The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-11
DAVIS
BEGINS HIS
TRUST WAR
CONTINUED from First page,

shall have grown gray before taking up
his work actively in that body. He
proposed to present quickly, fearlessly
and as intelligently as he might some
of the living. burning questions before
the American people. 1t was for h
reason he had determined to speak
upon his bill to suppress trusts, pools,
combinations and conspiracies.
II undertake to say" he continued,
that if this bill is enacted into a law,
and faithfully and honestly executed,
trusts will be wiped from the face Of
the earth and no longer will we feel
their grinding and destroying grip on
the arteries OF trade and
The trust wills" said Senator
Davis, "is a c ~ous sore upon the
body polite just as upon the human
body. The only remedy, the only sue
cessful treatment. is the surgeons
knife. Cut it out by the root. destroy
the virus, before the whole body polite
is affected and destroyed"
Congress should not hesitate in its
work of destroying the trusts because
of any fea of unsettling business, he
continued. He spoke of the Sherman
antitrust law. Continuing, he said:
HAS it proven effectual? Has it de-
stroyed a single trust? Under its OPP
GRAFTON have they not grown strong,
defiant and arrogant? Almost for sew
enteen years the Sherman antitrust
law has been on our statute books,
more than four times as long as ii took
the North to wear out the South upon
the bloody fields of battle. Nearly
seven years of Mr.. Roosevelt's siren
uous term has passed with all the ma
chinery of the government at his back,
xrffh Aha nra1f .ouya ~ thu .htnf y
ecutive in his hands, yet / ask will
some Republican Senator upon this floor
tell me one trust that he has even
tanned, much less destroyed
"Ah, Mr.. President, it was stated by
the metropolitan press before 1 en-
tered this august body, ~fippantly. too,
that before l had been in the Senate
six months the trust magnates would
have me feeding out OF their hands.
| may share crumbs with a Lazarus,
but ] swear to you today, by every
god in the calendar that l shall never
eat from the hands of manmon.
II want to say to you, sir, and to the
member of this Senate. that you need
not lose any sleep about a corpora
not lose any sleep about unjust indis-
elimination against them. They will
take care of themselves. But rather
should our solicitude be for the man
who bears the burdens of the govern
ment.
This is an age when men awe gone
mad In their frenzied efforts for the
dollar. h is an age when money Is
placed above man; when gold is placed
before God. When we would sell our
souls, our government, our all for one
bright smile from the god of mammon.
What is money, Mr.. President. that 1t
is held so priceless? You cannot eat 1t,
you cannot wear it. your shroud has
no pocket in It and ST. Peter will not
receive it for admission into the golden
gates.
when we look to the leading cause
for this great wealth upon the part OF
these great corporations. and the causes
leading to their formation, TO the Tor
nation of trusts. we are compelled to
no No further than Republican authority
itself"
He recalled Mr.. Havemeyer's statement
before the Industrial Commission that
THE tariff is the mother of trusts.
Under the operation Of this system OF
government he said, 'thfty-one men In the
United States multi-rnillionaires. If you
please. have amassed a total fortune Of
50. 2e5. 100000. OF this ffty-one John ID.
Rockefeller, the oil king OF the world. leads
With $500. 5000; Andrew Carnegie. the steel