Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-03
IOWA REVISION IDEA
Expounded in Speech by
Senator DolliVer
AT CHICAGO MEETING
NOT INTENDED TO FIGHT THE
TRUSTS.
He Thinks Those Combinations Will
Eventually Die Natural
Deaths.
AT CHICAGO MEETING

eventually D1e NdtuIal
Deaths.
dispatch from Chicago last night says
The Iowa idea" came to the surface TO-
night at a mass meeting under the auspices
of the National League OF Repup!lc"h
Clubs, which met in annual convention mere
today. United States Senator j. T. DOLL
yer of Iowa was responsible
Senator Delivers distinction as an ora
dor and statesman insured him in advance
the enthusiastic reception he received from
an audience that filled the LIST Regiment
Armory. Interest became intense when 1t
was realized by the delegates to the con-
vention and spectators that they We're be-
ing treated to the first public speech on the
subject by national leader of the party
since the Iowa republican state conven-
ton Mr.. Dolliver said, in part
Let us look at the Iowa idea for a
minute, and l select that only because
am more familiar with it, and because cir
cumstances have arisen to give 1t uni
versal advertisement. 1t has been presented
to the country a sudden Impulse Oh as
satisfied mischief-makers within the repup-
lican party on the other hand, II is the
mature Judgment of man whose wisdom
has never failed the republican party IN
the forty years of his uninterrupted pubic
service.
Phases Of the Situation.
.'Our people recognize the value Of large
capital for the transaction of a great bust
ness and especially for the commercial
conquests upon which we are now entering.
But they recognize, also, the danger OF
abuses both in the organization and man.
agement of great industrial enterprises, ana
would have the government of the United
States stand between the community ana
the reckless perversion of the benenceht
law of corporate property. 1t is evident
that even if it were desirable to XIII the
trusts it could not be done by merely re-
hitting the duties which their foreign COM
petitors pay at our custom houses Even
Mr.. Bryan, who talks of putting the cap
tains of industry into a chain gang ara
sending ]. Pierpont Morgan first to the
poor house and then to the penltentlary'
admits publicly that the free-trade remedy
falls very far short of the object he mas
in view Nearly every sober student of the
subject admits that it was the pressure OF
competition which has drawn some OF our
Industries first into groups and then into
gigantic combinations, under single cor
pOrate mana cement
Il confess that as a lifelong friend of the
protective system. l take very profound
interest in the question. fortunately ioL
all ii s a question which can be discussed
now to better advantage than even hVe
years ago. and 1t Is to be hoped that the
disquieting effect of mere clamors upon the
subject will gradually pass away. A sue
cessful attempt to repeal the law of compe-
tition in the American market place would
be speedily fatal to the protectice tariff sys-
tenn, because the whole design of that sys-
tenn rests upon the unimpaired vitality OF
that law.
Mr.. Blaine's Views on Protection.
"Our tariffs have been defended out of
consideration for infant industries, but that
is not the foundation of the protective
policy. They have been defended on ac-
count of the difference in the wage scales of
Europe and America, but that is not the
foundation of the protective policy. The
long debates that were held in other gener-
atoms about the rates of duty, whether the
wall should be low enough to allow foreign
merchandise TO flow over II or high enough
to barely allow it to leak over, or to be
pumped over, failed utterly to comprehend
the principle which has identified the doc
trine Of protection with the present-day
miracles of our industrial progress. Pro-
lection, in the perfection of it's design, as
described by Mr.. Hamilton does not invite
competition from abroad says Mr.. Blaine
in his book, Twenty Years in Congress,
in his famous chapter on the tariff question
in its relation to the political revolution of
1860 but Is based on the controlling prin-
ciple that competition at home will always
prevent monopoly on the part of capital,
sure good wages to the laborer, and defend
the consumer against the evils of extortion.'
That principle, which never failed to
Justify the doctrine of protection in any
period Of the past, is today passing through
an ordeal hardly even anticipated when the
tariff law of 1897 was placed upon the
statute books. If one field of production
after another passes under the control of
Spectators intent on nefarious schemes to
engross the whole market. the protection
literature OF hundred years becomes mis-
leading and obsolete.
Slow to Change His Own Views,
I have, from the beginning. been slow to
believe that 1t Is possible for any man or
corporation Of men to overrule the forces
which make for equity and fair dealing in
human society. For that reason 1 have
been willing to wait for the facts and
govern my Judgment by a more careful OBJ
servation than has hitherto been practical
BILE. The census of 1900 has given an &C
curate account Of the trusts and what they
are doing, and the daily reports of the mar
ket place indicate what their present stand
ing ana future prospects actually are. We
know that they are 1S5 in number repre-
senting the consolidation of 2O4O separate
plants. We know that less than 10 per cent
OF the factory labor of the country Is en-
ployed by them, and only IA per cent of our
manufactured output is made by them and
leaving out chemicals and the products of
Iron and steel. the percentage is hardly
Visible to the naked eye. In the textile in
dustrtes they are almost unknown and nost
OF the other fields Of American nroducts
they have entered as mere tntruders and
disturbers Of the peace
Between 1880 and 1901 most of them have
peen ta0l!shed and, In the aggregate
counting all kinds Of stocks and ali kinds of
bonds which they have issued, their gross
capitalization has been six and a half bil-
mons or dollars, from which at least two
bullons should be deducted to cover snurfons
stock, which represents nothing except tho
swlndling projects of Adventures and
cheats at common law. So that, putting All
the consultations which have been effected
IN tne last twelve years together. four and
half billions Of dollars may be set down
es their true aggregate capitalization in
Guiding their bonds ~
Mere Glittering BaubIes.
fhese corporations have enlarged our
productive capacity by the addition Of new
bona hde capital in a degree hardly notice
esa,aas.as,s