The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-11
Multiplicity of Trusts.


 Mir. Boies said in part:
 Let me call your attention for a moment to some of the consequences a high pro- tective tartn has accomplished. and in doing this I will call to my aid recent statements before public gathering in Chicago of no less a person than one of Iowa's respected Senators.
 At a public meeting held a few nights since under the auspices of the National League of Republican Clubs. Senator Dol liver speaking of the formation of trusts in this country, said: We know that they are 1855 in number representing the consolidation of 2.040 separate plants"
 think he got the number of trusts of the present day far too low and the num- Der of separate plants that have been combined as much too low, but his figures are sufficiently large to illustrate the im- portance of the question that more than any other Is agitating the minds of our people today.
 It must be remembered in this connec- ton that the great bulk of these 1855 com- binations, combining 2,040 separate plants, heretofore operated independently of each other are the outgrowth of a brief space of time, largely of the last two years. Mania is Spreading. That this mania for like combinations is
  part of the United States it is absolutely certain, and unless in some way checked 1t threatens to involve all of the manu- featuring industries and every species of natural products that can be gathered to the arms of a trust is equally certain. The facts stated by Senator Deliver and the entirely natural reflections caused thereby cannot fail to impress every thoughtful man with the enormous inn portance of the issue that must be deter mined by the votes of the country this fall.
 The lines of cleavage on that question are clearly drawn.
 The Democratic party insists upon im- mediate decisive action to check these great combinations that everyone concede are becoming a menace to the welfare of this great country.
 It's first and most imperative demand Is that the government of the United States shall dissolve partnership with them and cease to levy tribute upon the masses of the American people for them to feed and fatten upon.
 Interferes With Tariff.
 This demand of necessity interferes with our protective tariff, which is creation of the Republican party. and rather than admit that anything evil can grow out d
 ponsible great numbers of its members insist that the shield of it's protection shall not be broken, no matter how many trusts are hidden behind it.
 few, like the Iowa Republicans. are willing to take down its walls at single point whenever it is established that a monopoly is secreted at that particular place.
 It is easily seen how entirely consistent any Republican candidate who adopts the Iowa Republican platform as his own can be and yet go to Congress and fold
 his arms so far as trusts are concerned no matter how numerous or aggressive they become, provided only that they leave only one little fickering ray of competition burning somewhere in the backwoods of the United States, for they must quench the last of these before they come within the range of the anathema so carefully written in the Iowa Republican platform.
 If we keep on feeding these cormorants with protective duties until they become monopolies we might just as well quit right now, for the weakest of all of them will know enough to keep his head off the | block that Iowa Republicans have pre- pared for it's decapitation.
 Menace to Nation. Democrats, I am sure. do not want to | unnecessarily frighten their critics If | the voters of this State should conclude to send a few of us to Congress, l think | I can safely assure these critics that we would not for our lives do anything that | we thought would bring disaster to our i country that is just as dear to as il | IS to any man that lives. and there is
 another thing I believe we would never do. We would not allow loyalty to any party that ever existed or ever will exist | to keep us from doing whatever we con | scientiously believe would promote the
 best interests of our whole country. | For one. l fankly concede that I am | thoroughly impressed with the belief thai these great combinations of capital 1T | the form of trusts as distinguished from | monopolies seriously threaten the wei | fare of this nation, and I would, there l fore, as soon at least as any one of then | becomes strong enoug.- to injuriously in | crease the price of commodity, neces | Sary for the Sustenance or comfort o 1 our people, reduce the duties of that com l modity to at least revenue basis, and | would not at present interfere with tho | duties on any other comm modity. the cos | of which to our own people is not en | hanced by the action of some trust. Arrayed Against Trusts. l Tn this way I would try to make 1t cer. | tain to every trust now in existence anC | to every one that may hereafter be pro | posed that this Government Is their en.
 emy, and that it proposes to do everything | within its power to discourage their ex
 istence, and everything it consistently | can to encourage individual enterprise We are constantly told that trusts | flourish in free trade countries. Now have a proposition to make my Republi
 can friends of this, or any other distric
 in Iowa. If they can establish by com.
 potent testimony before any impartia | tribunal that there is one trust or com. | blnation of any kind in any free tradC
 country on this earth that manufactures i articles of necessity of any kind, anc
 makes a business of exporting them tc other countries and selling them in mar.
 kets foreign to their own at regular
 market prices substantially below thosc | for which they sell the same article:
 in their own markets at regular marke | prices there. as our trusts are doing ev