Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-08-26
THE DEMOCRATIC AND RE-
PUBLICAN POLICIES


cause Right in Principal-The Other
Pure Humbug, Costing the Average
American Family $50 Year
What we call trust depends on a
monopoly, natural or artificial. With
out such a monopoly, no combination of
capital can harm the public, or indeed
do anything but good by effecting
economies that benefit all by lowering
prices. If it attempts to make prices
extortionate, competition at once
comes in as a regulator. The natural
monopolies, as benign Providence
has distributed Natures blessings and
resources, are very few. Substantially
all our trusts rest on artificial monop-
oily which has been created for them by
governmental power, first in the tariff
and second in discrimination by rail
roads, which operate by delegated
governmental powers in the right of
eminent domain, or of taking any
citizens land for their own use, Just
as the government can. How wickedly
the railroad determinations have oper-
ated is illustrated by the development
of the Standard Oil Trust. Roughly il
Illustrated, they charged the Standard
Oil Co. $l00 for freight when its COM
petitors were charged $500; and not
only that, but the Standard Oil Co. was
given the extra $l.00 which its competi-
tor paid OF course no competition
could live under such methods, and of
course they were nothing, in law or
ethics, yut robbery on the public high
way, which n railroad is ny virtue of its
power of eminent domain.
Generany the trusts. which are organ
lied behind the tariff wall to the porten
tious extent we showed last week, have
this extra guard in the way of high
waymen's methods. By means of it they
have prevented the fulhlment of re
one valid excuse for high tariff, that
though it might bring extortionate
prices for a time, the domestic compe-
tition it's big profits would invite would
come in to reduce them lower than
ever.
All that is necessary to put an end
to the whole trust evil is-as the
Democratic party Is pledged by its
record, its platform and Judge Parker's
statesmanlke speech of acceptance
first, to lower to a reasonable point the
tariff on every article whose production
ond, by adequate legislation to stop
first could do no possible harm to any
our manufacturers are already beating
the world, and our trusts are selling
their goods in Europe at third or
quarter less than they do at home. What
they are thus collecting in robbery of
the American people, as nearly as it can
be computed, is Sl,25O,OOO,0O0 n year
or $50 for every average family.
When the Democratic party was in
power, in 1857, under the first Cleve-
land administration, there was passed,
in the Inter state Commerce act, what
was intended and believed to be suf-
ficent legislation against railroad
Determinations. The Supreme Court has
since by its decisions taken all the
virtue and effectiveness out of the law.
The Inter state Commission, and es-
pecially its able Vermont member,
Charles A. Prouty, has year after year
pointed out how the law can be amended
to meet these decisions and accomplish
its purpose, and year after year has
pleaded with Congress for the necessary
legislation. But the Republican party
has refused to do the first thing. AS
with the tariff, it Stands pat" for the
trusts.
In the meantime it tries to fool the
people with the Sherman law-which
Senator Hoar says in his Autobiography
Mr.. Sherman introduced by request,
never even read, probably, and never
pretended to expect to amount to any
thing-and which carried to its logical
md, would mean that any three grocers
pr other tradesmen in a town who
Ihould agree on prices would be guilty
pr crime.
The whole of the Republican policy on
The trusts is that while steadily build
Ing them up by wrongful stretches of
governmental power, it will pretend to
break them down by another stretch of
governmental power, that is totally i'm
practicable as well as wrong. This was
admitted, practically, by Attorney
General KnoX's announcement, immedi-
ltely after the decision in the Northern
Securities case, that the government
would not run amuck." In other
words, he said substantially, what is the
Tact that honestly carried out, this law
would break up four-fifths of the rail
road systems of the country.
AS a part of this humbug the present
administration got out an injunction a
year ago against the beef trust, but that
trust mas gone on just the same robbing
consumers of millions upon millions
The Republican party has organized
also a Bureau Of Corporations, to
put George b. Qortelyou at aits head
and after he had been there long enough
to learn the SECRETS of the trusts spf
oSifnd1g JSs5s sstioa In oos 4 tes
to utilize this dnfernaties in frying ipt
out of tifen ,noisoa ,elqmsT uomslT
With the lines plainly drawn be.
tween the programs OF the two parties,
thHseseani h tay qt'etioRHetidlr an intR
lgent eitizenshiptseii1adus bill .suxs.el