Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-08-28
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= Clark'S Letter =
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The Democratic congressional campaign |
of this year should be a vigorous and ag- |
gressive attack on those tariff schedules |
that are being used no longer to ward off |
impossible foreign competition. but to rob |
our own people and build up enormous |
personal fortunes for favored classes and |
sections. The way to kill the trust is to |
kill the special legislation which is the |
spinal cord of it's life. The way to de- |
stroy the leather trust and get shoes at |
fair prices is to repeal the taxes on hides. |
The way to destroy the food trust is to re- |
peal the food taxes and let the cattle and |
fresh meats of Canada, Mexico and South |
America come in to regulate prices to |
living level. And SO on to the end of the !
chapter.
That's, one remedy and good one, /
but it is an old saying that doctors |
disagree" In long editorial on the |
subject of trusts the New York Mail |
and Express, Republican, says:
A more inexorable law than any statute |
framed in Washington is responsible for
the early demise of these corporations
the law of supply and demand. The
American dollar frames that law. 1t is
alert to opportunity, eager for invest
ment hard to beat in competition. 1t is
at work all the time against the trust
| that initiates prices or seeks return on
| watered stock. And it will come nearer
| solving the trust problem than will any
| legislation enacted by congress. Congress
| can do much and should do something to
| make unlawful some of the present prac-
| tees of the trusts. but individual Amer
| lean enterprise and capital will after all
| prove to be the real and vital force
| against them.
| That is only another way of stating
the warcry of Hon. Serene E. Payne,
l Oh oil arly
Hanna's improvement on Payne, keep
| on letting well enough alone" to which
every trust and criminal in the land
will give most fervent and hearty
"Amenv' There Is no sort of doubt
| that the suggestion of the constitution
is preferable to that of the Mail and
| Express. Horace Greeley said, "The
way to resume is to resume" and the
way to bust the trusts is to bust them.
1t Is true that individual enterprise
endeavors to bust them; but. as rule,
| they bust individual enterprise. If the
M. and E. would give a complete list
| of the private enterprises crushed by
the Standard Oil company, it would be
valuable lesson.
The President and the Trusts.
| Individually am inclined to give the
| president credit for honesty in his
crusade against the trusts. 1t is said
that he has selected Mr.. Littlefeld of
| Maine to introduce and manage an
antitrust bill. The Washington Post,
Independent and high tariff shouter,
Is a doubling Thomas as to what a
Republican congress is likely to do to
the trusts. The Post is on the ground
and possesses unusual facilities for
information not only as to what is
done and left undone, but also as to the
motives of the actors. AS to the Roose-
velt-Littlefeld pronunciamento against
the trusts it discourses in this cynical
strain:
1t appears that an administration anti
trust bill is to be introduced in congress
on the reassembling of that body in De-
cember. Hitherto executive activities in
behalf of antitrust legislation have been
confined to recomm endations in the regu-
lar annual messages. President Mckinley
called the attention of congress to this
subject and expressed the hope that a
legislative remedy for the evils of monop-
olistic combinations would be devised and
applied. President Roosevelt In his mes
sage to the Fifty-seventh congress last
December treated the trusts in a con-
servative manner, but suggested publicity
as an important feature of remedial legis-
lation. But neither the recommendation
OF Mckinley to the F'ifty-sixth congress
nor of Roosevelt to the Fifty seventh con-
gress fructited in any antitrust enact
ment. Indeed, there was no feature of the
programme of the Republican leaders in
both of these congresses-in the Fifty
vt 1cho if0 IN fha
seventh throughout its long session-more
evident than their determination to avoid
interference with the trusts in any way.
But In the Fifty-sixth congress the
house of representatives did make far
cical pretense of attempting an attack on
trusts and combines. Assuming 1t to be
a fact that the president has requested
| Representative Littlefeld of Maine, whose
name fills seventh place on the house
judiciary committee. to prepare the pro-
posed administration antitrust bill, we
are moved to remind that gentleman of
the existence of an antitrust measure that
was prepared by that committee, was put
through the house almost, If not quite
unanimously and Is now in a pigeonhole
in the room of the senate judiciary COM
mittee the Identical place for which 1t
was originally intended, the restful abode
toward which 1t was Intentionally directed
by Its trainers and promoters. Mr.. Little
field was even then. althougtSnew in con-
gress. a member of that important COM
mittee, but he was not credited with-or
suspected of-the authorship of that
measure, yet 1t would be far from credit
able to his intelligence and sagacity to
suppose that he did not havS.a full under
standing and keen appreciation OF tho
| farce which his committee was perpetrat-
ing. 1t was a two act production, includ-
! ing besides that famous antitrust bill, now
entered upon its third year of unshaken
cft1 r4.Ixr
an-Naphen-Jenkins-R Ray committees anti
rust amendment. Fresh as he then was
| in the councils of the nation, the new
man from Maine brought with him q
keenness of perception and a sense Of
humor which must have heightened his
enjoyment Of that racy farce comedy.
That bill, although intended to meet
death in the process OF parturition, was
printed, and several copies of 1t are in ex-
istence. Possibly Mr. Littlefield has one
Of them. At any rate. he can readily OBJ
tain one, and he may find it edifying to
make careful stndy of the means which
such distinguished statesmen as Messrs.
Ray, Jenkins Parker, Overstreet, Alex
ander. Warner and others recommended
for the suppression of evils incident to
! monopolistic combinations.
But If in the course of his investiga-
tions of the operations of trusts and CONF
bines 1t should happen to occur to Mr..
Littlefield that some of the most extor-
tionate and exasperating of the monopo-
lies are sheltered by tariff schedules
which are not needed for protection or
revenue. what will he do then?
That article is about as seathing as
anything written by Junius or spoken
by John Randolph Of Roanoke. 1t
knocks the bottom clear out of the pre-
} tensions of the Republicans as trust
fighters and pillories Ray 8 Co. as IA
kris. OF course everybody with any
sense knew all the time that the bill
spoken of was cheap and bold dema-
gogy, but nobody has so tersely and
mercilessly exposed it as does the Post
In the aforementioned editorial. Such
organ grinders as the Globe Democrat
make show of believing that Ray
and his pals were in earnest. but they
only excite the derision of honest men.
When the devil sets about putting out
his fire, the Republicans viii bust the
trusts and not before.
oct Tu, Brutel"
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