The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-20
Letters to the Editor.
Against the Trust Tax.

Editor The Advertiser.
 Senator Morgan writes the public. pre- sumably the people of Alabama in special, to solemn consideration of his invention Of the remedy of tax to repress the peril ous expansion of the trust. Our Sena- tor says as find in your columns:
 The plan I would suggest. in addition to the Sherman law is a graduated tax on all business corporations. with an eX- emptiOn. in whole or in part. as to such as can establish to the satisfaction or the government that they are not engageo m any agreements or combinations that are intended, etc."
 It is to be observed at glance that the governments case rests upon proof of the intent. To government assessor. judge or jury, of the Hanna wing n the party in power, proof might be totally absent from the case at bar even "hlie the manager, draws sl.000,0O0 annually The Bryan authorities might md the. proof sufficient to extingulsh the moot point. The trust does not pear primary relation to invested capital and active business in this country. lie can not treat the trust as an evil except lncl, dentally to the reform of monetary ana financial laws which are themselves the boast of our country and it's government We conquered the Hawaii Islands; trust sugar planting there was our reason able promote there. We conquered Cuba and Porto Rico in full knowledge that we must choose between the army and the sugar trust to keep up civilization there Der trust. the mining trust. etc. in the Philippines and We saw the inevitable at the outset. All these distant conquests are held by our Senator as essentials to the 1sthmian canal-aut canahs % ant nulla. He asks for the American Inter- national bank to clinch the opportunity; True, all the main land we tnhabft ana where the Declaration of Independence is supposed to thrive, was trust coIonlzea- French. English, Spanish trust socie- ties. So will be colonized the American rich, and tempting and distant island con- quests for titles to which we are so largely indebted to our Senator. If we assimilating people, we shall not be able to hold them save by help of arms or trust built commerce. if at all. The isthmian canal. if built to feed that money drawn from the fountain head of the trusts. Wall Street banks.
 There are numerous and complicated laws that tend to congest the currency are only two main forces strong enough to distribute throughout the commerce of the country the same congested cur rency. These are the industrial trust and the speculative trust. The railroad feature of the industrial trust that pene- trates the territory promoting industry In every sphere of life Is first in order of one of these distributors of money, besides others, such as the United States Street. trust dealing with prime article of trade. The wires that connect Wall Street speculative exchanges with Mont gomery and all other centers Of com merce constitute the second and last main distributor of congested money. Save these two. there are no main distrioutiVe forces.
 I am not arguing for the distributors. but I am proving that their relation to the fact of congestion of money in Wall Street by action of laws of the Congress Is relation of necessity and of be- neficencc.
 The currency of the country is con- gested In New York by we'll considered laws. Here is one: It is upon proof that Alabama pays annually as much as B. 50O 900 federal pension tax. approximately double her State tax. Every dollar of York banks with the right in the bank to lend it. Who can borrow? None, of course. but the trust or the exchange broker. Thus it becomes manifest that the trust or the gambler in stocks is the necessary concomitant of the pension law as the law operates in Alabama. When the trust or the speculator brings back to Alabama small part of our pension money to invest in a coal mine, or steam whistles about the passenger sta tions. shout and walk in proc ession to signify our joy over the arrival of some foreign" capital!
 There are other laws artfully conceived to congest the money of the country in New York For example. it Is in favored banks in New York that the gov ernment deposits millions upon millions of surplus revenue, charging no interest; 1t Is legally favored banks in New York that pay small interest to country banks all over the land for their deposits, thus draining the country of it's currency in the interest of the trust and the gam blers.
 The most essential of all legislation pro- ductive of the trust, Is the destruction of the State regulated banks of issue such as we had here in Alabama from 1Si5 to 1S61 Under these banks Alabama in- creased her State assessment more than 100 per cent. in ten years. Banks assets were in marketable property and produc- tive capital and hard coin in lhe vault. We then had no trust.
 Under the action of the federal law that generates the trust all Lankable assets and bankers in Alabama are black balled. We have cotton lands and cotton mills; we have mines and foundries; we have lumber. gold, marble and we have energy and brains, but our aggregate of $500. coo GOO marketable assets does not extent of a single $1 bill. Our sources of productive commerce are closed to the right of the noble science of banking and the trust and the gambling wire make up the substitute.
 Our Senator proposes a new force of money. to wit a tax on money dis tributor. J. w. DuBose.