The Mena weekly star., 1907-12-19
DAVIS SPEECH ON TRUSTS
Senate and Galleries Paid Strict At. tention to the Remarks of the
 Arkansas Senator.
HE DELIVERED 4 PASSIONATE ADDRESS
Mir. Davis Declared That if His Bill Was Enacted Into Law And Rigor ousIy Enforced the Trusts of the Country Would be kiIled-Points of His Measure.

Washington, Dec. II. - Senator lief. rerson Davis of Arkansas went 10 the capitol Wednesday carrying large dress suit case filled with documents he wished to have on his desk for reference during his speech on trusts He was at his deck almost an hour be fore noon and before the arrival of any other senator.
 When Senator Davis secured the floor and began his address all thd senators, both republicans and demo. crats, were in their seats. and they gave strict attention to his remarks. The galleries were filled with specta. tors.
 Senator Davis delivered passion. ate address. After declaring that his bill, vigorously enforced, would kill the trusts, with dramatic effect he challenged any senator to step for. ward and contest the issue with him.
 Senator Davis began by declaring that 1t was not his purpose to retain his seat in the senate until his hail shall have grown gray before taking his work actively in that body. He proposed to present quickly. fearless ly and as intelligently as he might some of the living, burning questions before the American people. It wal for that reason he had determined tc speak upon his bill to suppress trusts pools, combinations and conspiracies
 q undertake to say" he continued that If this bill is enacted into law, and faithfully and honestly executed trusts will be wiped from the face oi the earth and no longer will we feel their grinding and destroying grip on the arteries of trade and commerce."
 A domestic corporation found fix ing the price of any article would. by this bill, he said, have its charter for feited and a foreign corporation allowed to do business in the United States.
 "The trust evil" said Senator Day is. ''is a cancerous sore upon the body. polite just as upon the human body, The only remedy, the only success ful 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 fear of unsettling business, he continued.
 "Ah, Mir. President, it was stated f>@tA ,at, | ep. tered this august body, fiippantly too that before I had been in the senate six months the trust magnates would have me feeding out of their hands. I may share crumbs with a Lazarus, but I swear to you by every God in the calendar. that l shall never eat from the hands of Mammon."
 He recalled Mr. Havemeyer's state ment before the Industrial commis sion that ''the tariff is the mother oi trusts"
 Under the operation of this sys tenn of government" he said. fifty one men in the United States, multi millionaires, if you please, have amassed total fortunes of s3,205. .000. 900. Of this 51, John D. Rockefeller, the oil king of the world, leads with s600, 100000; Andrew Carnegie, the steel king of the world, follows with half this amount. The secretary Of commerce and labor has calculated, he said, all the property owned by S9,' 000,000 American citizens is S107.. 000,o00,00O so that these 51 citizens own one-thirty-fifth of the entire wealth of the nation.
 Senator Davis explained that his bill would not permit corporations to sell it's products in one part of the country at less price than they sell such products in another part
 "What is needed today by the trust magnates of this union in order to make them respect the law and obey its solemn mandates, he said, lis that they are treated like ordinary felons, that the strong arm of the law be laid against them just as 1t 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 misspent life upon them, and you will see the trusts are busted and the people will get relief today"
 He declared tfht while he is an alarmist, he is not an anarchist or socialist
 He denounced stock gambling and said he would do away with gambling in cotton. grain and the necessaries ot life.
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