Omaha daily bee., 1903-02-15
TRUSTS AID SOCIALISM
GrOssCup Says Consolidation is Wedding
Public to Collective Ownership.
CORPORATE CONTROL IS ONLY REMEDY
Anti-Combine Measures Passed by
Congress Are Dubbed Intellectual
and only Useful 60 Trained In
vestors and Spectators.

ANN ARBoR, Mich. Feb. 1A-Judge
Peter S. Grosscup Of the Unfted States cir
cult court Of Chicago, lectured before the
University Of Michigan Good Government
club tonight on THE New Nation
His speech was in part as follows:
In the nature of things we must expect
that men who do rot see their way clear
to an Improvement of their conditions un-
sympathize with any system that promises
something new. The separation OF labor
from proprietorship is the most unrepuo-
lean and menacing tact that now con-
fronts the American people.
Trusts Accumulate Menace.
The consolidation idea has thus far ac-
centuated this menace and by narrowing
the personnel of the. proprietorship II Is
detaching from the friends of property the
may wish ii, this old-time conservative
force will swing in time to those who al
ready oppose the institution of property
and give to socialism invincible allies.
Our first duty is to wake up to the reali-
ties Sof the situation, and our next to put
Not until we have done this, not until the
time when the property-dCquiring instinct
OF the country is again on a basis fair
alike TO all, can we rest assured that the
outcome. of the encounter need be no longer
feared.
But what is such fair basis? vii the
people under any conditions, to any large
extent, enter the field of corporate owner
ship2 These are practical Inquiries that
rise naturally to mind. l believe that once
corporate organization and management Is
cleared Of thimble-rlgging and pitfalls, so
that the fortunes OF an enterprise will be
bound up solely In the vicissitudes of the
business itself, the American people will
be ready to take up again their share In
the proprietorship of the country.
Laws All Intellectual.
The measures in congress make no
change in the basis of corporate organi-
| "a ffnp fhAN axhihit no U1IrnnGa nj lnaGI
no controlling purpose, to widen the pro-
prietorship OF the country. The publicity
| proposed Is confined to the gathering and
publication of statistics, valuable possibly
to the speculator or trained Investor, but
worthless to the ordinary man who may
be seeking ownership.
What is needed is the Intervention oI
government as trustee. not as mere news
gatherer, a guaranty hat when a corpora
ton is created its creator has seen to 1t
that it is fairly organized.
But though we cannot expect adequate
legislation now, 1t will come. Unless | am
greatly deceived the American people will
not pull down the industrial ediice. But
any policy calculated TO merely temporlze
Will with equal conc,usiVeness be rejected,
there will be no room when the public mind
is made up for the diversions of the po-
litical masquerade.
In time come face TO face with the full
Significance of the situation on which they
are entering and II will be made plain thai
but for some far reaching reconstruction
of our corporate policy We are on our way
longer republican. Then a determined pub
lie will set our house in order; re-establisn
Il on the secure foundations Of popula.
proprietorship and industrial liberty.