The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-14
the details which will best enforce the

the details which will best enforce the
doctrine
ut will be said that Jefferson was a
man of peace. So was the Democracy
he founded a party of peace, excepting
when war becomes necessary, as it did
a year ago. Then Democrats in con-
gress and in the field upheld the flag
of their country with their votes and
with their lives"
Mr.. Belmont introduced Augustus
Van Wyck by referring to the latter S
canvass for governor. He said Justice
Van Wyck had conducted a campaign
with honor to himself and credit to the
Democracy.
Justice Van Wyck was greeted with
great applause. He said:
LEADER OF GOLD DEMOCRATS.
THAT a country shall be great COM
mercially, several things must co-eXist
within its borders. 1t must have the
necessary natural resources; its people
must be skillfhl and Industrious; en-
terprise must be fOstered by just laws
and the spur of free competition, and
finally, as the very curbstone of the
whole structure, the sense of individual
honor must be sustained in full life.
"Of these features there are, perhaps,
only two not plainly in operation in the
whole circle of our industries today.
Abundance of our natural resources
there is no room to doubt The skill and
readiness to labor of our people are not
less evident. The plain American has
never been surpassed as WhOle-heart-
ed believer in the gospel of honest
toll. Nor, happily, is it open to ques-
ton that our merchants exhibit in all
their dealings as fine a sense of honor
as can be found within the compass of
the globe.
Commerce, one of the .civilizers of
the world, is a necessary element in the
preservation of the prosperity and the
happiness of our country. 1t must be
fostered, first, by the freest competition
between our own people in all home en-
terprises, securing for them untram
meled business intercourse and en-
larged opportunities for individual adj
Yancement, and second. by the freest
competition between the internal freight
lines from and to the seaboard. Secur-
ing the lowest practical freight rates to
the ocean for all kinds of products.
II venture to affirm, however, that
something remains to be desired in
these two particulars. l mean in re-
spect to just laws and the spur to free
competition. The laws are not just
which burden the many to the end that
favorites may grow fat, as in the case
under our so-called protective tariff,
and when mOnOpolfes are suffered to
lay their handsHon the throat of 'indi-
vidual enterprise, the spur of free COM
petition is blunted, if not destroyed.
TARIFF AND FRANCHISES.
1.-THE tariff has been one prolific
source of monopoly, and the monstrous
misuse of the thanksgiving power
another. Our iron, steel, coal and sugar
trusts may be taken as examples of
what the tariff has brought to pass,
while in the consolidation of our rail-
roads, gas companies and electric light
companies we have illustrations of what
has been and is being accomplished
under the legislative power to bestOW
valuable public rights upon private
corporations. Into the details of our
existing tariff l shall not enter at pres
ent, but l shall challenge any of its
supporters to name a single consider
able branch of industry over which its
so-called protection has been extended
which is not now controlled by con-
federacy of conspirators against COM
petition"
Judge Van Wyck read a statement
from the Journal of Commerce relative
to the great growth of trusts and COM
binations of capital in the past year.
1t showed that the immense combina-
tons had increased from 200 in number
to 1853, and have issued stock to the
amount of S.. nS, 900 and bonds ag-
gregating $7l4,3S9000. This, it further
stated. is 90 per cent of the entire
amount invested in all branches OF
manufacturing in 1890.
Judge Van Wyck then went on to
argue that this process of consolidating
the various branches of business VIII
eventually make it impossible for an
individual to engage in any kind of
business with his own capital. He con-
tinued
when we are invited, gentlemen, to
find reasons for the continued exist
ence of the Democratic party, we can,
l am persuaded, accommodate the in
Guirer out Of the easily verified body OF
facts here called attention to- l do
not go so far as to say that there are
no other questions of large significance
to which the Democratic party in the
national field ought to give its best
thought There are other questions;
but if there be not in these (of the
tariff and of the trusts, with their death
to free competition and individual en-
terprise), ground enough for success
full appeal to an enlightened people,
political experience in the United
States is much at fault
Judge Van Wyack then spoke of the
Importance of the canal systems OF
New York state to the commerce of the
country, advocating their Improvement.
Continuing, he said:
NO BRITISH ALLIANCE.
This pressure of English competition
along the entire northern boundary of
our country at the very time when 1t
has become so fashionable for GER
tain class of political leaders and after
dinner speakers to thoughtlessly adVo-
cate a political and commercial alliance
offensive and defensive, between these
two countries. it will not be deemed
amiss to caution our people against
hasty action. Let us be Influenced by
the natural as we'll as the fixed policy
of that nation towards us for a century
and a half, rather than by their pr0fuse
expressions of friendship during the
Spanish war"
The policy of England, he said, has
always been lone of sharp rivalry and
competition with America; it impelled
the revolution of 1776, fought for bust
ness as well as political independence;
brought on the war of 1872, waged the
insolent claim of England for the
right to search our ships of commerce
while riding the highways of the ocean;
caused her to contest every inch of
our northern boundary line from ocean
to ocean; made her encourage our
family troubles in 1860 to 1865 for which