Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-09-22
THE TARIFF AND THE TRUST
Presidents View of the Plan to Give Free
Trade in Trust Products.

o
Trade in Trust Products.
When he came to the branch of the
subject made prominent by the Iowa
Republican platform and the declina-
ton by Speaker Henderson of re
nomination in his district, he said:
"a remedy flor trustsI much advO-
Gated at the moment is to take off the
tariff from all articles which are made
by trusts. To do this it will be neces-
sary first to define trusts. Z"
1.-THE president, generally. defined
trusts as big corporations which do
ILL., Take any very big corporation
which cOntrols-say something over
half the products of Il given industry
Surely in rearranging the schedules
affecting such Il big corporation il
would be necessary to consider the in
tereSts of its smaller competitors
which control the remaining part. and
which being weaker would suffer most
from any tariff designed to punish all
the producers; for, of course, the tariff
must he made light or heavy for big
and little producers alike.
Moreover, such a corporation neces-
Sarily employs very many thousands
of wOrkmen. and the minute we pro-
ceeded from denunciatiOn to action 1t
would be necessary to consider the in
terests of these workmen. Further
more, the products of many trusts are
unprotected, and would be entirely un-
affected by any change in the tariff.
or at most very slightly so. The Stand
ard Oil company offers Il case in point.
and the corporations which control the
anthracite coal output offer another
for there is no duty whatever on
anthracite coal.
'AIy point is that changes in the
tariff would have little appreciable eff
feet on the trusts save as they shared
in the general harm or good proceed
ing from such changes No tariff
change would help one of our smaller
corporations. or one of our private in
diYiduals in business. still less one of
our wage workers. as against a large
corporation in the same business: on
the q ontrary. if it bore heavily on the
large corporation IL would inevitably
be felt still more by that corporations
weaker rivals. while any injurious re-
suit would of necessity be shared Dy
both the employer and employed III
the business concerned.
''The immediate introduction Of sub
stantial free trade in all articles manu-
factured by trusts - that is by the
largest and most successful corpora
tions-would not affect some of the
most powerful of our business COM
binations in the least. save by the
damage done to the general business
welfare of the country; others would
undoubtedly be seriously affected. but
much less so then their weaker rivals,
while the loss would be divided be-
tween the capitalists and the labor
ers. and after the years of panic and
distress had been lived through. AMI
some return to prosperity had oc-
Cured. even though all were on low
er plane of prosperity than before, the
relative difference between the trusts
and their rivals would remain as
marked as ever.
I'm other words. the trust, or big
would have suffered rela-
lively to, and in the interest of, its
foreign Competitors: but its relative
position toward its American competl-
tors would probably be improved"
To BE In Indianapolis Tomorrow.
Indianapolis, Ind, Sept. ~ The
third annual encampment of the
Spanish-American War Veterans as
sociation convened here today. Gov.
Durbin made the welcoming address.
The encampment will last three days.
President Roosevelt will be the guest
Of the association tomorrow.