Amador ledger., 1900-10-05
GOOD TRUSTS AND BAD TRUSTS,

bad trusts. You might say there are
good kings and bad kings and thus <e-
fend monarchy. I don't care wh.ther
king is good or bad-I hate a king
w. j. Bryan. at Chicago, Sept. ID.
The above declaration is very cliGr-
acteristic of Mr.. Bryan, whose convic-
tions owe their existence to sound rather
than to reflection. If declaration
sounds well to him it seems true to him
and he pursues his investigations no
further
But there are good trusts, Mr.. Fryan
to the contrary Notwithstanding, aud
we have some very excellent on.'s i'll
California.
The California Raisin association is
as certainly trust as any trust i'll AM
erica, yet it wrongs no one and benefits
thousands.
The California growers of raisipa, t3-
fore forming their trust, dumped tncir
entire product on the market wit Mn n
few weeks, competed disastrously With
/
tition, deprived every function i'll iaud-
ling the product from grower t" e NJ
sumer of all reliability and Sai''' =.
The packer, the shipper, the johoc;' .'i,t
the retailer all suffered for no cnr Of
them dared to buy for fear his corr,Hti-
tor would under-buy and conscq.' Hly
under-sell and so leave him to uli'er
loss. Many prudent men ceased 10
handle raisins at all OF, if at ii, III
supplies that would last only from day
to day.
A bona fide trust was formed. Trus-
tees were selected by the grow rs to
handle their entire product for Il COM
mon benefit. AS sales were made each
grower received his part of the pro-
ceeds and so there was all end to imp
ing the product. Money lender, 5 e.
ing that there was an assurance oi sla-
bility, advanced funds Oh warehouse
receipts so that the grower could bOr-
row enough to pay his help for making
the crop, the jobber was willing L. buy
because all jobbers bought on the same
terms, the retailer could buy of hi job
Der with an equal certainty OF fair deal
ing The consumers market WIS al
flicted with neither a feast nor fam
Inc and prices paid by the cunsl i!"rs
were not hurtfully raised and tn,.u
was a stable price level instead NI an
unstable f1uctuation that prevented any
one knowing what raisins wou'i be
worth week hence.
The prune growers of California hay
ing suffered as the raisin growers .taYe
suffered heretofore, have sought the
same remedy and with success.
The orange growers are looking to the
same method of deliverance and the
formation of a trust that shall embrace
all the covers of fruits shipped green
is looked forward to with hopefu,ness.
Not one of the trusts has sought to
limit production, raise prices uniustiy
to consumers, crush out competition OF
encourage speculation in their shares,
and as they have done none of the bad
things which trusts do, and only the
good things which trusts may do, we
conclude that, despite Mr.. Bryan's
sweeping declaration, there are good
trusts-good combinations of producers.
1t is the policy of the Republican
party to afford every facility for the
form tiou of crood frr7ctc and aI-ar,- ,,oc
sible means likewise, for the punish
ment of bad trusts, and for restraining
trusts from doing things that are hurt
full to society.
1t is the policy of Mr.. Bryan and his
party to destroy all trusts, the good and
the bad, the useful as well as the hurt
full. The Republican party would say
to the Californian fruit grower: Cor
ganize for your own protection, but
not for the injury of Others" Mr..
Bryan's party says to them: For fear
that you would misuse the needful
power for helping yourselves you shall
not combine your several interests in
one interest but shall fight until you
bring each other to bankruptcy "We
don't care whether trusts are good or
bad. We hate trusts"
Mr.. Bryan is deficient in discrimin-
alton. To his unanalytical mind the
doctrine of the divine right of kings is
a perfect parallel to the doctrine of the
right of producers to organize for their
own protection, but man having COM
mon sense, and an ordinary discrimin-
alton, is able to see that opposition to
kingship rests on a disbelief i'll the doc
trine of the divine right of an heredi.
tary power to rule other men, whereas
the trust owes its existence to a right to
organize for -protection-the first
law of nature.
In other words kingship owes its
origin to wrong principle. The trust
owes its existence to perfectly correct
principle. A good king can not cure
the wrong principle to which he owes
his kinglE office. A bad trust can not
vitiate the true principle to which it
owes its origin. The trust is good or
bad according to its acts, just as an ill.,
dividual is good or bad according to his
acts, and the trust will have to be con-
troled as men are controlled, permitted
| to do right, but punished for wrong