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. J.
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 ! 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 i'm
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
curseP If curse what remedy can be APP
piled to the curseP Iwant 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 do not believe st is safe for
society to permit any man or group OF
men to monopoltze any article Of mer-
chandise or any branch Of business.
In the early years of Lincoln's admin
fstration he sent 9 message TO congress,
end In that message he warned his coun-
try1nen against che 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
ever you put capital upon an equal foot
Iingswitk labor sOr4 above labor, In the
structure Of government, you are on the
read to aid . 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 I use heword trust
I use it In the sense that the trust means
monopoly, and what is the purpose OF
monopoly?
The first advantage of monopoly IL
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 60 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 of industry Is entirely
that every skilled man In that industry
4ltbS W SO W VAC S4lC 14ASklI
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 taste
of complete trust, a complete monopoly
and we cannot tell yet what will be the
results of a 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 competition; but
when 1t 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. Selshness 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 its 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 i'm
port duty, enables q 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
every thing on the free list that trusts
make, would destroy the trusts. / do not
agree with this statement, as 1t 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