The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-09-23
duction OF silver and gold. It is difficult
to respect such an attitude of mind.
The Gold Standard,

y! tne usage and verdict of the business
world. and in a sound monetary system as
matters of principle of organic poll
cy, Congress established the gold standard
as the measure of monetary value. The
record proves that the party can be trust
cd to take the additional action necessary
70 improve and strengthen our monetary
system. and that our opponents cannot be
trusted. 1t is idle to say the monetary
the party which at the last election cast
approximately As per cent of the total
vote refuses to put in its platform any
statement that the question is settled. A
determination to remain silent cannot be
accepted as equivalent to recantation.
AS for capital and labor. individual or
we have actually done and to say we shall
continue to carry out the same policy. In
my speech of acceptance said:
I'VE recognize organization of capital
and labor as natural outcomes of our in
dustrial system. Each kind is to be fav-
ored SO long as it acts in regard for
the law. The humblest Individual is to
have his rights safeguarded as scrupu-
lousy as those of the strongest organi-
cation, for each is to receive justice. no
which we have to deal in cur modern
Industrial and social life are manifold; but
the spirit in which it is necessary to APP
proach their solution is simply the spirit
of honesty, courage ond common sense"
The action of the encouragement in
enforcing the antitrust and interstate
larging the scope of the Interstate law,
creating the department of commerce and
labor: have opened Il chance for the ma
lonal government to al inteligently
with the questions of corporations. and
the new relations caused thereby. These
laws are now being administered, and as
need is shoNl, for amendment this need
will be met. It is now asserted that the
common law, as developed. affords a COM
plete legal remedy against monopolics."
put there is no common law of the United
states. Its rules can be enforced only by
the state courts and officers. Ne federal
court or officer could take any action
Whatever under them. This fact. coupled
with the inability of the states to control
monopolies. led to the Sherman antitrust
act and the interstate commerce act: and
It is only through the powers conferred by
these. acts. and by tie statutes supple
menting them, that the national govern
ment ACQUIRES any jurisdiction over the
subject. To say that action against mon
opolies should be limited to the common
law is equivalent to saying the national
government should take no action.
Cleveland and the Trusts.
Undoubtedly the multiplication of trusts
and their power has been largely due
to the failure of officials =" : to take the
necessary procedure" Such structure not
eeding President McKinleys' # it's is also al
true that what is most needed is Officials
having both the disposition and the cour-
age to enforce existing law" This need
Of justice under the present adminstra-
ton.
The demand of our opponents that ne
gotiations be begun to secure equal treat
ment of all Americans from those gov
ernments which do not now accord it.
shows sho ether ignorance or insineerity. No
to what has been done and is doing.
This administration has on all proper oc-
Gasons given clear. expression to the be-
lief of the American people that dis
q q nd q nm, han of ra-
iig,on, wherever pracHced, are acts of
Injustice before God and man; and in
making evident to the world the depth
of American convictions in this regard we
have gone to the very limit of diplomatic
usage.
1t is evidence Of our opponents insin-
mand for radical action by the state de-
partment they couple demand for re-
duction in our small military establish
ment. The heed paid to our protests
against Entertainment of our citizens will
be proportionate to our ability to make
these protests effective.
Our opponents, declared themselves in
favor of the civil service law, the repeal
of which they demanded in 1900 and in
1896 II consistent, they should have con-
graduated the country upon the way the
civil service law is administered. and the
classified service has been extended. The
exceptions from examinations are fewer
than ever: The inert system was of
course most needed In the Philippines, and
law Of advanced type has been put into
operation
When we take up the tariff we are at
once confronted by doubt whether our OPP
ponents do or do not mean what they say.
They say that protection is robbery"
yet prominent persons among them assert
that they do not mean this and that if
they come into power they will adopt our
policy as regards the tariff; while others
seem anxious to prove that it is safe to
give them partial power, because the pow
er would be only partial. and therefore
they would not be able to do mischief;
certainly a curious plea on behalf of a
party seeking control of the government.
: Views on the Tariff
At Minneapolis, April 4, 1903, said:
The question Of tariff revision, speak
ing broadly, stands wholly apart from the
question of dealing with the trusts No
change in tariff duties can have any sub
stant.al effect in solving the so-caled trust
corporations are wholly unaffected by the
tariff. Almost all the others that are of
any Importance have as matter of fact
numbers of smaller American competitors:
would work injury to the large corpor-
alton would work not merely injury but
destruction to its smaller competitors; and
equally Of course such a change would
mean disaster to all the wage-Workers
connected with either the large or the
small corporations. From the standpoint
of those interested in the solution of the
trust problem such a change would there
fore merely mean that the trust was re-
leved of the competition of it's weaker
American competitors, and thrown only
into competition with foreign competitors;
and that the first effort to meet this new
competition would be by cutting down
wages, and would therefore be primarily
at the cost of labor. In the case Of some
of our greatest trusts such change might
confer upon them a positive benefit.
speaking broadly. it is evident that the
for veal or for woe simply as they affect
the whole country. The tariff affects trusts
only as it affects all other interests. 1t
makes all these interests, large or SMALL
profitable; and its benefits can be taken
from the large only under penalty of TAX
ing them from the small Also"
There is little for me to add to this. 1t
is but ten years since the last attempt
was made, by means Of lowering the tar
iff, to prevent some people from prosper
successful The tariff law Of that year
was among the causes which in that year
and for some time afterwards effectually
prevented anybody from prospecting too
much. and labor from prospecting at all
Undoubtedly It would be possible at the
present time to prevent any of the trusts
from remaining prosperous by the simple
change in the tariff as to paralyze the in
dustries of the country. The trusts would
cease to prosper; but their smaller COM
petitors would be ruined, and the wage
workers would starve while it would not
pay the farmer to haul his produce to
market. The evils connected with the
trusts can be reached only by rational
effort, step by step, along the lines taken
by congress and the executive during the
past three years. If a tariff law is passed
under which the country prospers, as the
country has prospered under the present
tariff law, then all classes will share in
the prosperity. If a tariff law is passed
aimed at preventing the prosperity of
some of our people, 1t is as certain as
anything can be that this aim will be
achieved only by cutting down the pros
perity of all of our people.
A Question Of American Expediency.
OF course, If our opponents are not sim
cere in their proposal to abolish the sys-
in arguing the matter at all save by
pointing out again that IL on one great
issue they do not mean what they say