The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-01-16
.HOAR MAKES NOTABLE
SPEECH ON TRUSTS
Says All Thoughtful Men Are
Agreed as to the Necessity
for Their Control.
SOCIALISM is NO REMEDY
Interstate Commerce Act and Sherman
Law Are Steps in Right Direction,
but Further Legislation Is
Needed.

Washington, Jan. Ex-senator HOar
IF Massachusetts addressed the SEN
ate T~uesdayon his antitrust bill, which
he introduced Monday.
Senator Hoar's speech was devoted
entirely to the question Of trusts and
partly to an explanation Of his recently
introduced antitrust bill. He began
his address with the assumption that
oil thoughtful men are agreed as to the
necessity Of legislation, state or ma
tlo1al, for the control of trusts. He
said that as yet there had been only APP
prehenslon n alarm but no serious in
jury, except in the case Of the recent
coal strike, on account Of trusts. On the
contrary, the progress of our material
prosperity had been greater in the past
few years than eve before a been
known and our workmen were better
Off. Still there is, he said, actual peril
and it is none the less real because it
involves only the future and not the
present.
The senator then took up the discus
sion of the effect of the control of the
vast wealth by individuals saying that
in such a system there was much to
threaten republican liberty. Most Of
the vast fortunes Of the present day
had been accumulated. within thirty
years.
rs there anything to render it unlike
ly," he asked, that if one Of these vast
fortunes has grown from a hundred
thousand, to- a hundred million or a
thousand MILTON in thirty years hat
in the hands of the neXt possessor in
another thirty Of fifty years, the hun
dred million may become a hundred
thousand million, or the thousand mil
lion, a thousand thousand million? Is
there anything to stop the accumula-
ton Of these snowballs? Cannot the
same power and business ability and
capital that can control all the petro-
leum country by and by control all the
coal? Can 1t not control the railroad and
the c~cean-carrying trade? Can it not
buy up and hold in one mans grasp
the agricultural and grazing lands of
new and great states and the coal mines
and silver mines and copper mines?"
Menace Is Corporate Control.
But, great as were the possibilities
of the accumulation Of great wealth
by individuals he did not fine in such
accumulation the same peril that is
found in. corporate control of such
wealth. This was true, he said, be-
cause the natural maj dies and his
estate Is distributed under the law.
While the corporation lives forever, 1T
never goes through the probate court"
he said. international transactions
are kept secret. 1t is not jealous for it's
own honor, except SO far as its honor
or reputation Is essential to it's getting
money. 1t has no soul and no con-
science. In general, the men who are
most powerful in It's management, can
If they see fit, avoid personal liability
for obligations"
Tho senator said that now the great
corporations are in good hands. but
suppos some Napoleon Of finance
should come into the control of a thou
Ga nd million dollars vyN1111 yoot tLot
possibility be a real public danger?
Such a power can make wars Or it can
prevent wars. 1t can threaten a COM
munity with a coal famine, a wheat
famine, it can execute it's threats.
We had no fear but that the American
people could meet such emergencies but
it were better to forestall them.
The Chief Evils.
Mr.. Hoar then took the question of
\ trusts as they now exist. pointing
out what he conceived to be their chief
evils, as follows:
I. Destruction Of competition.
2. The management of local industries
capital.
3. Destruction Of local public spirit.
4. Fraudulent capitalization.
5. Secrecy.
s. management for the private benefit
of the officials.
I. The power to corrupt elections and in
some cases to corrupt the courts.
s. The want of personal responsibility
to public sentiment.
9. The absence Of personal liability for
contracts,
10, The holding of vast properties in
mortmain-in the dead hand" if we may
use the ancient phrase Of the English.
Blu 1t has life enough for all purposes Of
power to serve the will that yields it. 1t
Is dead only to the influence Of any nerve
which comes from the brain or heart Of
the people.
Dwelling especially on the want of
competition, he said:
There is one central power alone
with which the skilled workman must
deal and one dominant will to which he
must submit. There may be a little
help for him by joining a labor union,
where he gets the advantage of asso-
ciated strength on his side but the la
Dor union knows no difference between
excellence and the reverse. The ineffic-
lent mar and the lazy man and the dull
mar must stand on one dead level with
the brightest and keenest and most in
senlous of his comrades"
Some Of the Advantages.
Mr.. Hoar said that many as were the
evils in the great combinations Of cap
1tal, some of them would be counter
balanced by corresponding advantages,
and added:
l confess I like to see. Pierpont Morgan
buying up great lines of ocean steam
ships. III to hear of foreign potentates
and p~rincipalitie and powers bowling
cow when he visits the continent Of
europe We need great strength. We
need great Individual power if we are to
rival foreign nations in the Great matters
which they also control by Individual
power We must, If we can, look out, in
protecting ourselves, not to destroy them,
nor to. comp them. We can give them a
law which will not impair their trength
y and not check their natural and rightful
growth and that I hope is all we mean to
do. But it will be a bad bargain IL we
buy the dominion of the continent or the
empire of the sea atsthe cost of American
loyal public spirit.
but great wealth should be controlled
as the servant of mar and of government
and should not be given the reins Of con-
troll. We must keep control over agencies
which can make cities grow or wither.
Socialism Offers No Remedy.
Mr.. Hoar said he did not agree with
those who think they find an adequate
remedy for the evils of the trusts in
the removal of the tariff from all the
trust-made articles. He considered the
remedy suggested by himself more like
~ to prove effective. He his
opposition to government ownership Of
gTeataIabor-employing Industries. in
GLIDING coal mines and railroads. SO.
cialism. he said, furnishes no remedy
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