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


I'm the early years of Lincolns adj
ministratfon he sent a message to con-
gress, and in that message he warned
his cOuntrymen against the approach of
monarchy. He said it was the attempt
! to put capital upon an equal footing with.
If not above, labor, in the structure or
| government. and in that attempt he saw
| the approach of monarchy. Lincoln WAS
! right Whenever you put capital upon
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 I'M
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 a
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-
tives will be necessary to fill these posi-
lions.
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
he sells, but he can fix the terms upon
which he sells. You have to trust to that
mans generosity and his decision upon
what is fair, when he one side and
you on the other
What is the first thing to be expected
penses. What is the second2 That it
will raise prices. We have not had in
trust a complete monopoly, and we can
not tell what will be the results of q
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-
ton. 1t is the abnormal development Of
! mans desire to protect himself.
I'VE must recognize selfshness 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,
leaves no provision for his wife and chill
dren, then the burden falls upon society.
Ard l 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 a high tariff No.
body can dispute that a tariff law, an
import duty, enables a trust to charge
for its product the price of a similar for
! IL.
Now, some have suggested that to put
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 I
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
! while some relief may come from modf-
| monopoly until we lay the ak at the root
! Of the tree and make monopoly impossi-
! BILE by law
! "It has been suggested that discrimina-
| ton by railroads has aided the trusts.
| There is no question that discrimination
! faVorltism, secured by one corporation
against another producer and a rival, has
! been largely instrumental in enabling a
desired monopoly to become practically a
complete monopoly. Now, that can be
remedied by laws that will prevent this
! discrimination, and when we prevent the
! discrimination still monopoly may exist
| The remedy must be complete enough to
| prevent the organization of a monopoly
Now, what can be done to prevent this ?
REMEDIES SUGGESTED.
We have a state government and a
| federal government and while this dual
form of government has it's advantages,
| yet 1t 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 10 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
them. If they create corporation and
| 1t becomes destructive of their best in
! terests, they can destroy that corpora
ton, and we can safely trust them both
! to create and to annihilate if conditions
make humiliation 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.
81 believe. in addition to state remedy,
there must be federal remedy, and /
| believe that congress has o. should have
! the power to place such restrictions and
limitations, even to the point of prohibit
| 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 cor
pCratlon; that they shall, secondly, decide
| whether they want any outside corpora
ton to do business In the state, and If
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
gained, such limitations and restrictions
as may be necessary for the protection
of the public good
Col Bryan at this point read the IA
nous circular letter advertising the in
corporation laws of Delaware He com
mented sarcastically on advantages set
forth in the letter.