The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-02

! anee of the Republican policy of enrich
| ing special interests at the cost of the con-
sumers and other producers. The means
Cling competition: Doesn't result. in pros
perity for anybody? Yes; indeed it does.
For whom? For the few who profit by
lively tive Speaking? Wbo GETS the largest
measure of prosperity under this sys-
tenn? 1t is not he who can get the sched-
his purposes? Who can do that?
In answer, the man or the corporation
with the strongest and best paid lobby at
corporafon or combination atH Of CORPORA az
tions which is the greatest and most sue
cessful corruptfonist: 1t boots little
| whether the corruption takes place di-
rectly at the seat of government. at the
| time of the enactment of the law, or
| whether it takes place indirectly, before
hand, as it generally does, by contribu-
! lions to campaign funds. to be returned
| later by friends of the system" who
stand pat on present legislation; What
perity that comes to honest men, as a
result of thrift, energy. foresight fru-
gality, sobriety,. improved business meth
sources of a great country? Or the pros
! perity which is law-bought and accrues
TO coTru af ntlnences organized upon
denied in the world. and to be accounted
for only by the magnitude of the profit
10 pe redpeu.
What the Government Can Do
What can the federal government do?
What is the extent of its Jurisdiction? I
answer, first, it can remove so much of
the tariff shelter as enables American
! corporations by combination to get from
the American people more than a reason
able profit. To show that this is a pal
pable remedy, when the great anthracite
coal strike was on, and the cries for re-
lief from the victims in the large cities
| iT1CI md
gresS wanted to deprive the anthracite
coal combination, SO far as legislation
went, of its power of extortion, it placed
anthracite coal permanently upon the free
list, and all other Goals on the free list
for one year. Remember, it was Re-
publican house and Republican senate
that 1t stopped extortion to a marked
degree. answer, second, that the Unit
ed States government has the same pow
er, with regard to trusts engaged in inter-
state commerce, as the several states
have with regard to those doing business
entirely within the state.
The federal government can, If 1t
chooses forbid corporations doing an in
terstate business from owning above
fixed percentage of the stock of their cor
porations. 1t could if it chose, forbid
purely holding companies, like the ship
ping trust swindle, from entering inter
state commerce at all. 1t could, If it
chose, pass statute for interstate COM
merce, like that which Massachusetts has
passed for commerce within that COM
monwealth penalizing contracts made by
trusts with purchasers of their product,
binding the purchaser not to buy from
nor to sell to other corporations, persons
or firms.
But the main thing to be done is mani
fest to all honest men, to all faithful fed
eral officials. 1t is to go ahead and en-
force present law, which is by no means
impotent, and not to be prating about
mot running r min amnek nor be placing the
labor at the head of a national partisan,
political machine, where he can put him
self and his party most conveniently un-
der obligations to the trusts-where pos
sessing information which amounts to
carrying big stick" he is yet receptive
OF contributions. which amounts TO
speaking softly"
Labor's Rewards Reduced
I mention another way in which a COM
bination of corporations can work gain
in way in which none of the constituent
corporations acting singly so easily can,
namely, by reducing the amount labor
gets for its share in the work of produce
ton and distribution. by controlling and
intimidating labor. How? Your laboring
men know. If you are working for a SUI
gar refinery, or a steel plant, when there
are many sugar refineries and many steel
plants in the country, each independent
of the other, and each competing with the
other, you can, when served with notice
of wage reduction. hope for employment
in competing company in the same or
another town. Moreover, your own COM
lose permanently to competitor some OF
its best labor. Not so, if all refineries or
all steel plants are banded together
against you. If then you strike for higher
wages, need not tell you how much
more nearly helpless you are, or II, as is
often the case, you strike against cause
less reduction of wages, you are nearly
as helpless.
Another thing, a combination of many
plants can and often does shut down one
or several of them, leaving laboEerS in
the place where the works have been dis
mantled, helpless members of the great
army of the unemployed. That is fam
iliar way of reducing labor cost without
mourning the risk of a strike. It is also
way of Furnishing localities which are
not trust subservient.
Trusts, in short, injure the laboring
man by raising the cost of his living at one
end. and by reducing his wages or pre-
venting him from getting higher wages,
at the other end of the industrial line.
Trusts Bind All Glasses
In summary resume, fellow citizens the
trusts bind in their grasp the producer
of the raw material, bind also the labor
ing man, and in protected countries
Though they cannot do so elsewhere), rob
charging extortionate prices How can
there, then, be any good trusts? Good
monarchs there are and have been, but
good monarchieS never. One-man power
IS essentially unjust and iniquitous.
whether abused or not. Generous and good
trust magnates there are and have been,
but a good trust never. Oucn unlimited
and adjustable power in the hands of a
creature of the law essentially antagonizes
free institutions and Industrial welfare:
Shame, shame, on the Republican party!
Ruling land which is the home of va
ried Industries and of intelligent, patient.
industrious working men, it has made of
that land the chief breeding place of
trusts. to bind fast the toiler at one end
of the industrial line, and to rob the con-
sumner at the. other.
Shame, that its ideal in a free republic
of free men should not be that prosperity
of the many which can result only from
intelligent effort, proven honesty, thrift.
and Astounding natural resources in the
field of free and natural competition, but
should be that prosperity which results
from law-given power, or law--protected
power, to tax the consumer unjustly and
to resist the efforts of the toiler seeking
better wages and a higher standard of
living-a prosperity the chief and natural
bepef1ciaries Of which are those most able
and most willing to use corruptive infiu-
ence. Saddest of all reflections in connec-
ton with the subject is this, that even
the most impulsive character boasting
of his anxiety to ''shackle cunning if
Republican must sink to the tone of the
ola ba x,yo1.lxc in NOR Presidential