The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-08
TALKS ON TRUSTS
Col. Il. C. Wetmore Gives His
Views
On the Ubiquitous Combinations
in Trade.
FROZEN OUT HIMSELF.
A Millionaire Manufacturer
Gives Up and
Makes a Thrilling Talk to His
$500 Employees.
FROZEN OUT HIMSELF
A Strong Democrat, He Thinks
Only Hope in His Party.

ers of tobacco in the country The to-
bacco trust determined to-possess this
plant. Col. Wetmore was equally deter
mined that it should not. One by one 1t
bought out his associates in the business
until he was left in a minority and com
PEELED to accept the best terms he could
Secure
He had been connected with the bust
ness twenty-five years, grew up from a
company, and it was bitter experience
to be forced by the power of money out
of the business which he had built up
from small beginnings.
on the day he was compelled to surren-
der he gathered the $500 employees of the
establishment in the space in front OF the
factory denounced trusts and promised
to devote his remaining years and his
fortune to the overthrow of the system.
AS Col. Wetmore is q Democrat, natur-
ally his views have Democratic unse,
but that he has strong convictions on
the subject no one who hears him talk
Discussing the relation of the trust
question to the coming presidential cam
paign with a State Journal representative
Col. Wetmore said:
The issues which will be presented to
the voters for their consideration in the
campaign OF 1900 are already made up.
Among them all there is none more d1-
rectly affecting the welfare and happiness
OF the great mass OF the people than the
question of whether they are to continue
to be at the mercy of the constituencies
they shall buy and how much they shall
pay for the articles necessary to their
daily Hfe. Upon TINS question the Demo7
cratic party stands four square and solid
as the rock of Gibraltar. 1t is unalterably
nations that have for their object the
control of production. We are opposed
to such combines because they are mimi
cal to human liberty; because their ten
dency is in the direction of the old idea
that to the few belong all the good things
of the earth, and that the lot of the
many is to be heWers of wood and draw
ers of water: because they are in opposi-
ton to the idea that the Iaborer IS en-
titled to a fair share of the wealth which
he produces. Upon this proposition there
a dissenting the
drawn and the trusts Know their enemy.
"Our great standard bearer in 1896 warn
ed the trusts that If he was elected he
would do AM in his power to- sweep them
from the face of the earth. No one can
be deceived. It is a fight to the death.
The triumph of the Democratic party
the people rely for deliverance from in
dustrial slavery upon the Republican
while the evil had not reached it's pres
emit enormous development, the trust
discussed wherever Democratic meetings
were held. Yet the Republican platform
ject, nor did any of the Republican ora
tors dare place themselves on record in
opposition to the encrOachmentS of con-
solidated capital. How was it possible
for them to do so? Every syndicate, every
It's millions from the people to enable
them to pay dividends on Watered stock,
poured a goloen slreaIn INTO the HepupH-
can campaign tund. Could they XIII this
goose with its prolific crop of golden
eggs? All the traditions of Republican
political management forbade such sac
rilege. .,.
tcians have, like Saul of Tarsus, seen
great light; but unlike Saul, the sincerity
of their conversion is open to doubt. The
Republican press now teens with guard
edly written articles on the necessity of
curbing and regulating combinations
which are proven to be Injurious to the
public welfare. Hair splitting distinc-
tiOnS are drawn between the good trusts
and those which should be Weeded out.
w e must be very careful. In UDrOOfi1O a
wicked and dangerous trust, lest in
advertently destroy some combination or
gained for the benevolent purpose of
furnishing the consumer with goods at
lower prices Were it not for the known
incorrdptibie character Of these protest
ers We might be justified in SuSpecting
that the list of benefcent copnbina tons
might ultimately be extended, in the
event OF the success of the g. o. p. at
the polls to include the whole brood.
his late message to congress says that
combinations whereby prices are unduly
obnoxious The plain inference from
this language is that in the opinion of
not unduiy enhance the price of the ar
ticle it controls, is not injurious, no mat
ton in such article The attorney gen
eral in his annual report calls attention
to the Sherman antitrust law of 1890, but
evidently more for the purpose of dis
couraging intending litigantS by defining
the limitations of that act than to indi-
ions to the fullest extent.
THE truth is, the present perfunctory
denunciations of trusts by Republican or
acles parta1e of the character of a sham
battle-plenty of noise, but blank cart
ridges. The Syndicates which placed the
Republican party in power in 1896 are per-
fectly willing to be abused for the pious
purpose Of soothing the consciences of
farce understand themselves and one an
other.
The issue can not be obscured by this
belated appearance of hostility to trusts
on me part OF our Republican friends, nor
fa1 a hon fhc
necessity of discriminating between good
and bad combinations.
There are no good trusts. Every COM
bination which has for its object the de-
nying to the citizen of the right to en-
strict his choice of a market in which to
buy or sell, is bad in itself. The fact that
sohdation of the different factories en-
gagged in making a certain article, is i'm
emphasize this point The Vial and t ag
sential thing is that by this combination
me people nave losl the power OF dong
something which they had right to do
and that by so much their liberty of ac-
ton IS curtailed- The people can better
AFFORD to pay greatly enhanced prices for
everything they have to buy than to OBJ
tain a reduction in price at the expense
of the law of supply and demand viii
quickly remedy the first, but there are
very few examples in history of a people
recovering their liberties once lost: and
where they have, the cost has been fear
win the voters of the United States
entrust the work of industrial regenera-
ton to their friends or their enemies?
VIII they continue in power a party
which is controlled by those who have
! brought about the conditions of which
they now have cause to complaint Many
who have studied the subject are con-
WINGED that there are now on the statute
books laws which If enforced would bring
complete relief from the intolerable evils
Of the trust. regime. Of what avail is
it that such laws. exist if those entrusted
with their execution fail in the perform
ance of their duty, or are benehciaries of
those whose interest it is that the laws
be not enforced2 Despite all the laws