Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1902-12-12

Va. .0Ssecond class mat mGtteT.
Friday, Dec. II.
CONGRESS- WILL DO NOTHING WITH
TRUSTS.
The trust question is one that
should be dealt with by the present
Congress, but which will not be, fur
ther possibly than to attempt to con-
vice the public that Congress wants
to correct the evil, and at the same
time assure the trusts that Congress
does not want to correct the evil, be-
cause Congress does not consider
trusts an evil. Had Congress desired
to do so, there might long ago have
been some restraint on these destroy
ers of individual enterprise. but In
stead of anything being done by the
Republican party in Congress or out
of 1t with this end in view its entire
tendency, in fact its persistent aim
and effort has been to aid the forma.
ton OF trusts by all ways known or
that have been suggested. This is q
fact-and it may be asked why is it a
faots Has the Republican party for
gotten the great body Of laboring PEG
pie and especially the consumers of the
country, and if so why? We answer
that the Republican party has not
forgotten them, they have found,
however, that while the great body
contains the voters, the trusts and
corporations furnish the sinews of
war, and with these the voters can be
controlled. The people vote but the
people do not subscribe to the cam
paign fund. Who do any of us know
who gives dollar toward bearing the
expenses incurred by the Republican
party in its determined effort to con.
troll the government? Unless it be an
officehOlder who is obliged to contrl
butte, not soul of our acquaintance
drops a nickel into the collection box.
But millions of dollars are yearly sub
scribed for this purpose. These vast
sums, however. are subscribed by
bodies corporate and not by indivldu-
ais. Without these vast sums the Re-
publican party would not hold power
one day. This the leaders know. They
know too with these funds they can
control elections because there is an
immense venal vote in this country,
and q vast lot of venal election officers.
They bought and bribed themselves
into power in 1896 when they were
fairly beaten, and this was a great
lesson. With such a man as Senator
Hanna at the head of campaign affairs
they feel no fear. But even this
Napoleon of election methods would
despair and become utterly powerless,
were it not for the fostering care of
the trusts by that party.
We are taught that trust may be
of two kinds. just as men may be, good
or bad. A bad trust is one which
does not subscribe to the Republican
campaign fund, a good trust is one
which does. AS all do subscribe there
are no bad trusts.
1t certainly cannot be long before
there will arise in the country men
enough who have been affected by the
monopolies now existing to wish a re-
turn of conditions which allow them
to be something more than day labor
ers. But Congress need not be called
on to act at all if there was a genuine
desire on the part of the Republican
party to control trusts. The judges of
the q. 8. Courts could work out the
problem if so disposed. They could
hold such combinations as the sugar
trust, the steel trust, the coal oil
trust, illegal, because they are formed
to destroy competition and break
down individual enterprise. It is not
even an argument to say oil is cheaper
now than before the trust was formed.
We know that the com bination was
not formed to cheaper oil any more
than any combination is formed to
cheaper any other article. The fact
that oil is cheaper than it was once
upon time is not saying that it is as
cheap as it ought to be, nor is it saying
that the public is better off with the
Standard Oil Company in full control
OF the worlds supply than without 1t.
The man who argues to the public that
trusts are boon is either a fool him
self or his auditor is one. When man
Is denied the privilege of entering upon
any business enterprise by a hostile
combination which warns him away
from his venture at his peril, or which
bankrupts him if he persists, then the
laws of the land are mockery and a
jest.
Why may not make steel or refine
coal oil! Can anybody answer?
have the same Inherent right to do so
that I have to count my own money,
, or put on my own coat. But can I do
such thing In these United States :
No. Why? Because the Steel Trust
\ : the Standard Oil Company informs
lone that they are supreme in that
ield-and that no one can enter it.
MS Is true. These corporations in
heir respective fields are supreme.
shey are backed by Congress and by
IAll the Federal courts. They tell Con-
less what it must do, Congress does
and the people are driven out of
/heir store houses and out of their own