Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-10-03


arate lires In our manufacturing industries
is controlled by a trust it would' require but
one greater combination of all, either ex-
press implied, to fix a scale of wages
that would be paid by all.
Coal Trust Menaces Nation.
"A forcible example of the power they
would easily WELD in this regard, is fur
nished by conditions that now exist in the
anthracite fields Of this country. There
one huge combina ton has possessed itself
not only of the soil from which our hard
coal must come. but of the means of trans
portation through which it must reach the
outer world.
For perioG Of Eearly four months the
managers of that morstrous combination
have been at loggerheads with their en-
pLoyes over differences they are unable to
harmonic, and although thousands upon
thousands of their hard-handed workmen,
with their wives and little ones, are suffer
ing for the necessaries of life ard the
whole country is on the verge Of a fuel panic
not a muscle of that souiless combination
is moved and not word Of conciliatio es-
capes the lips of it's managers.
These men have formulated the terms
on which their workmen may return to
their toll They can accept or starve; that
is their only choice.
What L have said of the two examples
to which I have referred is largely ap-
plicable to nearly 800 similar combinations
of greater or less degree.
AS heretofore stated, While all seem to
realize the danger to the great mass of our
people which this new departure in our
business methods threatens, we are hope
lessly divided in seeking remedy for it
Two Views of the Tariff.
For genera tons the American people
have been divided, on the question of the
right or the wrong of a protective dis
tinguished from a revenue tariff, but it is
only in recent years that the trust evil has
entered into a discussion of that question.
THE teachings of democrats logically
tn nlIr
tariff system has made the organiza ton of
these trusts possible, and SO long as it is
continued they also believe it will furnish
a defensive breastwork behind which they
can find shelter from every shaft that could
reach a vital part.
THE course of reasoning by which this
conclusion is reached is easily unders TODD.
They say truthfully that the conceded OBJ
ject of a protective tariff is to eXclu0 from
our market goods of foreign manufacture
which, if permitted to be imported, would
be sold in competition with home manufac-
lures and hence reduce the price of these to
the same level a which foreign goods of
like quality could be bought. That so long
as we maintain a tariff wall that shuts for
eign goods out of our markets there is TO
possible way to prevent home producers
from combining by either express or i'm
piled agreements and fixing the price at
which their own products shall be sold.
1.-The futility of legislation, other than
tariff reduction, in restraint of such action
is to them demonstrated by the fact that
the great bulk of our trusts have been
openly organized: in the face of antitrust
laws carefully prepared and incorpora ted
into the statutes of the nation and many of
the states.
Remedy Through the Tariff.
'They insist, therefore, that inasmuch as
the plain object of these combinations is to
destroy competition among themselves
and thereby become able to fix their own
prices upon. whatever they produce there is
evils threaten.
and that is to take down the wall that shell
tiers them and compel them to compete with
the world al large.
In this view 1 heartily concur, as I do in
the OLD and reVered democratic doctrine
that a tariff which is nothing less than tax
on consumers can rightfully be laid for ore
purpose only, ard that to raise needed rev.
enue for the use of the government.
But, as old as that doctrine is and firmly
rooted in the democratic faith a it has be-
come, it must always be Interpreted in the
light of conditions as they exist when it is
to be applied.
I'm the absence of circumstances requir-
ing a different Interpretation a demand for
an immediate reduction in our tariff sys-
tenn to a revenue basis would naturally be
understood to mean a demand for a general
revision of our tariff laws and a reduction
OF all their schedules to a common Level
that would produce needed revenue Only.
This, however. is not as l understand
the Interpretation democrats at the pres
ent time put upon that demand.
1T must be remembered that it is MADE
in the presence Of new conditions, in the
bright glare of which it must be construed
Host of Unique Evils.
ITO the mind of a democrat at least this
country is threatened with unique ard over
shaGowing evils.
In the presence of the great combina-
tons that have been and are being organ
lied in our industrial pursuits he reads the
downfall of Independent effort, the crush
al
hope to stand at the head of some business
enterprise and, with brain as we'll as Drawn,
lead it upward to success; the witherrs
away of great army of leaders who have
stood at the pilot wheels of our industries
and made the whole world wonder at Amer
ica's business success, and, looking out into
the future, he sees in the place of these
single individual, whom the Worlo 0ubs a
captain of industry, beGncked with en-
bIems of authority that cost million a
year to support, leading behind him great
columns of detected men who never dream
of a better place but come and go at one
mans beck.
And, turning from visions like these, he
sees the wealth that millions are MADE to
earn a the feet of men whose HANDS were
never stained by toll, and then is Il any
wonder that he asks: Is this the result of
law?
And who are the men that we see and
speak like this? You who would lead or
drive them, call them the common herd but
in among them are millions of men who
drank from their mothers breast the milk
of human kindness that makes every man
a brother. who learned at his fathers knee
his Bible faith, the equality Of man before
the law.
Aim at Heart of Trusts.
ITO the worshipers of protection let me
say 1t Is not the fetish you have made your
sod these men are after now. An evil
greater than that must be dealt with first
1t is the heart OF the trust they would reach
To DO this you know the wall that shelters
it must be battered down at the place
where it is concealed.
IF this should reduce our tariff system
below a revenue basis they would hep to
build 1t higher whenever or wherever a
trust is not sheltered behind it.