The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-27
Mr.. Roosevelt and the Trusts.

the intelligent press Of the United States
is now assuming, with a positiveness
warranted by President RoosEvELTs
recent utterances on the subject, that
his forthcoming message will echo that
vague clamor against the trusts, and
repeat those inchoate proposals Of Fed
eral interference with the larger bust
ness activities of the country, which
were formerly the discredited stock.in-
trade Of demagogues?
Why is it. in other words, that the peo-
Pile are now expecting from THEODORE
ROOSEVELT about the same sort Of mes
sage, on this particular topic. as Will
LIAM JENNINGS BRYAN might have sent
to Congress had Divine Providence, for
the nations sins, seen fit to bestow upon
him that opportunity.
We have never impugned the SINGER
ity Of Mr.. ROOSEVELT motives in attack
ing the corporations. To impute to him
the mere design Of attaining popularity.
Of securing to himself the suffrage of the
people, is, with our knowledge of his
character. impossible. His popularity
before he launched upon this course was
beyond assail; the suffrage of the nation
was his well-won prerogative-inalien-
able save by his own act.
1t is time that there should be in the
White House and elsewhere, at least
among men Of sense, some better under
standing Of the trusts and the facts con-
corning them. There is no phrase, for ex-
ample, that is more current in our mouths
than -the evils of the trusts" The Presi-
dent has dwelt upon it until it has sunk
into the marrow Of the public and has
become a conspicuous element of COM
mon belief and conviction.
What are these evls' They do not
exist outside the phrase itself And vet
it is taken for granted that they do exist
and vast number of people believe i'm
plicitly that they are there, although no
sane OF truthful man can specify or de-
scribe them! The nearest charge that
will lie against the trusts is that they are
monopolies; and yet not one of them is
a monopoly. Not one Of them could by
any human possibility be a monopoly
and remain such any longer than was
physically necessary for capital to dis
pute the field with it. Where is the
trust that is a monopoly at this moment?
There is not one.
Monopolies are not of our time. Bar
barrie potentates confer monopoles and
protect and shelter them, for onsider-
alton; but in free America they cannot
exist save when they are created and
sanctioned by the Government of the
United States through its Patent laws
as the reward of human ingenuity.
The trusts are no new thing They
have existed for hundreds of years be-
fore the memory Of living man. Mr..
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS has shown
that the monopolies which sovereigns
conferred on their favorites were trusts,
absolute trusts. but that the power
( loom was equally the most overwhelm-
ing Of trusts. A trust has for the very
essence Of its being its ability to pro-
duce cheaply and enormously, and it
must sell more cheapy than any one
else can or its existence will end, No
trust has survived which has increased
the price of a commodity. Many have
attempted it and all of them have gone
to wreck and ruin. No interposition by
Federal or State authority was needed.
Natural law supervened, and it always
will supervene.
1t supervened in the case of the sewing
machine, which was, from sentimental
point Of view, the cruellest OF trusts,
crueller far than the power loom; and il
supervened in the case Of all the great
trusts, all the great economic revolu-
tions which the brain Of man has con-
ceived and imposed upon civilized
humanity.
If Mr.. ROOSEVELT will look to history
will allow the past to illuminate the
present, he will surely determine that
it had been as wise to seek to regulate
the sewing machine by an amendmen,
to the Constitution as to follow tina,
course in the case of the trusts OF our
own time.
THE Sun has steadfastly pointed out
from the very beginning of this intel.
lectual disturbance, that the trusts were
an inevitable evolution of the age, anc
that no power could stop their develop.
ment unless it substituted social chaos
in their place. No unjust, dishones,
or oppressive trust can live very long
The common law and the law Of natur,
are fatal to IL.
And then, too. THE sun has Away,
had and ever, will have, please GOD, ar