The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-07-12

all corporations to show before do.
ing business outside of the State of
their origin that they have no water
in their stock, and that they have
not attempted and are not attempt
ing to monopolize any branch of
business or the production Of any
articles of merchandise, and the
whole constitutional power of Con-
gress over interstate commerce the
mails and all modes of inter State
communication shall be exercised
by the enactment of comprehensive
laws upon the subject of trusts.
Tariff laws should be amended by
putting the products Of trusts upon
the free list to prevent monopoly
under the plea of protection.
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
The failure of the present Repub-
lican administrat with all abso-
lutte control over all the branches of
the national government to enact
any legislation designed to prevent
or even curtail the absorbing power
of trusts and illegal combinations,
or to enforce the antitrust laws al
ready on the statute books proves
the insincerity of the high sounding
phrases of the Republican platform.
Corporations should be protected
in all these rights and their legiti-
mate interests should be respected,
but any attempt by corporations to
interfere with the public affairs Of
the people or to control the severe
ignty which creates them should be
forbidden with such penalties as will
make such attempts impossible.
We condemn the Dingley tariff
law as a trust-breeding measure,
skilfully devised to give the few
iavors which they do not deserve
and to place upon the many bur
dens which they should not bear.
We favor such all enlargement Of
the scope of the interstate COM
merce law as will enable the COM
mission to protect individuals and
communities from determinations
and the public from unjust and I'M
fair transportation rates.
THE FINANCIAL PLANK.
We reaffirm and indorse the prin-
ciples of the national Democratic
platform adopted at Chicago in 1896
and we reiterate the demand of that
platform for an American financial
system made by the American peo-
pie for themselves which shall re-
store and maintain bimetallic price
level and as part of such system the
immediate restoration Of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver and
gold at the present legal ratio of 6
to without waiting for the aid or
consent of any other nation.
We denounce the currency bill
enacted at the last session of Con-
gress as a step forward in the Re-
publican policy which aims to dis
credit the sovereign right of the ma
tlonal government to issue all
money, whether coin or paper, and
10 bestow upon national banks the
power to issue and control the vol
ume of paper money for their own
benefit. \ permanent national
bank currency, secured by the gov
ernment bonds, must have a perm.
anent debt to rest npon, and if the
bank currency is to increase with
the population and business the
debt must also increase. The Re-
publican currency scheme is, there
= fore, a scheme for fastening upon
the taxpayers perpetual and grow
ing debt for the benefit Of the banks
We are opposed to this private cor
poration paper circulated as money
but without legal tender qualities
and demand the retirement of ma
tional bank notes as fast as this gov,
ernmeW paper and silver certificate:
can be substituted for them.
THE ELECTION OF SENATORS.
, We favor the amendment to the
, Federal Constitution providing fol