The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-29

the trusts of capital often do wrong. When
they do. they ought to be punished. But be-
wrong is no reason why they should be de-
stroyed. What both need when they do
wrong is restraint and correction. But what
Mr.. Bryan proposes is destruction: and IL
he Is logical he must destroy the trust of
labor as well as the trust of capital.
BENEFICIAL RAILWAY TRUST.
Let me give you another and simpler
example of the trust. There is in this
country a great railway system called the
Big Four Railroad" A great deal of 1t
is in the State of Indiana. and most of it
is in thai State and in the State of Ohio.
/ remember the time when the railroads
that formed what is now the Big Four
Railroad system were little. short. sepa-
rate lines. The service on each OF these
lines was poor. The ears were bad. The
track and roadbed were far from safe.
The passenger who wanted TO travel any
considerable distance had 10 get off the
cars at the end of a line and get on other
cars of another line, and the longer he
Travelled the more he had TO do this. He
had 10 pay higher fare and to buy many
separate tickets. TIL employees of those
various lines were less in number than
they are and were paid smaller wages.
Frequently the lines went into the hands
eA&1 tA1 @-N
trouble in getting their wages at all.
A great manager combined those lines
into a system. What was the result
er rates and through trains. You can get
on one of that systems trains and. with
out change, go to distant points which be-
fore required two or three changes and
two or three tickets. The system employs
many more men than the separate lines
employed before the consolidation. The
service is greatly improved. The con-
VGn1AnCQ In the naEEQnQQr fC NOT a Rnm-
par1son, but a contrast with what IL used
10 be. Therefore, there is more travelling,
more business. You are carried cheaper in
palace cars; your grain is hauled at lower
rates of freight. more safely and more
speedily. And so IL is that a great miracle
is wrought: better service and cheaper
rates to the public on the one hand, and
more employment and higher wages to the
employees on the other hand; at the same
time more profit 70 the stockholders who
own the road. Dare Mr.. Bryan say that
he would have that system broken up into
the little companies from which IL was
formed? If he dares not, he has abandoned
his position on the trust
TRUSTS AND YOUNG MEN.
Mr.. Bryan declares the trusts prevent
young men from rising in the business
world. On the contrary, the active heads
Of most of these corporations are young
men who have risen without influence or
any other aid than their own ability to
their high position. The. president of the
Carnegie Steel Company is sti'i a young
man. and rose to his position from a boy
In the works. What the trust is looking for
what any combination of capital is look
ing for-is fresh and vigorous ability. IN
less they get that they cannot succeed. I
will venture the assertion that more than
So per cent. of the active management Of
the great combinations of capital in this
country, and the active management or
each one of the departments of these great
combinations of capital, is in the hands of
young men without wealth, influence or
position, but whose worth and merit nave
been recognized by the directors of these
great concerns. If the trust does not have
such ability at its constantly IT
Will break down, just as trusts often and
for exactly this reason are breaking down.
Keen, bold, daring minds will see that the
trust is not anage with ability, and they
will organize another trust which Is man
aged with ability. A trust can only exist
when each and every department of IL, to
the smallest detail of its business, is con-
Quoted with mathematical and machine
like accuracy. And the chief demand IN this
country to-day is for talented, industrious,
honest and brave young men to aid the
mighty work which this Industrial develop
ment of our civilization equires- -.
AS no woman who listens TO me would
have the department store dissolve into
the little. announcement, high-priced shops.
selling poorer goods in a more ~1nc0nven-
lent way; as not a man in this Repuphc
would have any of our great railroad lines,
which were formed out of a dozen small,
poorly-operated, high-priced. miserably-
equipped, inconvenient lines, broken up
into those little roads again, just so not
a man in this country is against, the in
dustrial development of a trust, when IT is
| honestly and righteously conducted.
WHAT ALL OPPOSE.
What We are all against is the dishon-
est operation of these trusts, just as we
are all against the dishonest conduct of
any man. But the sensible thing is not to
| destroy them: the sensible thing is to
remedy them. The right road is onward
toward government control, some think
and many developments are suggested; the
| right solution will certainly be found.
and not backwa toward the day when
the farmer reaped his grain with a scythe,
| instead of with the self-binding harvester;
not backward TO the day when he thrashed
IL with a fail. instead of with a vibrating
thresher: not backward TO the day when
the stagecoach did the business of pas
| senger transportation. instead of the travel
| of the country being carried at a fraction
of the price the stagecoach charged, and
| in palace cars, with all the comforts and
luxuries of this wonderful civilization. The
read TO the true solution Is onward, and
not and the elements that are
| equired in our statesmen in dealing with
this tremendous problem of human society,
this natural industrial development, is
i earnest thought. thorough study. fearless
justice and moderation, instead of violent
and ignorant assertion, infiamed prejudice
and mad resolutions, not to remedy, but 10
destroy.
My friends. what we need Is not so much
sweeping declaration one way or the other
against the trusts of labor or the trusts
| of capital. What we need is common
| sense and justice. Common sense, in order
that we may see what is just; and the
spirit of justice. in order that we may do
what is just. On his dying bed Richelieu.