The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-03
A PLAN TO DESTROY TRUSTS.

The National Antitrust Conference is
TO take place in Chicago on Feb. II. The
Executive Committee of the conference
met at the Sherman House on Monday
last, and the chairman of the commit
tee, Mr.. NJ. L. lockwood, delivered an adj
dress, in the course of which he said 1.-THE
mission of the conference is to answer the
question: What can be done to save the
country from the oppression of the
trusts?' The plan is to treat the causes
rather than the effect In government
ownership only can railway favoritism be
prevented. Government control under cor
porate ownership has proven a failure In
order to destroy the trusts we must take
from them the special advantages which
have created them, and they will wither
of their own weight, as they meet the en-
ergetic competitive capacity Of the Amer
lean people"
1t is doubtful If Mr.. Lockwood will be
able to convince the people that govern
ment ownership is the solution Of the trust
problem. We understand of course that
Mr.. Lockwood means that the general
government should own the railways.
ment has just about much power now
as il ought to have. In fact the people
would in all probability be better off If it
had less power. Unless there is no truth
in the statements which find their way
into the public prints, the power which
the general government now has is often
misused. II is well known that in max
ing appointments political influence rath-
er than merit controls In the recent
Standardization war hundreds of men
were given commissions in the army be-
cause their fathers or their friends had a
political pun. Even now it is said that the
Secretary of tha Treasury is threatened
with a congressional investigation for al
legged favoritism to a great national bank
of New York city. II would be an easy
matter to mention hundreds of instances
of a misuse of power by the general gov
ernment.
If the general government owned the
railways it would not be a difficult matter
for the party in power TO retain control
of the government. The railway employees
and there are hundreds of thousands of
them. would be active workers for the
dominant party. And it is not improbable
that there would soon be an appalling de-
gree of corruption in railway manage
ment Favoritism would be shown, ii is
safe to say, 10 far greater extent than
az present Besides, under government
control, the railways would not give such
good service as The people are now get
| ting 1t is a notorious fact that in those
parts of Europe in which the governments
own the railways the service is much in
ferior to that where corporations own
! tfem. Mr.. Lockwoods plan is a good thing
! to talk about but not to put into practice.
| And it must not be forgotten that there
are trusts which are much more Cypress
i've than the railways. Does MI Lockwood
inte d that his plan shall cover all sorts of
trt SIS?
The Democratic party is going 10 deal
! with trusts, and il win do it much more
effectively than the men associated with
Mp. Lockwood. On an antitrust platform
the Democrats of the whole country can
| be IN ed. Tn ess we are greatly mistaken,
the strongest plank in the Democratic
National Platform this year will be an
antitrust plank. In a recent signed arti-
Gle Congressman de Almond of Missouri,
who was candidate for the leadership
Of the Democrats of the House, said: Il
cannot understand how a man can be a
Democrat and fail TO be foe 10 trusts A"
In opposition TO trusts Democrats will
stand together and battle valiantly for
| victory in the next national contest
|
French's victory at Colesburg comes as
| a ray of sunshine to make little riff IN