Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-09-29
BRYAN ON TRUSTS.
Remedy Recommended for the
Abatement of Monopoly.
rheo Dollar and the Man-Prices and
waEes-ERect of High Tariff
Legislation Against
the Evil.

ference at chicago saturday, SepIem-
Der 9, was rendered extremely inter
.sting by the speech of William j.
Bryan on the subject of trusts, in the
course of which he said:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 1
am glad that live in a country where peo-
pie can differ from each other, differ hon
estIy, express their convictions boldly, and
yet respect each other and acknowledge
each others rights. am not vain enough.
however, to think that any good will which
has been expressed by the people toward
is due to any personal merit If have
had political friends, 1t is because people
believe with me in certain ideas-or, rather,
that I believe with them in certain ideas
II is the idea that makes the man. Gap
plause.) The man is only important as he
helps the idea.
Il come to discuss in your presence a
great question, a question of growing i'm
portance to the American people. The trust
principle is not a principle, but the
trust principle is manifesting itself in so
many ways, and the trusts have grown SO
rapidly, that people now feel alarmed about
trusts who did not feel alarmed three years
ago. The trust question has grown in i'm
portance because within two years more
trusts have been organized. when we come
to consider the capitalizati ton and the mag
nitude of the interests involved, than were
organized in all the previous history of the
country, and the people now come face to
face with the question: Is the trust bless
ing or a curse? If curse, what remedy
can be applied to the curse?
Il want to start with the declaration that
monopoly in private hands is indefenSible
from any standpoint, and intoierable. Gap
plause.) / make no exceptions to the rule.
do not divide monopolies in private hands
into good monopolies and bad monoplies.
(Applause.) There is no good monopoly in
private hands. There can be good mo-
nopoly in private hands until the Almighty
sends us angels to preside over us. Gap
piause) There may be despot who is bet
ter than another despot, but there is no
good despotism. 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 it is safe for
ciety to permit any man or group of men to
monopolize any article of merchandise or
any branch of>business. (Applause.)
What is the defense made of the monop-
oily? The defense of the monopoly is always
placed on the ground that If you will allow
people to control the market and fix the
price they will be good to the people who
purchase of them The entire defense of
the trusts rests upon a money argument.
II the trust Will sell to man an article for
a dollar less than the article will cost under
other conditions. then, in the opinion of
some, that proves a trust to be a good thing.
In the first place. L deny that under mo-
nopoly the price will be reduced. In the
second place. If, under a monopoly, the
price is reduced, the objections to monop-
oily from other standpoints far outweigh
the Hnancld1 advantage tnat the trust
: would bring.
Protests Against Dollar Standard.
But protest in the beginning against
settling every question upon the dollar ar
gument. applause and cheers) 1 protest
against the attempt to drag every question
down to the low level of dollars and cents.
(ApplauSe.)
I'm 1859 Abraham Lincoln wrote letter to
some people at Boston, and in the course of
the letter he said: The republican party
believes in the man and the dollar, but in
case of conflict it believes in the man before
the dollar (Applause.)
Nothing is more important than that we
shall, In the beginning, rightly understand
the relation between money and man. Gap
plause.1 Man is the creature of God and
money is the creature of man. (Applause.)
Money is made to be the servant of man
(applause), and protest against all the
cries that enthrone money and debase man
kind prolonged applause.)
What is the purpose of the trusts or the
nonopolies? For when use the word trust
| use it in the sense that the trust means
monopoly, and what is the purpose of mo-
nopoly? If you want to find out you can
ticd out from the speeches made by those
who are connected with the trusts.
Il have here speech made by Charles r.
Flint a Boston on the 25th day of last May,
and the morning papers of the 26th, in de-
scribing the meeting, said that he defended
he trust before an exceedingly sympathetic
audience. and then added for his audience
was composed almost exclusively of Boston
bankers. (Applause.)
Effect Raw Material.
The first advantage of monopoly is to
lower the price of the raw material fur
nished by the people to that combina ton.
tApplause) Those plants which are best
equipped and most adyantageously stu
ated are run continuously, and in prefer
ence to those less favored The next thing
is, after you have bought up all the fac
tories, to close part of them, and turn out
of employment the men who are engaged
in them (Applause) And, if you will go
about over the country, you will see where
people have subscribed money to establish
enterprises, and where those enterprises,
having come under the control of the trusts
have closed up, and stand now as silent
monuments to the wisdom of the trust sys-
tenn. (Applause) In case of local strikes
and fires, the work goes on elsewhere, thus
preventing serious loss. Do not the labor
ing men understand what that means? In
case of local strikes or fires, the work goes
on elsewhere, thus preventing serious loss.
What does 1t mean? 1t means that if the
people employed in one factory are not sat
sshed with the terms fixed by the employer,
and strike. they can close down that fac
tory, and let the employees starve while
they go on in other factories without loss
TO the manufacturers.
Brains at a Discount.
"Iwantt to warn you that when the monop-
Oily has absolute control brains will be a
discount and relatives will be necessary to
I'LL these positions. (Applause.) When
there is competition every employer has to
get good man to meet competition; but
when there is no competition, then anybody
can sit in the office and receive letters and
answer them when everybody has to write
to the same house for anything ne wants
daughter and applauSe.) There is no cues
ton about it. trust, monopoly, can les
sen the cost of distribution. But when il
does so. society has no assurance that ii
will get any of the benefits from that re-
Inc Of 90 in 0r d..
you will take away the necessity for that
skill for those brains. You will take away
the stimulus that has given to us the quick
ness, the salertnesS, of the commercial trav-
s eler, and these men, these commercial
evangelists who go from one part of the
country to the other CARRYING the merits Of