Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-04-28
SANE VIEW OF TRUST QUESTION.
Republicans Preparing Facts and Ar
guments to Meet the Demo-
cratic Contention.

cratic Contention.
WASHINGTON, d. c., April 81, 1904
Some of the results of Investigations
by leading Republican statesmen dur
ing the past winter have the effect of
bringing out before the people for the
coming campaign many interesting
and instructive facts bearing upon the
relations of Protection to industry in
the United States, and also the relat-
ions of the gigantic corporations and
combinations of Corporations, popular
ly known as trusts, to the labor and
capital and to the producers and con-
sumers of the country. No small part
of these facts will be the outgrowth of
legislation by Congress two years ago,
the decision of the railway merger case
in the United States Supreme Court
the Investigations by the Bureau of
Corporations in the Department of
Commerce, and the pending cases
against the beef combine and similar
trust organizations throughout the
country. Another field of inquiry is
that prosecuted independently by rep
resentative Republicans, notable
among who are Senator Dolliver of
Iowa and Representative Hamilton of
Michigan, who have Independently
and with care and sagacity pur-
sued course of Investigation into the
relations of combinations of capital to
the general industries of the country
The one fact of prime Importance in
connection with this subject and the
general discussion ofthe trust question
as related to industry is that Repub-
licans and Protectionists are showing
themselves fully prepared and wholly
willing to meet the Democratic charge
of the relation of trusts to the Tariff
and to Industry. 1t is not an issue from
which any thoughtful Protectionist
will flee, because it is demonstrable,
from a study of the operations of the
industrial system in the Uuited States,
that combinations of capital have no
relation to the Tariff except as oppor-
tunities are created under the Ameri-
can Protective system through which
all industry, all capital and all labor
have the better advantages tor pros
perity. Out of this prosperity arises
profitable investment for capital, high
er wages for labor, lower prices for
consumers and better markets for pro-
ducecS. Surely these are things emin-
entity desired, and it is not calculated
to frighten anybody except Free
Trader into abandoning the system of
Protection and fleeing to the gloom of
despair ofFree-Trade, to point out that
while we have Protective laws we also
have trusts of any kind of combina-
tions, whether of capital or labor.
The county has not forgotten, nor
will it be likely soon to forget the shib-
boleth of the Cleveland Free-Trade
Democracy in 1888 and in 1892, when
they were loudly calling upon foreign
producers to come into the markets of
the United States and save the coun-
try from the exactions of high prices
imposed by trusts and combinations.
The foreigners were invited in under
1
Tariff, and the only result that really
affected the people was the closing up
of factories and the throwing of labor
out of employment. Practically the
only Industries in the country that es
capped total destruction were the great
combinations which We're sheltered be,
hind aggregations of capital or were
protected by patents. Everything
else suffered the bighting and blasting
touch of Free Trade and cheap foreign
competition,
In the light of these facts it is not
remarkable that Protectionists in and
out of Congress are ready to meet the
issue of combinations in industry, and
to do it sanely. The contributions
which Senator Dolliver and Represen.
tative Hamilton made to the discus
sion of these questions will be import
ant and instructive factors in the cam.
paign. For in the coming campaign n
the Tariff of the American people and
the industry of the American people
will be the paramount issue. There is
a refreshing and interesting di ference
between the investigation which these
Republican statesmen give to the
questions underlying our industrial
system, and the cheap generalities and
claptrap of the Free.Traders. The
American people will be edited by
noting that comparison and studying
what the Republican Protectionists
will have to say on the subject.
1t is impossible to study the Tariff
system of the United States inductive.
ly, giving due heed to the influences
of our system upon the industry of the
country, without uoting the important
part played by Protection in making
opportunities. Amidst all our pros
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