Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-03
nra ptaca, Observation-Disclosures auua lnnda Nnurber

| ply of work and its wages turnout the
country. To the end that men may be
Kept In all parts of the world seeking
| contracts to be performed by American
labor. as well as for many other rea-
sons, 1t is essential that great corpora
lions exist, and no intelligent student
of the publiuc interest would wish to
destroy them, but many of these great
corporations essential to our common
welfare have become in practical effect
and are now commonly called trusts;
have seized advantage of the necessity
for their existence, and used the power
conferred upon them for the public
good to Cypress and burden the people;
have established prices for their COM
modities out of due relation to the cost
of production, and have otherwise
abused their high privileges. The re-
publican party is determined that these
organizations. the creatures of the peo-
pie for the public good, shall not be-
come the masters OF the people.
In Iowa the state law is radical upon
this subject, going to the extent of pro-
viding that one who buys goods of
trust can keep the goods and need not
pay for them The existence of such
institutions was unknown at the time
the national constitution was adopted.
and it is not to be wondered at that our
fathers failed to expressly confer upon
congress any authority upon the sub
ject, and so 1t is that such power as
congress possesses is chiefly derived
from that clause of the constitution
which authorizes it to regulate inter-
state and foreign commerce. In the ex-
ercise of this limited power a republic
can congress passed an antitrust law,
drawn by that distinguished statesman,
John Sherman of Ohio, and it was
signed by Benjamin Harrison, a repub
lican president The democratic party
came into power in 1898, but during It's
administration no amendments what
ever We're adopted to that law, no effort
whatever was made to enforce 1t. Now,
when the democratic party is out of
power it's leaders pretend that they
know just how to cure the trust evil.
statesman who never knows how to
bring about reform until the people
have repudiated him. revoked his au-
thority and retired him to private life,
is of about as much value as lawyer
who learns how he could have won his
case after it has been irrevocably lost.
Our democratic friends in their last
national platform declared that all
products of trusts should be put upon
the free list, and the last act of the
democratic members of the house of
representatives was to meet in caucus
and reiterate this declaration. Before
giving moments attention to this
proposed remedy I want to say that the
republican party is welded to the gen.
eral principle of protective tariff, but
not to any specific schedule. The tar
If should be revised from time to time
to meet changing conditions, and the
reduction of rate. or placing an article
on the free list, is no evidence, much
less no confession, that the original
rate was wrong when made. The re-
publican party will modify the tariff
whenever new conditions require such
modification, and If in any specific case
a change in the tariff will tend to re-
lieve the people from the oppression of
a trust without undue injury to Aneri-
can labor that change ought to be
made. Revisions of the tariff, tending
as they do to unsettle business, should
only be undertaken when the wrong to
be corrected is so serious that the I'M
provement contemplated will compen-
state for whatever disturbance to bust
ness will result from such lewiston.