The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-26
DELIBERATE MlSREPRESENTA-
TON


pretended horror expressed by Repub-
lican newspapers over the so-called
trust plank in the New York platform.
Their cOntOrtions are chiefly for the
benefit of the more radical element OF
the Democratic party, whom they hope
thus to stir into active antagOnism to
Judge Parker's candidacy. The Repub-
licans are desperately afraid that Judge
Parker will be nominated. Hence the
cutlery in the New York papers about
the trust plank, and hence the copying
and plagiarizIng in st. Paul and Min
neapolis papers on the same theme.
The plank in the platform which so
disturbs these Republican critics,
whom we all know to be anxious above
all things for the persecution and dis
solution of trusts, as shown by the
luXuriance with which trusts have
grown during their period of power,
reads as follows: "The corporations
| chartered by the state must be subject
" JU0b OAllAOG ny SIlS SIdlC. L nCf Z
isn't Republican organ, from big to
little, which does not strike up over
this the tune that the Democratic party
has declared against federal interfer-
| ence with the trusts; that it has an
| nounced the doctrine that if corpora
ton is chartered by New Jersey, for
instance, 1t cannot be tackled by the
strong arm of the federal power. So
| the New York Tribune, and so the Min
| neapolis Tribune and st. Paul Pioneer
Press, with Tray, Blanche and Sweet
heart and all the rest of the little dogs
| In chorus.
The meaning of the plank in question
| does not need to be explained to any
one above the intellectual level of an
idiot. We do not think that the news
papers in question are managed by
idiots, but only by persons with very
rank political ideas, whose moral code
permits them to misrepresent and per-
vert words of the plainest meaning if
| those words are uttered by the mouth
of political adversary. Of course the
New York Democrats used the express
sion "the state" as it is used by writer's
| of civics generally, and by platform
makers everywhere unless otherwise
specifically designated. They meant by
| 1t not at all one of the divisions of the
Union, but used it as a synonym for
| the power of the people expressed
through their regularly ordained form
of government. The custom is as old
as the word. Estate" means the con-
crete embodiment of the peoples
power.
We have then what everybody un-
derstands, who is not stupidity ignorant
or willfully malicious, the perfectly
practical, just and satisfactory declara-
ton from New York that corporations
chartered by the state must be sub
| ject to just regulation by the state"
That is to say that, since all corpora
| tons draw their right to exist and to
do business from statutes and privi-
leges conferred by laws, they shall be
| thoroughly subject to the law making
power. They shall be regulated justly
| by law. Wherever there are state con-
Germs, state laws shall be applied.
Wherever they are engaged in inter-
state commerce, federal laws shall be
applied. In either case the regulation
| of their action and the prevention or
| destruction of monopoly will be accom-
plished under and by virtue of regula-
ton by "the state"
The New York platform declaration
amounts in so many words to a Eeaffir-
| nation of the power and the right Of
state legislatures and Of the national
| congress to regulate and restrain justly
all corporations, as the circumstances
| may bring them under state or national
law respectively. 1t is a solemn af-
| firmation of the principle and the need
| of regulation. It is the exact opposite
Of what these dust raisers pretend to
think it, although every mothers son
of them knows better. Such an at
| tempt to fool the people reflects no
slight discredit upon it's originators.