The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-28


 
 stated, even the republican party-or their l crafty leaders-have walked up to a reali- zation that the people are alive to this danger threatening them,- and saw fit to insert blanks in their previous plat forms repeatedly inveighing against such danger But they have blown hot and blown cold" by declaring in one breath that the trusts must be regulated while in the very next breath they have incon- 1 sistently declared for the high tariff which alone has made possible these trusts and entrenched them so securely in their despotic stronghold.
 This concentration of wealth in the hands of the few favored potentates, this increasing value of public franchises, the augmenting powers of taxation and ap- 1 propriation. and the corresponding in crease in the prizes of corrupt legislation in the interest of corporate princes, are such that just and frugal government l is not to be reasonably expected from party whose very leaders are nearly all connected with and dominant factors in said trusts. When these so-called ''cap- tains of industry" see fit to go before congress with their colossal schemes, more or less shrewdly disguised as bills for the public veal but none the less contemplating wholesale raid on the l public treasury they are sure of success l in advance. Not satisfied with sub sides provided for by way of tariff legis- l lation the senate, for example has pass ed a bill to subsidize steamships-konw 1 as the Hanna-Frye subsidy bill-which alone contemplates raid on the gov ernment treasury to the modest sum of l $270,0 ,000, ,000-all to go into the pockets, largely, of the favored few bloated | capitalists headed by J. P. Morgan who has since clearly demonstrated the utter | lack of necessity for such subsidy by
 taking over" and uniting into one gigan- tic combine alr the leading steamship lines of the world, and all dominated, in the main, by American capital. True, the house of representatives has tenn l porarily "shelved" this most uncon- seionable measure flor cause" but so soon as the pending elections of represen- tatives to congress is over and the nec- essity for hoodwinking the public no 1 longer exists this bill will undoubtedly be pressed in the house and will carry
 unless the republican party is driven from power.
 | But this is merely one of many exam ples. Congress has for years been sub sidizing the Southern railway. Also, in 1901 it passed an act giving outright over s3,OOO0OO worth of public property in 1 Washington to the Baltimore and Poto- mac railroad, and another giving Sl5OO,- | GOO in money to the Baltimore and ono. | This year it passed still another law m favor of the railroads by which 1t gave to the Pennsylvania company over soV0O'- 900 in property and money, besides the ex- | cl,isive right of way through the Dis- | trict of Columbia and across the Poto- mac river at Westinghouse franchlsd worth $50,0000O0 at least.
 | The postion of the two parties on the trust question was clearly shown by | vote on an amendment orered Tn the | house of representatives at Na5mhgton on June g. 19O0 by Terry Of Arkansas | fRec P 5496), providing that whenever tbe president of the United States be- came satisfied that the price of any com | moditv or article of merchandise has been 1 enhanced in consequence of any monop- oly, he should at once suspend the col Election of all duties upon such art1cles' l and that such suspension should continue so long as the enhancement ot price dld. | The republicans voted solidly against this
 proposition, and the democrats soildly
 in favor of 1t. (See Cong. Record, D. o5Oo) This shows that the republicans want nrotertiye tariff only for the sake or the 1 trusts; not, as they pretend on the stump, for the sake of American workingmen. l The same fact was shown at the last ses- sion of congress, when the democrats | tried to abolish the differential duty on I | crimination by means of which an article | is admitted at lower rate of duty from | one foreign country than from others The highest rate of duty paid on sugar from | any country fixes the price to the con | sumer on the whole, and thus enables the l sugar trust to reap the benefit CT the dlf- | ference between the lower rate on Cuban sugar and the higher rates on ether inn ported sugars. The republicans, acting on | their favorite principle of protection for | trusts voted solidly to retain the dif- l ferential, though 1t was clear that no- | body except the sugar trust derived any benefit from 1t, and that the people are | fieeced unmercifully In elouuent contrast | with this record made by the repub- licans, the issue was finally pressed home 1 to them when towards the close of the | last session, the democrats insisted upon | A resolution to continue in session, and never adjourn, until some act was passed curbing or controlling the trusts, but their insistence was, as might be ex- pected all in vain.
 | As stated, the danger threatening the country by these trusts was not merely recognized by President Mckinley, and | ia now being admitted by a large and I conservative contingent of the republican 1 marty itself but even President Roose- | welt has read the handwriting on the wall" and now that congress has ad- iourned and the republican party-thc
 dominant party, and as such responslple to the country for its refusal of the chal- lenge of the democrats mentioned-must face the foregoing record in coming cam paigns, sees fit to illuminate through the press his thunder about moving against the trusts through the attorney general l (Knox) and through the reported new bill to be pressed by Representative Lit- l tlefield of Maine. And yet it cannot be nfxxrft for 1t- l torney general did pretend to institute l legal proceedings against the Northern Securities company, 1t was only because the states of Minnesota and Washington had previously attrGcted the eyes of the | country to their bils filed in the supreme | court of the United States for the revoca- tion of its charter under the sherman