Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-10-03
oHIo'S pEMAGOGUES.
The Most Absurd Utterance on Trus
and Combines Ever Made.

The Most Absurd Utterance on Trusts
and Combines Ever Made.
The most absurdly demagogical ut
terance on trusts is the following from
the Ohio Democratic platform: I'VE
regard trusts, in whatever form, as
the legitimate result of our present
tariff system" This is as silly as
would be a platform declaration by
prohibitionists that I'VE regard in
temperance, in whatever form, as the
legitimate result of high license. " If
the Republicans of Ohio have any
sense of the ludicrous they can laugh
their overreaching opponents clear of
their platform.
Trusts. in whatever FORM" for
soothI Ohio and every other State
which has manufacturing interests is
full of trusts in whatever form" A
partnership is one form OF q trust, a
corporation is another, while trade
combinations and associations, of
which there are scores in every large
State, constitute still another, and
they have no more to do with the
tariff than the man in the moon.
Farmers protective alliances are a
form of trust, and so are trades unions.
The last mentioned form comes nearer
than the others to being a genu-
inc trust, controlling, when
in good working order, sup
ply and demand of labor and
regulating its compensation. In this
day and generation of organization
and cooperation trusts in whatever
form" are as thick as peas. We doubt
not that from One-third to one-half
the citizens of Ohio, regardless of
party, are concerned in some form of
a combination, union, league,
alliance, cooperation, whatever it
may be termed. II it is not so Ohio is
sadly behind the times.
Of genuine trusts there are less
than twenty in the whole United
States, and of this mum Der nearly half,
like the Standard Oil Trust and Cotton
Oil Trust, are no more caused by the
tariff than are the spots on the sun,
for the raw material is free of duty
and the manufactured product Is
without material competition. There
are, however, something like ten or
dozen genuine trusts in this country
which, like the sugar trust, thrive on
tariff protection. They were not
caused by the tariff or they would have
come into being years ago. But they
have sprung up as part of the crop
which the sociological spirit of the
age has sOwn the world over Once
formed, these few trusts have availed
themselves of the tariff to keep up
prices. The Republican Congress will
see to it that the protection afforded is
not further abused, if the Democratic
members do not again intervene to
save the sugar trust
There has been an immense deal of
foolish talk about trusts for year
past and during the summer the politi-
cal ebullitions on this subject have
been growing wilder and yet more
wild, until the Ohio Democrats, in
their anxiety to reach the very acme |
of protective tariff denunciation, have |
earned the highest stool and the tall |
cap of any which an intel. |
ligent public sentiment has yet |
awarded the whole class of demagogic
ounces. We are inclined to think that
the Ohio Democracy will maintain its
highest stool and tallest cap against
all competitors, for who in the whole
class of protective tariff-haters can
frame any thing more sweeping than
the statement that trusts, in what
ever form, are the legitimate results of
our present tariff SYSTEM"
Trusts in whatever formr' What
looseness of tongue and dulness of
wit! Was ever a party placed upon
more ridiculous platform? The Ohio
Democrats seem to have been so
ignorant of the origin of trusts as not
to know that the idea was imported
from a country which has not had a
protective tariff for forty years, and
where, as compared with our country,
the number of genuine trusts is as
much greater as is the proportion of
free traders in her population
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