Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-03

have been established, and have In the
| aggregate, counting all kinds of stocks
and all kinds of bonds which they have
issued, their gross capitalization mas
been six and half billion dollars,
from which at least two billions should
be deducted to cover spurious stock,
which represents nothing except the
dwindling products of adventures and
cheats at common law. So that, put
ting all trade consultations which have
been effected in the last twelve years
together, four and half billions OF dol
lars may be set down as their true ag-
gregate capitalization, including their
bonds. These corporations have en-
larged our productive capacity by the
addition of new bona fide capital in a
degree hardly noticeable. They have
merely undertaken to dazzle the specu-
lative world by playing upon the popu-
lar fancy for full page advertisements.
And in nearly every one of them the
motive has been mainly to shield capi-
tai already invested from the operation
of natural forces always present in the
commercial world. If they have failed
in that. they have failed in everything.
and the power which some have been
afraid would be used to wrong and
burden the community has not even
proved equal to the task of taking care
of itself.
May Not Be Permanent.
Before anybody makes up his mind
that the so-called American trust is a
permanent institution, let him consider
the long list of ambitious combinations
which have already had their affairs
wound up by the courts of justice. The
alcohol trust, the linseed oil trust. the
alkali trust. the asphalt trust, the BIZ
cycle trust and scores OF others whose
very names are now even forgotten.
What was the matter with these aston
fishing creations Of the promoters art.
Nine out of ten of theme We're bogus,
and. without stretching the law very
much, could have been denied the use
of the mails on an ordinary fraud or
der. Only yesterday one of the mann
moth establishments, the National Salt
Company, had n little business before
court of equity in New Jersey. The or
ganiZation of that trust i'll 1889 was
looked upon everywhere as a step in the
direction of monopolizng the necessa-
ries of life.
",rhe more l examine the old law of
competition, the better IT looks to me.
If the day to settle has already come to
so many of these once formidable insti-
tutions, how has it Jared with those
which have so far survived the test?
Already the evidence is accommodating
from which the doom OF the trusts can
tsbe foretold, even the most solvent ana
best managed of them all.
.,r.s.le figures of the census show that
neither in the mercantile nor the man
ufacturing world has the smaller dealer.
who owns his business and gives 1T his
personal attention, anything to fear in
competition With the overgrown and
topheavy investments of capital that
surround him.
Not to Enrich Trusts.
"There is no room in this discussion
for vain ordinations of alarm and de-
spair. Up to this time the tariff policy,
to which we owe the prosperous condi-
tions which now surround us, has been
the ally of independent capital. in its
grapple with the modern trust system:
but if the day should ever come when
the productive energies of the American
people are impotent in the presence of
monopoly, the protection which for
more than generation our laws has
been giving to all our industries alike
is not likely to remain TO enrich such a
conspiracy of avarice and greed"
Mr. Dolliyer spoke at some length on
the progress of the government in
the Philippines and closed with a trib-
ute to the man of brains and courage
who is the leader of the republican par
ty and the president Of the United
| States.
| Other speakers at the meeting were
Congressman A. j. Hopkins of Illinois
and Martin B. Madden of Chicago.