Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1904-09-15
STILES HOME COMPETITION
Protection Enables Combines to Tax
American People MT VIII System
Inimical to the Interests of the Con.
sumer-Legalized System Of Robbery

when we come to consider the ordinary |
composition of human nature. The
trust is simply a device by which the
potentialities of tariff system for
plumber have been made effective and
put in active operation. You will OBJ
serve that under q tariff system which
made commodities produced in this
country more expensive than abroad
domestic competition oftentimes so re-
duced prices that the persons engaged
did not get much benefit out of the
tariff. Their domestic competition be-
came so keen that they We're not much
better off than they would be if they
had the competition Of the whole world
freely admitted to the country.
"Now it did not take long for some
enterprising gentleman to see that If
they could eliminate domestic competi-
ton the tariff law would protect them
from foreign competition and then they
would have the consumer absolutely ut
their mercy. One trust after another
was organized, and Immediately they
proceeded to raise prices enormously.
not merely to raise them generally, but
to raise them specifically in this coun-
try beyond what they charged for the
same product abroad. Now phe-
nomenon occurred at once which
great many people could not under
stand, and for want Of better ex-
PLANTATION it was attributed to the
genius of certain fnanciers.
at was found, for instance, that 1t
there were three corporations or con-
Germs engaged in domestic produc'
tion and these were worth, say, mill
lion dollars apiece, that the moment
they combined, instead of being worth
$4,000, 600, the sum Of their stock, they
became worth $15,000.O00 or $2O,0O0,-
600, and this extraordinary multiplied
ton of values was attributed to what?
A race Of men that were called, think.
Napoleons of finance and magicians
and various other complimentary
terms.
II have no doubt for awhile these
gentlemen supposed themselves pos
sessed Of some occult power. They
forgot the ordinary limitations Of man.
kind. They seemed to have completely
overlooked the fact that there never
yet was q multiplication of commodi-
ties on this earth of miraculous
character but one, and that was
when the loaves and fishes We're null
tiplied upon the side Of the mount.
But they went along as if these poor
human beings had the power, by mere
scratches of pen, to exercise power
that was divine and to create these
commodities of themselves Well, now,
what really occurred was this: These
three corporations put together $3,OOO,-
600 worth of property. and that is all
they conveyed.
"But the power to plumber the Amer
lean people was valuable asset in
their possession-the right, in other
words, to charge what they pleased for
their product where the product was a
necessity-was, in fact, q license and
power to levy tribute on the body Of
the American people; not to sell their
product for what it was worth, with
any regard to the cost of production,
but to exact for it whatever they chose
from consumers left helpless in their
hands. And it came to pass that these
corporations deliberately proceeded to
capitalize this power of levying trib-
ute as one Of their own assets. The
great steel corporation. with property
worth $5OO,OOO,OOO, according to the
most liberal estimate Of friendly CEN
sus bureau, organized itself upon q
capitalization of $1,GOO,OO0, OOO-that is
to say. this property was worth $780,
100000. This power to plumber was
worth the balance. And that power to
plumber, capitalized, made feature Of
its stock, was bought and sold. or
shares in it at least were bought and
sold. in the open market.
Think Of it! The right to plumber,
to levy tribute on the American people,
bought and sold in the open markets,
not merely Of our own country but Of
every country on the globe! Think Of
It! Why, down here in Boston over a
hundred years ago the attempt to ex-
act small tribute on one article Of
common consumption resulted in a
revolution which changed the whole
aspect Of civilization. Here the de-
scendants Of that same people sit
tamely down and submit to taxation,
to plumber, not by government, but
by syndicates of their own creation.
"Now, a. against that, the Democratic
policy is one simply Of production. It
IL very simple. It has no magical
formula. It does not pretend to do
anything for anybody. It cannot, and
tails the hufheabout It. It does this:
Il says thats9ll men shall have abso-
lutte righfs to this soil, Tho
4ches. tt.e- d9y the hand 4
hensdcenk q Prev d 8 zach man shall
S.SE.. ~. 49,. ~ 1r:saSfE.X a. ,~IX