Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1902-09-25
NOTIN THETARIFF
DOES PRESIDENT SEE REMEDY
FOR TRUST EVIL.
Removal of Duties, in Most Cases He
Thinks Would Hurt Small Pro.
ducers Much More Than Large
Ones---Business Of Corporations
Should BE Supervised.

CINCINNATI, sept. 22.-Music Hall
was thronged when President Roose.
welt spoke-not only thronged, but
thousands at the doors were unable to
gain admission. 1t was the first big
speech the president has made since
the conference at Oyster Bay, and be-
comes, therefore, of particular interest.
The president, in opening, took up
trusts and for time followed the lines
of his recent speeches at Wheeling, W.
Va.
"The trusts" he said, "have pro-
duced both good and evil. Trey were
the inevitable and we could not get rid
Of them. The evils attendant upon
capitalization alone are, in my opinion,
sufficient to warrant far greater
supervision and control than now ex-
lists over the great corporations.
Wherever substantial monopoly can
be shown to exist we should certainly
try our utmost to devise an expedient
by which it can be controlled.
sit would be neither just nor expe-
dent to punish the big corporations as
big corporations. What we wish to do
is to protect the people from any evil
that may grow out of their existence or
INSTRUMENTATION. Some of these cor
porations do we'll and others do i'll
If, in any case, the tariff is found to
foster monopoly which does ill, why,
of course, no protectionist would object
to modification OF the tariff sufficient
tO. remedy the evil. Furthermore, the
products OF many trusts are unprotected
and would be entirely unaffected by
any change in the tariff, or at most
very slightly SO.
1.-THE. Standard Oil Company offers a
case in point and the corporations
which control the anthracite coal out
put offer another, for there is no duty
whatever on anthracite coal. Without
regard to the wisdom of any one OF
those three positions, it remains. true
that the real evils connected with the
trusts cannot be remedied bv any
change in tariff laws.
"The immediate introduction of
substantial free trade in all articles
manufactured by the trusts would not
affect some of the most powerful of our
business combinations in the least,
save by the damage done to the general
business welfare of the country. The
ne ,essary supervision and control, in
which l firmly believe is the only
method OF eliminating the real evils OF
the trusts, must come through wisely
and cautiously framed legislation which
shall aim, in the first place, to give
definite control to some sovereign
power over the great corporations and
which shall be followed when once this
power has been conferred by a system
giving to the government the full
knowledge which is the essential for
satisfactory action.
1.-The savings banks show what can
be done in the beneficent world bv
large corporations when intelligentlv
supervised.
Nov, of coucrse, savings banks are
as highly specialized a class of cor
porations as railroads, and we cannot
force too far the analogy with other
corporations; but there are certain
conditions which l think we can lay
down as indispensable to the proper
treatment of all corporations which
from their size have become important
factors in the social development of the
community.
But in very few cases does the So
called trust really monopolize the mar
ket. Take any very big corporation,
which controls, say, over half the prod
ucts of given industry. Surely, in
rearranging the schedules affecting
such big corporation, it would be
necessary to consider the interests of
its smaller competitors which control
the remaining part and which, being
weaker, would suffer more from any
tariff designed to punish all the pro-
ducers; for, of course, the tariff must
be made heavy or light, for big and
little producers alike. However. such
a corporation must of necessity employ
very many thousands of workmen, and
the minute we proceeded from denun-
citation to action it would be necessary
to consider the interests of these
wOrkmen