Arizona republican., 1899-05-02
sICKENING CANT.

There is a lot of sickening hypocrisy about the latest trumped-up issue of the democracy. Many men in all parts of the country, democrats and repubt- cans, are sincerely and conscientious -ly opposed to large aggregstions of capital, commonly called trusts, be- liewfng that evils will attend them i1 the form of restricted competition, higher prices to consumers and lower wages. All this is mere speculation, biawever, in asmuch as the trust mania is still in the incipient stage; many of the newly created trusts are embryo concerns existing as yet only on paper or in the intangible dreams of the promoters who hope to make i'll gotten fortunes out of the combinations they engineer If WE are to base opinions On the quite limited experience the country has had with real trusts which can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, such as tha oil, steed and sug r.
 combines we can reach no conclu- sion tcl justify the a,armists like Bryan who are engaged in the same dolorous prophesying as marked the campaign of 1896. We neither justify no.' con demn trusts, but we must admit that net one of these three great combii.a-- tions has raised prices to consumers or imposed on labor. On the contrary they have greatly reduced the whole sale and retail prices Of oil, sugar and steel wares, and the present wave of wage increases which is sweeping the country was led by the steel trls-. Men may have grave apprehensions con corning trusts and their economic ef- fects, but no honest man can say that up to the present they have been a great evil unless it be in the concen- tration of wealth. The democratic leaders in a crafty and desperate hunt for new issue, finding silverism dying and imperialism oaly a bagy which deceives few, have lighted on this trust issue. The hypocritical con cern of these leaders for the dear peo- ple was shown at the recent $10 dem ocratic dinner in New York where the keynote of the speeches was down with the trustsi'' The same keynote was sounded at the $1 dinner. At the former feast sat it's star patron Rich ard Croker, democratic leader who has amassed most of his wealth by a particularly odious form of monopoly in city contracts. He is a stockholdsT in many corporations which through his gigantic ''pull'' have stified and are stif1ing all competition within his great domain. One of his sons is di- rector in a new corporation chartered in New Jersey with capital of millions, another is an officer ir a big iron concern with a New Ycrh monoEoly-a mere boy who is paic s2,5O0 year for learning the busi ness.'' Allied with CrOker in politics and business is William c. Whitney, national leader of the party, who ii one of the big Ll-lwers in the Standari Oil trust and owns vast trolley, ga' and othsr monopolistic stocks. At th' s1 dinner was William T. Bryan, thu touter fer enc of the biggest trusts il America, the silver smeIting combine which has recently aWowed its inten tion of raising the price of bar silve 10 psr cent, and has for years trie' to compel the nation to buy it's stu1 at it's own price. In New Jersey is ex Senator James Smith, Jr., one of tn richest men in the stats and vigilan and eager grabber after monc3oNsti franchises and the moneyed packer ( numerous trolley, gas and other truss The list might be multiplied largel! It is large enough now to prove tn
 hypocrisy Of the democratic concer for the people and effort to connect th
 name of the republican party with tt
 new flood of trusts. The new issue