Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-03
DOLLIVER ON The IOWA IDEA
Hawksys Senator E1pOundI His States
Attitude On Tariff.
TRUST QUESTION WILL SETTLE ITSELF
Delegates to Meeting of National RE-
publican League Told chat Law
of Competition is stilI
in Force.

CHICAGO Oct. 2.-"The Iowa Idea came
to the surface tonight at a mass meeting
under the auspices Of the National League
Of Republican Clubs, which met in annual
convention here today. United States Sen
]. p. Dolliver of Iowa was responsible.
snator Delivers distinction as an orator
and statesman assured him in advance the
enthusiastic reception he received from an
audience that filled the First regiment
armory. Interest became intense when 1t
was realized by the delegates to the con-
vention and spectators that they we're being
treated to the first public speech on the
subject by a national leader OF the party
since the Iowa republican state convention.
Mr.. Dolliver said in part
Let US look at the Iowa idea for min
ute, and l select that only because l am
more familiar with 1t and because circum,
stances have arisen to give II universal
advertisement II has been presented to
the country as the sudden impulse of dis
satisfied mischief makers within the repub-
liCan party. on the other hand IT is the
mature judgment of a man whose mature
judgment has never failed the party In
forty years of service.
Our party recognizes the necessity for
large capital for the transaction of great
business, especially for the commercial con-
quests upon which we are now entering,
but they also recognize the abuses IN great
Industrial enterprises and would have the
government stand between the community
and the reckless perversion Of the recent
law of corporate property. 1t Is evident
that even IL it were desirable to Kill the
trusts 1t could not be done by merely re-
mittng the duties which their foreign
competitors pay at our custom houses.
Free Trade Not a Remedy.
Even Mr.. Bryan, who talks of putting the
captains of industry into chain gain and
sending J. Pierpont Morgan first to the
poor house and then to the penitentiary,
admits publicly that the free trade remedy
In view. Nearly every sober student of the
subject admits that it is pressure of com
dustries first into groups and then into
gigantic combinations, under single cor
l have from the beginning, been slow to
believe that It is possible for one man or
any combination 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 care
full observation than has hitherto been
practicable. The census of 1900 has given
! an accurate account OF the trusts and
of the market place indicate what their
present standing and future prospects ac-
in number, representing the consolidation
of 2,O40 separate plants. We know that
less than 10 per cent of the factory labor
of the country is employed by them and
| only IA per cent of our manufactured out
put 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 industries
they are almost unknown. and most of the
have entered as mere intruders and dis
turbers OF the peace. s.-sl-.r .s 4. ~
What Trusts Have Done.
Between 1890 and 1901 most of them have
been established and In the aggregate,
of bonds which thew have issued. their
gross capitalization has been $500, 900, 900.
from which at least $1,000, 100000 should be
resents nothing except the swindling
projects of adventures and cheats at
whs2 haHe a thf In he
last twelve years together, $500 200, 900
may be set down as their true
bonds. These corporations have en-
larged our. productive capacity by the
page advertisements, and in nearly every
one of them the motive of the organization
has been mainly to shield capital already
forces always present in the commercial
! world. If they have failed in that they
| which some have been afraid would be used
| to wrong and burden the community, has
not even proved equal to the task Of TAX
| ing care or itself.
where Their Bones Bleach.
Before anybody makes up his mind that
/
| nent institution, let him consider the long
! list of ambitious combinations which have
courts of justice. The alcohol trust, the
| linseed oil trust, the alkali trust, the
| phalt trust, the bicycle trust, and scores
| of others whose very names are now even
| forgotten. What was the matter with these
astonishing creations of the promoters
| art? Nine out of ten of them were bogus
| and. without stretching the law very much,
could have been denied the use of the mails
| on an ordinary fraud order Only yester-
| day one of the mammoth establishments,
! the Nationa! Salt company had little
| business before a court Of equity in New
| Jersey. The organization Of that trust in
| 1883 was looked upon everywhere as a step
! i'm the direction of monopolizing the neces-
| saries of life.
The more | examine the old law of com
petition, the better II looks to me. II the
| day Of settlement has already come to so
many of these once formidable institutions
survived the test? Already the evidence is
| accommodating from which the freedom of
ent and best managed of them all. The
/ figures Of the census show that neither in
the mercantile nor the manufacturing
| world has the small dealer who owns hts
business and gives it his personal atten-
ton anything to fear In competition with
| the overgrown and top heavy investments
| of capital that surround him.
No Room for Despair.
There is no room in this discussion for
| vain exclamations of alarm and despair.
! Up to this time the tarin policy to which
| We owe the prosperous conditions which
now surround us, has been the ally of in
| dependent 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 a generation our laws
have given to all our Industries alike is
not likely to remain to enrich such a con-
spiracy of avarice and greed
Mr.. DOliver spoke at some length on the
| progress of self government in the Phil
! ippines, and closed with a tribute to the
! man of brains and courage who is the
( leader of the republican party and the
| president Of the United States.
| Other speakers at the meeting were Con-
| gresham A. j. Hopkins of Illinois and
Martin b. Madden Of Chicago.
Routine of the Day.
Before the convention opened 1t was COM
monly admitted that the nomination OF
President Roosevelt In 1904 would be en-
dorsed. In fact II was onlv zboat this mat
teri that certain predictions were made.
Whether the Iowa delegation would seek
to have its ideas on tariff revision endorsed,
whether the league has the constitutional
right to concern itself with state platforms
! and the matter Of a successor TO the rettr-
ing president, Isaac Miller Hamilton, were