Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1903-02-19
THE TRUST PROBLEM.

convenience and for the develop
ment of the public wealth; and SO
long as they are conducted for the
purpose for which organized
they are public benefit; but if
allowed to engage, without sup
ervision, in subjects of enterprise
foreign to their charter, or il
permitted without restraint to
control and monopolize the avenues
to the industry in which they are
engaged they become a public
menace, against which public
policy and public statutes design
protection.
OF course it is conceded that
there must be certain freedom
allowed to every one in the man
agement of his own affairs. When
competition is left free, individual
error or folly will generally find a
correction in the cond uct of others
But the existing combination of
corporate trusts are organized to
govern the supply and to control
the price of the several staples
throughout the entire country.
Thus these combinations have
power in their confederated form
which no individual action can
confer. The public interest must
therefor suffer and succumb, for
it has left no competition to correct
its baneful influence. When the
supply of coal, for instance, is
suspended the demand for it be-
comes importunate and prices
raise. Or if supply goes forward.
the price fixed by the confederates
must accompany it. The domestic
hearth, the furnaces of the iron
master and the fires of the man.
facturer all feel the restraint,
while many dependent hands are
paralyzed and hungry mouths stint
ed. The influence of a lack of
supply or the rise in the price of
an article of prime necessity can
not be measured. 1t permeates
the entire mass of the community
and leaves few of it's members
untouched by it's whitening blight.
Public policy unquestionably
favors competition in trade, to the
end that it's commodities may be
offered to the consumer as cheaply
as possible, and is opposed to
monopolies which tend to advance
market prices to the injury of the
general public.
The evils of trust control may
therefore be summarized in the
statement that they prevent comp
etition, unduly enchance prices,
and expose the public to all the
evils of monopoly. This is especially
applicable to the mammoth concerns
organized within the past seven
years, and which have the means,
unless restrained by law, to exclude
rivalry, monopolis business, and
engross the market. Against evils
like these it would seem that the
congress of the United States could
readily devise prohibitive or re-
strictive legislation to protect the
public. The present republican
congress and administration are
not seriously bent on shackling the
tru SITS. The people will have to
await the advent of a democratic
administration and a democratic
congress for relief from trusts
exactions and trust control of the
necessaries of life. Contrast the
attitude of the last and present
republican administrations with
the following declaration by the
democratic nominee for president
in 1896 and 1900. Mr.. Bryan
said in 1896: ~ am glad that if
am elected there is not a trust OF
syndicate that can come to me and
say, we put you there; now pay
us back | am opposed to the
trusts. If elected, l shall ust
what power ! have to drive every
trust out of existence. And
again in his letter of acceptance
in 1900 Mr.. Bryan said; "Oul
platform, after suggesting certain
specific remedies, pledges the part,
to an unceasing warfare agains
private monopoly in nation, STATE
and city. l heartily approve o
this promise. If elected, it shall
be my earnest and constan
endeayor to fulfil that promis,