The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-27
THE LAST RESORT.

When the last defense of a criminal
monopoly is battered down, when il is
proposed 10 enact laws which shall
wipe out special privilege and restore
the rights of the individual In business
as well as in government, the monopo-
list takes refuge behind the cry that
. the proposed legislation is socialistic.
Ii is, therefore, most edifying to find
Mr.. Taft denouncing that part of the
Democratic platform regarding the
criminal trusts as Socialistic assuming
as his own the exact plea of the Grim
inal corporations as an excuse for Re
publican failure to exterminate mo-
nopoly.
Mr.. Bryan in his Indianapolis speech
on this point calls attention to pa
tent fact when he says that RepubH-
can policies have done more than any
thing else 10 promote socialism in this
country. The Socialist argues that gov
eminent ownership of the agencies of
production and distribution would lead
10 the ideal state. because it would
eliminate competition. do away with The
middleman and obviate the necessity
for such incidental costs as interest on
capital and profits to stockholders. The
trust argues that consolidation cheap
ems production and eliminates the I'M
necessary factors due to competition.
The Socialist regards the workings of
the trust as a perfect demonstration
of his theory, although under our gov
eminent the saving in cost goes to the
monopolist as additional profits.
In theory Socialism is the exact an
tipodes of Democracy. One would sub
merge the individual and individual
ism in the state; the other would exalt
the individual Socialism would make
the government everything; DemOc-
racy would proceed on the theory that
the individual and his welfare can be
developed only by a minimum of gov
ernmental activity. Nothing could be
further from Jeffersonian Democracy
than Socialism.
Either through ignorance or dishon-
esty. the Republicans seek TO identify
any effort 10 restore TO the indi-
vidual his proper place in the state
with the Socialists ideal. which
would sacrifice the man 20 the state.
Under the fostering protection of a Re-
publican tariff and Republican admin
istrations the trusts and criminal cor
porations have nearly reduced the in
dividual to a negative quantity.
The most perfectly organized of the
trusts, the Standard Oil company and
the steel trust. have made il prac-
tically impossible for any individual
or corporation To compete with them.
They control their special commodities
so completely that any competitor, in
the real sense, is wiped out by pred
atory attacks, by cut prices and all
the other devices of the commercial
highwayman. Controlling me situation
as they do, they make such prices as
please them for raw materials and
charge the maximum for the finished
product The public is as completely
ensIaved by them as if they held the
nation in serfdom.
Similarly the tobacco trust. Domin-
ating the field absolutely. 1t has driven
out or bought out competitors. IT has
exacted enormous profits on watered
securities and brought into abject sub
lection every small dealer who handles
its goods. At the same time IL has
reduced the price on the farmers to-
bacco output until Kentucky has its
night riders, enraged to desperation.
and the tobacco grower is driven either
into abandoning his only cash crop. or
into combination with criminal aggre-