The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-07-04

The influence of concentrated wealth
IS SO greaS in the social and political
world that a government of the people,
by the people and for the people can
encef disappears. When the monopoly
idea is carried to its natural and lOgi-
cal conclusion we will have a govern
menE Of the trusts, by the trusts and
for the trusts, with the large majority
of the people more helpless than they
are under an absolute monarchy.
Mr. Havemeyer says; Legislation
against corporations, if followed to it's
legitimate results, would make the cOun-
try less powerful, its people less pros
porous and would destroy the influence
which comes from the richness of the
land and it's people"
TRUSTS UNNECESSARY.
If by Legislation against corpora
tons" he means legislation against
truses, he $ in error. The wonderful
growth of this country and the develop
ment of its natural resources have
gone on until recently without the aid
of trusts The watering of stock, the
bankruptcy of rivals and the absolute
control OF the price of the product, of
raw material and of the rate Of wages
these things are not necessary to bust
ness success, nor are they essential to
the proper development of a country.
ON the contrary the greatest develop
ment, the most rapid progress and the
largest total accumulation of wealth
can be expected from a system which
largest number of tOilers and guaran-
tees to every individual the enjoyment
Of the LARGEST possible share of the
wealth which he creates. The trusts
instead of accelerating production, real
" lessen the total product, while they
concentrate the rewards of labor so that
but few are benefited.
The defender of trusts thinks himself
an opt1miSt because he sees no danger
ahead, but instead of being an optimist
he is really a fatalist. He accepts a
trust as a thing inevitable Instead Of
considering the trust question upon its
merits he assumes that it is good be-
cause it exists.
If a physician finds his patient COW
cred with bOils he does not try to con
vince him that bOils add to ones beau
ty or that they are q blessing because
they have appeared. Instead of prais-
ing boils, he administers a remedy that
Will purify the blood. So the real opti-
mist believes in the ability of the people
to govern themselves and to correct, by
proper methods, all the abuses of gov
ernn}e nt. Like the farmer he cultfvates
the good grain and destroys the noxious
weeds.
r.Havemeyer thinks that federal leg
1slaton should not be invoked for the
anniAilation of the trust. Speaking to the
commission ne says: The sooner you
by federal legislation. the better f6r am"
NATIONAL LEGISLATION NEEDED.
So long as the injury done BY a rust is
confined to the state in which it exists
state. but when states advertise them .5ili-
selves as breeding places for trusts and
laws favorable to the organization and
protection Of trusts, it becomes necessary
which reaches to every nook and corner
Of the country The state AUTHORITIES
driving capital from the state ana t6e
desire to attract capital to the state OPP
dealing with the trusts TIE fedeTaI aoI W
w TTlr
mems uratei with the evil
One passage in Mr.. Havemeyer's testi-
monE shows a superficial knowledge of
into two cIasses-the industrio11s and
those who wish to live on the INDUSTRY
of others. 1t is they who are without
capital who are hostile to it This is
only another mode of stating the obvious
proposition that it is those who are
without means who wish to have it with
There is no hostility to capital in this
desirous of accumuIating something called
the methods employed by those WHO pos
sess large ,apital to overreach those who
possess less capital. There is some hos
Should @4 t6osa mT Who use I afEs
accumuladons of capital to corrupt gov
and then use the power acquired to de-
stroy competition and trampIe upon the
There is some hostility towards those
who. in the acquiring of capital, have
turn for the capital acquired. If society
is in danger, the danger does not come
from those who are without means and
who wish to have it without work" but
from those who have means for which
they did not work.
BISMARCK'S WARNING.
Bismarck, in addressing an audience of
farmers a few years ago, told them that
to protect themselves from the ''drones of
society who produce nothing but laws"
II we could today divide the people of the
United States into two classes, placing
in one group the producers of wealth and
nOnDTOducerS. he
found that the nonproducers produce far
more laws than the producers. So long
as the nOnprOducing element controls leg
islation, the laws will be more favorable
to those who speculate than to those who
Mr. Havemeyer's eulogy Of capital re-
calls the language Of Abraham Lincoln in
a message to congress in 1861: He said:
Monarchy itself is something limited
at as a possible refuge from the power
of the people. In my present position L
could scarcely be justified were L to omit