The Forrest City times., 1906-09-07
AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER '. 1906.

as saying that. ns the American beauty ! cannot be brought to perfection without | pinching on ninety nine buds, that the | one hundrcdth bud can receive the full | strength et the bush, so great industrial
 organizations are impossible wiSlout the
 elimination of the smaller ones. It Is a | cruel illustration, but it puts nerfectly | accurate picture Of trust methods. The Cause Of the Ninety Nine. | The democratic party champions the ] cause of the niuety-nne enterpri.es which | are menaced-they must not be sacrificed
 that one great combination may flourish. | and when the subject is understood we | shall receive tho cordial support of hum | dreds of thousands of business men who | have themselves felt the oppression of the | trusts. or who. having observed the effect | their safety dies. not In futile attempts at
 tn" restraint of trusts but in legislation
 which will make a private monopoly inn | possible
 There must be no mlstskIrs of issues,
 and no confusion Of the line Of battle The | trust, ss an institution, will have few | open defenders
 l The policy of the trust magnntes win
 be to insist upon reasonable legislation
 and then they will rely upon their power | to corrupt legislatures. and to intimidate | executives. to prevent tho application of | the trusts.
 Our motto must be, "a private monopoly l Is indefensible and intolerable." and our plan or attack must contemplate the total and complete overthrow of the monopoly | Industry.
 Need Not Quarrel Over Remedies. | We need not quarrel over remedies. We | must show ourselves willing to support | any remedy which promises substantial | advantages to the people In their warfare
 against monopoly. Something is to be pected rom the enforcement of the crim- | inal clause of the sherman antitrust law but this law must be enforced, not against | a few trusts as at present but against all the trusts, and the aim must be to i'm 1 prison the guilty, not merely to recover q
 mo. What Is a fine of thousand dollars.
 or even ten thousand dollars. to a trust 1 which makes a hundred thousand dollars | While the trial is in progress? If the crim-
 mai clause Is not good to be enforced, il l ought to be repealed. If imprisonment k
 too severe punishment for the cminently | respectable gentlemen who rob eighty
 millions of people of hundreds Of millions | or dollars annually. the language of the
 statute ought to be changed for nothing
 Is more calculated to breed anarchy than
 the failure to enforce the law against
 rich criminals while it is rigidly enforced
 against petty offenders.
 | Advocates New Legislation.
 But 1t is not sufficient to enforce exist l Ing laws. IT ten corpora t1ons consprinV 1 together in restraint of trade are threat | ened with punishment all they have to 1 do now is to dissolve their separate corpo- | ratlons, and turn their property over to l new corporation. The new eorporatien 1 can proceed to do the same thing that the
 separate corporations attempted. and yet l new legislation. and the republican party not only falls to enact such legislation.
 but fails even to promise 1t. The demo l cratic party must be prepared to propose l new and efficient legislation
 l NO Man Can Serve Two Masters. l Recent investigations have brought to | lsnt that nearly all crookedness revealed | ln the management of our large corpora
 dtns, dions nas been due to the duplication of
 obtan ooArs sTogp of svnne men orsanze
 uons doing business with each other
 and then proceed to swindle the stock
 holders htn 9f the various corporations for |
 two masters, and the director who at
 tempts to do so will fail. no matter how
 Is discovered. Many of the trusts con 1 trol prices by the same methods The
 same group ot men secure control of
 several competing corporations, and the l management Is thus consolidated. l Suggests Remedies.
 | It is worth while to consider whether | by law making 1t illegal for the same l person to act as director of officer of two | corporations which deal with each other 1 or are engaged in the same general busi- l ness
 A still more far-reaching remedy was l proposed by the democratic platform of | tons to take out a federal license before | engaging In interstate commerce. This remedy Is simple easily applied and com | prehensive. The requiring of a license | would not embarrass legitimate corpora | tlonS-lt would scarcely inconvenience them-while it would confine the preda- I
 origin Juht . iice-se to sell liquor | leaves the poss sor of the license to sell l only ln accordance with the laws of the | state in which he resides, so q corporat te | license granted by q federal commission | would not interfere with the right of l each state to regulate foreign corpora | tons doing business within it's borders
 IT corporations were required to take out | federal license. the federal governnent | could then issue the license upon the | terms and conditions which would pro- | tect the public.
 | Corporations Have No Natural Riqhts
 A corporation differs from a human be- l Ing III that IL has no natural rights and as all Of It's rights are derived from the | statutes. it can be limited or restrained | according as the public welfare may re- | quire. The control which congress has over interstate commerce is complete 1 and if congress can prevent the transpor- | tation of q lottery ticket through the | freight, 1t can certainly forbid the use l or the malls. the railways and the tele- | graphs to any corporation which is en- deaNoIlng to monopolize an article of commerce. and no party can long be cred | ited with sincerity If 1t condemns the | trusts with words only and then per mits the trusts to employ all the instru- 1 mentaltties or interstate commerce in the carrying out It's nefarlous plans IL fig
 Tar easier to prevent monopoly than | to watch It and punish it, and this pre- | vention can be accomplished in a prac- | tical way by refusing license to any | corporation which controls more than a certain proportion of ths total products l this proportion to be arbitrarily fixed ai
 a point which will give free operation to competition.