The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1902-10-17
Tariff and Trusts.

cans who have not taken the pain:
to carefully investigate the matter,
that free trade policy would des-
troy the mischief making pr oclivi
ties of our large corporations,
familliarly known as trusts. AS a
matter of fact Free Trade England
is the home of trusts and combines
and in that country they flourish as
in no other. However, they are
getting sufficiently numerous and
powerful in the young Republic to
attract the attention of the think
ing mind in an effort to devise
means for their control when they
menace the welfare of the general
public.
The only remedy the Democrat
ic party seems to have is Free
Trade. If that effected them, it
would only be to destroy and in
destroying them it would carry
down to destruction our grand pros
perity and commercial activity and
plunge this country again into the
condition of stagnation and power
that held sway during the Cleve-
land reign. But there are some
trusts that this Democratic Free
Trade remedy could not reach only
as they would be made to suffer by
the general stagnation incident to a
Free Trade policy.
Does anyone suppose for an in
slant that the reduction of tariff
would affect the Standard Oil COM
pany only in as much as it render
ed the present patrons incapable of
buying the product? How could a
Free Trade policy affect our rail-
road conbinations1 Would the
beef trust be injured by reduction
of the tariff. Not in the least.
The farmer is the only man that
would suffer. The trust would
simply buy its cattle at little
smaller figure. How could tariff
reduction regulate the copper COM
bine in this country, with its $Is5,
900, 900? The American Smelling
and Refining company, with its
$1,000, 900, 900 capital, that smelts
American and foreign ores could
not be reached by tariff reduction.
The street railway combinations.
The ice combine. The Pittsburg
brewing company. The American
car and foundry company. The
Morgan banking combine and
dozens of other large combinations
tat are not affected directly
by the tariff, could not be affected
by reduc tion of tariff only as
they would suffer in general by the
paralysis in business produced in
evitably by the reduction. We
must look for a more direct remedy
for the evils of the trusts. We
must not seek to destroy these great
industries and thereby stagnate
business but so hedge them around
by wholesome, equitable laws that
they become blessing to the coun-
try, unalloyed with evil.
About nine. tenths of this howl
about the evils of trusts is purely
imaginary any way, and is only in
tended as a campaign cry with
which to prejudice the mind of the
honest voter. That many abuses
of power creep in under the man
agement of large combines, is very
apparent, and the Republican party
has earnestly labored to throw
about them barriers for the pro-
lection of the people. Bhe only
National antitrust legislation was
by the Republicans and is embodied
in the Sherman law. The Demo
Gratis defeated in Congress the
efforts of the Republicans to gel
further control of the trusts, wher
they defeated the proposed consti'
tutional amendment.
The great bulk of this anti-trus
cry is simply for political effect
IT. .o~ - ~ry the ioifdecf ac .