The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-11
DEATH TO TRUSTS
Jefferson Davis the New Senator
From Arkansas
Sounds His War Cry at the
National Capital.
INTRODUCES A BILL.
Intended to Remove All the
COuntry's Ills.
Insists That Trust agnates
Must Go to Prison.
INTRODUCES A BILL

today, carrying a large dress suit case
filed with documents he wished to
have on his desk for reference during
his speech on trusts. He was at his
desk almost an hour before noon and
before the arrival of any other senator.
When Senator Davis secured the floor
and began his address all of the SEN
ators. both Republicans and Democrats,
were in their seats and they gave strict
attention to his remarks. Tho galleries
were filled with spectators.
Senator Davis delivered a passionate
address. After declaring that his bill
vigorously enforced would kill the
trusts with dramatic effect he chal-
lenged any senator to step forward and
contest the issue with him.
He began by declaring that it was
not his purpose to retain his seat in
the senate until his hair shall have
grown gray before taking up his work
actively in that body. He proposed to
present quickly, fearlessly and as in
telligently as he might. some of the
living, burning questions before the
American people. 1t was for that rea-
son he had determined to speak upon
his bill to suppress trusts, pools, COM
binations and conspiracies.
Il 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 commerce"
domestic operation found fixing the
price of any article would, by his bill,
he said. have it's charter forfeited and
foreign corporation guilty of such an
act would not be allowed to do busi-
ness in the United States.
THE trust evil" said Senator Davis,
''is a cancerous sore upon the body
polite just as upon the human body.
The only remedy, the only successful
1t out by the root. destroy the virus
before the whole body polite is affected
and destroyed
The sherman Law.
Congress should not hesitate in its
work of destroying the trusts because
of any fear of unsettling business, he
continued. He spoke of the Sherman
antitrust law.
Has it proven effectual?" he asked.
Has 1t destroyed single trust? Under
Its operation have they not grown
strong, defiant and arrogant? Almost
law has been on our statute books,
more than four times as long as it took
the north to wear out the south upon
the bloody fields of battle. Nearly
seven years of Mr.. Roosevelt's siren
uuos term has passed, with all the ma
chinery of the government at his back,
with the great power of the chief execu-
tive in his hands, yet 1 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 I entered
this august body, f1ippantly too, that
before L had been in the senate six
months the trust magnates would have
me feeding out of their hands. 1 may
share crumbs with Lazarus, but 1
swear to you today, by every God in
the calendar, that I shall never eat
from the hands of Mammon
Il want to say to you sir. and to |
the members of this senate, that you |
need not lose any sleep about a corpor- !
alton getting it's rights. You need not |
lose any sleep about unjust discrimi- |
nation against them. They will take |
care of themselves. But rather should |
our solicitude be for the man who
bears the burdens of the government. |
This is an age when have gone mad |
in their frenzied efforts for the dollar. |
This 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 it is held |
so priceless? You can not eat 1T, you |
can not wear it, your shroud has no
ceive it for admission into the golden
gates.
Cause of the Trusts.
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 formation of trusts, we are COM
PEELED to go no further than Repubn-
can authority itself and take the sworn
testimony of Mr.. Havemeyer, the great
sugar king, who has gone to his re-
ward, be it good or bad, who has gone
to that land and that cline where ST.
Peter does not take sugar in his and
where money is of no value
He recalled Mr.. Havemeyer's state
that the tariff is the mother Of
trusts i
Under the operation of this ystem
of government" he said, Isl men in the
United States, multimillionaires, if
you please, have amassed a total for
tune of So, 295, 600 900. Of this 81, John
D. Rockefeller, the oil king of the world,
gle. the steel king of the world, fol-
lows with half this amount"
The secretary of commerce and labor
had calculated, he said all the pro- |
perty owned by $4,000 600 American Cit
zens is $107, ,0O0,000.00O so that these 81
citizens own one-thirty- fifth of the en-
tire wealth of the nation.
What an alarming concentration
Of wealth; what an alarming concen-
.ration of power! In this day and time
money is king; money is God. With
0ut money the doors of opportunity
are closed; the doors of society are
hut Yea, even in some instances the
ioors of the church do not welcome
70 enthusiastically the man in rags
Ind tatters as the man with millions
How shall this condition be changed?
-Io1T r. g~ 10 4 4