Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1904-09-22
TRUSTS IN CONTROL
CORPORATIONS PURCHASE VIC
TORIES FOR REPUBLICANS.
Revelations Made by Thomas w. Law
son Are acknowledgements
"by the People" Shown to Be in the
Gravest Danger.

Thomas w. Lawson of Boston con-
tInues to tell his story of "Frenzied
Finance" in Everybody's Magazine
and his exposure of the Standard Oil
plan of fleeing the people is most in
teresting and instructive of trust do
ings. Mr.. Lawson, being at the time
he writes of, in close alliance with
the Rockefellers and indeed one of the
copper trust magnates and being a
strong Republican partisan, contrib
uting literally to the Mckinley cam
paign funds, his chapter on THE pow
er of the dollar" in politics is of great
Importance. Here we have a multi
millionaire telling us of how the Re-
publicans purchased the elections with
the vast sums of money furnished by
the trusts and corporations and that
even the courts are controlled by
these vast aggregations of wealth.
Mr.. Lawson says:
"At no time in the history of the
United States has the power of dol
lars been as great as now. Freedom
and equity are controlled by dollars.
The laws which should preserve and
enforce all rights are made and en-
forced by dollars. 1t is possible, to-
day, with dollars, to steer" the Sc
lection of the candidates of both the
great parties for the highest office
in our Republic, that of President of
the United States, so that the people,
as a matter of fact, must elect one of
the "steered" candidates. 1t is posi-
bic to repeat the operation in the
selection of candidates for the execu-
tive and legislative conduct and con-
troll of every State and municipality
in the United States, and with suf-
ficient number of dollars to steer"
the doings of the lawmakers and law
enforcers of the national, state and
municipal governments of the people.
and sufficient proportion of the court
decisions to make absolute any power
created by such direction. 1t is all,
broadly speaking, a matter of dollars
to practically accomplish these
things"
Democrats have claimed that these
vast forces were at the service of the
Republicans, but the absolute evidence
was not possible to procure until this
trust magnate voluntarily took the
witness stand and so wildly relates
the completely of the Republican
leaders with the great trust steerers
of the country. 1t makes one stand
aghast to discover that all the tales
of the vast sums placed at the dis
posal of the Republicans to corrupt
the electorate is more than true and
that the amount acknowledged to
have been donated is startling, for
Mr.. Lawson says 100000 was col
lected from the corporations, as an
extra fund before the election of 1896.
Can anyone doubt that guild pro quo
was forthcoming and has been rem
dered by the Republican Administra-
ton? Is not this obligation to the
trusts the reason Mr.. Roosevelt has
treated them so gingerly, perhaps not
so much on account of past favors as
with the expectation they will sub
scribe literally to the fund Mr.. Bliss
is collecting and Mr.. Cortelyou is ex-
pending under direction of Mr.. Roose-
welt?
There is good evidence that Stand
ard Oil is again to be a generous con-
tributor to Mr.. Roosevelt's campaign
fund. for the Washington Star, good
Republican authority, on August %,
said:
Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island
was at Republican headquarters to-
day, and had long conference with
Chairman Cortelyou. 1t is understood
that finances of the campaign was one
of the important features under dis
cussion, as it is known that the
Rhode Island senator is in closer
touch with the business interests than
| most of the prominent Republicans"
AS Rockefeller's son married the
daughter of Aldrich and the senator
has been VIGOROUSLY the representa-
tive of Standard Oil and other trusts
| in the Senate, the interest manifested
in the finances of the Republican cam
paign is obvious. 1t is also notable
| that the senator visited Mr.. Roosevelt
at Oyster Bay the day before he was
| in New York, when no doubt the finan-
cial end of the campaign was also dis
cussed and probably led to the visit
to Wall street and Mr.. Cortelyou.
The trusts and protected interests
fostered by the protective tariff are
the natural sources of campaign funds
for the Republican party. That is
| why they stand pat" and fry the fat
| out of the trusts.