The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-23
TOO MUCH MONEY.
C. f. ScOtt's Reasons For the
Organization Of Trusts.
Thinks Combinations of Capital
Inevitable Evolution.
AN EXCELLENT SPEECH.
Opens His Campaign For Con-
gresham at Large.
AN EXCELLENT SPEECH.
Discusses the Effect of Repub-
lican Tariff Laws.

Charles F. Scott of lola opened his
campaign for the Republican nomina-
| tion of congressman-at-l large at Coffey-
vile last night. The meeting was held
under the auspices of the Mckinley
club. Mr.. Scott said in part:
THE Republican party has never
been party of negation. 1t has never
depended for success upon mere denial
of the position taken by its opponent.
On the contrary it has been always a
party of earnest conviction, resting its
claims for the support of the people
solely upon the soundness of its own
position And this year, more than
ever before, the Republican party has
nothing to fear from the most searching
discussion of the issues upon which it
will go before the people.
1t has nothing to fear from dis
cussion of the tariff question. Five
times in the century that has passed
the policy of a low tariff has been tried,
and five times has the experiment been
followed by increased imports, by de-
! creased exports, by loss of specie, by
industrial stagnation, by closed fac
tories, by enforced idleness and by uni
versal distress and disaster. Four times
in the same period the policy Of protec-
t1On has been tried, and four times has
the adoption of that policy been fol-
| loved by increased, foreign trade, by
multiplied domestic industries, by in
creased demand for labor, by higher
wages, by better prices for farm pro-
! ducts, by renewed activity in every line
| of business. These experiences have
| been mere accidental coincidences-un
| less one is to admit also that the. acci-
| dental has become the established law
| of national progress.
THE Wilson bill filed the land with
! the tramp of Coxey armies. The Dingley
/ law put $4,000 people to work. That is
more men than have been put to work
| by Democratic legislation since the re-
public was founded. The Wilson bill
closed the factories and bankrupted the
! treasury. The Dingley law opened the
doors of the mills and filled the treas
] ury to overf1owing. The Wilson bill
| filed the land with striking men
striking out to find a job. The Dingley
law has added 800, 900 900 in two years
to the aggregate earnings of American
working men. The Dingley law may not
| be perfect, but the minority in congress
| has not yet been able to present a bill
of particulars for its Improvement 1t
will doubtless need to be changed from
| time to time to meet the requirements
| of changed conditions; but it will be
| changed by the friends and not by the
enemies of protection This generation
has had the lesson on the results of
| Democratic free trade, and the lesson
will not need to be repeated
Neither has the Republican party
anything to fear from a discussion of
| the money question. The long contest
for cheap money, which began with the
I
| and was revived by the Populist de-
mand for a practically unlimited issue
! of government fiat, eliminated in 1896
| in a campaign for the free, unlimited
| and Independent coinage of silver at the
| ratio of 16 to l with gold. And when
| the verdict was rendered in November
| the vindication of Republican principles
| was complete and overwhelming and
| all the world took notice that the Unit
| ed States was anchored once for all to
| the solid rock of sound money. 1 say
| once and for ALL and I do not forget
| in saying it that Colonel BRYAN still
| the issues of the coming campaign.
! Colonel Bryan is mistaken. The ghost
will not walk again. That spirit is laid,
| and even the elOquence of Colonel Bryan
| can not recall it from the vast deep
where it has gone to rest with the
| shades of other dear, departed, dead
Democratic issues.
Il have alluded to the tariff cues
tion and the money question, not be-
| cause either of them can by any posi-
| bility become leading issue in the
4 campaign, but because I apprehend
that from long habit and from venera-
tion for the things that once were dear,
| the Democratic party may lug them in
| to the discussion, and it is well, there
| fore. for US to have our answer ready.
''It is already apparent however that
| the heavy ordnance of the opposition
| will be directed upon the trust question.
| One of the distinguishing chara cteris-
|
gular weakness of its logical faculty
and one of it's favorite fallacies is to
mistake coincidence for cause. A great
many trusts have been organized since
! the Republican party came into power;
therefore, argues the Democratic mind
the Republican party is the cause and
the creator of the trusts. And with an
assumption that is as unWarranted as
its logic is false, it proclaims that the
Democratic party is the original. and
only enemy of these unlawful combin-
nations. When the campaign comes on
this fall, it will be our duty to remind
our friends that the Republican party
was the first party to put an tanti-trust
plank in its platform; that it was the
first party to write an antitrust law
upon the statute books of the nation
and of the state of Kansas. and that
thus far it has been the only party
which has made an honest effort to en-
force these laws. That is the record of
the Republican party on the trust Ques-
tion, and we are not afraid to place it
against the record of any other party
but while the Republican party rec
ognizes the danger that may lie in enor-
nous aggregationS of capital, it rec
ognizes also the benefits rnat may come
from them; and while it will endeavor
by wise laws to protect the people
from extortion and outrage, it will not
indulge in violent and indiscriminate
denunciation pledge itself to destruc-
tive or unjust legislation. In this as
in every other question, the Republican
party can afford to be honest and to
tell the truth. The truth is that the con-
solidations of capital engaged in sim
liar industries, commonly called trusts,
are the natural and inevitable out
growth of modern business methods
and conditions. No political party Gre
ated them and no political party can
destroy them. They are as natural an
| evolution from commercial conditions
as the federation of labor unions is
/