The Topeka state journal., 1900-02-01
TRUSTS MUST GO
SO Say the Men Who Know the
Law.
Senator FarrellY Tells Lawyers
How to Dispose Of Them.
'sENFORCE THE LAW .
That Is the Burden Of the
Speakers Advice.
Col. w. H. ROssington Advises
Conservative Action.

That the subject OF trusts is one of
the most important now before the
people was attested Wednesday after
noon, when the largest crowd of the
annual session attended the meeting of
the State Bar association to hear the
papers and subsequent discussions.
The manifestation of interest in this
feature of the lawyers meetings eftec-
tually dispels the recently promulgated
proclamation of a candidate for United
States senator that expansion is the
principal issue before the people. On
the contrary, the trust question is the
all-absorbing topic. Means of prevent
ing their further encFoachments are be-
ing sought the country over, and many
citizens went to the lawyers meeting
to hear the suggestions. The whole
people are taking interest in this sub
ject..
1t was especially appropriate that H.
P. Farrelly, of Chanute, author of the
Kansas antitrust law, should introduce
the subject of trusts as part OF the
bar association programme. The Le-
gal Aspect of the Trusts and Their
Control was the feature thf ough which
the lawyers were afforded the oppor-
tunity to exploit their views.
Mr.. Farrelly takes the position that
a trust has no legal aspect, and sug
gestS that tie only remedy--that which
law. He said no law was effectual un-
less it is enforced. He called atten-
ton to the fact that the prohibitory
law was enforced until all of its pro-
visions had been sustained by the su-
preme court, after which the effort to
make the law operative has been in
many places abandoned
Mr.. Farrelly stated that in his Opin-
ion the executive power OF the state is
responsible for the enforcement of the
antitrust law. AS the present Repub-
lican administration has been design
edly silent on this subject, it would
seem that the governor and attorney
general are liable to the charge, espec-
is this true when these officials have
announced that no steps win be taken
to prosecute the trusts now existing
in Kansas. Mr.. Farrelly said in his
address;
public policy varies with the habits
and fashions of the day, with the
growth of commerce and the usages of
trade, hence the thing which we desire
to control might usurp, so to speak, our
public policy, as a state or govern
ment unless directed by legislative en-
actment and thereby become a fixed
part of that great bulwark of Ameri-
can liberty when in the hands and
under the administration of a just and
cautious chanceHCG.
"As the trust has grown and forced
itself into conspicuous prominence in
the business world, so las legislation
kept a tardy pace thereWith-just a lit
tie behind, as a rule-but these two
great powers, the trust and the gov
ernment, are now entering the head Of
the home stretch in the great race for
supremacy and in my judgment, if the
driver Of the government nag keeps a
cool head and wie1ds the lash in a
manner becoming to Uncle Sam, he
may retain that familiar smile, while
his coat tails may blind the eyes of his
adversary as he goes under the wire.
TRUSTS, as they now exist, and for
the purposes for which they are now
formed, have no legal aspect; they are
Illegal and have been uniformly held
so by the courts. They are contrary to
all statutory enactments on the ques-
tion, contrary to public policy and re-
pulsive to any reasonable conception of
right and justice.
Until quite recently, the manner Of