The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1904-08-24
THE DEMOCRATIC AND RE
PUBLICAN POLICIES
On the Trust Issue The One Effective Be
cause Right in Principal The Other
Pure Humbug, Costing the Average
American Family $40 Year

Pure Humbug, Costing the Average
American Family $50 Year
What We call a trust depends on q
monopoly, natural or artificial With
out such a monopoly, no combination OF
capital can harm the public. or indeed
do anything but good by etEeciing
economies that benefit all BY lowering
prices. If it attempts to make prices
extortionate. competition at once
comes Ia 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-
olv 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 SiO0 for freight when its com
| petitors were charged $500; and not
| only that, but the Standard OIL Go. was
/ given the extra 81 90 which its competi-
tor paid OF course no competition
could live under such methods, and OF
course they were nothing in law or
ethics, int robbery ON the public high
way. which a railroad is ~ virtue Of its
| power Of eminent domain.
GeneIasy the trusts. which are organ
l s4o51 h.,Jt;ri tlo fa.tN ...aI1 ~, Tho f.aafnff
| tious extent we showed last week have
| wavmen's methods By means Of il they
have prevented the fululment of 2
| one valid excuse for high tariff. that
| though II might bring extortionate
/ prices for time, the domestic compe
tition its 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 isas the
Democratic party is pledged ~ its
record, its platform and Judge Parker's
statesmanlike speech Of acceptance
first, to lower to reasonable point the
| tariff on every article whose production
is in the hands OF trust, and sec
| ond, By adequate legislation to stop
these railroad determinations The
| first could do no possible harm to any.
body, and only stop robbery, because
our manufacturers are already beating
| the world, and our trusts are selling
| their goods in Europe at a third or a
| 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 50,0O0,000 d year
or $50 for every average family
When the Democratic party was in
power, in 1887, under the first Cieve.
| land administration. there was passed,
in the Inter state-Commerce act. what
was intended and believed to be sui
acient legislation against railroad
determinations. The Supreme Court has
since by its decisions taken all the
virtue and effectiveness out Of the law
The Interstate Commission. and es-
peeially 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
| Will lhC lNtAiAs a. NhAtiAN ifdh ANi ht3C
trusts
In the meantime it tries to fool the
people with the Sherman law-whieh
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
end, would mean that any three grocers
or ether tradesmen in town who
should agree on prices would be guilty
or crime.
The whole Of the Republican policy on
the trusts il 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 knoXs announcement, immcdi-
ately after the decision in the Northern
Securities case, that the government
"would not run amuekn In other
words, he said substantially, what Is the
| fact, that honestly carried out, this law
would break up four-ffths 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 tile beef trust, but that
trust has gone on Just the same robbing
consumers Of millions upon millions.
The Republican party has organized
also Bureau Of Corporations, to
gather information about trusts 1t
| put George B. Cortelyou at its head, |
and after he had been there long enough |
to learn the secrets Of the trusts suf. |
ficiently, it transferred him to the
Craftsmanship Of its national committee
to utilize this information in frying fat
out Of them.
With the lines 50 plainly drawn be-
tween the programs Of the two parties,
there can be no question which an intel |
ligent citizenship will adopt