Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-06-25

tons of 1903.
For that there are new conditions who
can deny? Let us not now make the mis-
| take which the convention of 1899 so mar
| rowly avoided-the mistake of worshipping
the verbal expressions of former platform
| as fetishes. Therein lies the backward
| road to ruin.
Silver is Dead.
| The chief issue of 1896. in the form then
| put forward is dead. To attempt to gall
vanize it into life is to be false to the
| spirit of 1896. The spirit maketh alive,
but the latter klleth-let this text shed
| light upon your deliberations. The para
mount issue of 1900 must wait. The con-
sciences of men We're and still are wrung
by our arguments against imperialism, but
the fancied welfare of their pocketbooks
prevailed on the day of election. And now
the new feudalism of the trusts so over
shadows all else in mems minds that they
will not shape their political course by
considerations of our foreign or colonial
policy. The issue of today was implied in
every past platform, yea in the declara-
tion of ITO in Magma Chnrta. wherever
right has striven against might But 1t
awaits expression at our hands. All forms
of oppression have been bound into sin
gle sheaf and named the trust. In 1t is
slavery for the producing masses. In it
is the tariff wrong. In 1t is the currency
liiDitDlpl IVsltHl1- Out IOF Inp nunklnp
business of the world In it is government
by injunction invoked by corporate en-
ployes of labor. In 1t is Imperialism seiz-
ing the homes of weaker people for the ey-
ploitntion of capital. AT the trust we may
aim our blows. confident that when the
Goliath falls. down with him will 60 all
the hosts of philistine evils at which we
have been hacking.
Roots of Trust Evil.
Tho nrphinrn sip ,,,la
| easy to do as to know what to do. Three
roots bear up the dominion of the trusts.
Fhese are highway monopoly. tariff mo-
nopoly and land monopoly. Land monop-
oily In the form of ownership of mines and
forests has SO far come forward as to
have been made an issue by the demo-
Gratis of New York in a platform de-
nouncing the anthracite trust. This great
evil demands the attention of all who hope
to see Industrial wrongs set right.
Tariff Not Responsible.
The tariff monopoly alone seems to me
insufficient to account for any of the great
and powerful trusts. They rose under its
shelter. but, controlling as they now do.
our mines. forests and railways, most If
not all of them, could still live though
trade were free. Yet. any movement to-
wards free trade is in itself good and
how can we better serve the cause of
| tluln tiiH W couple the nuElh OF Sucn IN
dustrial giants as the trust with the an
cient and absurd lie "protection to infant
| industries Furthermore. while free trade
might not kill the trusts it would estab-
| fish line neyond which their robberies
| could not extend Hence. we should re-
rev orr war on protection, unfurl again
lthe tariff reform flag and demand free
trade in trust made goods. OF the very
essence of liberty is the right to move
from place to place and to transport prop
erty. He who is hound to the place where
he was born is IL scrf. He who controls
the highways by which we must move
and transport goods holds us in n sort of
serfdom. The third great bulwark of the
trusts is highway monopoly 1t appears
In every city in monopoly of our streets
by the public service corporations. and
everywhere in the privately owned steam
railway lines, controlled almost exclusive
~ by the same gronp of industrial poten-
tates who own the other trusts. Whether
private individuals could under any cir
cumstances successfully compete in bust
ness with the trusts may be questioned,
but 1t may be taken for granted that, as
| long as the stock of the railways and the
trusts are owned by the same interests, no
! enc can compete witt, either. There are
| those who seem to believe that proper re.
| strictive statutes vigorously enforced will
/! cure this evil. j am not in agreement with
THESE opt views. -IHpTe Is no IOrrp
in law TO compel the single owner of two
railways to compete with himself nor is
1T possible by statute to prevent men as
railway owners from granting favors to
Themselves rs shippers. Against com
b.nation so fortified all the Quaker guns
of mock strenuousness Will be pointed in
vain. So long as this concentration of
ownership exists there can he but two
kinds Of business in this country, that
done by the trusts and that done by con
sent of the trusts. So long MS this condi-
ton exists government of the people, by
and for the people must remain a theory
only and not condition. Be not de-
ceiyed: there are only two horns to the
railway dilemma We must choose he
tween railway ownership and the opera
ton of government and government own
ership and operation of railways. And in
the resumption by the people of the con
troll of their own highways Will be found
the most simple and practicable way to-
ward dcpriving the trusts of their power
for evil.
Can Achieve Greatness.
1t lies with You. my friends, to make
this day great. You may do so by a
brave recognition of the st,1pendous ques.
lions to which / have referred, and an in
trepid attempt to do the utmost thing
nepdful. AS party we have marched
far, but we must march on. There will
beset lis the temptations to retreat ia
pleasant fields long since passed over but
we must march on. To some it may seem
best to iinger ON last nights camping
ground: but IL we are true to our duty, we
must march on TO halt is to retreat: re-
treat is ro1t and ruin The forward march
is not only the road of honor but the way
of safety.
Let Bygones be Bygones.
,t,,.a ,P,r o1n 4,