The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-14

! Chicago, Feb. 13.-After a heated de-
bate the resolutions committee Of the
antitrust conference decided to report
in favor Of government ownership Of
railroads and for their seizure on pay
ment of actual value and without pay
| ment for 'WateTed stock or other nc
I tii0us values"
There was a sharp discussion in the
/ committee and several tits between
! members, brought on by an effort to
make the platform read as it had been
/ Tawn I'D, that the government should
/ seize the railroads on payment of ac-
J tUal value" and without payment for
/ franchise values" Unanimous action
/ was finally obtained by cutting out the
/ words franchise values" and insert
/ ing instead the phrase ''watered stock
or OtheTed fictitious values" The COM
mittee also unanimously favored direct
! popular legislation as a means of OBJ
taxing the result.
The Platform.
The platform, as agreed up by the
committee on resolutions. and as it will
be submitted 20 the conference for
I adoption tomorrow morning, is preced-
ed by d long address to the voters of the
country. This address urges the peo
pie to organize at once to deprive the
trusts Of their power. It Tecites the
methods pursued by the trusts and the
effects Of their operations upon the
people at large and cites as particu
larry aggressive the Standard Oil trust,
the beef trust, the elevator trust, the
anthracite coal trust, the sugar trust
and the paper trust.
These great combinations of capital,
the address declares, bear down all
Pnnnnnrfrfon aud maintain rhafr
powers over the people through dis
elimination in railway rates and ter
.s7inal facilities. Continuing, the adj
-tlfess say IS
AS a elimination Of this aggrega-
ton of gigantic trusts an INSCRIPTIONS
congressional lobby now threatens to
set up as alI-embraeing bank trust This
lobby demands that the government
wholly surrender to private corpora
tons its sovereign function of issuing
money, IN SO far as that function af-
fect5 paper money. IF that were done
banking trust would result which
would regulate the volume Of paper
money, and dictate commercial dis
counts in the interests of all the great
trusts, and to which bankers in general
would sustain a similar relation to that
which grocers already bear to the oil
trust and the sugar trust.
VIII Be the Masters.
THE trend Of this trust making pro-
cess is unmistakable. If it continues a
few great trusts, governed by a few
INSCRIPTIONS men, viii direct the
course OF American Industries and be
the masters, politically, as well as IT,
dustrially, of the American people.
Without themselves producing they will
determine the character and extent of
production by others, and will meas
ure out compensation by their own ar
bitrary will
And no power known to the law will
then be strong enough to shake them
off. Even revolution would be hone
less For in this republic of theoret-
lcally equal, when the single source of
power shall have been once secured.
everything viii have been secured, the
despotlsms of the trusts will advance.
as it is even now advancing. in the
name and with the might of the peo-
pie
THE only remedy for the trust evil
is the abolition of legalized privilege of
every kind. BY legalized privileges we
mean powers derived from law which
some persons or classes enjoy to the
exclusion Of others. and which. there
fore, create private mOnOpOlies.
1T IS in such privileges that trusts
live, move and have their being. We
must get back to the fundamental prin-
clpleS Of the Declaration of Independ-
ence. the principle that all men are en-
titled to equal rights under the law.
There must be no legalized discrimina-
ton, and such as now exists. whether
Dy virtue or laws regulating public pol
ICY OF OF tnose directly creating privi-
leges, must be abrogated."
Three LOCALIZED Privileges.
The address recommends three legal
lied privileges as objects for the initial
attack, as follows,
FIRST the privilege created by tar
ms LOT the protection Of goods con-
troiled by trusts; second, the privilege
created by surrenderfng the money is
suing function to private cornora tions
and, third, the privilege created by tel,
egraph and railway franchises.
again taking up the question of
money trust, the address SAYS: 1--WE
declare that the problem of trusts is
insxtTicably interviewer with the money
question. We see today the effort made
systematically and It would seem with
Ialr prospects of success, to turn over
TO the banks the control of the circ11-
lating medium Of the country. But the
banks in their turn are controlled bv
those giants of finance, who. in com
mon Phrase we term trust magnates.5
They hold and control blocks of bank
stock. They sit upon boards of direc-
tors. They are in position to extend or
TO deny credit, to ease or to tighten
money markets, to make prices of So
curities rise and fall, and to enrich or
ruin men engaged in great enterprises.
As trust masnates. they compel their
banks 70 refuse assistance to competing
concerns; as bankers, they finance the
trusts IN which they are interested
Since this alliance amounts to q. com
munity Of interests between the trusts
and the great banks. it is clearly in
eXpedient that the control of the vol
ume Of the circulating medium of the
nation shall be delivered over to bank
ing or other corporations" The plat
form saws:
Remedy For Trusts.
Whereas. in the opinion Of fbe M