Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-29
OPINIONS Of FORMER DEMOCRAT

surer and more wide-reaching would
be the result. If he shall be elected we
will have four years of such trouble and
distress as will make most of those who
now thOughtleSSSly but enthusiastically
support him only too glad to give up
for good and all the reins Of government
to those whom riches have made power
full.
Trusts are the %favorite objects of
attack. These corporations have their
good features as we'll as their bad fea-
lures. Can Mr.. Bryan be trusted to
regulate them properly? How will 1t
disenthral their employees to receive the
equivalent of ten or twelve grains of
gold when they are entitled to twenty
three?
There is one thing that must be borne
in mind when dealing with manufacture
ing trusts as distinguished from dis
t%ributing trusts, n that is that the
folly of labor unions is largely RESPONSE
BILE for their creation. Why is it that
there is so much money in the country
today. and so many men idle? 1t is
because labor unions have by the un-
wisdom of their management, driven an
enormous amount of individual capital
out of productive employment. What I
mean is illustrated in Pennsylvania to-
day. There are concerns here that prac-
tice upon their employees eXtortion in it's
meanest form. There are others, like
the Markles against whom their employ
eS nave no complaint. 1et, unOGr the
domination of the union, those who deal
fairly by their men receive no advantage
from that fact. Instead of rewarding
and encouraging their friends, the un-
ions treat all alike. To protect them
selves the unions force even those who
deal fairly by their men to make COM
mon cause with the others-pool their
issues and form a trust.
When a man with capital seeking its
investment buys shares in a powerful
corporation or a great trust, he puts
his money there because it will be con-
trolled by a, board of directors whose
personal interests are identical with his
own. If he attempts to go into a
featuring himself. the chances are that
he will find his investment at the mercy
Of a board of walking delegates whose
personal interests are opposed to his
own. 1t is time the workingmen of this
country awoke to a realization Of this
fact.
All trusts, manufacturing trusts, la
Dor trusts and distributing trusts,
should, in the interests of all, be under
the fair, careful and strict regulation of
the law
All these questions relating to trusts,
and through them to the tariff. might
have been in a fair way of settlement
by this time, had it not been for the dra-
amtic appearance four years 6 of the
Boy Orator of the Platte;" nor need we
look for their satisfactory settlement
until his permanent subsistence. The
sooner that comes the better for the
permanent Improvement of labor.
OF all the great questions before this
country today, is there n Mr.. Bryan
has shown himself competent to solve?
Whatever McKinley's faults, and he
has many-he has carried the country
through a successful war, and it's prest-
ige is greater among the nations of the
earth than ever before. In his man.
agement of the various territories that
have come under our control there is
more to commend than to criticise. The
dealings of his administration with
China have been characterized, thus far,
by the highest degree of tact and states
manship.
He has also given us, not a perfect
bill, but the best currency bill we have
ever had.
During the four years now drawing to
a close, the country has attained to a
greater degree of prosperity than it ever
reached before. These are facts of his
tory, and it is fair to give Mr.. Mckinley
credit for them.
Gould Mr.. Bryan have lone as well?
I think not. While Major Mckinley re-
lies too much, perhaps, upon the opin-
ions of others, Colonel Bryan'S vanity,
too, dangerously overbalances his judg-
ment. His very title is a proof of that.
A man of good common sense would
never nave accepted the responsibility
of the c%olonelcy of a regiment, as he
did. That is a place that everybody
of intelligence knows car be safely filled
only by a man who has had years of
qualifying training and experience.
With all my experience as a democrat,
with my loyalty to the democracy of the
past, it is hard to write as I have,
against the candidate who nominally
stands for democratic ideas and prin-
ciples. There are questions for the wise
solution of which it is vain to look to
the republican party. Their solution
must remain in allegiance during the
prevalence of Bryan and Organism in
the democratic party.
Let us at the coming election get rid
of Bryan, his perpetual candidacy and his
theories, once and forever, and bark
back, ere it be too late, to that true
democracy, the foundation of u liber-
ties, that is not for the rich, not for the
poor, blu seeks zealously and intelli-
gently the common welfare of all.