The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-09-15
TRUSTS VS.. REPUBLIC
THE STRUGGLE Is ON AND ONE OR
THE OTHER MUST SUCCUMB.
The Policy of the MOnOpolist Is to
"Claim Every rything'-Henry ID.
Lloyd Replies to Ex-Governor
Flower, who Is "Leading a Bad
Cause to Certain Death"

Henry Demorest Lloyd, author of
Wealth versus Commonwealth" and
One of the leading political economists
Of the world, furnishes the following
Interview to the New York Journal:
What Governor Flower has said has
not nearly as much Importance as the
TACT that he, public man, should speak
On the side of trusts and monopolies.
He has been governor of the Empire
state and still retains a place in his
party prominent enough to warrant his
being mentioned as a candidate for
president, yet he arrays himself in the
opinion.
This public opinion has secured
legislation from a minority of the states
and from the United States government
against trusts. 1t has put amendments
into the constitutions of 16 states for
bidding trusts, and yet he thinks it poll
tic to argue in favor of them before a
state convention of farmers and to re-
peat his championship in interviews
destined for universal circulation in the
columns Of the Journal.
This action of the former governor
is the more extraordinary from the fact
that the trusts and combinations which
he defends are forbidden by the laws Of
his own state, and the most important
of them, the Oil and Sugar trusts, have
been recently distinctly declared un-
lawful by the courts of New York
Such an utterance by such man is per-
haps the most significant occurrence Of
the day. 1t is a revelation that ambi-
tious men like Mr. Flower believe that
the people and public opinion, so called.
no longer control American So
ciety and the government of this re-
public. This hardihood is a cynical.
almost brutal, declaration that the real
government of America is not that Of
the people, but that of a greater power.
He speaks, in fact, not as a former gov
real governors of New York-one Of
the kind not dependent upon the people
for election and one who never means
to go out of office.
These governors have not thought
1t polite to admit this until now, but
a multitude of recent events, crowned by
Flowers utterances, show that the mas
ter no longer thinks it unsafe to crack
his whip. Democratic Mr.. Flowers
advocacy of the right of the monopolies
is brother fact with Republican Speak
er Reeds closure of the house of repre-
sentatives during the last session to
every business except to that which was
demanded by monopolies He is to be
welcomed as a functionary of social
progress. He is probing the body polite
for the nerve of liberty. He is test
ing the people for the turning point the
one unsettled matter in this whole con-
troversy
Mr.. Flower has adopted the policy
always pursued by monopolists, the
policy said to have been promulgated
by Zach Chandler In the Hayes and
Tilden crisis to claim everything"
Civilization, he says, is cooperation,
and the trusts are co-operation-are
therefore, civilization. II am the state"
said Louis XIV. Il am civilization"
says Monopolist Flower. These men
represent the elimination of an era of
hundreds of years Of buying and SELL
Ing, and they imagine themselves to be
the sole agents of human progress. Their
motto is, There is no God but business.
and we are its prophets They have be-
come the owners of the highways and
their workingmen must not ask for liv-
Ing wages or human treatment nor their
patrons ask the law for protection, be-
ness
They insist that the tariff shall be
made exactly as they want it, because
they are the administrators of the
manufacturing monsters, and they al
lege and no doubt believe the working
people and the consumer cannot live un-
less the tariff is made as the admins
traitors want it. The owners of the
banks, as owners Of the means of ex-
change, demand that the currency shall
be manipulated precisely as their inter-
ests dictate. The remark of Mr.. Pills
bury of Minneapolis the other day that
nothing could stop prosperity but the
politicians" is only another variation of
the demand of the business chiefs of the
country that their control of the mar
kets and their administration of the com
mon source Of the peoples livelihood
shall be left free from restriction or
supervision. They have killed off their
competitors, and now they propose to
kill off every form of public control
To do this they must for the present at
least sophisticate the public, and to do
this they must, as Mr.. Flower does in
his interviews and speeches, lay violent
hands on any fact that stands in their
way.
Looking forward, we can see that it
Will not be long before they will care