Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-03-21
THE CURE FOR TRUSTS.
An Address to the People of
Kansas by the Press Bu-
reau of the Populist
State Committee.
To the People of Kansas:

The present rank growth OF iad''s-
trial and business tyrants-the trusts,
syndicates and corporations, which
to-day rule and Cypress the American
peoples the natural and inevitable
outgrowth Of the selfshness which
permeates poor and rich alike in our
land. Each man has devoted hrs time
and energy so exclusively to the pur-
suit of his own little personal ambi-
tions. to the struggle for the almighty
dollar, that he has been criminally
and dangerously Indifferent to grave
questions of public welfare. In sor-
did contest like this, not only the
powerful and cunning, but the most
sarily win. They are the ''fittest"
for such sodden struggle. If his
tory teaches one lesson it is this, that
a nation that is sunk in materia.ism,
selfshness and greed. will breed ty-
rants as naturally as a carcass breeds
maggots.
Our nineteenth century tyrants are
neither few nor weak. They control
all the arteries of commerce and most
of the necessaries of life. They WELD
power no. possessed by Qlcel Victor
ia nor Emperor Willamette power
to levy taxes without the consent of
their subjects Each one of the hun
dreds of trusts, syndicates, combines
or corporations which have practical
monopolies on the different necessi-
ties of life, is able, in addition to the
fair average profit obtained by bust
ness men competing with each other,
to levy a monopoly tax on every
American sovereign (?) who is forced
to use its product. No English lord
exerts the colossal influence of Hunt
ington, the railroad magnate; no Ger
man baron yields 1.-THE of the tyr
annical fore, of Rockefeller, the
Standard Oil king; no Italian prince
is more than doll in power, when
compared to our Napoleon of finance,
Pierpont Morgan, or our even more
illustrious suzerain of tyrants, Mark
| Hanna.
What are we going to do about it?
First comes the battle OF the poll
ticians; we must conquer the enemy
at the polls. Second comes the battle
between statesmen; we must complete
the subiugation in the halls of Con-
gress, and in the courts, where the
last stand will be made.
As to the first part of our program,
the defeat OF the enemy at the polls,
we may as we'll acknowledge at the
start that it will prove no easy task.
! The powers of organized greed so
completely dominate in the strong
holds of our national life and pros
peritv that their financial resources
for the struggle are as ineXhausti bic
as our national wealth. When they
want SIS, 600, 600 for a campaign fund.
all they have to do is to levy an adj
ditional tax on their victims for that
amount If they need twice that
much, with which to debauch voters,
the process is simply repeated. 1t is
clear that we have to fight unlimited
wealth in the hands of absolutely I'M
scrupulous men. Can we win?
There is only one force on earth
that is more powerful than Doodle,
and that is a moral indignation, a
moral enthusiasm, patriotic devo-
ton which is ready to sacrifice time
money and life itself to principle. A
man who is on fire with a love Of
humanity, home and country, CAL
neither be bribed nor BULLDOG ed. Like
Achilles, he is invulnerable. Each
one must &C forth, not to see what he
can gain for himself, but with grim
discriminate and a sublime devotion
to see how best he can spend himself
to accomplish most for our common
cause. Unless the cause is dearer tt
US than personal gain or personal am
bition not only will we fail, but we
will deserve to fail. The organized
selfshness of the masses can never
overcome the organized selishuess
and greed of plutocracy, but the or
gained altruism, the organized self
sacrifice, of the common people is a.
resistless as the rythmical movement
of the tides
After we have conquered our ty
rants at the polls, our most desperate
conflict is before US. To complete
their subjugation we must face thei
2 final stand in the halls of Congress
: and in the courts. What policy will
bring success in the struggle? FRS
of all, it is certain that we canno
afford to indulge in obsolete. pueril
quack palliatives.
We might as we'll try to sweep bacl
the ocean with broom as to attempt
r to force business back into the oil
: narrow competitive channels by re
pressive, restrictive or prohibitiv
g legislation.
A trust, not built on special priv
leges ''is labor saving machine.
. Yes, but at present prostituted b.
! monopolies to their own base pur
q poses Mr.. Rockefeller and 9th r
have proved that trust is a goo