The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-26
Trusts Denouncing Trusts.


the country are tumbling over each other
in a wild desire to say something denun-
ciatory of the trusts to please the popu-
lace. This, it must be said. is an illus
1ration Of that flattery of hypocrisy which
vice pays to virtue. 1t also means that,
among the planks of the Republican La
tionai platform, there is certain to be
one calculated to loosen the scalp of the
most pachydermatous trust magnate. That
may be taken for granted.
The question then arises: Are the
American masses stupid and brainless
enough to be taken in by any such blith-
ering idiocy? Can they be made to be-
lieve that the party which, in the present
and preceding Congress, has openly and
VIGOROUSLY passed any legislation de-
manded by the trusts. which has bitterly
fought and successfully blocked every
proposition opposed to their interests. is
now seriously proposing to destroy or
even hamper them? Is it conceivable that
the men who have not hesitated to break
their oaths to support the Constitution in
order to help their trust masters, can
be credited with sincerity when they come
out of the Senate and the House red
handed and, going home as delegates to
State conventions. proceed to draft declara-
tons denouncing the corporations and
combinations whose money is depended
upon to elect their party ticket in Noyem-
Der? Yet that is exactly what is being
done by the Hannas and Grosvenors. the
Beveridges and Fairbankses, the Gallingers
and Penroses.
Throughout the present session of Con-
gress the issue between the trusts and
their legislative tools on one side and
the representatives Of honest popular OPP
position to grinding monopoly and corrupt
privilege on the other has been continually
in evidence and defined on strict political
lines. The Porto Rican infamy was ac-
complished by the majority under coercion
from the executive branch of the Govern
ment. With half a dozen exceptions, in
this as in other trust legislation, the Re-
publican Senators and Representatives
have obeyed the orders OF their trust con-
troll, while the Democrats in Congress
have battled for public decency and re-
spect for our institutions. Every effort by
the minority to reduce the power for mis-
chief of favored monopolies has been de-
feated. Every job of Treasury raiding mas
been promoted by the majority. The Ad-
ministration has been supported in its
questionable relations with the Standard
Oil bank. The fragrant subsidy bill, which
would take ninety million dollars out of
the pockets of taxpayers and make the
sum free gift to the transportation trust
magnates is being pressed by all the we'll
known means and methods Of the Repub-
lican machine. and stands an excellent
chance of being iammed through before
adjournment. The American Nicaragua
Canal scheme is being resisted by the
Administration in the interest of its enc
mics. the trans-continental railway pluto
cratic proprietary. The history OF Repub-
licsn legislative action since the Spanish
war is an unbroken record of service to
the trusts and monopolies and nothing
whatever else.
Are the American people such fools as
that they cannot see the impudence OF
antitrust utterances from the mouths
Of men who are owned and operated by the
trusts; who owe their public positions TO
trust influence and money, and who dare
not speak or vote in either House Of Con-
gress save as the trusts dictate? II. in
deed. the voters Of the country have fallen
to plane of political intelligence and
virtue so low that they are open to de-
fusion by these demagogic and corrupt
creatures of the trusts they will richly de-
serve what they will get by it,