Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-07
/ MAGNIFICENT
WELCOME EXTENDED.
Continued From First Page

see far enough ahead to realize what mil
itarism would mean for him.
The gentleman asked me what would
do to destroy the trusts. I have been ar
guing the trust question for some time,
and 1 have given remedies. Eight years
ago 1 introduced bill providing that
whenever it was determined in court that
a trust controlled the price of any article
upon which tariff was laid, that article
should go TO the free list. l not only want
TO destroy the advantage which trust
can secure under legislation that is given
for the purpose of protection. / want TO
go further than that / want TO destroy
every private monopoly in the United
States l believe that it is possible for
Congress to so legislate that every cor
poration doing business outside of the
State of its origin can be prevented from
! becoming a monopoly, and the plan |
suggest is this: Let Congress provide
that whenever any corporation organized
in any State wants to do business outside
of the State IL must go to the Federal gov
eminent and get a license which viii en-
able it to do business outside of the State
of its origin, but it must do business In
State in which it does business, 1 do not
want to take away from the State any
powers 1t nof' has, but | want Congress
To Add Remedy.
Before this license is given / want two
conditions complied with. First, l want
the water to be squeezed out of the stock
of the corporations. The laboring man
cannot water his capital-which is labor;
the farmer cannot water his capital, which
is the farm and l do not believe that a
corporation should be permitted to water
its stock and then to collect the dividends
upon its fictitious investment. l want to
squeeze the water out of the stock. There
will be food for a while, but there will
be honest corporations afterwards. Let
the corporation show that it has not at
tempted and is not attempting to monopo-
lie any branch of business or production
of any article of merchandise. If you
had such a law and such license, given
on such conditions, l do not believe there
could be monopoly in this country. Let
me illustrate; suppose you had a law and
the sugar trust applied for a license. It
could not show that it did not have a
monopoly. The evidence would show that
the sugar trust controlled IS per cent of
the output of sugar. 1t could not do bust
ness out of the State of it's origin. 1t
would have to dissolve, and then we
would have honest competition between
factories. So with all of these trusts. 1
believe you could destroy them But if
you found that these conditions were not
sufficient, you could add conditions until
you had enough, because l believe that
the trust is hostile to the interests Of our
people, and we must destroy the trust or
it will destroy the independence of the in
dividual citizen. Now, have suggested
two remedies. If anybody has a better
remedy, will be glad to substitute or add
that remedy to the one I propose
But, my friends 1 want you to stop for
a moment and see what the tendency of
| this concentration of wealth means 1t
means that the small man will not have
his chance in the race of life. The Repub-
lican party to-day stands for a system Of
concentrated wealth that shuts the door
of opportunity ip the face of the young
man, and condemns him to perpetual
clerkship under some great monopoly. /
belleve the system is bad, and l do not
understand how any young man can fail
to see it, do not see how any parent can
fail to see the danger that menaces his
son.
The trust is only one of the great ques-
tons, and | believe there are questions
greater even than the trust question
Mr.. Bryan then presented arguments
against large standing army and dis
eussed militarism and imperialism along
the same general lines he used in other
recent speeches. He closed about 1920
O'clock