Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-09-17
W. J. BRYAN ON CUBA
Holds That Fifty Per Cent
 Output Forms g Trust.
STATEMENT TO IRON TRADE REVIEW
Commenting on Steel Trust, Points Out He Has Adopted . Standard For His Paper 1t Lincoln and
 Refuses Certain Business.

For His Paper Ut Lincoln and
 Refuses Certain Business.
 ROANOKE, Va, Sept. 17.-Willlam Jennings Bryan last night gave the first expression he has made on the present Cuban situation. When inter- viewed in his car just before he left here for Lynchburg and asked if he would say anything about the situation in Cuba and whether in his opinion the United States should intervene Mir. Bryan dictated the following state meDt:
 T am very glad that the administra- tion recalled the troops landed at Ha- vana. While we should do all in our power to bring about peace by offer ing the good offices of our country, we have no business interfering with their local affairs. They must settle the dis putes among themselves, but I would be glad if both parties would be willing to accept mediation with the idea of bringing about an agreement through the good offices of our government"
 Mir. Bryan, with his wife, left at ' p. m. for Raleigh, N. C., via Lynch burg and Greensboro. He will speak at Raleigh, Durham, Burlington and Greensboro today and at Kernersville, Winston, High Point, Lexington, Sails bury, Concord and Charlotte tomorrow. He will speak at Columbia, s. O., on Wednesday.
 The Iron Trade Review obtained from William J. Bryan more definite statement of his position in regard to the so called trusts. In letter to Mir. Bryan, George Smart, the editor of that paper, said:
 "In your recent address at Madison Square Garden, New York, you de- fined trust to be any corporation which controls so much of the product of any article that it can fix the terms and conditions of sale.' Later in your address you say, It is far easier to prevent a monopoly than to watch it and to punish it, and this prevention can be accomplished in practical way by refusing license to any corpora tion which controls more than cer- tain portion of the total product, this proportion to be arbitrarily fixed at a point which will give free operation to competition.'
 "If you consider the percentage too large, to what extent would you com. pei the corporation to sell or disman- tie it's plants so that it will not be a trustY
 To this letter M Bryan responded as follows:
 "Your favor at hand. I thank you for the information given in regard to the steel trust. 1 note that in some cases 1t controls more than half of the product and in some cases less. I am not prepared to state just how much a proportion corporation can control without becoming trust In the sense that 1t limits competition, and compe- tition controls the price and terms of sale. For the conduct of my own pa per draw the line at 50 per cent and do not accept an advertisement of corporation controlling more than 50 per cent of the product in which 1t deals. I have only been contending for a principle. The details are less important, as they can be determined according to experience and experi- ment. I am inclined to believe, how ever. that the steel trust controls more of the product than it is good for the American people that one corporation should.
 "In saying that corporation should not be licensed when it controls enough to eliminate competition I do not mean to say that the individual in- 'dustries that are under one manage ment should be destroyed. The cor poration should simply be compelled to reduce its factories until It's production is in the limit fixed by the law"