Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1908-05-22
Watterson on Bryan.

LII an editorial printed In the Louis
vile CourierJournal and entitled
The Political Outlook. Henry Wat
Iterson says: 9"The time has passed
for some one else,' Mr. Bryan retain
ing the field; it is too late for some
one else,' the. conditions what they ar
and confess that l am in sympathy
with Mr.. Bryan in refusing to be
ruled off the track by a group of
New York politicians, whose motives
are, to say the least of them, suspi.
.cieus,p which will. support. no ticket
except one framed a by themselves
and which do not agree with one an.
other touching the ticket to be named
Whatever his claims may be, or may
not be, Mr.. Bryan has his rights, and
no thoughtful man can, or will say,
that he can not be elected, the ipse
dixit equally of the unthinking, the
interested and the prejudiced to the
contrary being of nooweight what.
ever. But among democrats who
know why they are democrats, there
ought to be other and higher con.
siderations; some arrest of the break
neck speed on the highway toward
the Capitalization Of power some real
and not spurious purpose toward tar.
iff reform; some sure separation Of
the politics of the country from its
partnership with high finance and the
high financiers; some breaking up Of
groups and rings, Of wheels inside
wheels, always. involved by q change
of parties, even when made only for
the sake of change. The Courier.
Journal is a democrat, not a repub-
lican, and standing by the sincerity
Of its record, it will support the
ticket to be headed by Mr.. Bryan,
as actively and as earnestly as II 1t
and opinion"
Secretary Taft on Trusts.
Secretary Taft is rapidly disclosing
his ignorance on the trust question.
for to believe him ignorant is more
charitable than to believe that he
does not intend to interefere with the
trusts, although his language .woult
Justify even this belief. He takes
Mr.. Bryan to task for fayoring the
determination Of trusts and says that
to exterminate trusts would be to ex
terminate industry. The Secretary
desires to regulate and control the
trusts. But has his party not beer
regulating" and controlling for
some eleven years now?| And hav,
We not more trusts now than we hat
when the regulating and controlling
began? The trust family is a famil,
big enough to satisfy the PRESIDENT
ideas Of the size of a family, and thu
birth rate is greater than the dealt
rate. The administration has com
menced suit against a few trusts, bu
not against many, and the trusts ar,
still. gentle enough to come up an,
eat out of the hand of the admins
tration. What has been done In re
gard to the steel trust? Did it no
swallow up the Tennessee Coal 4
Iron company? And was it not givel
out that the swallowing was don
after the administration had bee
consulted? Is the steel trust fight
ing Secretary Taft? And what abou
the International Harvester company
Have the farmers secured any relie
yet? And what about the pape
trust? The steel trust has somethin
like a billion dollars of water In 1t
stock; it can afford to contribute To
millions to the republican campaig
fund, because 1t can get back man
times that out Of a republica
victory, and this is only one trust OF
Of the many. How can the peopl
hope to regulate or control trust
when the trusts by the election {
their fayorite to office, are able
control the government?
The determination of trusts Is n,
the determination of business.
. for instance, a single corporation hi
a monopoly Of the production Of
necessary Of life, and has ten IA
tories In different states for the pr
( duction Of this particular article, Il
, determination Of this trust wou
mean the selling off Of enough IA
, tories to reduce the production
: this one corporation to a point :whe
1t would no longer have a mono
J oily. But this would not mean I
:. closing up Of the factories. The ps
!. pie would still need the article Al
the article would still have to
! produced. But the Independent 4,
! tories are coming into competiti
u with the original corporations
no longer a monopoly would