The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-09-10

there Is no sincerity in this because
Taft does not insist that the contribu-
tions shall be made public before the
election. My own opinion is that
Bryan is raising a great dust about
nothing.
This is simply a scheme to humbug
the American people by the profession
of virtue, which neither party pos
sesses. Does any one imagine that
the candidates supported by Tammany
hall would lose anything in the way of
contributions because Murphy's, Ry-
ans or Ingalls, contributions had to
be divided into hundred fractions
before it could be kept secret.
The real thing which the public has
right to know is not SO much who
contributes, which they never can
know, as how the money is expended
and upon this subject neither Mr..
Bryan or his party proposes one word
of enlightenment.
Question Is of Trusts.
The overshadowing issue in this
campaign, as the democrats tell us, is
the duty of freeing the government
from the grip of those who have made
it business asset OF the favor seeking
corporation. If this be true, the chief
interest will center around the
great question of the trusts.
In regard to this question the Den
as much as % per cent of the product
eral license for corporations doing
an interstate business, and controlling
os much as % per cent of the product
in which it deals. The license is to
prohibit the control of more than 90
per cent of the product. 1t is safe to
say that "eye hath not seen, neither
hath ear heard, neither hath it entered
into the heart of man to conceive"
crazier project for the abolition Of the
trusts. By what provision of omni-
scient insight is it to be determined
when the corporation controls % per
cent of the products of the industry
in which it is engaged. To settle that
would require a special census all to
itself. Thousands and perhaps mil
lions of dollars would be necessary
for the investigation Of the prelimin-
airy question, whether given corpor-
alton ought to be required to take out
license, and then when it takes out
license, what good is done? The Ii
cense prohibits the control of more
than so per cent of the total amount OF
any product consumed in the United
States. Another census bureau would
have to be established to ascertain
when that point is reached. The H.
cense corporations are oscillate be-
tween % per cent and so per cent. But
suppose they go too far and reach 80
or 60 per cent, what can you do then!
Why you can dissolve the corporation
just as you can under the Sherman
law and it will then divide into it's
constituent parts, and the owners and
directors will organize new corpor-
with their wives, brothers, children,
personal friends and business asso-
ciates. who will start a competing
concern and carry on the business
and Cypress the public just as before.
This is the most elaborate and ex-
pensive scheme for accomplishing
nothing which has ever found entrance
into the brain Of any human being.
This is Bryan's platform.
On the other hand Taft will continue
to carry out the policy of Roosevelt.
That policy is well known; it Is gov
eminent regulation of these extensive
industries rather than humiliation
upon the one hand Or government
ownership upon the other. Such a
policy is reasonable; it has already
been tried in respect to the national
banks; it is being tried in respect to
railroads and it is bound to be tried
hereafter in respect to other great
trusts which monopolize business. 1t
does not call for the destruction of
property or industry, but simply for
reformationn of abuses. The repub-
lican platform represents essential
sanity and practical good sense as
contrasted with the vaporings Of a
man and a party whose career has
consisted wholly in idle imaginings
and not in the record of accomplished
fact
About County Option.
The republican state platform de
mands county local option. Many not
t only among the ranks Of the radical
! temperance men, but among those OF
us who are not ourselves abstainers
believe that this furnishes the wisest
and most practical temperance meas
/ ure. now attainable-far more practi
cal than state prohibition itself-foI
the best temperance measure is the
strongest law which is capable of en-
! forcement. State prohibition is not Of
this class-it will be enforced in the
counties which desire it. it will be ut
terly nugatory in those which do moi
desire it and in those places the dis
regard for this law will breed con
tempt for every other law and thu:
undermine the fabric of society. Fol
it is the county mot the state, the
township or the ward which is the
political unit for the enforcement o
the law. 1t is the county commission
ers who must grant or refuse the Ii
cense, it is the county prosecutor wht
prose cutes for the violation of thu
law; the grand jury which indicts ant
the petit jury which convicts or &C