Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-05-28

limited OldtOS OOh"cVi AiOH iowa
IT'S not surprising that the uprising
of public opinion against the trusts
should have taken form of clam
or not altogether confined within party
lines against the protective tariff sys
TEN ITSELF and is cannot be denied
that there was something exasperat.
ing beyound all patience in seeing in
dustries which had literally been ere.
ated out of the dust of the earth by
the act of 1890 manipulated within
ten years into huge corporations seek
ing to engross the whole market
place. But time enough has elapsed
and things enough have happened to
enable us to brings all these scare
heads and signals Of distress to the
test of experience and to judge with
some degree of accuracy how the prin.
ciple of protection holds its previous
reputation in the midst OF such new
and strange influences as have beset
the American market place during the
last ten years.
It is hard to understand how any
one experienced in the practical as
pect of affairs can believe that the
effect of protective laws has been to
foster, much less to engender, mon
opoly. The American market place
is a unit, and every part of it, in the
nature of the case. shares alike in the
advantages arising from a given
schedule. The object of such schedule
and its uniform result has been to
produce not one industry but many
Of like kind; not in one section of
the country alone, but everywhere
throughout our borders. So that If a
tendency toward monopoly has grown
up in the United States 1t must be ex-
planned on some other principle. For
more than century these laws which
are said to breed trusts had the un-
deniable effect to distribute through
out our whole territory the industries
which they were designed to build up,
so that from ocean to ocean the map
of the United States has been colored
all over by the innumerable industrial
activities of the American people.
At Last, Truth About Combinations.
And even in these late years, at the
very time the outcry against the
trusts has silenced all the other noises
OF our political strife, the publication
Of the census of 1900 has thrown the
light of definite information upon the
flights Of everybody's imagination.
Whoever now begins his TRADE against
the trusts by announcing that they be-
stride our narrow industrial world
like a colossus only makes himself
ridiculous. Fortunately, we know in
'hls Presidential campaign what we
did not know in the last-exactly how
many trusts there are, where they
are located, what their capital is and
Shat their relation to the business OF
lhe country is. At the time the cen
'ns was taken they employed S.4 per
cent OF the factory labor of the coun-
-rE and their total output was 14.1
per cent of the aggregate factory pro-
luct Of the United States.
do not intend to discuss the origin
u the trusts, The subject is an intri- #
'ste one, and have not finished my !,
neditations upon 1t, but have got
Sr enough into ii to see that the pro-
ectlve system is not he mother of
nem, for that system was a century
'd before the first one of them was I
'Ofn; and besides that, they made
nelr appearance in free-trade coun-
nes even before they did here. Il
ASunctly remember that Mr.. Blaine, {
Immediately after his return from !
EUROPE, in 1888. opened the Harrison |
'nipaign by the statement, verified
v The common knowledge of every |
'ouy' that England was even then y
'As'ered all over with trusts. Fur 1
DerHore, very many OF our trusts q
'Om the least and meanest, like the c
'uerlcan Ice company, even unto the t
,'ea'est and most successful, Nike the t
''Andard Oil company have dealt with 4
'O~modities which have nothing TO
'.e oy free trade and never have had. t
mere are few among us who would a
!. -Ae away from the business commun- Il
Y OF the United States the modern C
.'apons with which we have fought u
II II way into the arena of the worlds 6
's and that man renders the C
} ,'4s''can people a very doubtful ser a
\. - "ho' In his hurry to strike down a
]. II trusts assaults with indiscrimi- n
M, ~ stupidity the great corporations h
i, nave collected the scattered ii
~ =, unfruitful accumulations OF many Il
'ifldualS and unf 49,. - a. -