The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-09-21
BRYAN SPEAKS
Democratic Leader Addresses the
Chicago Conference ON
Trusts,
And Proposes Remedies for Evils
Resulting From Com
binations
Which Seem to Him Adequate.
Absence of Water a Pre-
requisite.

CHICAGO, Sept. 49, The civic fedora
ton trust conference at Central Music
hall was addressed by Colonel w. ).
Bryan. The hall was packed, in an
ticipation of Colonel Bryan's reply to
w. Bourke Cochran, on the trust ques-
ton. 1t was reported that Colonel
Bryan had set of resolutions to pre-
sent, presumably antagonistic to trusts
as they now exist He, however, denied
this, saying: II have none prepared
and am not sure that I will present
any"
The speaker was introduced by Gov
ernor Stanley of Kansas, who acted as
chairman of the opening session. Col
onel Bryan spoke in part as follows:
The trust question has grown in inn
portance. Within the past two years
more trusts have been organized, when
we come to consider the capitalization
and the magnitude of the interests in
volved, than were organized in all the
previous history of the country, and the
people now come face to face with this
question: Is the trust blessing or a
curse? If curse what remedy can be ap-
piled to the curse2 want to start with
the declaration that monopoly in private
hands is indefensible from any standpoint,
and intolerable. One trust magnate may
be more benevolent than another, but
there is no good in monopoly in private
hands, and I do not believe 1t is safe for
society to permit any man or group of
men to monopolize any article of mer-
ohandise or any branch Of business
In the early years of Lincoln's admin
istration he sent Q message TO congress,
end In that message he warned his coun-
trymen against the approach Of monarchy.
He said 1t was the attempt to put capital
upon an equal footing with, II not above,
labor, in the structure Of government,
and In that attempt he saw the approach
Of monarchy. Lincoln was right. When
eyer you put capital rpons an equal foot
ing With labor or above labor, In the
structure Of government, you are on the
read to aid q government that rests not
upon reason, but upon force.
Nothing is more important than that
we shall, in the beginning, rightly under
stand the relation between money and
man.
What is the, purpose Of the trust or the
monopoly For when use the word trust
use it in the sense that the trust means
monopoly, and what is the purpose Of
monopoly?
The first advantage of monopoly is
to lower the price Of the raw material fur
nished by the people to that combination
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 monu-
ments 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? It means that
If the people employed 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 with
cut loss to the manufacturer.
When branch-af industry Is entirely
in the hands Of ONE great monopoly, 50
that every Skilled man in that industry
has TO so 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 material
When monopoly has complete control
brains will be at a discount, and relatives
will be necessary to fill these positions.
We have not had in this country a taste
of a complete trust a complete monopoly
and we cannot tell yet what will be the
results of complete monopoly by look
ing at the results which have followed
from an attempt to secure a monopoly.
The monopoly has been lowering prices
in order to rid itself of competitions; 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. Selishness is merely
the outgrowth of an instinct of self pres
ervation. tits the abnormal development
of mans desire to protect himself.
We must recognize selfishness and we
must make our laws that people shall not
be permitted to trespass upon the rights
of others in their efforts to secure advan-
tages for themselves. / believe that so
ciety is interested in this because if man
dies and leaves no provisions for his wife
and children, then the burden falls upon
society. And believe that the principle
of monopoly finds it's inspiration in the
desire of men to secure by monopoly what
they cannot secure in the open field of
competition.
Another thing that, to my Judgment,
has aided monopoly, is high tariff. No
body can dispute that tariff law, an inn
port duty, enablesa trust to charge for
its product the price Of similar foreign
product, plus the tariff.
Tariff Not Wholly Responsible.
Now, some have suggested that to put
everything on the free list that trusts
make, would destroy the trusts. do not
agree with this statement as it is made
so broadly. 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 pro-
duced in this country as cheaply as 1t can
be produced abroad, then the trust could
exist without the benefit of any tariff at
all, although it could not extort so much