The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-31
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
 SOUNDS SLOGAN OF DEMOCRACY

I sovereign. To drive him from his bed | to his task and from his task back to his bed is to deprive the family or
 his companionship. society of his ser Twice and politics of his influence. | Thus far I have dwelt upon suDJects which may not be regarded as strictly partisan, but l am sure that you VIII pardon me If this presence betray my
 interest in those policies for which the Democratic party stands.
 I have not had an opportunity to l make Democratic speech for almost | year and no one-not even poiItt-
 ca. enemy--could be so cruel as to for bid me 10 speak of those policies on
 this occasion. Our opponents have de- l rived not only partisan pleasure but d1so partisan advantage from the divis-
 ion caused in our party by the money question.
 Democracy's United Front. 1 They ought not, therefore. begrudge | us the satisfaction we find in the fact l that unexpected conditions have re- | moved the causes of our differences l and permitted us to present united front on present issues. The unlocked for and unprecedented increase In the production of gold had brought vfc-- tory to both the advocates of gold and | the advocates of bimetaIlism-the for
 mer keeping the gold standard which 1 they wanted and the latter securing
 the larger volume of money for which
 allism are satisfied with our victory If the friends of monometallism are sat 1 isfied with theirs. And we can invite | them to a contest of zeal and endu-
 rance in the effort to restore 10 the people the rights which have been gradually taken from them by the trusts
 The investigations which have been in progress during the past year have disclosed the business methods of those who. few years ago, resented any fn- Ispection of their schemes and hid their rescality under high-sounding phrases. IThese investigations have also dis Iclosed the source of enormous cam paign funds which have been used to Edebauch elections and corrupt the ball. Hot.
 The people see now what they should have seen before, namely, that no party lean exterminate the trusts so long as it owes its political success to political Icampaign contributions secured
 through the trusts
 Great corporations do not contribute their money to any party except for immunity promised or clearly implied. EThe President has recommended legfs- fiction on this subject, but so far his
 party has failed to respond. No im portant advance can be made until thts baneful influence Is eliminated, and I hope that the Democratic party will rot only challenge the Republican par Ity to bring forward effective legisla- ton on this subject, but will set an example by refusing to receive cam paign contributions from corporations, land, by opening the books so that every contributor of any considerable sum
 may be known to the public before the election.
 The great majority of corporations are engaged in legitimate business and have nothing to fear from hostile leg islation, and the officers should not be permitted to use the money of the
 stockholders to advance their own po- Ilitical opinions. Contributions should
 be individual not corporate, and no
 tions even from individuals when the acceptance of these contributions se- cretly pledge the party to course words, politics should be honest, and I
 mistake political conditions In America I Il they do not presage improvement in ] the conduct of campaigns.
 l Trust is Paramount Issue. While men may differ as to the rela- l tive importance of issues, and while
 the next Congress will largely shape
 the lines upon which the coming Presi- I dential campaign will be fought. I think it Is safe to say that at present the paramount issue in the minds of Il lar0e majority of people is the trust issue I congratulate President Roose- vent upon the steps which he has taken
 to enforce the antitrust law, and my
 qualification Is not lessened by the fapt
 that he has followed the Democratic
 rather than the Republican platform in
 every advance he has made.
 1 It has been great embarrassment to was elected was filled with praise of 1 the Republican party record rather
 than with promises of reform, even the
 enthusiastic support given him by the
 Democrats has enabled the champions os the trusts to taunt him with follow
 ing Democratic leadership. He has probably gone as far as he could with out mourning the hostility of the lead CTS of his own party.
 1 The trouble is that the Republican
 fective and thorough-g going reforms,
 because it has built up through leglsla
 tion the very abuses which need to be | eradicated.
 Before any intelligent action can be taken against the trusts. we must have
 q definition of trust. Because no cor poration has an absolute and complete
 monopoly of any important product,
 the apologists for the trusts sometimes
 insist that there are in reality no | trusts
 | lcgislate against such trusts as may exist without doing injury to legitimate | business. For the purpose of this dis | cussion, it Is sufficient to draw the line at the point where competition ceases | tn be effective and to designate as 2
 trust any corporation which controls
 so much of the product of any article
 that it can fix the terms and conditions Legislation which prevents a monop
 oily not only does not injure legitimate business, but actually protects legitl- | mate business from injury We are | indebted to the younger Rockefeller for | an illustration which makes this dis | tinctfon clear. In defending the trust
 sy stem, he IS quoted as saying that as
 the American beauty cannot be brought
 to perfection without pinching on
 ntnety-nine buds so that the one-hun-
 dr edith bud can receive the full strength
 of the bush, so great industrial organi- cations are impossible without the
 elimination of smaller enes.
 | Picture of Trust Methods. | It. is a cruel illustration. but it puts perfectly accurate picture of trust | methods. The Democratic party cham pions the cause of the ninety-nine en- | terprises which are menaced; they must not be sacrificed that one great combi 1 nation may flourish, and when the sub | ject Is understood, we shall receive the
 cordial support of the hundreds of | thousands of business men who have l themselves felt the oppression of the | trusts, or who having observed the effects of the trusts upon others, real 1 ize that their safety lies, not in futile attempts at the restraint of trusts but | in leEislation which will make a pri- | vate monopoly impossible.
 | There must no mistaking of the issue and no confusing of the line of battle. l The trust as an institution will have | few open defenders. The policy of the i trust magnates will be to insist en
 reasonable legislation" and then they will rely on their power to corrupt l IlesisIators and intimidate executives to prevent the application of any rem edies which would interfere with the trusts.
 Our motto must be "a private mon opoly Is indefensible and intoLera ble" [ and our plan of attack must contem- plate the total and complete overthrow of the monopoly principle in industry. aT a,l l4sac