The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1894-09-23
TRUSTS AND PARTIEs

That the high protective policy of
the Republican party is directly re-
sponsible for the system of trusts that
have sprung up in this country, Grip
pling commerce and well-nigh destroy
ing its industrial interests, is too plain
TO be contradicted, though like the
cutie fish the defenders of protection
continue to try to muddy the water SO
as TO hide the responsibility of the
party that has been the active agent
of trusts and combines, and which
party, up to the last act o, the last
congress, attempted TO uphold and de-
fend its creature. They do this by
simply denying the charge, and, school
boy like, make the counter change.
Let's look into the matter and exam
inc the records and see where the par
ties stand,
As before stated, trusts and com
bines are the logical and legitimate
outgrowth of high projections; such
things were never heard of until the
policy of protection for protection's S
sake was inaugurated by the Republi-
can party into governmental system.
1t did, for time, stimulate competi-
tion at home in many of the Industrial
departments, and this was carried to
the extent of overproduction for the
demands of the home market, and be
ing shut out of foreign markets Nv
reason Of the excessive cost OF pre-
ducts owing to the tariff tax on raw
materials, etc, It beanie necessary fol
the iudustrialls,s- s-manufacturers and
their capital backers-to find some
way ont of the dilemma into which
they had been drawn. Inventive
genius had expended itself to the ut
most in the creation of labor-saving
machinery and devices to supplement
the skill and productive capacit, of
the artisan and mechanic, but this
only aggravated the situation by in
creasing the supplies for the already
over-stocked market
bankruptcy and ruin stood as a hor-
rid spectre before the manufacturer,
but the genius of capital which is eyer
on the alert for opportunities for
greater gain, came to the rescue with
the suggestion of the combine. The
desperate industrialist saw relief in it;
that it promised safety from impend-
ing destruction. The new system had
the growth and development of a
Jonah's gourd, and was augmented
and facilitated under the Mckinley
regime until Its clutches had become
fastened upon our entire economic
system, paralyziug the energies of
the people and driving thousands to
the verge of starvation.
This in brief and in part is the pic
ture drawn by Republican protection.
Now let us see what the Democra is
have been doing these years to pre-
vent its completion. Beginniug early
in the EOS the Democrats demanded
that the affairs of the government be
readjusted to the changed conditions;
that war rates of taxation being no
longer needed should be reduced to a
peace basis, and that the financial sys-
tenn be reformed upon the same line.
The records of congressional proceed
ings, from which we have heretofore
briefly quoted, show that the warfare
in behalf of the people thus early
raised by the Democratic party has
been kept up increasingly To the
close of the last congress,
every session being marked by the
contest, against the Republican party |
the i.nplaeable foe of every reform
and the champion OF greed and peli at
every turn. Aud. although defeated |
year after year, through the combined
power of patronage and wealth, the
Democracy kept up the fght until at
last il has effected a breach in the /
of the enemy. The hold
OF the Toney power has been broken
by the repeal Of the purchase clause
Of the sherman law, and the tentacles
Of the trust octopus cut loose by the
Of the new tariff law and
the hideous monster will be driven
into the sea by the antitrust law en-
acted by the Democrats as supple
ment 10 the tariif act, but which, as