Willmar tribune., 1899-10-11
THE GOLD STANDARDS BROOD
Evils That Have Come to Life DUR
ing Its Reign -Calamities
Go I'm Groups. z

lamities go in groups and the gold
standard has brought with it a brood
of evils, each Of which threatens the life
of the republic. You will find that as
rule gold standardites are not willing
to take a definite position on any Of
these questions. AS they look to cor
rupt and concentrated wealth for
favors, they are not willing to take
a position which might incur it's ill
will. There is the great question of
government by injunction, a system
under which a federal judge elevated to
office by corporation influences strikes
down the right of free speech, and with
contemptuous wave of the hand
brushes aside the right of trial by jury,
that bulwark of English liberty, at
the mere request of a corporation agent.
The Anglo-Saxon race has shed more
blood to maintain the right of free
speech, and the right of trial by jury,
than for any other purpose, and yet
here in free America we see the very
foundation of liberty f1ippantly brushed
aside, and have not heard vigorous
protest against this practice from a
single gold standard man in America.
This is an age of concentration, of the
formation of great corporations, of
great trusts and of great monopolies.
It is found that by concentration the
cost of production can be cheapened,
and if the public got the benefit of this
it might be a. blessing, it would shorten
the hours of labor and advance civiliza-
tion, but instead of that the benefit of
it under the republican administration
goes to a few private individuals, who
by making themselves complete mas
ter of the market and having absolute
control of the output of articles of ne
cessity to the people are able to arbi-
trarily fix the price of that article on
the one hand, and are able to arbitrarily
fix the wages on the other hand. In
consequence of this fact, these monopo-
lies are not only curse to the coun-
try, but are threatening to overthrow
our institutions, for they furnish the
corruption funds that are destroying
us. For quarter of a century both
political parties have denounced cor
porations, trusts and monopolies.
| legislated against them. The federal
government has legislated against
them, yet in spite of this denuncia ton,
in spite of all this legislation, state
and federal, they have gone on multi
plying. State legislation has been
found to be absolutely futile, because
federal judges uniformly declared it to
| be unconstitutional. Federal legisla-
ton has likewise been found to be
futile. The trusts are masters of the
situation. It is evident that to simply
go on denouncing trusts is an insult
to the intelligence of the American
people. 1t is the cheapest kind of po-
litical demagogy. The time has come
when some. new method OF, dealing with
these monopolies must be adopted.
The experience of other countries, as
well as thorough consideration of the
question. shows that it is impossible
to reduce many of these monop-
olies back to their original element.
They have come to stay and, therefore,
it is the mission and the duty of the
democratic party to secure the benefit
of the monopoly for the public, for the
people, that means municipal and gov
ernmental ownership of all monopolies
which it is practicable for govern
ment as yet to control. Have you heard
any gold standard democrat declare
himself openly to be in favor of this,
or of any other practicable manner of
dealing with the monopolies? Instead
of that, what do they propose? They
tell us that we should adopt platform
denouncing trusts. That is, we shall
do what we have been doing for quar-
ter of a century, indulge in declarations
that signify nothing. Mr.. Depew late
ly declared that the republican party
would, in its platform, denounce trusts.
What is the purpose of this? Why,
simply to fool the people, entertain the
people. Trust lawyers and men who
secretly serve monopolies will draw
the declarations denouncing trusts, and
it will be farce.-John P. Altgeld.