Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-09-21
Bryan's Views on Trusts.

of the Civic Federation, was held Confer
ence on Trusts and Combinations. which
was attended by representative citizens Of
nearly every State of the Union. Two
speeches which attracted most attention
were by Bourke Cochran on Friday even
ing last, and by Col William J. Bryan on
Saturday morning last. The great Music
Hall was packed when Mr.. Bryan arose to
speak. Space will permit as to quote only
portion of his speech =
within two years more trusts have been
organized than in the previous history OF the
country and the people now come face to face
with the question: Is the trust blessing or a
curse? If curse what remedy can be applied to
The cursor
Monopoly in private hands is indefsnsible
from any standpoint and intolerable I do not
divide monopolies. There can be no good
monopoly in private hands until the Almighty
sends US angels TO preside over US.
There may be a despot who is better than
another despot, but there is no good despotism.
The defence of the monopoly is always placed
on the ground that if you viii allow people to
CoHbHoi lht htt bttu ia VIC ptiOC bhcy 10
good to the people who purchase of them. The
entire defence of the truss rests upon a money
argument If the trust will sell an article for a
dollar less than the article will cost under other
conditions, then in the opinion of some that
proves a trust to be good thing In the first
place / deny tn 1t under monopoly the price will
be reduced. 10 the second place. if under a
monopoly the price is reduced. the objections to
a monopoly from other standpoints far outweigh
the financial advantage that the trusts would
bring.
But protest against settling every question
upon the dollar argument.
MAN AND MONEY
In the early years of Lincoln's Administration
be sent message to Congress, warning his
couutrymen against the approach of monarchy.
He said he saw in the sttemps to put capital
even upon an equal footing with labor in the
structure of Government, the approach of mon
srchy. Lincoln was right. Whenever you put
capitol upon an equal footing with labor. or
above labor, in the structure of Government,
you are on The road to aid Government that
rests not upon reason, but upon force
Nothing is more important than that we shall
in the beginning rightly understand the relation
between money and man.
Man is the creature of God, and money is the
servant of man. ard protest against fall
theories that enthrone money and debase man
kind.
If you win go about over the country you will
see where people have subscribed money to
establish enterprises. and where those enter
prises 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 onielsewhere, thus preventing serious
loss.
When a 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 viii
fix wages as he pleases. and the laboring man
win then share the suffering of the man who
sells the raw material.
want to warn you that when the monopoly
has absolute control brains will be at discount.
We have not had yet taste of a complete trust.
But when the trust has rid itself of all competi-
tors what is going TO be the result? Ny friends
all you have to know is human nature. God
made men selfish.
On the farm we used to protect property from
So that while they were getting fat they would
not destroy more than they were worth.
ROOT OF THE MONOPOLY.
One Of the great purposes of government is to
put rings in the noses of hogs. If were going
to try to find the root of the monopoly evil l
would go back to the Bible for an explanation.
and would find it in the declaration that the
love of naOnav is the rnot of q n avii
Falling prices, caused by rising dollar, and
the high tariff, have contributed the desire TO
secure the fruits of monopoly.
Some have suggested that to put everything
on the free list that trusts make would destroy
the trusts. But do not believe that you could
destroy all trusts by putting all trusts made
articles the free list because if an article can
be produced in this country as cheaply as it can
be produced abroad, then the trust could exist
without the benefit of any tariff at all, although
it cannot extort so much. We cannot destroy
monopoly until we lay the axe at the root of the
tree and make monopoly impossible by law
Discrimination by railroad has aided trusts
That can be remedied by laws which place pro
dueers on equal footing. But the remedy must
be completed enough to prevent the nization
of monopoly. We differ more in remedy than
we do in our opinion Of the trust. Few people
will defend the trust as principle AS to the
remedy:
RIGHTS OF THE STATE
Both State and nation should have concurrent
remedies. In the first place every State has or
should have the right to cate any private cor
poration which in the opinion of the people Of
the State, is conducive to the welfare of the peo
pie of that State. believe that we can safely
entrust TO the people of a State the settlement of
4 question which concerns them. If they create
corporation and it becomes destructive of thei.
best interests they can destroy that corporation,
and we can safely trust them both to create
and TO annihilste, If conditions make annihila-
ton necessary. In the first place, State has OF
should have the right to prohibit any foreign
corporation from doing business in the State
and it ought to have or has the right to impose
such restrictions and limitations as the people
Of the State may think necessary upon any
foreign corporation doing business in the State
believe in addition to a State remedy, there
must also be a Federal remedy Congress has, or
should have, the power to place such restric-
tiOns and limitations, even to the point of pro-
hibition, upon any corporation organized in one
Dse'sSs AANb "e~aNe " w RuoAAcss OutcAuG VI lub
State contrary to public good.
believe that these concurrent remedies will
reach the difficulty, that the people of every
State shall first decide whether they want to
create corporation; that they SHALL secondly,
decide whether they waot any outside corpora
ton 20 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 business outside Of the State
in which it is organized such limitations and
restrictions as may be necessary for the protee-
tion of the public good
THE DELAWARE Laws.
Colonel Bryan at this point read the famous
circular letter advertising the incorporation laws
Of Delaware. He commented sarcastically on
advantages set forth in the letter.
person in he audience inquired:
Delaware and New Jersey are both Demo-
cratic States. are they not2" to which Mr.. Bryan
replied;
They we're not in 1885,"
He continued:
I have read this letter in order to show you
that where State can gain an advantage, from
the Incorporation Of these great aggregations of
wealth, it is not safe to place the people of other
at ba =