New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1899-09-13
N|lSA| ! |
Minnesota Senator Alarmed
at the Rapid Formation
Of Combinations.
Small Business Man Has No.
Chance Against the Or
ganized Trusts.
MOSTLY OVER y {: CAPITAL :I FED.
Collapse Must Come and Most
of These Concerns Will
Be Swept Away.
MOSTLY OVER CAPITALIZED
Republican Party, He Says.
Has Got to Take Action
to Down Them.

NEW I DIRK, sept lS.-1le Tribune
publishes the following interview with
ex-United States Senator William d.
Washburn Of Minnesota, head Of the
extensive Touring interests in Mime
apolis.
''The present situation, to the good
citizen, the good Republican and the
man who loves his country is really
alarming, and it is more largely owing
to the rapid formation CT what is called
the trust than to any other agency
First, this trust craze has changed the
whole nature of doing things.
@tsWhen was young mani am
now 68-I had the world before me and
there was an absolutely fair field for
me. Take all of our most successful
business men of today and their expe-
riences were like mine. They entered
the race withouta handicap, and their
great grit and capacity won. Now this
building up of trusts puts stop to
Fair and Equal Opportunities
for the young men Of today. The young
man just out of college has no opening
as rule. He cannot begin business on
his own account against organized cap
ital. He must join the procession. He
must content himself with being
mere clerk and the chances are that he
Will never get any further. This makes
the situation serious one, and l am
sorry for the young men Of today. !
have studied the situation and am
sure of what am saying.
tsThe present industrial tendency
amounts to almost a craze for trusts.
There is hardly anything in the indus
trial line that has not been tackled by
the promoters of the trusts. All the
prom oters care for is to get up their
com binations, palm them off on an un-
iniated public and then get out of them
after making all the money they can.
The Worst Feature of the Trust
of today is that nearly every one of them
is vastly over-capitalized.
"Just at present there is demand
for every conceivable thing and times
are elastic and money is plenty. Every
thing is floating along prosperously.
When the collapse comes. as come it
will, it will sweep all these naturally
non-paying concerns to financial ruin.
"There is one thing that greatly dis.
turbs me. the Republican party:
whether justly or unjustly, is asso-
ciated with trusts in the minds Of the
AS party we have reached
crisis where we have got to call halt
The Republican party has got to dis
connect itself from trusts. It has got
to- do something more than adopt
Platform Planks Against Trusts. ~
It has got to put forth its full strength
and legislate against them. The feeling
against the trust idea is intense in the
West. It is so intense in the Repub.
lican party that the party will break
ranks unless something is done. The
undertow of sentiment in the Western
Republican states against industrial
trusts is not understood in the East.
The revolt may strike us as early as
next year. It seems to me, after giving
this thing great deal of thought, that
the Republicans in congress will have
to examine the subject thoroughly and
whenever they find trust is depending
for it's exorbitant profits largely on pro.
tective duties it will be the duty of Re-
publican congressman and senators to
remove the duties at once. We cannot
stop short of tn att