Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-04-04
THAT ANTITRUST PLANK.
As Il Now Reads, It Has No Point to 1t
and Would Prove Inadequate As
q Remedy.


and Would Prove Inadequate as
q Remedy.
If iteration and reiteration are to
be accepted as proof, it seems to be
settled that money, trusts and i'm
perialism" are to be the issues upon
which the democrats expect to fight
the next campaign. While there are
other issues presented in the platform
adopted by the Nebraska state dem
ocratic convention, the preparation
OF which, it is said, Mr.. Bryan per-
sonally supervised, the leading issues
seem to be narrowed down to the
three mentioned.
The money plank of this platform
more than any other plank may be
said to reflect the views of Mr.. Bryan
and the lines upon which he desires
the financial question to be fought
out, but this does not, of necessity,
prove that the democratic national
convention will incorporate this plank
into it's national platform. Some of
the most able and influential eastern
democrats will head delegations that
will oppose any mention of the silver
issue in the platform and democratic
leaders are beginning to argue that
silver cannot be an issue in this cam
paign, because an adverse majority in
the senate makes silver legislation i'm
possible for the next six years. The
money plank in question reads as
follows:
Instead of a system which would chain
our nation to the gold standard and
turbances which come to European ma
tfons. We demand American financial
system, made by the American people
for themselves, to be secured by the i'm
mediate restoration of the free and un-
limited coinage of gold and silver at the
present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without
waiting for Tie aid or consent of any
other nation.
The republican administration has ad-
mitted the gold standard to be unsatis-
factory by appointing a commission TO
solicit foreign aid in restoring the double
standard, and a republican congress.
even while trying to make the gold
standard permanent. has confessed judg-
ment against the standard by attempting
to revive the delusive hope of internation-
al bimetallism. Instead of the system IA
vored by the republican party under
which national banks are to be permitted
to issue and control the volume of paper
money for their own profit, we reiterate
our demand for that financial system
which recognizes the governments SOW
ereisn right to issue all money. whether
coin or paper, and we demand the re-
tention Of the greenbacks as they now ex-
ist and the retirement of national bank
notes as rapidly as greenbacks can be
substituted for them.
There is better prospect for leg
islation favoring greenbacks if Mr.
Bryan shall be elected with ma
jority in the lower house of congress,
to concur in the provision of the
house currency bill which impounded
the greenbacks and substituted there
for clause providing for their reis-
sue after redemption.
But as this plank now stands it is
demand for paper currency or
greenbacks redeemable in gold, or
''coin," at the best and the substitu-
tion of such currency for national
bank notes. 1t is to be presumed
that the opposition to national bank
currency is principally based upon the
dangerous power possessed by banks
of issue of initiating and contracting
the volume of money at their pleas
ure and in their own interests, because
the amount involved in the difference
in interest is too trifiing to be made
an issue of. To illustrate, if there
was in circulation 100000, 900 in
bank notes based upon two per cent.
bonds, the excess in interest received
by the banks annually over what they
would receive if their loanable capital
was all in greenbacks would simply
be two per cent. upon $1,000,0O0, 900,
or 0,000, ,000-just about the amount
the Carnegie steel and iron combina-
tion made in 1899.
The antitrust plank adopted by the
convention in Mr.. Bryan's state reads
thusly:
We believe that private monopolies are
indefensible and intolerable, and we con-
denim the national administration for it's
the trusts or to recommend a more effec-
tive law. We favor state legislation
which will prohibit the organization of
a monopoly within the state. and also
prevent a monopoly organized elsewhere
from doing business in the state, but we
plement the efforts of the state by legis-
lation which will require every corpora
ton, before engaging in interstate COM
merce, to show that 1t has no water in
its stock and that it has neither at
tempted in the past nor is attempting to
monopolize any branch of business or
the production Of any article of merchan-
disc.
This is very unsatisfactory and
disappointing deliverance, coming
from the source it does. 1t is difficult
to understand Just what it means, if
indeed it means anything.
What is monopoly? How can mo-
nopolies be abolished unless the own
ership of property is limited? Is not
monopoly the aim, object and result
of competition? Monopoly implies
either superior inducements to .he
consuming public, so that others can
not sell goods, or else the ownership
Of all the sources of raw material and
the best processes of production. The
first named conditions are desirable,
the last named cannot be prevented.
If corporation owns all the sources
of supply and the best processes of
production and such ownership is
legal, what are you going to do about
it? The clause requiring corporations
to show that they have no water in
their stock must be intended to pro-
H. 49, - T.