Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-07-26

goes to steal a horse or burglarize a
store do you go into court and get out
an injunction and tell him not to do so
any more? No. you put him IN the
penitentiary. When the Republican
party takes a millionaire and puts
stripes on him l will believe it is in
earnest in its efforts to destroy the
trusts. If you tell me that the law is
not sufficient. that some new law is
necessary. some broader law, then l
ask you why your party does not give
us new and broader law?
"Since 1896 you have had the Presi-
dent and YOU have had control OF the
Senate and the House of Representa-
tives, and you have passed no law on
the trust question, although trusts
have grown and thrived as they never
did before. In 1900 you came into pow
er again under promise to do this.
Why, just before the campaign
Mr. Littlefield introduced bill
and it passed the House and was
voted for by the Democrats and
went through almost unanimously
after the Democrats had put on some
important amendments. One was an
amendment protecting union labor; and
it went over to the Senate and they
said they didn't have time to pass it
then. But all through the campaign
Republican speakers said: Look at
that Littleiield BILL Well, the election
came on and the next session of Con-
gress came on and they didn't have
time to take it up in the Senate and il
never was taken up 1t died in the
committee. And then they had a WHOLE
session, a long session of Congress Eol1
that time they didn't even get a bill
through the lower House. And all the
assurance you have that you are going
to have any antitrust legislation is
from the papers who say that after
election Mr.. Roosevelt is going TO take
the matter UP.
THE Republican party will never
prosecute the trusts. 1t will spend
more time warning you not to hurt a
good trust than in trying to hurt the
! bad trusts. They say that some trusts
lare good and some are bad, but most
Of those VINO say so have never been
able to distinguish which are the good
and which are the band. If you are
going to destroy the trusts you have
| got to do it with the theory that there
ape no good trusts. l assert that pri-
yate monopolies are indefensible and
| in tolerable. l care not whether q
monarch DE good or bad; hate a mon
arcy that creates a king. / hate pri-
waite monopoly that gives men this
| mower over their fellow men.
II go on the theory that God never
mad man good enough TO stand at
the head Of private monopoly and de-
eide every day questions where his in
trests are on one side and yours on the
other. Did you ever know a judge SO
good that You would let him try a ease
| if he sued YOU or you sued him? You
never knew of a man good enough to
sit on the Jury and be one of II men
10 decide his own cause. And yet q
man at the head Of a private monopoly
decides how much water there will be
| in the stock of the corporation, how
much he will charge you if you can't
| buy elsewhere. and how much he VIII
| make you pay in dividends on money
never invested in the enterprise. III !
knew Of man good enough to be en-
trusted with this almost unlimited
power would be afraid to go to steep
at night for fear he would die before
morning and some bad man would gel
| in there. tbdugnleft.
..Now / believe that you Republicans
are opposed to trusts, but what surprises
! me is that being opposed TO trusts You
do not vote as You think. You tell ME
that you cannot trust the Democratic
party to destroy the trusts. l tell you
that the trusts know more about it than
you do They would not risk the chance
of the Democratic party's destroying
them Isn't it strange that you should
find yourself in company with these men
who plumber you every day and yet you
vote to keep in power the men whom they
select to preveHt the execution Of the law.
I want to destroy the trusts and ! want
to tell you that | go further than thoss
who merely say, take the tariff off a
trust-made article l want to take the
tariff off a trust-made article. Nine years
ago | introduced bill in Congress to
put on the free list every trust-made ar
ticle, and I did il because I believe thai
they are practicing extortion. | would
like to see on the free list every trust
made article, and / believe ii would help
and be step in the right direction.
.But further than that my objection to
the trust is not merely that it practice :
extOTtlOE. IDdl Is Ddu, Dut We tdu stdD'i
it for we can do without the article; bu,
what l object to most is that the trust
destroys individual enterprise and shuts
the door of opportunity against your boy
and my boy tapplause). and j am not
willing to stop with putting the trust
made article on the free list. l want leg
islation that win make 1t impossible for
any private monopoly TO exist in tile
United States. ! want the doors open
to the humblest boy in the land. | think
/ can make my living and ! am not sure
but that l can help my boy to make his,
but my friends, we cannot control our
children or their welfare beyond our own
lives. I am not willing to have gov
eminent good for trust magnates and
their sons and sons-in-law. | am not
willing to have a government good for
lawyers or bankers or financiers. | want
a government that will protect every cit
izcn in the enjoyment Of life and liberty