The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-09-17

can be paramount to the issue they
thus make, for the paramountcy of
such an issue is to be determined, not
by the dictU1l of any man or body of
men, but by the fact that it vitality
affects the wellbeing of every home in
the land. The financial question is al
ways of such far reaching and ire
mendous Importance to the national
welfare that it can never be raised in
good faith unless this tremendous issue
is not merely conceded but insisted on.
Men who are not willing to make such
an issue paramount have no possible
justification fer raising it at all, for
under such circumstances their act
cannot under any conceivable circum-
stances do aught but grave harm.
Calls Free Coinage Ruinous.
1.-The success OF the party represent
ing the principles embodied in the
Kansas City platform would bring
about the destruction of all the condi-
tons necessary TO the continuance of
our prosperity 1t would also unsettIe
our whole governmental system and
would therefore disarrange ali the vast
and delicate machinery of our complex
industrial life. Above all, the effect
would be ruinous to our accounts. If
we are TO prosper, the currency of this
country must be based upon the gold
dollar worth 100 cents. The stability
OF our currency has been greatly in
creased by the excellent financial act
passed by The last congress. But no
law can secure our finances against the
effect of unwise and disastrous man
agement in the hands OF unfriendly ad-
ministrators. No party can safely be
entrusted with the management of our
national affairs unless it accepts as
automatic the truths recognized in all
progressive countries as essential to a
sound and proper system of finance. In
their essence these must be the same
for all great civilized peoples. In diff
ferent stages of development different
countries face varying economic condi-
tons. but at every stage and under all
circumstances, the most important ele-
ment in securing their economic we'll
being is the sound finance and honest
money So intimate is the connection
between industrial prosperity and a
sound currency that the former is jeop-
ardized, not merely by unsOund finance
but by the verv threat of unsOund
finance The business man and the
farmer are vitality interested in this
question; but no mans interest is so
great as that of the wage worker A
deprecated currency means loss and
disaster to the business man: but it
means grim suffering to the wage
worker. The capitalist will lose much
of his capital and will suffer wearing
anxiety and the loss of many com
forts; but the wage-worker who loses
his wages must suffer and see his wife
and children suffer for the actual ne
cesSities of life. The one absolutely
vital need of our whole industrial sys-
tenn is sOT-,d money.
Takes Up Trust Problem.
zone of the serious problems with
which we are confronted under the
conditions of modern Industrial civili-
cation is that presented by the great
business combinations, which are gem
orally known under the name of
trusts.
The problem is an exceedingly diff
cult one. and the difficulty is immense
" aggravated both by honest but
wrong headed attacks on our whole in
dustrlal system in the effort to remove,
some of the evils connected with it and
by the mischievous advice of men who
either think crOOkedly or who advance
remedies knowing them to be ineffect-
i've, but deeming that they may. by
darkening counsel, achieve for them
selves a spurious reputation for wis
dom. No good whatever is subserved
by indiscriminate denunciation of cor
pOratiOns generally, and of all forms
Of industrial combinations in particu-
lar: and when this public denunciation
is accompanied by private membership
in the great corporations denounced
the effect is, of course, to give an air
of insineerity to the whole movement
Nevertheless, there are real abuses
remedy these abuses. y crude or ILL
considered effort to remedy them would
either be absolutely without effect or
else would simply do damage.
The first thing to do is to find out
the facts: and for this purpose pub
licity as 70 capitalization. profits. and
all else of importance to the public. is
the most useful measure. The mere
fact of this publicity would in itself
remedy certain evils, and as to the
~ nNae
out the remedies, and would at least
enable us to tell whether or not certain
proposed remedies would be useful
The state acting in. its collective ca
pacity would thus first find out the
facts and then be able to take such
measures as wisdom dictated. Much
can be done by taxation Even more
can be done by regulation. by close
supervision, and the unsparing excelsior
of all unhealthy. destructive and anti
social elements. The separate state
CONTINUED on page %