Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-11
DAVIS FLAYS TRUSTS
CONTINUED from First Pageo

magnateS and STOCK gamblers III oIoeT
that they might take from the cotton
producers half of their property, he
added.
81 am for the under dog. Senator Nc
Iaurin." he said, addressing the senator
from Mississippi, who sat before him.
whenever you hear of a dog fight Just
say, jeff Davis is for the under dog.
He read some statistics on the Standard
OH Company, and. stepping out INTO the
center aisle stamped his foot and said:
81 dislike Standard Oil; hate Standard
OIL: hate the smell of petroleum"
He spoke of the Standard Oil Company
as 1.-The Rockefeller trust, and denounced
its methods.
o'clock.
Speech of Senator Davis.
Senator Davis 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 intelli-
gently as he might some of the living.
burning questions before the American
people 1t was for that reason he had de-
termined to speak upon his bill to sup
press trusts. pools, combinations and
conspiracies.
II undertake to say" he continued.
shat if this bill is enacted into law
and faithfully and honestly executed.
trusts will be wiped from the lace OF
the earth. and no longer will We feel
their grinding and destroying grip on the
arteries of trade and commerce.
A domestic corporation found fixing the
price of any article would, by MS Dill, ne
said have it's charter forfeited, and
foreign corporation guilty of such an act
would not be allowed to do business in
the United States.
THE trust evil,'' said Senator Davis,
sis cancerous sore upon the BODY poll
tic Just as upon the human body. The
only remedy, the only successful treat
ment, is the surgeons knife. Cut it out
by the root, destroy the virus before the
whole body polite is affected and de-
stroyed."
Congress should not hesitate in it's work
of destroying the trusts because of any
fear of unsettling business, he continued.
Failure of Antitrust Laws.
He spoke of the Sherman antitrust law.
"Has it proven effectual?" he asked.
HAS it destroyed a single trust? Under
fits operation have they not grown strong,
defiant and arrogant? Almost for seven
teen years the Sherman anti-trustlaw has
been upon oL; 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.. RooseveltS strenuous term have pass
ed with all the machinery of the gov
eminent at his back. with the great power
of the chief executive.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.. resident. it was stated by
the metropolitan press before l entered
this august body-flippantly, too-that be-
fore had been in the Senate six months
the trust magnateS would have me feed
ing out of their hands. l may share
I-,,H %
you today. by every god in the calendar.
that shall never eat from the hands or
Mammon.
Il want to say to you, sir. and to the
members of this Senate that you need not
lose any sleep about a corporation getting
its rights. You need not lose any sleep
about unjust Determinations 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 men 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;
eminent, our ALL for one bright smile
from the God of Mammon: What is
money, Mr.. President that it Is held SO
priceless? You cannot eat 1t, you cannot
wear it, your shroud has no pocket in 1t,
and St. Peter will not receive it for ad-
mission into the golden gates.
Holds Tariff Responsible.
when we look to the leading cause for
this wealth upon the part of these great
corporations. and the causes leading to
their formation, to the formation OF
trusts, we are compelled to go no further
than republican authority itself, and take
the sworn testimony of Mr.. Havemeyer,
the great sugar king, who has gone to his
reward. 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' statement
before the industrial commission that
1.-The tariff is the mother of trusts
Under the operation of this system
of government" he said, "flfty-one men
in the United States, multimillionaires. If
YOU please, have amassed "A total fortune
of 3,295, 600, 600 OF this fifty-one, John
leads with $600,OOo,000; Andrew Carnegie.
the steel king of the world, follows with
half this amount
The Secretary of Commerce and Labor
had calculated. he said. that all of the
property owned by S9,000,0OO American
citizens is s107, 900, 100000 SO that these
fifty-one citizens own one thirty-ffth of
the entire wealth of the nation
What an alarming concentration of
wealth; what an alarming concentration
of power" he declared. In this day and
time money is king; money is God. With
out it the doors of opportunity are closed,
the doors of society are shut Yea even
in some instances the doors of the church
do not welcome SO enthusiastically the
man in rags and tatters as the man with
millions.
Shall this condition be changed? How
shall this government be saved? One
way and one way only. that is to kill
destroy. annihilate the source of all this
evil-the trusts.
He explained that his bill would not
permit corporations to sell their products
IN one part of the country at a less
price than they sell such products in an
other part.
Would Provide Imprisonment.
What is needed today by the trust
magnates of this Union In order to make
them respect the law and obey its SOL
emn mandates he said, lis that they be
treated like ordinary felons; is, that the
strong arm of the law be laid against
them just as it would be against a horse
thief or any one else charged with crime.
Land them in the penitentiary; place
felon's stripes, the doxology of a mis-
spent life upon them. and you will see
The trusts are busted and the people will
get reilef- All, sir one trust masnate
In the penitentiary of the United States.
one trust magnate with felon's stripes.
one trust magnate as a living example
and object lesson that the law is greater
than any man, that the law is above and