The Topeka state journal., 1908-09-24


no oiniculty in getting me to repre-
ssHt ~ ar1ght. for my sole anxiety is
lilat the people of the country shall
Understand this attitude clearly and
ot.ats men condemn it as it should be
conoemned. You say that you have
advocated more radical measures
Iagalnst private monopolies than either
or my party associates have been
wiring to undertake. You. have in
tdeed advocated measures that sound
more radical but they have the nrin,e
idefect that in practice they would not
work. 1 should not. in. this letter to
you, discuss your attitude on this
question IL you did not yourself bring
II up; but as you have brought it up,
L answer you that in my judgment the
/ measures you advocate would be who'll
! ly 1neffective in curing a single evil
and so far as they had any effect at
All, would merely throw the entire
| business of the country into homeless
ana utter confusion. / put Mr.. Taft's
deeds against your words. / ask that
| Mr. Taft be judged by all his deeds,
Tor he wishes none of them forgotten
ask that you be judged both by the
words you wish remembered, and by
the words that seemingly you and your
party now desire to have forgotten 1
ask that your present plans for reg
ulatinS the trusts be judged in con-
nection with your past utterances
that you did not believe in their regu-
again in connection with your past ut
terances to the effect that only gov
ernment ownership by q complicated
national and state system of railroads
would avail; and again by your past
utterances when you proposed to REM
edy all the suffering OF the people by
g deprecated currency. For several
| years now ] have been steadfastly
| fighting to secure thorough going and
far-reaching control in the interest of
the public over the great business
! combinations which do an interstate
business. In this effort I have been as
| much hampered by the extremists.
we'll meaning or otherwise, who de-
manded visionary and impracticable
radicalism, as by those other extre-
for the reactionary refusal to remedy
any grievance, One side, the side on
which l am obliged to say you have
placed yourself. has shown itself to be
just as much the enemy of progress as
the other. l hold it entirely natural
for any great law-defying corporation
to wish to see you placed in the presi-
dency rather than Mr.. Taft. Your
plans to put a stop to the abuses of
these corporations are wholly CHM
ericaI; how cf1inerical your last plan
is you will yourself see if you read
Governor HugheS's speech at Youngs-
town, Ohio.
What Hughes Said.
ITO recall to your mind what Gov
ernor Hughes said 1 quote as follows:
when we consider those (proposed)
remedies (of Mr.. Bryan against the
trusts), we find ourselves journeying in
a land of dreams Again the magician
of 1896 waves his wand. At a stroke
difficulties disappear and the complex
problems of modern business are for
gotten in the fascination of the simple
panacea. The most important pro-
posal of Mr.. Bryan is that any manu-
featuring or trading corporation en-
gagged in interstate commerce shall be
required to take out a federal license
before it shall be permitted to control
as much as twenty-five per cent of the
product in which it deals.
"And no corporation shall be per-
mitted to control more than fifty per
cent of the total amount of any product
consumed in the United States"
1T might be interesting to inquire
what is the meaning of ANY product
consumed in the United States" Does
1t refer to class of commodities? And.
If so, how shall the classes be defined.
Or does it refer to each separate articlf
of commerce? And, II so, what account
does this proposal take of the skill and
initiative of manufacturers who have
built up. a more or less exclusive trade
In particular articles often protected by
trade marks, although in most active
competition with other articles de-
signed for the same general purpose
and seeking the same market? In
desire to correct the evils of business
are we to place an embargo upon hon.
est endeavor whose activity present
none of the abuses requiring remediese
And, if not, what statutory definitions
shall be found to be adequate and just
If we lay down our proposition in terms
of volume or ratio of business and not
in terms of right and wrong? If we
adopt Mr.. Bryan's proposal to what
period of production is the proposition
for a month to be considered? Or is
the average production for year to be
taken? And what system shall be de-
vised by which suitable information
may be furnished in the nature of dam
ger signals along the routes of trade so
that the manufacturer may know when
he is about to exceed the prescribed
ratio? He may justly be required to
govern his own conduct, but how shall
he be apprised of the conduct of others
upon which is to depend his guilt or
innocence?'
Let us repeat that no law defying-
corporation has anything to fear from
YOU save what IL Will suffer in the
general paralysis of business which
any attempt on your part to reduce
to practice what you have advocated
would bring.
Paralysis would affect the wage
workers. the farmer, the small busi- |
ness man more than it would affect |
the great business man, but it would.
affect the latter, too. Therefore, 1 |
hope and believe that all far sighted |
citizens who wish to see this country |
prosper in material things will sup
port Mr.. Taft. But above all I ask |
for support for him because he stands |
for the moral uplift of the nation, be- |