The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-26
Depex and the Trusts.

Senator Depew, being an educated man
to make better fist at defence of the
trusts than one who, like MarcusA Hanna,
however competent he may be in some re-
speets. is illiterate and, when excited. too
coarse and abusive TO make favorable i'm
precision upon intelligent audiences. But.
on reading the speech of the railway mag
nate delivered at Newburg y. Y. on Mon
day night, We are forced to the conclusion
that Mr.. Dspew is hardly happier tha=i
Hanna in his attempts 10 dodge the trust
issue. Here is an illustration of his de-
feusive tactics. In the speech referred to
the Senator said:
Il have yet to see a Democratic speech which
clearly defines what is a trust and what are the
trusts Certainly every combination Of industries
Is not a trust 1t has been held that where a
number Of corporations. doing the same business,
place the management and control in the hand.
of separate agency that that i trust, and
that il is unlawful There were many such trusts
in the country, but since the decision of the
Supreme Court, they have all been absorbed by
single corporations, aud the constituent organi-
ztions which constituted the trust have disap-
peared into the corporation.
The speaker went on to pay a high
compliment to the Republican party for
its patriotism and purity in passing laws
which wiped out these trusts and en-
abled them TO continue their careers of
monopoly and oppression under cover of
New Jersey corporate charters. 1t was
in this way that the Standard Oil Com
pany, once a collection of corporations,
operated by trust agency, became what
it. isl It's business is the sGme. is
methods, profits. exactions are the same
only more so. In other words. since the
designation of "undertakeTP' hf4d be-
come obnoxious the trust undsrtakers
ceased to accept it as longer applica-
BILE to them, and therceforward resolved
to be funeral directors instead
There were many such trusts in the
country" explains Senator Depew, but
since the decision of the Supreme Court,
they have all been absorbed by single cor
porations." Like Mr.. Hanna. this ADLER
champion asserts distinction which few
sane people will recognize as a difference.
We may grant that, technically speaking,
the name Of the thing may have changed,
but the thing itself exists in more perni-
cious activity and with more danger to the
liberties Of the people and TO their insti-
tutions than ever before. 1t matters lit
tie from the economic or social point OF
view whether the organization OF the oil
sugar. steel. leather. biscuit. tobacco rum,
and other monopnlies is called trust, or
a corporation. The monopoly is there and
that is the thing against which the masses
of the people are revolving. A trust by
any other name is the same old rapacious
and cruel extortioner, robbeT. and enemy
to society. II Senator Depew cannot find
anything better to say in defence of trusts
than he has presented in his Newburg
speech. it would be well for hir.i TO try some
weeks Of discreet silence. The fact that
their ablest advocate on the stump cannot
find more convincing line of argument TO
take up in their behalf, ought to warn tina
trust magnates that they have a very poor
case, and probably very poor chance to
renew their lease OF the White House for
another four years