Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-02-13
National Anti Trust Confer
ence Convenes in Music
Hall in Chicago.
MANY DELEGATES THERE
Representatives of All Classes From
All Parts of the Country Present.
Politicians Wil Not Speak
Lockwood's Address.

LOckWOOdsS Address.
Chicago, Feb. 12.-Ry Associated
Press.) The National anti-Trus1
League Conference opened today in !,
Central Music hall. Over 1000 repre-
sentatives from all parts of the coun-
try are present. The call for the con-
vention signed by scores OF citizens
from all sections OF the union. is ac-
companied by the following tleclara-
tion: I'VE believe. that the criminal
conspiracies in consmaint OF trade
commonly known as trusts. which so
alarmingly characterize the present
tunes, are menace to liberty. They
close the doors of business opportunity
to all but the rich and powerful
They lmpoverish the producer and tho
consumer They degrade labor The,
have seized upon the avenues of trans,
portation and poisoned the fountains
of public information. They debauch
the elective franchise. They are pub.
lie enemies. Unless they are over.
thrown there will be established IN
free America a moneyed oligarchy on
the one hand and serfdom of the
masses of the people on the other.
They must be destroyed or free goy-
| ernment is lost. The only power ca
pable of successfully combating the
| a j.
| tyrannies of these. gigantic capitalistic5
monopolies is the aroused and organ
lied hosts of people, to whom the gov
eminent and the country rightfully be-
long and in whom all power or right
ii1heres Ways ana means Will be sue-
/ gested and devised, and resolutions
adopted planning the annihilation Of
| trusts. The commercial Travellers and
Hotel Mems antitrust League have
sent delegates. The principal Chicago
hotels have made special rates. The
names of forty prominent persons have
| been put down for addresses. Three
sessions will be held daily for three
days. In oroer to throw off any suspic-
ion of partisanism, the committee
deemed it prudent not to invite any
prominent political leaders Ito speak.
| Indications are that majority of
men Who will address the conference
Z will not make the money question the
| feature OF their discussion. but that
| public ownership and public utility
will be the keynote of the remarks.
! Lockwood,s Address
President Lockwood. of the executive
committee. called the mee1ing 70 order
and said:
''Iwenty-eight years ago there gath
cred in the little town of Franklin, just
as we have gathered here. the repre-
sentative men of the five oil producing
counsies of western Penasylvaniae
Gathered to protest, aye, aud to revolt
against the Infamous thing llnon-a as
the South Improvement cnnlpany's&
contract with the five trunk railways.
That contract gave 10 she men who Of
terwards created the Standard OIL
company a rebate or drawback of more
than one dollar on crcry barrel Of oil
shipped from the oil region of Penn
sylvania whether shipped by
the South improvement compa-
ny or not. In other words, the
railway companies contracted TO take
more than ST Il barrel from she inde-
pendent producers and reGners of
Pennsylvania in excessive freight. and
| transfer it into the Golfers of the
South improvement company. The
people Of the oil regions of Pennsylva-
mia Went into revolt and detied this
railroad power. They declared that the
! highways of the country should not
be destroyed, that the railroad coapa-
mics must ship upon equal. terms to ey-
cry American citizen, that the discrim-
ination contracted for by the South
Improvement company contract they
would not submit to. They would
tear up the railroad tracks and buru
their bridges first,
"That little band of determined men,
backed by the mighty power of right,
rocked that old Keystone state to her
center. They went before the legisla-
lature then in session and demanded
and secured the repeal of the South
| Improvement company's charter, and
the life of that corporation, creature
of The state, was snutfed out just as
any corporations life can be snuffed
out whenever the public welfare de-
mands it. For the public welfare is
/ the supreme law
"But the monopoly which the rail-
way companies failed to create under
i the open contract with the South I'm.
provement company they have since
created by a system of secret rebaTss
and draw backs which they have given
to the Standard Oil company. Yes, aud
i this same power of secret rebates from
4 the railway companies has since mos
/ nopolized in the hands of the favored
i few almost every industry in America.
The awful crime of railway discrimin-
alton has destroyed the equal rights Of
3 the American citizenship. 1t has mos
/ nopolized the industries of the. coun-