Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1904-08-26
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 $50 Year

cause Right in Prlnclpai-ine o'he'
Pure Humbug, Costing the Average
American Family $50 Year
What we call trust depends on a
monopoly, natural or artificial. WIN,
out such monopoly, no combination OF
capital can harm the public, or indeed
do ANYTHING but good by eilectlng
economies that benefit all by lowering
prices. If it attempts to make prices
extortionate, competition at once
comes in as a regulator. The natural
monopolies as a benign Providence
has distributed Natures blessings ana
resources, are very few. Substantially
all our trusts rest on ARTIFICIAL monop'
DIV which has been created for them Dy
governmental power, first in the tarlii
and second in discrimination by ran,
roads, which operate by delegated
governmental powers in the right oil
eminent domain, or OF taking any
citizens land for their own use, Just
rs the government can. How wickedly
the railroad determinations have oper'
ated Is illustrated by the development
of the Standard Oil Trust. Roughly II,
Illustrated. they charged the Standard
Oil Co. sl.0O for freight when its COM
petitors were charged $500; and not
only that but the Standard Oil Co. was
given the extra Sl.00 which its competi-
tor paid. OF course no competition
could live under such methods, and OF
course they were nothing, IN law OF
ethics. out robbery on the public hgh-
way. which a railroad is ~ virtue OF It's
power OF eminent domain.
Generauy the trusts, which are organ
lied behind the tariff wall TO the porten-
tious extent we showed last week, nave
this extra guard in the way OF high
waymens methods. BY means of 1t they
have prevented the fulhlment OF ,-e
one valid excuse for high tariff, that
though it might bring extortlonate
nr,ces for a 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 emu
| TO the whole trust evil is-as the
Democratic party is pledged by us
record. its platform and Judge Parker
statesmanlike speech OF acceptance
| FIRST to lower to a reasonable point the
tariff on every article whose production
| Il in the hands Of a trust, and sec
ond, by adequate legislation to stop
| these railroad determinations. Inc
first could do no possible harm to any
BODY. and only stop robbery, because
! our manufacturers are already beatlhs
| the world. and our trusts are selling
their goods in Europe at 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
he computed, is Sl,250000,000 a year
or $50 Tor every average family.
When the Democratic party was III
power. in 1887, under the first Cleye'
! land administration, there was passed
in the Inter state-Commerce act, what
was intended and believed to be SUI
ficient 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
pecially 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
with the tariff, it Stands pat for the
trusts.
In the meantime it tries to fool the
people with the Sherman law-whlch
| 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 other tradesmen in a town who
should agree on prices would be guilty
| or a crime.
The whole of the Republican policy on
the trusts is 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, immedi-
ately after the decision in the Northern
| Securities case, that the government
would not run amuck." In other
words. he said substantially, what is the
fact. that honestly carried out, this law
would break up four-fifths of the rail-
road systems of the country.
As part of this humbug the present
administration got out an injunction a
wear ago against the beef trust, but that
trust has gone on Just the same robbing
consumers of millions upon millions.
The Republican party has organized
also a Bureau of Corporations, to
gather information about trusts. 1t
put George B. Cortelyou at its head
and after he had been there long enough
70 learn the secrets of the trusts suf-
ficientlv. it transferred him to the
chairmanship of its national committee
to utilize this information in frying TAT
out of them.
With the lines so plainly drawn be-
tween the programs of the two parties,
there can be no question which an intel
lieent citizenship will adopt.
As an honest voter do you think
Won can get relief from the trusts by
=. ID