Omaha daily bee., 1881-06-20
COMPILING AND THE CoRPo-
RATIONS.

SOEfAA<hENS <AIN0 liz SOEek W
RATIONS.
According to our dispatches Roscoe
Conkling has at last made the discov-
cry that the republic is now menaced
with the same tyranny that caused
the American patriots in l776 to re-
volt against the rule of George the
Third. The only difference between
the revolutionary era of &c, according
to Mr.. Conkling, and the present pc
Rod, is that the American colonies
were under the dominion of
one king, and the American States
now are nnder the domination of
an oligarohy composed of a dozen cor
poration kings. Mr.. Roscoe Conk-
ling prides himself on being a great
statesman. In fact, his followers set
him up as the greatest statesman of
modern times. Mr.. Conkling has
been in the senate for twelve years
and he has certainly had ample OPP
pcrtunity to note the growth of cor
porate power and the abuses from
which the American people were
suffering at the hands of monopolies.
The railroad kings, whom now he re-
CARDS as as dangerous to our liberties
as a monarch or emperor, have not
sprung into existence since he resigned
his seat in the senate. They were at
the national capital during every ses-
sion of the national Legislature, either
personally, by a paid lobby or by emf
nent statesmen like Nh. Conkling act
ing as their attorneys on the floors of
congress.
Their baneful and corrupting infu-
ence was not confined to the national
legislature. In his own state, as Mr..
Conkling is well aware, the corpora
ion kings of the Erie and New York
Central had for years been guilty of
'hameful abuses by. discrimination,
avoritism and extortionate tolls, and
ret MIR. Conkling's voice was never
leard in protest. The present legis-
allure elected, as everybody knows,
lnder the personal supervis-
on of Mr.. Conkling was picked
" the corporation kings with
dr. Conkling's consent, and Mr..
,onkling dictated, as his own choice
or senator from New York, Thomas
). Plat, the president of the United
'tatet express, and an active ally of
he corporation kings. And even to-
while Mr.. Conkling is appalled, at
he misrule of corporation kings, he
insists that Tom Platt must be sent
Jack with him to the United States
enate.
Why in the name of common sense
i'd not Roscoe Conkling dis
the terrible menac to
american liberty from corpora
kings before he resigned2
Why did he desert his post of duty
vhen he was needed to repel and
'heck the aggression of monopoly at
most critical period, while the nom
of Stanley Matthews as SUI
'reme judge was pending2 Why was
le not aroused to the full magnitude |
# the danger from monopoly kings
Until now, when he appeals for sup
'ort to anti-monopoly men? We
no doubt MIR. Conkling's natural
ympathies have been with the public
IS against the corporation kings, but
10 has seldom manifested this sympa-
ny when it was most needed.
He has for years been the retained
attorney of great corporations and is
,o-day engaged to defend one of the
most gigantic corporate monopolies,
whose twenty-three millions of stock
IS made up entirely of "water."
facts, and above all things his
from his post of duty in the
senate, deprive him of the support of
true anti-monopolists whose active
sympathy he would have commanded
had his past conduct been in accord
with his present professions.
When Mr., Conkling rises to the
high plane of a patriot as the cham
pion of the people against corporate
m%onopolies, the people will rally to
his standard, but as long as he simply
to anti-monopoly sentiment as
a forlorn hope in a desperate struggle
for personal ACKNOWLEDGMENT, he can
not hope to command the support of
men who do not admire his past polit-
ical methods or his senatorial puppet,
whose other name is Tommy Plat.