The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-09-26
THE GREATEST TRUST OF ALL.
Cincinnati Enquirer.)

We have a Standard Oil trust, a
Sugar trust, Tobacco trust, a Grain
Elevator trust, Coal trust, Glass
trust, Whisky trust and scores of
others; each one of which aims at
monopoly with view to controlling the
prices of the several commodities in
which they deal. The lawyers have
retained, the newspapers they own and
the statesmen they have subsidized,
assure us that the trusts make every
thing cheaper for the poor man. Hence
the great public benefit derived from
the trusts. 1t is because of the beneYo-
lent disposition of the managers of the
trusts that they put prices down in
stead Of putting them up. 1t is with
in their power to do either at their own
| pleasure. They can make us pay as
much as they please for all the COM
modities in which they deal. They could
make a great deal more money than
| they do, but through pure kindness,
of heart they put the prices down, and
keep them there instead of putting them
up, and thereby putting more money in
their own pockets. So runs the story of
the sooth-sayers who speak to the public
in the interest Of the trusts.
| But there is another trust for the ben
eft of all the trusts which they never
discuss, and that is the great govern
ment trust. A government elected by
the people would be of the people and
for the people, and not for the trusts
1t is, therefore, the policy of the trusts
to substitute their will for that Of the
| people, to whatever extent it may
be done under our form Of governmet
They cannot do this in the sight of the
people. Fish will not bite at hook
that is not concealed by bait. Ameri-
can voters will not knowingly support
monopolies Trusts must, therefore,
operate through leaders, and elect their
chosen instruments by covering them
over with the bait of professions of
of cherished political principles. Some
times the trusts have controlled both
parties as in 1888 and 1892. In 1896 the
Democratic party drove out the false
leaders, and since that time the Repub-
lican party has been the great govern
ment trust, pledged by its leaders to the
service of the trusts and the betrayal
Of the people into their hands.
The Republican party, as at present
, organized, cannot Therefore serve the
people. If trusts are an evil the people
have but one sure remedy, and that is
| W ldy lIle DIX dI InG TOOI OL Tic ITGe,
and destroy the Republican party at the
polls. The trusts will disappear like the
bubbles of the ocean when the people
cease to put the agents and attorneys
of these organizations into high places,
and, with mighty voice, pronounce
their doom at the ballot box.
In vain will conventions adopt resolu-
tions against trusts, and frame legisla-
| ma fn nGf in frnf
harm, so long as a party is kept in
power by the use Of a corruption fund
furnished by the trusts, and so long
as the attorneys Of trusts are elevated
TO seats of both houses of congress.
The Democratic party is the party of
the people; it is the party Of law and
order, maintaining exact justice to the
rich and the poor, and granting favors
to none. 1t does not regulate it's con-
duct with a view to securing contribu-
| tions from the trusts with which to
corrupt the ballot box, or securing the
support of that kind Of employers who
coerced and intimidated poor and de-
pendent voters in the presidential cleo
tion of 1896. The Democratic party
relies upon the untrammeled and free
expression of public opinion at the
polls, and it's leaders recognize only
the sovereignty of men in republic.
The Republican party Of today has no
more relation to the Republican party
as it was when 1t was inspired by the
spirit of Abraham Lincoln, than a slave
ship bears to the comely craft, fresh
from the hands of the workmen, when
originally launched on her element
for honest work on the seas.