New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1900-03-03
FIGHTING THE TRUSTS

FIUUl llNU oUE IkOSlS
Speech delivered in calling the nationa
antitrust convention together at Contra
Music Hall. Chicago, on Lincoln's birth
day, February 10, 1900, by NJ. l.. Lock
wood, president of the American Anti
Trust League.
Twenty eight years ago ther,
gathered at the little town of Frank
lin, Pa, inst as we have gathered
here. the representative men of tn,
five oil producing counties of ives
tern Observation-Disclosures tt
protest, aye, and to revolt, against
the infamous thing known as the
South Improvement company con
tract with the five trunk railways
The contract gave to the men who
afterwards created the Standard
| Oil Co. a rebate or drawback OF
more than 81 a barrel of oil shipped
from the oil regions of Pennsyl-
vania, whether shipped by the
South Improvement Co. or not. In
other words, the railway companies
contracted to take more than 81 a
barrel from the independent pro.
ducers and refiners of Pennsylvania
in excessive freights and transfer
it into the Golfers of the South I'm
provement Co. The people of the
oil regions of Pennsylvania went
into revolt and defied this railroad
power. They declared that the
equal rights of the people over the
highways of the country should not
be destroyed, that the railway com
panies must ship upon equal terms
to every American citizen, that the
discrimination contracted for by
the South Improvement Co. con-
tract they would not submit to.
They would tear up the railroad
taacks and burn their bridges first.
My friends, that little band of
determined men, backed by the
mighty power of right, rocked that
old keystone State to her center.
They went before her legislature,
then in session, and demanded aud
secured the repeal Of the South I'M
provement Co. charter; and the
life of that corporation, creature
of the state, was snuffed out just
as any corporations life can be
snuffed out whenever the public's
welfare demands it. For "the pub
lie welfare is the supreme law"
But the monopoly which the rail
way companies failed to create un-
der the open contract of the South
Improvement Co. they have since
created by system of secret rebates
and drawbacks which they have
given to the Standard Oil Co.
Yes, my friends, and this same
power Of secret rebates from the
railway companies has since mo-
nopolized into the hands Of the ia
vored few almost every industry in
America. The awful crime of rail-
way discrimination has destroyed
the equal rights of the American
citizenship. It has monopolized
the industries of the country; it
has gone on and on creating monop-
oily. transferring the wealth created
by the masses into the hands of the
few, until to-day almost every de-
veloped resource of this great land
is under the control Of some kind
of an accursed monopoly.
That little band of oil producers
gathered in Franklin in 1872, pro-
testing against monopoly, protest
ing against special privileges-that
little band has broadened and wild
ened, just in proportion as monop-
olies have touched the other indus
tries Of our land, until to-day the
representative patriotic men Of this
great nation have gathered here at
Chicago determined that the wrong
Of monopolies and trusts shall be
wiped from off the escutcheon OF
the republic.
The mighty power Of right against
wrong which shook the old state of
Pennsylvania in 1872, and forced
the repeal of the South Improve
ment Co. charter, will shake the
republic of states in 1900. The
mighty power of the American bal
lot focused upon the wrong Of mo-
nopoly, focused upon the laws by
which special privileges have been
granted, will wipe out the wrong
and purge from the statute books
all special privileges.
Up from all Of the centuries, up
from all of the sacrifices Of all Of
the patriots, heroes and martyrs of
the past has come this government
of ours, based upon the doctrine Of
the equal rights of man. If we
fail, liberty is lost forever. There
is no virgin soil, no unbroken will
- .-ls~l =. -y.~A Al k..o