The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-08-10

them. We began by promulgating the
doctrine that "all men are created free
and equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable
rights am ng which are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness
In the face of such pronouncement
as the basic principle of our govern
ment, the residents of many states were
holding human beings in slavery as
chattels. This inconsistency could not
endure. The question of human slavery
was for half century the problem
which threatened the very foundations
of our government. The Missouri Com
promise was an attempt to temporize
with this great wrong. One provision
of this law have always regarded as
being the most damnable of any ever
conceived by the mind of man. refer
to the fifth section, which required resi-
dents of free states to assist in the cap
ture OF slaves who had escaped from
their masters. One of the most sacred
memories | retain of my father is the
story of how, as boy in the state of
Ohio, he conducted an underground
railway, assisting slaves who had cross
ed over from Kentucky to reach the
Quaker settlements in northern Ohio,
and of my sainted mother who, with her
own hand, prepared food to sustain the
poor black man on his journey.
We settled the slavery question and
settled it right. The decree went forth
from the never-failing fountain of equity
that no picture could, in the future, be
painted showing upon the same canvass
the slave pen, the auction block, and
the American flag.
The Civil War was the supreme test
to determine whether "a nation SO con-
ceived and SO dedicated" could "long
endure" We are now face to face with
another problem, which believe to be
even more difficult of solution than was
the slavery question. The word, "trust"
lis, etymologically considered, mis-
nomer. Monopoly is better designa-
tion. The name came into use because
of the character of the first two COM
binations of the kind, which were really
trusts. 1t was, originally, the Standard
Oil Trust, instead of the Standard Oil
Company, and was selling agency, and
not q corporation. There was pooling
and not merger Of interests. The
same is true of the American Sugar
Company. In this way we get the name
although in the modern trust the trust
The size of the trust does not affect it's
influence. The smallest is capitalized
at fifty or sixty thousand dollars, but it
controls as completely the manufacture
and sale of it's particular product as the
United States Steel Company does with
a capital of billion and half. The
trust never creates an industry. 1t
draws dividends from the creation of
others. Nothing is ever called trust
that any one man or set of men working
together have built up and made sue
cessful. The steel company which Mr..
Carnegie founded with nothing but his
genius as corner stone, was not a
trust, but the steel company which Mr..
Morgan organized by combining the
Carnegie company with others, which
made SO much profit for it's members, is
a trust of the most virulent and objec-
tionable kind. The great railroad across
the Rocky Mountains was not trust.
The combination Of roads which Mr..
Hartman has effected, scarcely a mile
of which he was ever concerned in build
ing, is trust. A great industry found
ed legitimately adds that much to the
wealth of the world. 1t is the work of
great genius, and does more for the
world than for the individual who
creates it. The great combination adds
to the wealth of few Individuals. AS
stated moment ago, trust, in the
proper sense, is a monopoly. The father
and mother of the trusts in this country
had IN the one instance the monopoliza.
tion of the refining and sale Of oil, and
in the other of the refining and sale ot
sugar. After the monopoly in the par.
, ticular enterprise is obtained, the next
step is to get more profit out of the
business. Before the combination ID
perfected, competition, which has been
, said to be the life Of trade, keeps the
price down to reasonable level Of
profit. Afterwards, the price is arbi-
, trarily fixed by one interest, and the
. consumer pays the freight. l know Of
, no combination the object of whose pro.
! motion has not been the obtaining of a
$ monopoly at the expense of the public
, 1t matters not whether the combination
be of producing agencies or of trans
! portation. Those who attempt to de-
fend these combinations do SO on the