zeal, and enthusiasm.  The Public Press has been most generous in its praise of Mr. Lybarger's great and much-needed work.  He has never failed to DOUBLE his first audience, and often to multiply it by ten.

These lectures graphically portray a struggle between Industry and Monopoly that is world-wide and centuries old.  They present Definitions, Laws, Principles, Social Tendencies, and the Grand Strategy of Fortune-building with such beauty and precision of language as gives them the charm of fiction.

They tell how all great fortunes have been amassed.  They explain what the Trusts are, why they exist, and how they can be abolished.  They show how the private ownership of railroad rights of way gives to a few men more power than was possessed by any Caesar or Napoleon.

ALL THE REPUBLICS OF HISTORY WENT DOWN IN THE GRASP OF THE VERY FORCES NOW PREYING UPON OURS




OUTLINE OF LECTURES

THE TOLLER AND THE THIEF.—Two characters around which all the great events of History revolve.  How the Plunderer has followed the Plowman.  Always more honorable to carry a musket than to carry a pick and shovel.  Plunder the motive of all Wars: Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Rome.  Evolution of Tributes into Tariffs and Taxes.  Piracy coeval with Commerce.  Bandits, Brigands, and Outlaws.  Plundering by Barons and Nobility.  Chattel Slavery.  Tenant Slavery.  Wage Slavery.  Bond Slavery.  Industrial Slavery.  Distinction between Stealing and Trading.  Plundering contrary to Law.  Plundering through the agency of Law.  Higher forms of Theft and Robbery.  New realms for the command, THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
THE CURE FOR POLITICAL GRAFT.—Prevalence of the new mode of Stealing, called Graft.  Graft exists wherever there are Privileges to be Granted or Supplies to be Purchased.  Two sources of Graft and Corruption.  Made possible only by denial of Free Competition.  The System is centuries old.  Same principle runs through Municipal, County, State, and National Corruption: Missouri, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, New York, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington.  From whom should the city Buy?  To whom should the city Sell?  DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A POLITICAN AND A STATESMAN.
RAILROADS AND TROLLEYS.—Railroads the Arteries of the Social Organism.  Their Function.  Their absolute Control of Trade.  Shall Railroads become Public Highways?  Railroad Pools, Combines, and Mergers.  The two Master Minds around which the American industrial world revolves.  Kinship of Railroads and Trusts.  How railroad Kings got rich.  The yellow car.  Rebates.  Rate Discrimination.  Car Discrimination.  Extortion.  Official graft.  Pipe Lines and the Standard Oil.  Who should Build the Railroads?  Who should Operate them?  IS GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP THE REMEDY?
POWER OF THE TRUSTS.—An empire more vast than the empire of Rome, more powerful than the Cæsars.  A force to which both kings and commons, presidents and toilers must bow and cringe.  Industrial Barons more powerful than Feudal Lords.  An Octopus that feeds on Special Privilege.  Source of the Power of Trusts: (1)  Protective Tariffs.  (2)  Railroads.  (3)  Ownership of natural resources.  A heritage of the Past.  Stealing through the agency of Laws.  Coal Trust.  Standard Oil.  Sugar Trust.  Beef Trust.  Copper Trust.  Asphalt.  The Tariff and the Trusts.  IS THERE A REMEDY?
HOW THEY GOT RICH.—Rich Men of History.  Rich Men of To-day.  America vs. Europe.  Secret of Fortune-building.  Controlling the Products of Labor.  From Feudal Lord to Copper King.  Enormous Concentration of Wealth.  What is the Cause?  Similarity of Methods in Fortune-building.  Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Herriman, Ryan, Hill, Clark, the Goulds, the Vanderbilts, the Astors.  Why we cannot have Multi-millionaires without also having the Plundered, Impoverished Masses.  THERE IS AN ORDER THAT IS BEST.
LAND, LABOR, AND WEALTH.—The fundamental Relation of Definitions to Science.  Distinction between Land and Wealth.  Why the distinction has been ignored.  Applications.  Two classes of Property.  The Source of Wealth.  Dependence of Labor upon Land.  How many Factors in the Production of Wealth?  Difference between owning Land and owning Wealth.  The Transition from Farms to Franchises.  Industry vs. Monopoly.  HOW TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE.

Try the experiment of giving to your people an orderly and progressive course of lectures, a course that means an education on modern Social and Industrial Problems.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, ADDRESS
LYBARGER LECTURE AGENCY
408 BETZ BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA