The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-09-17

| monarchy. He said it was the attempt
J to put capital upon an equal footing with,
! If not above, labor in the structure of
| government, and in that attempt he saw
| the approach of monarchy Lincoln WAS
an equal footing with labor or above
| labor in the structure of government,
you are on the road to aid govern
ment that rests, not upon reason, but
| upon force
| Nothing is more important than that
| we shall, in the beginning, rightly un-
| derstand the relation between money and
| man.
What is the purpose of the trust or
| the monopoly-for when l use the word
trust l use it in the sense that the trust
! means monopoly-and what is the pur-
! pose of monopoly?
THE first advantage of a monopoly is
to lower the price of the raw material
| furnished by the people to that combina-
/ ton.
The next thing is, after you have
| bought up all the factories, to close
| part of them and turn out of employment
| the men who are engaged in them, and if
you will go about over the country you
will see where. those enterprises. having
| come under the control of the trusts,
| have been closed up and stand now as
| silent monuments to the wisdom of the
| trust system. In case Of local strikes and
| fires, the work goes on elsewhere, thus
preventing serious loss. What does it
mean? 1t means that if the people en-
| ployed in one factory are not satisfied
with the. terms fixed by the employer, and
| strike they can close down that factory
and let the employees starve while they go
on in other factories without loss to the
| manufacturers
ABILITY OF NO VALUE.
| when branch of industry is entirely
! in the hands of one great monopoly so
| that every skilled man in that industry
| has to go to the one man for employment
then that one man will fix wages as he
! pleases and the laboring man will then
| share the suffering of the man who sells
| the raw ma erial.
When monopoly has complete control
| brains will be at a discount, and rela-
| yves Will be necessary to fill these posi-
| ttOnS.
There is no question about it. A trust,
| monopoly, can lessen the cost of dis
| tribu ion.
There will be no need for commercial
travellers, because when anybody wants
goods all he has to do is to write to the
| one man who has them for sale, and say
What will you let me have 1t for today?'
He can not only fix the price of what
ne sells, but he can. fix the terms upon
which he sells You have to trust to that
| what is fair, when he on one side and
! you on the other
What is the first thing to be expected
of trust? That it will cut down ex-
penses. What is the second2 That it
will raise prices. We have not had in
this country yet taste of complete
not tell what will be the results of
complete monopoly by looking at the re-
| suits that have followed from an attempt
| TO secure monopoly, because in the at
| tempt TO secure monopoly, the monop-
! oily has been lowering prices in order to
! rid itself of competition, but when it has
rid itself Of competitors, what is going to
| be the result? My friends, all you have
| to know is human nature God made
men selfish. Selfshness is merely the
! ou growth of an instinct of self-preseFva-
don. 1t is the abnormal development of
! mans s desire to protect himself.
| I'VE must recognize selfishness and we
must so make our laws that people shall
not be permitted to trespass upon the
right of others in their efforts to secure
| advantages for themselves. I believe
that society is interested in the independ
ence of every. citizen. Society is inter-
ested in this, because If a man dies and
! leaves no provision for his wife and chill
| dren, then the burden falls upon society.
! And believe that the principle of mo-
nopoly finds Its inspiration in the desire
of men to secure by monopoly what they
cannot secure in the open field of COM
petition.
Another thing that, In my judgment,
has aided monopoly is high tariff. No
| body can dispute that a tariff law, an
/ import duty, enables trust to charge
/ for its product the price of a similar for
/ elgn product plus the tariff
! everything on the free list that trusts
make would destroy the trusts. I do not
| agree with this statement, as it is made
! so broadly. I believe that the high tariff
/ has aided the trust to collect more than
| the trust could otherwise collect But
/ do not believe that you could destroy all
| trusts by putting all trust-made articles
/ on the free list.
why? Because If an article can be
produced in this country as cheaply as
1t can be produced abroad, then the trust
| could exist without the benefit of any
| tariff al all, although 1t could not extort
so much as it could with the tariff and
fication of the tariff. we cannot destroy
monopoly until we lay the ak at the root
! OF the tree and make monopoly impossi-
BILE by law.
=. ut has been suggested that discrimina-
ton, by railroads has aided the trusts.
There is no question that discrimination,
favoritism, secured by one corporation
against another producer and a rival has
! been largely instrumental In enabling
desired monopoly to become practically
complete monopoly, Now, that can be
discrimination, and when we prevent the
discrimination still monopoly may exist.
me remedy must be complete enough to
| prevent the organization of a monopoly.
Now, what can be done to prevent this?
REMEDIES SUGGESTED.
I'VE have a state government and
| federal government and while this dual
| form of government has it's advantages
yet it also has Its disadvantages Both
| the state and nation should have concur
rent remedies, In the first place every
state has or should have the right to
| create any private corporation which in
the Justice of the people of the state is
| conducive TO the welfare of the people of
that state. believe that We can safely
! entrust to the people of a state the set
tlement of q question which concerns
tnem II they create a corporation and
1t becomes destructive of their best in
! terests, they can destroy that corpora
t1on and we can safely trust them both
| to create and to annihilate if conditions
make annihilation necessary. In the sec
and place the state has or should have
the right to prohibit any foreign cor
poration from doing business in the state,
and 1t ought to have or has the right to
| impose such limitation as the people of
the state may think necessary upon any
foreign corporation doing business in the
| state.
II believe, in addition to a state remedy,
| there must be federal remedy, and t
believe that congress has Or should have
the power to place such restrictions and
limitations, even to the point of prohibi-
ton, upon any corporation organized in
one state that wants to do business out
| side of the state.
Now, I believe that these concurrent
remedies should reach the difficulty, and
the people of every state shall first de-
eide whether they want to create 3 cor
pcraton; tEat they shall, secondly, decide
| whether they want any outside corpora
ton to do business In the state, and IL
SO, upon what conditions: and, thirdly
/ that congress- shall exercise the right to
place upon every corporation doing bust
ness outside the state In which it is or
ganized, such limitations and restrictions
as may be necessary for the protection
of the public good,
Col. Bryan at this point read the fa-
nous circular letter advertising the in
corporation laws of Delaware He com
mented sarcastfcally on advantages set
forth in the letter.
person in the audience inquired
Delaware and New Jersey are both
Democratic states, are they not?" to
which Mr.. Bryan replied: 'They were
not in 1885,
He continued:
."I have read this letter in order to