The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-14

governed by a few lInscruDulous men, |
viii direct the course of American indus /
tries and be the masters, politically as /
well as industrialIy of the American peo- |
pie; without themselves producing they |
VIII determine the character. ana extent !
of production by others. and viii measure |
ouI compensation by their own arbitrary |
Will And no power known to the law |
will then be strong enough to shake them |
on. Even revolution would be hopeless.
ity, when the Single source of power shall |
nave been once secured, everything viii |
trusts Will advance, as it is even now adj |
vaneing, in the name and with the
The only remedy for the trust evil is
the abolition of legalized privilege of ev-
powers derived from law, which some
persons or classes enjoy to the exclusion
vate monopolies. 1t is in such privileges
that trusts live, move and have their be-
tai principles Of the Declaration OF In
dependence, the principle that all men are
There must be no legalized discrimina-
ton; and such as now exists whether
icy or those directly creating privileges,
must be abrogated.
National Antitrust Conference have
come But they are not unmindful OF, the
invited were they to specify all the legal
lied privileges that ought to be abolished
real character of many of those privi-
leges, but also as to the wisest methods
be within the scope of the Indictment
might prevent that widest unanimity of
mind upon the issue in the abstract
which IS necessary in organizing for an
attack upon so formidable a foe as the
Americans trusts. For that reason this
conference recommends three legalized
tack: First, the privileges created by
tar11iIs Ior the protection OF goods con-
created by surrendering the money-issu-
1 1h duR 4s TO private corporations, and,
and railway franchises
The first of these recommendations can
raise between free traders and protec-
1onistS no practical issue, since free
traders advocate the abolition of all tar
ms, or at any rate of all protective tar
MS they can not consistently object to
the abolition of some protective tariffs;
and as the object Of protectionists is to
promote American Industries, they must
consistently resent the misuse that is
made of projection by trusts to crush
We declare that the problem of trusts
is 1nextr1cably interviewer with the money
question. We see today the effort made
systematically and it would seem with
fair prospects of success, to turn over to
the banks the control of the circulating
medium of the country. But the banks
IN their turn are controlled by those
giants of finance, who, in common phrase
We term trust magnates.' They hold and
upon boards of directors They are in
position to extend or to deny credit to
ease or to tighten the money market, to
make prices of securities rise and fail,
ana 70 enrich or ruin men engaged in
great Enterprises As trust nagnates they
compel their banks to refuse assistance
finance the trusts in which they are in
terested Since this alliance amounts to
trusts and the great banks it is clearly
inexpedient that the control of the volume
shall be delivered over to banking or
other corporations.
As to the monopohes created by teIe-
gfaph ana railway franchises it is OBJ
Vious that these must be abolished. if any
step whatever it taken in the direction
Of destroying legalized privileges The
telegraph is a natural adjunct of the post
OFFICE In most other countries it has long
been managed as APART of that pubic
service to- the great 4dvantage of the peo-
pie PIE: t I IN private hands. as 1t has been
mere, II mas operated to the manifest det-
riment of the public. Through its dis
examinations a gigantic press censorship
IS maintained inventions calculated to
promote the use of electricity in the dis
tT1bution of intelligence, have been sup
pressed, oppressive purposes of the rail-
road combination have been subserved
and a powerful corporate agency for the
| corrupt manipulation of Iaw-abidine bod
les has been maintained
The privileges created by railway fran
chlSeS are complex in their ramifications
and when concentrated in private hands
are intellectually potent. So concentrated
| they have enabled a favored few to mo-
| nOpolize most of the resources of This
| richly endowed land, and by creating a
/ distinct privileged class have served to
disturb the equality of American citizen
! ship Through discrimination in rates
! and terminal facilities they have f,,rnisb9
| ed the basis of nearly every great cn111
rnercial trust with which the people To-
day are cursed. The coal trust is vital
lied by railway privileges; the oil tr--st
/ could not have acquired its power without
them the beef trusts and the grain ele-
NatOr trust depend upon them; they make
/ the steel trust flourish; and from express
COMPUTATIONS down to newspaper agen-
! cles; from hack rights at depots to freight
/ determinations, a host of minor trusts
suck in all the vitality they have as
privileges must be abolished But they
can not be abolished by restrictive laws
man Knapp, of the Interstate Commerce
| Commission, testifying before the Indus
standing the restrictive and penal clauses
OF the interstate commerce law, railway
| of things it must be so. Railway mon
opoly can no more be regulated by re-
held in check with cotton twine. The % nnIv
| possible method of abolishing railway pri-
o Of r rs 9y a6oIlishing private ownership
mendatIons for Initial action against
trusts trusts to -, offer the line of least resist
OF the largest number of persons sincerely
ton OF our fellow citizens in the move
/ ment for the preservation of our country
from trust control. -
PLATFORM
l. Whereas, In the opinion of the National
| Antitrust Conference. assembled at Chi
| cago, February y, IS and Il, 1900 the lust
known as trusts, which consist of cornor-
ationsand natural persons controlling egg
eSlA1SO Sp6Cldi privileges, Is the abOlifi0n
| of those privileges: and.
Mhereae the legalized privilege of teIe-
| of protection against foreign conpetition
with American goods controlled by trusts.
ne me ,iegahzed privileges of monopolizing
lne issue OF paper money. and the legal
lzed privileges ,,II1 { incident to the private
fore, be it Ao
Resolved, a. That congress take i'm
mediate steps. under the power of emf
1ent domain or otherwise as may be
deemed the most expedient (but in any
| event by paying the just value, watered
stock or other fictitious values of any prop
efty taken or condemned) to establish the
Telegraph and telephone systems of the
n1ted States as adjuncts of the postof-
| tons: 49, "
q That congress- defeat an measures