The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-15


nom trust products
Edward B. Jennings, of New York, |
was the first speaker on the evening /
programme.
A committe on propaganda was ap- |
pointed.
The committee will, 1t is said. issue a |
weekly antitrust newspaper.
@. A Smith, of Michigan, read res
olution, faYoring an income tax, but the |
convention declined to consider it.
The conference closed with five min |
ute talks by John Isidore. of New York; |
Robert Neff, of Oklahoma; Q. A. Smith, |
of Michigan; H. S. Bigelow, of Ohio,and |
others.
The roll of states was called and each |
given brief hearing.
Chairman Lockwood declared the |
conference adjourned sine die. after n@
had appointed the following members
of the executive committee of the |
American Antitrust league:
George Fred Williams, Massachusetts
t. s. Monet, Ohio; P. S. DOVE, New |
York; Tom L. Johnson, Ohio, and NJ. G.
Wetmore. Missouri.
The following address prepared by
Prof. Thomas E. Will, late president of
the Kansas Agricultural college, was
not delivered owing to lack of time.
PROF. WILLS ADDRESS.
'fThe trust is modern industrial de-
vice. It's object is Identical with that
of the smaller competing businesses,
namely, profit. In the industrial fight
the trust enjoys supreme advantages;
watching the entire industrial and po
litical field, buying in the cheapest and
selling in the dearest market, avoiding
waste destroying competition, control
ling legislation and crushing competi-
ton.
1.-THE methods of the trust are IA
miliar It's motto is, Win regardless
of expense, and charge up the cost to
the public. And it wins. The trust is
a product of evolution. AS the nation
has developed through family clan
h1 Cf1 q CO hn CT hoe 10
veloped through partnerships, compan-
les ana corporations. 1t operates in
strict accord with the business prin-
ciple inculcated by classic political
economy-that, namely, of looking out
for itself and leaving the public to do.
the same. It believes in the survival
of the fittest, and proposes to prove its
fitness by surviving. The public pays
the freight. If the incidental gains to
the people are meagre that is their af-
fair.
but the tribute which the trust can
levy is limited. To overcharge is to
reDel trade. drive customers to seek
out substitutes, and destroy its market
ITO overcharge for Inonopolized oil as
for oil produced and sold under the
freeSt of free competition would prove
losing venture. The monopolists seek
ing the greatest revenue must charge
no more than the market will bear,
and this is identically what each COM
peting producer and dealer endeavors
to charge even in the freest of markets.
The competitor and nonopolist are
made Of the same clay and actuated by
the same motives, and they obey iden-
tically the same principles, namely,
Get all you can and keep all you get.
Take care of yourself and let your
neighbor and the dear public do the
same The ethic of each is the ethic
of the swine, and its fruits are a swim
ish society
sErlightened lf-interest' the gold
of 10 Tnlific71
omy, would dictate further that the
trust practice moderation in all re-
spects lest it rouse the demon of out
ragged public opinion History shows,
however, that the self-interest by which
despors are controlled is rarely en-
Iightered.'
1.-The trust is the most prodigious ex-
ample of arbitrary power now existing
in civilized lands. Single trusts control
capitals ranging from STE, 900 900 to $780,
0000 900 The trust of trusts which shall
unite them all will be more imperial
in power than any existing political
government. The people must decide
soon between popular government and
trust government.
''What shall we do with the trust be-
fore it has finally decided what to do
with us? To let it alone is madness.
To regulate it seems impossible. It
regulates the regulators and controls
the controllers To license it is better
than TO attempt nothing; but licensing
trusts will doubtless prove little more
satisfactory than licensing liquor deal
ers Taxing the trust has been pro-
posed. The power to tax is the power
to Destroy May we not heap upon this
MANN 9th the burdens of taxation I'M
til we have crushed it2 From this
mode of attack there is much to be
hoped The criticism that the trust will
shift the tax upon the consumer is
groun 1less for the reason that it now
charges all the market will bear. If it
were able to shift the tax upon the
consumer the trust would now before
the tax is imposed raise its prices by
the amount of the proposed tax. The
trust seeks to charge only such price
as will yield the maximum net income
To exceed that figure IS t. hurt It's
trade and reduce its dividends. There
is no sounder principle in economics,
old or new, than this. A tax on a mo-
nopoly cannot be shifted BY avail
ing themselves of this fact the people
may relieve themselves largely of the
burden of double, triple and multiple
taxation, may fill their treasures with
funds with which to build I'D their
public institutions, take over private
monopolies and otherwise carry on their
fight with organized wealth. Tax the
trust should become the battle cry in
the new warfare for economic liberia
ton.
"Paraphrasing the language of Ber-
nard Shaw, the trust should become the
grand universal mich COW from which
the people may obtain their revenues,
the arsenal from which they may draw
their weapons for the mighty conflict
now upon them.
But to destroy Carthage does not
mean to destroy the system of large in
dustries Large organizations possess
advantages too great to be sacrificed.
Progress must not give place to retro
erosion. Competition once buried must
never be resurrected. The thing to
abolish is not the huge organization, but
the fact of private ownership and oper-
alton for private profit. Government,
judiciary, army, navy, education, once
rested upon the same basis as the
trust; they were private affairs seeking
the public good only incidentally if at