The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-10-12
POINTS OUT PERlLS
BANKER SIMMONS OF NEW YORK
TELLS PLAIN TRUTHS
Warns the Advocates Of Trusts That
II Corporations Are to Rob the PEG
pie Unchecked A Social Revolution
Is inevitable

Edward Simmons, banker Of New
York City, In an address to The Mary.
land bankers, made the following re,
marks:
We live in the age of great corpOr.
atoms We live at time when the
power and the temptation Of money
has increased thousandfold; when
its attractions have multiplied as
never before when money has al.
most become the criterion Of worth
and honor and the arbiter Of peace
and war; when It's possession IL
equivalent to a patent Of nobility.
A New Morality
Again the cry heard by the Roman
schoolboy is universal Make mon.
ey honestly II yon can, but make
money" In these days Of unprece-
denied prosperity and disgusting ex-
| travagance, new and strange princi.
pies Of morality seem to have over
ridden the sturdy views Of honesty
that governed our fathers, and men
who pose as the salt of the earth and
who condemn, without leserye, those
who steal $50 or forge check for
| 800, or accept bride, will them.
selves make millions by lying, by mis-
representation, by fraud, and by brib-
cry. In private life they are stain
less; but In the interest Of corpora.
| tons, of the trust, of the gas com.
pany, of the railroad company, Of the
insurance company, they will have
recourse to every villainy damned in
the decalog. They Will go further.
enact laws crushing their competitors
In business, and exacting from their
fellow-citizens daily tribute, under
The name Of duty.
Competition Necessary
recognize readily the vast bless
ings which union or consolidation for
business purposes, II properly guard
ed and honestly conducted, may bring
upon the nation. We must not for
get, however, that all trusts are mo-
nopolistic in tendency, and that al
most every Industrial consolidation
that has been formed has had for
| It's object the curtailment Of competi-
ton; and every thoughtful man knows
| that the more you curtail competition
the nearer you approach monopoly;
and when no competition exists, then
monopoly prevails. ! admit that we
must have tariff, and that under
exceptional circumstances II may be
even iustifiable to make II protect an
industry, but hold that no tariff Is
justified that has not for its sole aim
the advantage or the necessities Of
our country In its entirety The man
who imposes a dutv, or leads another
with or without 4 Aribe, to impose {
duty. In order to fill his pockets. II
dishonest, and all the more banefu
Ia his dishonesty because he extracts
| his plumber. without danger to him
| self. from the pockets of those whit
! cannot resist. He does the deed o
i, hirhwavman with the air Of 0 saint
and poses before his fellow citl2en
with self-satished mien OF virtue
and surrounds his head with n sci
created halo, .-e
industrial Monsters
Great corporations and mnlti.mil
llonaire enterprises, whether conduct
ed by the state or hv Its citizens, arr
modern growtha. hut precisely he
cause all their dangerous influences
are not vet known. because all theil
deadly effects have not vet heen dis
covered. II behooyeH us. AS men an'
as citizens. to he cautious In Great
Ing financial and Industrial monsteri
which. pefehanee. may al last swallow
the very nation that has created them