The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-06-05
BEGINNING OF THE OPPOSITION To
TRUSTS.

Opposition to trusts. as such. originated
with the Republican party. They first began
to attract attention and to become men,
ace to the Industrial prosperity of the coun-
try during the first administration of Gro
yer Cleveland. from 1894 to 1898. The Cotton
seed Oil Trust was formed in 1885, and the
Standard Oil Trust. with capital stock of
A5,0O0000. was formed in 1887, both during
Mr.. Clevelands first administration. Sew
eral other trusts were formed about the
same time and the matter began to attract
attention.
II is believed that General Harrison was
the first person to denounce them in pub
lie speech, as he was also the first Presi-
dent to recommend antitrust legislation by
Congress- On the 26th of August. 1856, Gen.
Harrison. then United States senator. de-
campaign at Danville, Ind. In this speech
after discussing various public questions.
he referred to this abominable and un-
American system which is recently devel-
oped called trusts" He said:
This sort of thing has come about: The
men making steel rails form an association
and they say, I'VE must not make too many
steel rails. the price will go down" And so
they say to a steel mill over in ST. Louis,
Now. don't you make any rails this year
at AL you lie. your fires go out. You can
discharge all your workmen and we will
pay you out of the pool enough to make
you good dividend on your stock or your
capital" And the mill shuts down. turns
out the workmen that should be there. and
gets out of the pool a good interest on its
investment. We had a whisky pool
don't know that anybody would object that
rhex- lirfrif f1n hrIf will Trs
just as well for illustration. They work 1t
in the same way. They say TO this dis
tillery. Your capacity, is hundred bar
Don't you run at all and we will pay you"
And they pool 1t all up and fix prices this
way. Now, this thing is running too far.
Ii is un-American; Ii is unpatriOtic, in my
Judgment. and you will notice that those
who are attacking our tariff system take
their position behind these facts and use
them as the ground Of their assault We
must find some way to stop such combina-
tions. L believe these things should be made
unlawful. prohibited and punished as con-
spiracies against the people.
This is believed to have been the first pub
lie expression against trusts made in the
United States. Two years later General
Harrison was nominated and elected Presi-
dent. The national platform on which he
stood contained the following:
We declare our opposition to all combina-
tons of capital, organized in trust or other
wise. TO control arbitrarily the condition of
trade among our citizens, and we recommend
to Congress and state legislatures In their
respective jurisdictions such legislation as
will prevent the execution of all schemes to
Cypress the people by undue charges on
their supplies, or by unjust rates for the
TRANSPORTATION of the products to market.
We approve the legislation of Congress to
prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair dis
ordinations between the States.
This was the first declaration of any ma
tional convention on the subject. The DEM
ocratic national platform of that year con-
tanned no reference to 1t. In his first an
nual message. in December, 1889. General
Harrison called the attention of Congress to
the formation of trusts and said:
When organized. as they often are to
crush out all healthy competition and TO
monopolize the production or sale Of an ar
ticle of commerce and general necessity.
they are dangerous conspiracies against the
public good. and should be made the subject
of prohibitory and even penal legislation.
This led to the Introduction of the Sher-
man antitrust bill. which was passed by
a Republican Congress and approved by
President Harrison on the 18th of June, 1890
Democratic opposition to trusts is of very
recent origin.