The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-11-23
CoMMERcIALIsM IN CABINET.

To the Editor Of The Herald:
The following dispatch appeared in the
Geographic columns Of The Herald on
Nov. /:
''EiIiott Durand, Laverne NOyes and
several other Chicagoans, representing
the National Business League, yesterday
presented to the president a memorial
urging him to recommend IN his message
to congress the establishment OF oe-
partment of commerce and industries
To many the publication Of the above
will appear of little Importance On the
other hand there are many who viii at
taCh much Importance to tin fact VIII
consider the question involved from
very grave point OF view
Samuel GOmpers. president of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, discussing the
plank OF the Democratic national plat
form providing for IA cabinet position IN
the interests of labor, ana lnuofslhS the
same, said;
From the foundation OF our govern
ment I'D to the present day the repre-
sentatives of business and commerce have
had absolute and exclusive representation
in the cabinet, and in every department OF
our government
If the foregoing was simply an express
sion by Mr.. GOmpers. due to his ObSer-
vations in the wide field in which ne Ia
bOrs il might be said with some degree
of truth that he was not in q position TO
give an unbiased opinion. though his well
known integrity of principle will go a
long way in Offsetting any such premise.
However, Mr.. GomperS IS not alone ~
this opinion, as the fOllOwig extracts viii
show. Charles 7. Root, represeting the
Merchants association Of New York at
meeting of vast financial interests in
Chicago q little over a year ago, said.
The commercial element in this coun-
try shall have its Tightful due, and that
is nothing more nor less than a preuon-
deTating Influence in national and state
ssT,oy,efitutior,aI oovarnu,enf limited
States Supreme Justice Harlan says, has
been practically OVeTthTOWn in America
By the prepOnderating influence of the
commercial element IN legislation and
the commercial element has obtained or
Is rapidly gaining control of. every ma
tiOual situation. threatening the integrity
and the perpetuity of every existing gov
eminent 1t controls international dip
lomacy, makes and breaks treaties, for
its profit, and increasingly menaces the
liberty of the world.
No man conversapt with the economical
conditions which today exist in this coun-
try will endeavor to refute the assertions
OF Mr.. GOmpeTs OF Justice Harlan
Neither viii they Clai mthat Mr.. Root
was making an empty boast when he said
that the commercial element snail be the
prepondeTating influence in this nation.
The commercial element is all that Mr..
Root claims for it, and all that the other
gentlemen have claimed. Therefore. the
move TO make this power absolute is one
of no small Sign...CanCe. Will II be ac-
cornplished? Undoubtedly. The difficult
ties to be overcome in carrying out this
scheme are 50 slight as compared with
the cost of the old plan, that it win be
simply fun for the men behind the dol
lars to accomplish their project.
Back of this cabinet move lies the
principle which has brought about the
trust. The men who now practically
dominate the industrial interests OF this
nation through the trusts, seek to make
that domination one which neither the
people nor other nations can gsinsay,
and the way to do it they believe is
through control OF the government, not,
as in the past, by devious and costly
methods. but by directly influencing the
power of administration. This is not only
practicable, but feasible. The great
menace to the trust magnates lies in
federal legislation. Up TO the present
time they have been able TO carry for
ward their schemes of ACKNOWLEDGMENT
with little or no opposition, so far as the
federal government is concerned. But
the time has evidently arrived. as evil
denced in the move for q cabinet port
4 folio. when further progress Of the trust
Is likely TO be endangered. and perhaps
seriously crippled. unless precautions are
taken in the quarter from whence the
most harmful legislation can come.
People are often heard to express them
selves as being satisfied that the trust
scheme has about reached its limit, and
that continual efforts in that direction
Will lead to top-heaviness and consequent
disruption; that the men behind the trusts
are too shrewd to get beyond their depth,
and that having brought to perfection a
business proposition which is worth mil
/ lions 10 them and their heirs for many
years to come, they viii be content to
leave well enough alone
These ideas are fallacies. The trust has
not been brought to perfection, for It is
not as yet the "preponderasing influence
in national affairs. To become so is
its purpose, but that purpose cannot be-
come a fact until the government of this
/ country becomes an adjunct of the trust.
| While it is true that the government has
been made to lend its cOuntenanee to the
l trust schemers, Il is equally true that in
most instances subtlety has been the
/ agent in bringing this about But each
succeeding advance of the TRUSTEES has
| become more difficult as their objects
were brought to view, and the result is
that At last II has been decided that the
{ time Is ripe for the carrying out OF the
I end which was the inspiration OF the
trust idea-the absorption Of govern
ment and its people by the insitiable nav
Of eommercialism
f. JOSEPH HARDY.