The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1896-12-05
The New Administration and the trusts.

he new ADMINISTRATOR anu Inc tTustSs
At the outset Mr.. Hanna said that
if he could not carry the election
one way he would another. He did
not carry it one way.
The news comes from Canton, on
the authority of OCCIDENTAL friends
of Major Mckinley, that he when
President twill assume a dignified
attitude of opposition to all monopo-
lies. The further information is
given that
He is opposed to anything that
smacks of demagogism in dealing
with the concentration of wealth. He
will never fight the corporations be-
cause they are corporations; but he
will take up the cudgel against them
if they violate the law. The law
that will be his platform and his
justification.
And very good platform, too. If
President Mckinley shall stand on
| it, his Administrator will be sue
cess. Nobody OF sense wants him to
fight corporations as such. That
would be to make war upon instru-
mentalities which have made the
greatest material achievements of
modern civilization possible. Asso-
Citations of capital for the purposes
of increasing efficiency in production
and decreasing expense are natural,
legitimate and laudable, whether
these associations he called corpora
tions, trusts or by any other namel
The American people have too much
intelligence, too keen a knowledge of
business, to rail against such useful
associations 1t is when the corpo-
ration, the trust, degenerates into
conspiracy in restraint of trade, and
instead of seeking honest profit sets
out on the high seas of commerce as
buccaneer, forcing all competitors
to walk the plank, and robbing right
and left with both hands, that it be-
comes public evil and should be
suppressed in behalf of the common
welfare. There are tendencies in
corporations to be encouraged and
tendencies to be discouraged 1t is
inevitable that in this time of rail
roads and telegraphs capital should
concentrate; it is also inevitable that
concentrated capital should be
tempted to abuse its power There
is where the law comes in, and there
is where President Mckinley should
come in, too, for the laws enforce
ment. He need be under no appre-
hension that he will incur loss of of
fetal or personal dignity by coming
in good and strong, either, for pun
ishment of any trust that is found
squeezing and stealing. The repose
of the Cleveland Administration in
the presence of the plundering trusts
has been as impressive as that which
marks the cast of We're de We're, but
there is no dignity in it's placid
pose-no more than there would be
in the figure of policeman stand
ing in stately quiet with his eyes
fixed on the sky while thief ran
past in safety with his booty. There
is dignity in appropriate action,
however energetic, while there may
be none in profound calm--Cleve-
land calm.
1t is unfortunate that when he is
awakening to the necessity of apply
ing the corrective cudgel Of the law
to lawless trust the President-elect
gives no sign of conversion from his
high protection doctrine. Corpora
tions, trusts and other aggregations
of wealth have ample natural power
to protect themselves. Every parti-
Gle of protection given them by the
tariff stimulates their appetite and
endows them with artificial strength
to resist the regulating law when
they are so disposed-which they
generally are. The needs of the
country, with its seventy millions OF
population and great natural re-
sources, would give us all the corpo-
rations and trusts necessary for our
good. A protective tariff is an incu-
bator that we could get on very well
without. But whatever may be his
handicaps, self-imposed or other, ev-
cry patriotic citizen will wish Presi-
dent Mckinley success in such eff.
forts as he may make to control the
trusts in the public interest by APP
plying the law to them-a law al
ready sweeping enough for their reg
ulation, if not their determination
Journal.
McKinley's Lucky Number.