Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-09-22
AFALSE REMEDY.
Democratic Cure For Trusts is
e Free Trade Again. A.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTS REoAILBD.

When the Democrats Werc In Power
In Congress They F6iled to Touch
the Trusts
1--WE demand the suppression OF all
trusts" as an excellent plank In tho
Ohio Democratic platform, save That
1t lacks one vital essentially work.
ing plan for accomplishing its de-
mand. Its very vagueness is to its
authors it's beauty as political dec
laration, because such uncertainty
leaves everything to the imagination.
1t is emlnently characteristic OF the
Democracy, which Is always great In
platform denunciation and absolutely
short on practical legislation.
This time the Mclean platform pro-
poses what 1t pretends to think Is q
remedy by asking that "all trust prod
ucts should be placed on the free list"
In fact, free trade Of the good old
Democratic kind is once more para
mount with that party, for an earlier
plank reiterates the claim, for which
no proof has over been supplied that
"the existence and abuses Of trusts
have been brought about by the policy
of protection of favored industries
Assuming Inc truth of this FREQUENT
but never-supported statement the
Ohio Democrats go on to demand "the
abolition of the so-called protective
system and the substitution in its
place of the traditional democratic
policy of tariff for revenue"
Thus we have free trade as the only
Democratic remedy for trusts. In this
that party is truly TRADITIONAL" for,
while paramount issues" may come
and paramount issues" go, campaign
after campaign, free trade and state
rights "go on forever"
In 1894 William j. Bryan introduced
In congress two bills providing for
placing trust-madc articles on the free
list. The Democrats controlled that
congress, and Bryan belonged to the
Ways and Means committee, to which
his bills were referred; but that com
mittec never did anything with them.
What the committee did was to report
the Wilson-Gorman tariff bill, with the
preferential tariff pcrpetuatlng the
Sugar trust by 10 per cent In its favor,
amounting to many millions of dollars.
This was the bill that President Cleye-
land refused to sign, calling 1t meas
ure of ''perfidy and ,dishonor." 1T be-
came law in spite of him, including
this discrimination of 10 per cent in
favor of tho Sugar trust, that was as
good as q gift to that great corpora.
tion throughout the entire three years
of the Wilson tariff, taxing every
pound of sugar that the people ate for
the benefit of this trust.
Again, in that bill the Democrats set
up some semblance of provision
against combinations that interfered
with foreign commerce, but did not
make any against combinations that
interfered with local production or
manufacture, while one Is precisely as
injurious as the other, save that those
that relate to domestic interests arc
the ones that concern our own people
most OF ell. .n
That time, therefore, the Democrats
did nothing against domestic trusts,
though all the power was In their
hands; and from that day to this, for
soven long years, they have done moth
ing in. congress except to prevent any
body else from doing anything. Is MT
this fact the very best confirmation
Of the declaration in the Ohio RepnL.
lican platform that the Republican
party is the only one that "can be
safely trusted to deal with this prob
lem," because "the only legislation,
national or in Ohio, on this subject,
has been enacted by the Republican
party?"