The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-11-26
Circulation Statement.
Trust. Have Come to stay.

Among the trust magnates of the coun'
try none. except Senator Scott. perhaps
has been as habitualfy frank about the
system. its foundation. and tendencies, a:
Mr., Charles r, Flint. of New York. He has
never tried TO dodge behind rhetorical cl
legal fctions and deny that trusts exist
as Mr.. Hanna did during the recent Presi
Dental campaign. To Mr.. Flint trusts
are altogether good, while one OF them is
rich blessing. and he is not afraid te
say SO and to declare that they have come
20 stay. In an address before the Outlook
Club at Montelair. n. J.. on Friday he
said:
This new Consolidation era has CORE to stsy
Let no young ran think otherwise. That fact
was settled in our recent Presidential election.
The justice and wisdom in consoiidation-tle
trnst-was as distinct an issue as the single
standard. and it emphatiealy ratified by
The people"
Except that the single standard was not
IN issue in the recent campaign, because
the Fifty-sixth Congress had disposed CT
1t as political question for the next FIVE
years at least. what Mr.. Flint said was
obviously true. There was not an issue
decided at the polls on the sixth of No
vember as important to the country as
that of the trusts. 1t was squarely before
the people. Concerning it they had not
the least illusion. They knew that the re-
election Of Mr.. Mckinley, and the election
would, for the rext Presidential term.
place the executive and legislative
branches of the Government absolutely
in the power and control of the trusts and
mcnopolies.
The people had an excellent object les
son in trust domination, in connection
with the anthracite strike in Pennsyl-
vania. That episode was useful IN de-
veloping the fact that the whole country
is dependent for one of its prime neces-
saries upon half dozen magnates who
have cornered the anthracite coal field
and made private monopoly of it. This
illustration of the power of trusts over
labor and often of local prosperity was
not unique. In various places in The
United States trust consolidation has per-
manently closed plants that, year CT
two ago, supported thousands of families.
The country knew all this, and said with
much unanimity and great enthusiasm,
'.the trusts are good thing
"Vox populi, vox Dell" They must be
good thing and Mr. Flint is entirely
justified in congratulating himself and his
fellow magnates upon the popular YER
dict. From this on the EZRA of consolida-
ton will do business without the doubts
or hesitation that have marked its forma-
tive stages. The trusts hold the mandate
of the nation to control the Department
of Justice, until proper laws can be
passed to relieve them from. the obloquy
of being law breakers. The Sherman
Antitrust act will be repealed, just as
the purchasing clause of the Sherman
Currency act was. Competition in trade,
formerly considered almost a sacred prin-
ciple, has disappeared, and in its stead
We have and are to have the doctrine and
practice of private monopoly.
When Mr.. Flint tells US that "fhe trusts
have come TO stay he merely expresses
his confidence in their ability to override
course. Some of our best business in
terests," the oil, sugar, tobacco, and rum
trusts, for instance. would be badly Grip
pied II the Constitution were extended to-
our colonies. Such thing would lie
nearly subversiye Of real monopoly. If
allowed it would permit the common reo-
pie here to smoke the delicate tobaccos of
Porto Rico and the Philippines, at the
same price they now pay for Connecticut
cabbage leaves, and the rolled wilG-weeds
81 Pennsylvania. II would open to Ameri-
can enterprise a great far Eastern sugar
field, and bring the fruit liquors of the
tropics into competition with the mo-
lasses rum of New England, and the
high wines-of the Whisky Trust in Ohio
and Illinois.
On that account perhaps nothing of the
kind is likely TO happen: although We do |
not wish TO contemplate the possibility |
OF the Supreme Courts reversing itself |
and oversetting the constitutional prece-
tents it has built up, continuously and
for three-q quarters of a CEN
ury. In case the court should decide to
;tand by the ancient landmarks, the gol-
len ERA Of consolidation" will be not
much retarded. 1t will be only for the
Congress to increase the
lumber of associate justices. and put a
majority of trust attorneys on the bench.
There are many other directions in
which '-the trusts have come to stay"
They have come to stay with the ship
ubsidy job. with the is,hmian canal
roblem, with the exploitation and loot of
ur insular possessions, and with every
hing else. by any possibility productive
4 dishonest dollar. They are with US
1 right. They. and all they stand for,
ant and intend TO get. have been firmly
nj finally endorsed by the American