Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-06-24

i
of our people: these industrial Caesars
for whom we have coined new name
the trusts.
do | exaggerate this evil? Let MN
who thinks so look about him. see
before me many farmers and the rep
| resentatives of farmers. The Iowa TAR
mer is the synonym of independence.
| Yet he sells al prices fixed by the gram
and moat trusts buys at prices MADE
| by iron, steel, lumber and other trusts
and reaps that the railways may gar
| ner in He Is fortunate OF he owns ms
farm) in having a living assured, but
| as to whether or not he snall earn
| profits, the lords of the factory, mar
ket, mine and highway determine TOR
| him as absolutely as czars. But now
is it in America with the man VINO mas
no farm. with the young man going
out in TO world in which he has no
possessions? Where are the avenues
of self-employment. which opened so
invitingly to the father? To him Is
lett scarcely more than the one single
chance. to enlist in the service OF one
of those corporations by which the
trusts barons do their work He may
think with sorrow and envy OF ms
ancestors who went forth with gun or
aX or plow or level-each his own
man-and worked out each his own,
independent fortune. But he cannot
expect to do the same. The American
is fortunate, and exceptionally now,
who is his own man. He finds himself
immeshed in a new feudalism where
the lords of soil and highway are not
rs of old. proud and Jealous of glory.
but invisible corporations. greedy of
power. and out for the stuff Such con-
ditions ought not to exist in a democ-
racy. In any democracy where the peo-
pie have not been led away from the
truth such conditions cannot exist. In
any nation where such wealth and
power are permitted permanently to be
SO concentrated, democracy cannot eX-
ist. The trust principle and the prin-
ciple of popular government are so
exactly opposed to each other that
where both are in the field, they must
fight, and one must fall.
This convention should go down to
history for its fearlessness in recog-
niZing this battle and placing itself
upon the fighting line. have no fear
that we will commit any great error,
if we keep our eyes fixed upon the
north star of democratic principle and
steer our course by that.
"The chief issue of 1856, in the form
then put forward, is dead. To attempt
To galvani2e 1t into life is to be false to
the spirit of 1896. The spirit maketh
alive. but the latter killeth-.let this
text shed light upon your deliberations.
The paramount issue of 1900 must wait
The conscienceS of mer We're and still
are wrung by our arguments against
imperialism. but the faced welfare OF
their pocketbooks prevailed on the day
@. election. And now the new feudal-
ism of the trusts so overshadows all
else in mems minds that they will not
shape their political course by consid-
erations ofIour foreign or colonial pol
icy. The issue of today vas implied in
Fevery past platform, yea, in tfe dec
laration of 1779. in Magma Charta,
wherever right has. striven against
might. But it awaits expression at our
hands. All forms of oppression have
named the trust. In it is slavery foe
the producing masses. In 1T is the
tariff wrong In it is the currency mo-
business of the world. In it is govern
ment by injunction invoked by corpo-
rate employees of labor. In it is i'm
perialism seizing the homes of weaker
people for the exploitation OF capital.
AT the trust we may aim our blows.
confident that when the Goliath falls,
down with him will go ail the hosts of
Philistine evils at which we have been
hacking.
The problem were simple If 1t were
as easy to do az to know what to dc.
Three roots bear up the dominion Of
the trusts. These are highway mo-
nopoly. tariff monopoly and land mo-
nopoly Land monopoly in the form OF
ownership of mines and forests has so
far come forward as to have been made
an issue by the democrats of New York
III a platform denouncine the anthra-
cite trust This great evil demands the
attention of all who hone to see indus
trial wrongs set right.
The tariff monopoly alone seems to
me insufficient to account for any of
the great and powerful trusts. They
arose under its shelter fl but, con-
trolling as they now do, our mines. for
ests and railways, most IT not all of
them could still live tt.o trade We're
free. Yet, any movement towards free
trade is in itself good, and how can we
better serve the cause Of truth than to
couple the name of such industrial
giants as the trust with the ancient and
absurd lie protection to infant indus
tries? Furthermore, while free trade
might not kill the trusts it would es-
tablish line beyond which their rob-
berries could not extend Hence, we
should renew our war on protection,
unfurl again the tariff reform flag. and
demand free trade in trust made goods.
OF the very essence of liberty is the
right to move from placa to place ana
10 transport property He who is
bound to the place where he was born
is serf. He who con'rols the high
ways by which we mast move and
transport goods holds MS in a sort OF
serfdom. The third great bulwark OF
the trusts is highway monopoly. Ii APP
pears in every city in monopoly of our
streets by the public service corpora
tions. and everywhere in the privately
owned steam railway lines. controlled
almost exclusively by The Same group
of Industrial potentates who own the
ether trusts. Whether private inGiVld-
uals could under any circumstances
successfully compete in business with |
the trusts NAV be questioned, but il |
may be taken for granted that as long |
rs the stock of the railways and the |
trusts are owned by the same interests
10 one can compete With either There
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