Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-04-12
SIGNS OF THE D.ELUGE
EVEN REPUBLICANS REVOLT AT
MONOPOLY.
Tho spooner Bill Introduced Mt the
Late Session OF Congress, Shows What
May BE Expected In the Near Future
bill Has Defects.

The bill introduced during the late
session of congress by Representative
Babcock, chairman of the Ways and
Means committee of the house, to abol-
ish the duties on the manufactures OF
iron and steel controlled by the new
Rockefeller Morgan trust was the
crack in the republican ice gorge that
heralds the coming flood. Its signifi-
canoe is beyond the possibility of ex-
aggeration.
This gigantic billion dollar trust.
which does not stand alone but is &C
companied by at least two other equal
ly great or greater trusts under the
control of the same men, has reduced
the protective system. so far as 1t is
concerned, to an absurdity. 1t can and
does sell its products to foreigners In
their own markets at prices that re-
duce the foreign producer to despair.
There can be no pretense that it needs
protection at home to enable it to do
business at profit. The only possible
purpose of such protection is to enable
it to extort tribute from home con-
sumers.
We are not discussing now the ques-
ton whether such combinations of cap
ital as this ought to be attacked by
antitrust laws. We may assume for
the purposes of this discussion that
the process of concentration now going
on is not only inevitable but useful.
But even on that assumption nobody
can pretend that these gigantic aggre-
cations of wealth, the greatest and
most powerful that the world has ever
seen or imagained, are industrial m
fants that need to be fed out of tar
if nursing bottle.
If the steel trust is not to be directly
assaulted by restrictive legislation at
least we may demand that the govern
ment shall not use the national taxing
power to enable it to levy forced con-
tribution on little industries whose to-
tai earnings would not keep the trust
in stationery.
The republican party cannot defeat
Mr.. Babcock's bill and defend its pol
icy before the country.
OF course, the bill has its defects.
The idea of keeping a duty on raw
material like iron ore and putting a
finished product like steel bars on the
free list would have been fatal few
years ago. But the new developments
of industry make such anomalies OF
little practical Importance.
The trust controls the whole iron
and steel industry, from top to bot
tom. 1t owns the iron mines and the
foundries and the rolling mills. IT is
the only consumer that can be hurt by
duties on iron in any form-the trust,
mining it's own ore, carrying 1t on its
own ships and railroads and working
1t up in it's own mills with its own fuel.
is independent of the tariff at every
point.
1t is especially interesting that Mr..
Babcock should have felt compelled
to try to cut off government assistance
to the steel trust at one point at the
very time when Mr.. Hanna and his as
sistants are trying to give it an addi-
tional gratuity at another. The subsi-
dies provided by this shipping bill
would go largely into the pockets of
Mr.. Rockefeller and his partners. That
fact is notorious; yet the republican
leaders of the senate persist in the at
tempt to vote those sturdy beggars
clean gift of 100000 year put into
the treasury in dimes, nickels and pen
MES by the people who drink tea and
buy stamps.
The introduction of the Babcock bill
means naturally the death of the sub
sidy bill. The republican party can
not logically take stolen purse out
of the trusts pockets with one hand
and put it back with the other.