The Sauk Centre herald., 1905-02-23

crafty a spirit Of local pride than
they do to make an effort to find out
whether their candidates stand for the
things they stand for or not and they
seemingly pay even less attention as
to whether their candidates possess
the ability to accomplish the things
they want than to find out if they are
with them in spirit. Two OF the
strongest tariff revision districts in
this state nominated and elected
out and out "standpatters' to re-
present them in congress and a
state that is republican almost two to
one placed man of opposite political
faith in the executive chair of the
state. Mugwump papers and mug
wump statesmen herald this action as
patriotism but to my mind such
action is as foolish as it would be for
an orthodox church to employ
a heather priest as pastor and
depend on him to proclaim the
doctrines OF Christianity or for the
Russian government to put a
Japanese general in command OF the
armies of the Gar.
All this may seem incompetent,
irrelvant and immaterial but it is
leading up to my theme, the "Paper
Trust" The first thing for Us to
decide is the existence OF trusts
beneficial org detrimental to the well
fare of the country. When l was on
earth the first time and an active
participant in public affairs l was
often much. amused to hear men high
in authority and occupying positions
of great influence in the nation and
state, declare again and again that in
legislating on the ''trust'' question
the greatest care should be exercised
in discriminating between "good"
and "bad' trusts and that careful
distinction should be made 80 that the
"good" trusts should not be injured.
1t would be just as sensible to say
that in legislating on criminal matters
great scare should be exercised to
discriminate between good and bad
thieves. Trusts are either good or
bad and the proposition that there are
both "good" and "bad" trusts is the
climax of absurdity.
Once some years ago l happened to
be in a mountain hotel in Kentucky.
A drummer who was in the room
walked up to the bar and said, "Give
me drink, and don't try to shove off
any poor whiskey on me either"
The barkeeper looked at him with
kindly contempt and replied, "Some
whiskey is better than other whiskey,
but there is no poor whiskey in
Kentucky" There are some trusts
that are worse than others but there
are no good trusts. There are good
and bad individuals because they are
inspired in their actions by good and
bad ideals and are actuated by good
and bad motives and pursue many
different methods to achive many
different results. There are good and
bad corporations because there are
many different kinds of corporations
organized for many different purposes
aiming to accomplish many different
ends by many different ways. Trusts
are all good or all bad because they
are all created for the same purpose,
to achieve the same result by the same
method. The purpose of organization
is always for profit, profit for the
creators, and the method followed in
every instance is the elimination of
competition by the creation of a
monopoly. Without monopoly it is
impossible for trust to exist and the
success of the same depends on the
completeness of the monopoly. A
trust can no more flourish and prosper
in the face of successful competition
than yellow fever could get foothold
in St. Paul in the face of existing
climatic conditions. Destroy cOmpe-
tition and trusts are as sure to spring
up as the yellow scourge is sure to
devastate tropical countries in mid
summer if sanitary conditions are
neglected, and with the same effect
on independent business as the fever
has on the health of the pOpulace.
Trust prosperity means death to
independent business enterprises
outside the trusts. If business
competition is good thing for the
interests of the country then trusts
are bad thing. If business compe-
tition is bad thing for the nations
interests then trusts are a good thing.
1t is up to the press to present this
question in this light to the people
and it is up to the people to decide the
question. For my part / believe that
business competition is good thing
for this or any other country. 1t is
not only a good thing for the country
but it is the foundation of all our
prosperi ty and advancement in busi-
ness and everything else. 1t furnishes
the open door of opportunity, close
this door and you close every avenue
by rvh;cb q mon can change the con.