Omaha daily bee., 1899-04-04
DEALING WITH TRUSTS.
The Evils from Them aud the Easy
Remedy.

will exhibit the facts, the question and the
remedy; and also show who will apply the
remedy.
The facts are that today all over the
United States enormous combinations OF cap
italists are planning by huge consultations
to seize every branch OF production and dis
trtbution; all manufactures and the sale
thereof; all agricultural products and the
sale thereof are to be monopolized and man
aged by great corporations; each separate
industry in the country is to be controlled
by one Incorporated trust In the beginning,
to lull the public into inaction, the price of
the product to the consumer is to be re-
duced, but not to the full extent required by
the cheaper production secured by the new
system; therefore, millionaire owners in
trusts are to increase in number and when
the system becomes general the prices to
the consumers are to be raised and the great
fortunes are to continue to multiply.
The question is whether such trusts should
be prohibited and destroyed. 1t should be
answered in the affirmative, for two rea-
sons, the first the one already stated, that as
an ultimate result the consuming public,
after competition is effectually abolished,
will be compelled to pay larger prices than
ever before in order to build up enormous
fortunes in the hands of the millionaire
class; and second, because the expulsion
from business of small manufacturers, pro-
ducers and merchants will be highly in
furious to society. The destruction of indi-
vidual enterprise and the division of man
kind into two classes, the few very rich and
the many very poor. with almost no men of
moderate capital-firms of small means, as
Mr.. Depew calls them-will, II the system
continues. be fatal to popular government
and result in government by oligarchy
This will not happen, but only because the
system will be destroyed. If the community
is to be divided into ten-dollarites and one
dollariteS, the latter will rule, for they are
the vast majority. 1t is perilous issue to
raise. The remedy for the growth of trusts
will be simple and easy when majority of
the people of any state seriously and firmly
desire to suppress them. Trusts conducted
by partnerships will not be formidable. In
dividuals will never place in one partnership
dangerous aggregatons of capital. Huge
trusts can only be maintained by corpora
tions which can make large issues of stocks
and bonds. If a state Legislature can de-
stroy all corporations within the limits OF
the state, fortiori, it can regulate and limit
the amount of stocks and bonds which any
corporation can issue and can prevent 1T
from engaging in more than one kind of
business. After regulating and limiting its
own corporations it can exclude from the
state the operations of all corporations of
other states which do not conform to the
local state requirements.
Combinations between separate corpora
tions in the same business can also easily
be prevented by state laws; and thus
the prohibition of combination, consolida
. nd I.
being accomplished, the evils resulting from
trusts are gone. There can never be
simpler application of the maxim, Where
there is a will there is a way"
AS each state can efectually suppress
trusts within its borders congressional ac-
ton is not indispensable. Yet congress, in
addition, can do much to destroy trusts by
legislation in connection with interstate
commerce The act of 1890 did destroy the
Joint Traffic association in which thirty
one railroads had joined to make the most
gigantic trust ever known, with $1,000, 000,
900 actual capital and practical control of
81 900, 600, 600 of capital. Congress should
also prevent trusts in the territories and the
District of Columbia by laws similar to
those which the states will enact.
Moreover, the states should tax all cor
porations on their stocks and bonds, and
congress should do the same. The taxing
power should not be used to destroy corpor-
ations, but when their capital and business
and profits are large they should pay large
taxes for the support of the state and ma
tional governments. We are to have large
and expensive armies and navies.
In showing who is to bring about the leg
islation which will suppress trusts, it must
be said that individual action cannot secure
1t. The present determination of the owners
and seekers OF vast wealth to aggrandize
themselves by fastening trusts upon the
country cannot be defeated, except by or
ganized action through the political parties,
and these should be induced to make the
suppression of trusts part of their plat
forms
Even after they make such pledges there
is danger that they Will be repudiated when
the legislatures meet In 1898 both political
platforms in New Hampshire demanded leg
isation making free railroad passes Illegal.
The great railroads sent free passes to all
the members of the legislature, they kept
them, and when the bill to forbid free passes
came W the vote was 22 for it and 2y2
against It!
Human nature is the same in other states
as it is in New Hampshire. Therefore, the
people must be in earnest, and not only get
the pledges into the platforms of the parties,
but elect legislators who can be depended
upon to fulfill them, or the people should
punish them at the next election.
The republican party must be the first to
meet the new issue which trusts and monop-
oles are forcing upon the country. 1t began
as the party of the people and must continue
to be such Its state conventions and its
next national convention must declare
against trusts and its legislators must obey
its platforms. The democratic party cannot
be trusted. Mr.. Cleveland, in his last can
vass, made the most demagogical and an
archistic appeals in order to obtain votes,
but when he was elected he shamefully sur
rendered to the money power, to the cor
rupting bond syndicates and the lavish
handed plutocrats Mr.. Mckinley is of
different make, He recognizes his duty to
his party and its platforms, to its prin-
cples and its measures, and he follows and
obeys in peace and war the declared wishes
of the American people.