Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-14
As tn An AMERICAN EMPEROR.

Al TO AN "A NJ II tlSAN HNnA AsOAs
The statement of President Hadley,
of Yale College, that I'VE shall have
an emperor in Washington within
twenty-five years unless We can Gre
ate a public sentiment which, regard
less of legislation, will regulate the
trusts has echoed all over the land
and the comments and criticisms there
on are beginning to come in.
Mr.. Bryan agrees as to the impera-
tive necessity of formulating legisla-
ton to curb the trusts. Said he:
''The public sentiment of 80 per cent.
of the people is against horse stealing,
but that wouldn't have the slightest
effect upon the horse thief if it was not
enacted into a law against horse steal
ing.
sThere might be an overwhelming pre-
ponderance of public sentiment against
trust monopolies, but the manager of
this sort of a monopoly would have no
trouble in finding plenty of his OWN kind
to agree with him, and public sentiment
would be of no avail against the trusts.
Public sentiment must be expressed in
laws to be powerful"
This is as true as is the fact that
we shall never have honest legislation
against the trusts so long as the leg
islative and administrative branches Of
the government are in the hands of the
servants of the trusts.
Boss Hanna, of course, a%rrogantly
pooh-poohs President Hadley as "ar
impractical man." Mr.. Hanna is moth
ing if not practical, especially in poll
tics, which with him is a simple
ter of dollars and cents, barter and
sale.
dear people, whom he loves so devot-
eddy and whose interests, regardless of
his own, he always looks after so care
fully, can be trusted to handle the
trusts. Says he:
81 do not share in the rather radical
views of Prof. Hadley because of my
confidence in the people of this country.
The Government is not centered in
Washington. but is in the hands of the
people, and if the trusts grow to be such
monsters of power so that they threaten
the republic with an empire l have every
confidence that the people will rob them
of their power
Senator Teller, however, is mora
specific. He agrees with Mr.. Bryan,
and says: 1.-The trusts will never have
their feelings hurt by public senti-
ment. Only public laws, rigidly en-,
forced, will ever affect their soulJess
beings"
Hon. Robert B. Roosevelt, Of New
York, agrees in the main with Pres
ident Hadley. He says:
I'VE shall have an emperor surely, but
not in twenty-five years. Cause, a
Titanic battle between labor trusts and
capitalistic trusts.
Capital will win; otherwise we should
have anarchy, dark ages and destruction
of all property. To escape the latter the
people will accept an emperor"
And so it goes, the organs and SER
wants of the trusts and plutocracv
pooh-pooh or malign Yale's president,
while Others independent of trust
domination, while they may not be-
lieve President Hadley altogether
warranted in his extreme statement
of the case, nevertheless take a grave
and serious view of the outlook for
popular rights in the government uu-
der the continuation of trust domina-
ton. AS the st. Louis Republic puts
it, "even II the president of Yale Uni
versity takes an extreme view of the
menace contained trust dominance OF
the American government, it is better
danger confronts the country. And
Is it not a great danger, this tremen-
dous and ever-growing power of the
trusts? There is probably no American
of ordinary intelligence in all this wide
land that has failed to perceive the
nature and extent of the danger. 1t
is too plain to be ignored. 1t must
be faced and overcome or we must
sink content to the degraded level of
a people whose government is a gov
eminent of the privileged class by the
privileged class for the privileged
class, with the people paying tribute
for the oyerthrowing of popular gov
eminent. President Hadley of Yale
University is to be commended for
his bold and essentially patriotic ut
terance. He may be a traitor to Nc
Kinleyism and Trustism, but he is
faithful in his allegiance to the true
Americanism. 1t is infinitely better
to speak plainly now than to wait I'M
til it will be useless to speak. The
American people must resolve to do
away with the trusts if they are to re-
main a free people"
Porto Rican commissioners told the
President their impoverished island is