Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-09-21
THE Trust CONFERENCE.
Col. William ]. Bryan the Magnet
of Attraction at Saturdays
Session in Chicago.
HIS VIEWS ON TRUSTS AND MOHOPOLlES.
The People Brought Face to Face
with the Question: Is the Trust q
Blessing Or n Curse.-If a Curse,
What Remedy Can be Applied to
Eradicate the Evil.

Chicago, Sept. 16.-The Civic Fedora
| ton Trust conference at Central mH-
| sic hall was addressed by Col. w. j.
Bryan. The hall was packed in an
ticipation of Col. Bryan's reply to
| w. Bourke Cochran on the trust ques-
| ton.
1t was reported that Col. Bryan had
a set of resolutions to present, pre-
| sumably antagonistic to fruits as they
now exist. He, however, denied this,
saying: Il have none prepared, and l
am not sure whether L have time to
| prepare any for presentation"
The speaker was introduced by Gov.
Stanley Of Kansas, who acted as chair
man of the opening session.
Col. Bryan spoke in part as fol-
| lows:
| Mr.. Bryan's Speech.
| 1.-The trust question has grown in i'm
portance. Within the past two years
more trusts have Deen organized, when
| we come to consider the capitalization
| and the magnitude of the interests in
| 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 curse? L want to start with
| the declaration that monopoly in private
hands is indefensible from any stand
| point and intolerable. One trust may be
! less harmful than another. One trust
| magnate may be more benevolent than
| another; but there IS no good monopoly
| in private hands, and ! do not believe il
| is safe for society to permit any man or
| of merchandise or my branch of bust
| ness.
The Defense of Monopoly.
The defense of the monopoly is always
| low people to control the market, and fix
| the price, they will be good to the people
| who purchase of them. The entire de-
| argument If the trust will sell to a man
| an article for dollar less than the arti
| Gle will cost under other conditions, then,
| in the opinion of son., that proves trust
| to be a good thing. In the first place,
deny, that, under a monopoly the price
| under monopoly the price is reduced,
the objections to a monopoly from other
| standpoints far outweigh the financial ad
| vantage that the trust would bring.
LincOln's Warming.
I'm the early years of LIncolns admins
tration he sent Message to congress,
| and in that message he warned his coun-
trymen against the approach of monarchy.
| He said it was the attempt to put capital
| upon an equal footing with, if not above,
| labor in the structure oe government, ami
| in that attempt he saw the approach OF
| monarchy. Lincoln was right. Whenever
| you put capital upon an equal footing
| ture of government, you are on the road
| to aid a government that rests not upon
r-aSon but upon force.
| Nothing is more iInpo liant than that
| we shall, in the beginning rightly under
stand the relation between money and
man.
| The Purpose of Trusts.
What is the purpose of the trusts or
| the monopoly? For when l use the word
| trust, use it in the sense that the trust
| means monopoly, and whit is the purpose
of monopoly?
THE first advantage of a monopoly is
| to lower the price of the raw material
| ton.
| 1.-The next thing is, that after you have
| of them, and turn out of employment the
| mer who are engaged in fhero, and, it
| will see where those enterprises, having
| come under the control of the trusts, have
| been closed up, and stand now silent
| monuments to the wisdom of the trust
| system. In case of local strikes and fires,
| the work goes on elsewhere, thus prevent
| ing serious loss. What does it mean? 1t
| means that if the people employed in one
| factory not satisfied with the terms
fixed by the ie employer and strike, they
| employees starve, while they go on in
other factories without loss to the manu-
| facturerS.
Some of the Effects.
when a branch of industry is entirely ir
the hands of one great monopoly, so that
| every skilled man in that industry has to
\ go 10 one man Tor employment, then that
| one man will fix wages as lie pleases, and
the labOrinS men will then share the sui
| fering of the man who sells the raw ma
| teriai.
| "Whetn the monopoly has absolute con-
| tro', brains VIII be at discount, and rel
atives will be necessary to ilI these posi-
| tions. There Is no question about it. a
trust, monopoly, can lessen the cost Of
In the Hands of One Man.
There will be no need for commercial
| travellers, because when anybody wants
goods all he has to DO is to write to the
What will you let me have 1T for to-day
He can not only fix the price of what
he sells, but he can fix the terms upon
mans generosity and his decision upon
what is fair when he is on one side and
What is the first thing to be expected
OF trust? That it will cut down ex-
penses. What is the second? That it will
raise prices. We nave not had in this
country yet a taste of a complete trust. n
complete monopoly, and we can not tell
what will be the result of an attempt TO
the attempt to secure q monopoly the
monopoly has been lowering prices in or
1t has rid itself of competitors what is go
ing to be the result?
Human Nature.
My friends. all of you have to know is
human nature. God T1ade men selfish.
Selfshness is merely the outgrowth of an
instinct of self preservation. 1t is the alb
norman development OI Il man $ desire u
protect himself. We must recognize SCI
fishness, and we must SO make our laws
that people shall not be permitted to tres
pass upon the rights OF others in their
efforts to secure advantages for them
selves. 1 believe that society is interested
In the independence Of every citizen. So
city is interested in this because if man
dies and leaves no provisions for his wife
and children. the burden falls upon So
ciety.
Il believe that the principle of monopoly
finds its inspiration in the desire of men
to secure by monopoly what they can 1t
secure in the omen ield of competitio.-.
Tariff and Trust.
Another thing that to my judgment
has aided monopoly, is Il high tariff. No
body can dispute that = tariff law, an i'm
port duty. enables trust to charge for its
product the price of similar foreign
prcduct, plus the tariff
Now, some have suggested that to put
everything on the free list that trusts
make, would destroy the trusts. | do nos
agree with this statement, as it is made
so broadly. L believe that the high tariIf
the trust otherwise could collect. But I
do not believe you could destroy all trusts
by putting all trust-.nade articles on the
free list. Why? Because IL article can
be produced in this country cheaply IS
it can be produced abroad, then the trust
could exist without the benefit of any
tariff at all, although ir could not extort
so much it could with the tariff, and
while some relief may come from modifi-
cations of the tariff, we can not destroy
monopoly until we lay the ak at the root
of the tree and make monopoly impossible
by law.
Railway DISCRIMINATION.
"It has been suggested that discrimina-
kfon by railroads has aided the trusts.
There is no question that discrimination.
favoritiSm, secured oy one corporation
been largely instrumental IN enabling a
desired monopoly to become practically 81