The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-23
Condemnation of Trusts and MOnOpO-
lies Feature of the Addresses of
Prominent Republicans.
PINGREE AIRS HIS HOBBY
AND MIR. MONETT WARNS AGAINST
GREED OF CORPORATIONS.
Secretary OF Agriculture Wilson ON
the Growth of the Country and
Results of the Late War.


DETROIT, Mich, Feb. 22.-'It has been
difficult year. We are landed on new field.
The stars and stripes ere planted tonight
in place where they never have been be-
fore on Washington's birthday They have
never been taken down from where they
had been planted but once before; and tney
never will be again."
Such was the characteristic utterance of
Gen. Russell A. Alger, secretary of war,
on assuming the function of POSTMASTER to-
night at the fourteenth annual banquet of
the Michigan Club. The secretary was in
troduced by Brig. Gen. Henry M. Duffield.
president of the club who said: Among
the secretaries who have held up the hands
Of the President none has done more diff
cult, more arduous work, and none has been
bearing more heavily the brunt of the fight
throughout than has our own beloved TEL
low-citizen General Alger"
When the POSTMASTER arose he was greet
ed with enthusiastic cheers from the up
wards Of five hundred Republicans OF Mich
tgan who sat at the banquet tables and
from the crowd in the galleries. The secre-
tary said nothing specific in his brief intro
ductory remarks about War Department
affairs He congratulated citizens Of the
United States upon their intelligence, loyal
ty and patriotism shown the past year and
upon the fact that the financial tide had
turned so that the Nation which was once
a borrower is now on top In financial
sense. Said he: I'VE have some hard propo-
sitions to solve, but we have solver in
Washington"
The scene of the banquet was the new
light guard armory, the interior OF which
was gay with emblems Of patriotism. Por-
traits Of washington, Lincoln, Mckinley
and Alger were displayed. A score or we'll
known Republicans sat at the speaker
table and the attendance was larger than
any in recent years. General Dutheld, In
his opening address, characterized President
Mckinley as 1.-The peer of Washington and
Lincoln"
Governor Pingree's Address.
In introducing Governor Pingree, to de-
liver his address of welcome, General Alger
raised a laugh by saying: 1.-THE Governor has
lust been telling me that he always dreaded
to speak. 1 told him thought 1 could get
up liberal contribution if he never would
speak" Continuing thS Governor said in
part
'It is high time that claims to respectable
ity in this Republic rested upon something
more substantial than money or pohtical
cunning. 1t is said the tree is known by It's
fruit Is it not equally true that man is
known bv his deeds? The Republican party
came into power as the party OF the common
neonle. The welfare of an enslaved race
was the chief cause of it's organization. The
principle of equal rights for all found its
fullest expression in the greatest OF all
Americans, Abraham Lincoln. The Repub-
fn
and equal. It's votes came from the farmer
and his sons; from the villages and the coun-
trv districts of the various States. They did
not come from the overcrowded portions of
our great cities, where the voters were con-
trolled by bosses. Republican majorities
came from the States that afterwards fur
nished patriotic soldiers.
$50 long as the great questions growing
out of the civil war remained unsettled the
Republican party was controlled by men
chosen TO represent the people. But in time
these questions disappeared and other qIes-
tons demanded attention. Problems OF
trade and finance, and questions of ad-
ministration came up Meantime wealth
increased and capital and labor drifted
into conflict Gradually the men of wealth
dropped into the Republican party. Cor
porations found their interests we'll cared
for by the men who were chosen to the
legislative bodies as Republicans. Now this
has been going on so long and so steadily
that it has become notorious. Old Repub-
ucans have been held in line because they
could do nothing else. Some of the leaders
of the Democratic party have made 1t al
most impossible by their acts for prudent
and thoughtful business men to join 1t. All
the men who had schemes and all the cor
porations who wanted privileges joined the
Republican party expecting that party to
bear their burdens and to serve them. This
has been going on for years, but it cannot
last forever, gentlemen
TT is time that corporations, combines
trusts and multi-millionaires were required
to leave the front seats, at least, and let
the men who can speak for the great body
of voters, the men who believe in Repub-
licansm and Abraham Lincoln, have room
and part in the conduct of public affairs.
do not even suggest that men be ignored
and Inundated simply because they are rich,
but the legislative and executive offices of
this Nation cannot much longer be filed
with men whose claims are based solely up
on their devotion to corporate interests.
COMBINATIONS CONTROL.
ALREADY the enormous business of this
Nation has passed into the control of gi-
gantic trade and transportation combina-
tions need not submit any proof of this.
You have only to look around you. The
men in this room know that this is true.
But what is to come Of ii all? The question
has been partially solved by the man who
carries the dinner pail. He has entered an
other kind of a combination-one which re-
lies upon physical strength and skill The
combination of money is answered by the
combination OF muscle But the question
Is Of still greater Importance to a large mid
die class that Is suffering from all this even