The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-12
WELCOMED
BY HARRISON.
Mayor of Chicago Greets the
Assembled Delegates
To the Antitrust Convention
There Assembled.
MEETING is OPENED
By Address of President Lock
wood of Executive Committee.
Opposition to Trusts the Only
Sentiment Manifest.

Chicago, Feb. 12-At OBS o'clock this
morning the antitrust conference
called by the antitrust league came to
order IN Central Music hall in this city
President Lockwood of the executive
committee called the meeting to order.
He said:
Twenty-eight years ago there gath
cred at the little town of Franklin, just
as we have gathered here, the repre-
sentative men of the five oil producing
counties of western Pennsylvania
Gathered to protest, aye, and to revolt
against that infamous thing known as
the South Improvement cOmpany'S con-
tract with the five trunk railways. That
contract gave to the men who after
wards created the Standard Oil COM
pany a rebate or drawback of more
than one dollar a barrel on every barrel
of oil shipped from the oil region Of
Pennsylvania, whether shipped by the
South Improvement company or not.
In other words the railway companies
contracted to take more than one dollar
a barrel from the independent pro-
ducers and refiners of Pennsylvania in
excessive freightS and transfer it into
the Golfers of the South improvement
company. The people of the oil regions
of Pennsylvania went into revolt and
defied this railroad power. They de-
clared that the equal rights of the peo-
pie over the highways of the country
SLOQlQ IOl OG QSSlIOy6O, lAAdl lilS Ad1l-
way companies must ship upon equal
terms to every American citizen, that
the discrimination contracted for by
the South Improvement company con-
tract they would not submit to- They
would tear up the railroad tracks and
burn their bridges first.
THAT little band of determined men,
backed by the mighty power of right,
rocked that old keystone state to her
center. They went before the legis-
1ature then in session and demanded
and secured the repeal of the South I'm
prOVement cOmpany'S charter, and the
life of that corporation, creature of
the state, was snuffed out just as any
corporations life can be snuffed out
whenever the public welfare demands
it. For the public welfare is the su-
preme law
but the monopoly which the railway
companies failed to create under the
open contract of the South Improve
ment company, they have since created
by a system of secret rebates and
drawbacks which they have given to
the Standard Oil company Yes, and
this same power of secret rebates from
the railway companies has since mo-
nOpOliZed in the hands of the favored
few almost every industry in America.
The awful crime of railway discrimina-
ton has destroyed the equal rights of
the American citizenship. 1t has mo-
nOpOliZed the industries of the country;
it has gone on and on creating monop-
the masses into the hands of the few
until today almost every developed re-
source of this great land is under the
control Of the same kind of an accursed
monopoly.
THAT little band of oil producers
gathered in Franklin in 1872, protesting
against monopoly protesting against
special privileges; that little band has
broadened and just in proportion as
monopolies have touched the other in
dustries of our land. until today the
representative patriotic men of every
state of this great nation have gathered
at Chicago, determined that the wrong
of mOnOpOlieS and trusts shall be wiped
off the escutcheOn of the republic.
'The mighty power of right against
wrong which shook the old state of
Pennsylvania in 1872 and forced the re-
peal of the South Improvement COM
pany'S charter will shake the republic
of states in 1900 The mighty power of
the American ballot focused upon the
wrong of monopoly, focused upon the
laws by which special privileges have
been granted, will wipe out the wrong
and purge from the statute books all
special privileges. Up from all of the
centuries, up from all of the sacrifices
of all of the patriots, heroes and
martyrs of the past has come this gov
ernment of ours, based upon the equal
rights of man. If we fail liberty is
lost forever. There is no virgin soil,
no unbroken wilderness in which to
plant the seed of liberty again as our
fathers planted it.
But we will not fail This govern
ment of and by and for the people
must not go down into that awful night
of an oligarchy of corporate wealth.
The old revolutionary spirit is not
dead. Out of its long sleep it is aWak-
ening with newness of life, with
strength sufficient for the reformation.
This American republic is founded upon
the thought of the equal rights of man,
upon the thought that every little boy
and every little girl starting out upon
life's highway might look up in the
morning, the morning of life, with
knowledge that there is no place of
honor prestige or fame which they
might not reach, that nothing but God
given advantages could stand between
them and the highest round of the lad
der of human attainments. But let
this trust mOnopOliZing process go on
and mark the change; then every little
boy and every little girl born into this
land, under the stars and stripes, ex-
cept a favored few, viii be born into a
condition of slavery, the worst the
world has ever known. With every re-
source of our great land monopolized
by caIital and man-man made in the
likeness of God-chained to the rock
| helpless while this vulture of monopoly
is feeding upon his vitals. God for
bid that my children or their descend
ants shall be subject to such a condi-
lAOAA a. ms N'O4 5AeNA~ N--e~N e@-I I'M
dren of America shall not be subject
to such conditions as that.
Now, what is the remedy? In my
opinion one of the most important
remedies is the national ownership OF
the railways of the country-the high
ways. For I say to you that there is
hardly a. monopoly in America today
that has not been created and main
tanned by railway Determinations
Establish equal rates over the railway:
| of the country, such as We would enjoy