The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-14
POWER OF MONOPOLY NOW
 DECISIVELY ENTHRONED.
Senator Owen Portrays the Results of 40 Years of Republican Control of Government and the
 Remedy Therefor.

l nent in the state and nation to ,the num- Der of 400 gathered tonight at the Hotel hnickerbocker, where the 16oth anniver- sary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson was celebrated at a dinner by the national l democratic club Illness prevented the at tendance of two of the promised speak CTS Senator Robert l., Taylor of Ten | nessee, whose toast unassigned and
 Edward M. Sheperd. who was to have | responded to Jefferson and the demo-
 cratic party"
 1 The speakers were United States Sem
 ator Owen of Oklahoma. United States
 Senator Simmons of North Carolina and
 President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton 1 university.
 Senator Owen. whose topic was "Thom- as Jefferson in Oklahoma" said in part:
 Thomas Jefferson was strongly op-
 posed to slavery, as he indicated in many l ways ] comment upon this because 1t 1 was a failure on the part of the demo-
 cratic party 10 develop and observe this one teaching of Jefferson. which resulted l in the retirement of that party from | national control during tne last hall cen ] tury.
 "'1he same spirit of American liberty l wf,ch determined that the slavery of the
 back man should not exist in this coun- l try will stand against the enslavement l or white men by monopolies. Monopoly ! means ultimate mastery on the one side
 and slavery on the other. The slaves l of monopoly Is not new In history Story of Monopoly. 'l recall a wonderful story of monop- oly recorded in Holy N .- tnat was once established in the valley of the Nile l Pharaoh and his captains stored all Of I the surplus cora of Egypt during the l seven years of plenty ard thereafter dAHng the seyen years of drouth they
 hai one of the richest monopolies known | to history. When the people had sold
 all their property and land to Pharaoh i in exchange for corn tlrey said Let us | and our children work for you for corn l and Pnaroah. being a benevolent man, l let em And on these mild terms Pha- l raoh allowed them to have a portion of 1 tie corn which they had raised with 1 their own hands, because Pharaoh was 1 a benevolent sn and had in Joseph Il l sagacious advisor
 Then Joseph said unto the people. Be | hold, I have bought you this day and all your lands for Pharaoh. Lo. here is seed for you and ye shall SOW the land Pharoah a Savior And they said. Thou hast saved our lives and so 1t came to pass that Pha- l raoh was the savior of the country And Joseph and Pharaoh have not
 
 1 called by their eaptlves the saviors of | the country I well recall a recent scene in which certain great men of enormous 1 business sagacity are reputed, during cer- l tain years of plenty. to have laid up for use enormous values in cash and cash credits and to have stored or made sub | iect to control nearly all of the available l cash and cash credits in New York. l Finally, there a repetition of the | days of Pharaoh-and the famine came and the price of cash went up. On Oeto- 1 Der 2f. 1907, the price of cash was out Of | sight, because there was a monopoly of l ash in Egypt and the Egyptians in Wall | street cried aloud and lifted their voices and said: 'wherefor. shall die before l thine eyes? Let ns have coin Pharaoh in Wall Street And at ? o'clock interest rates ran up | to 150 percentum; Union Pacific decline l 101a points in ten sales, and at 2:l5 D. m. l when the Egyptians were on the point of l falling dead To- the saviors of America, 1 Pharaoh and his captains said let them l have corn in exchange for their most 1 valued possessions And the Egyptians | lifted their voices and they said: Thou 1 hast saved our lives Who is there so 1 dull, so grossly ignortant as not to per- l ceve that monopoly means mastery on | the one side and slavery on the other? We have not in our country single BnaIdOn put we nave q nuIluTeu GHa1dOnS | and ten thousand captains of Pharaoh. | who have monopoly upon every line of commerce. Monopolies in everything
 from the cradle of the child to the cement
 and casket of the grave. Pharaoh has
 not been content with monopoly of corn. The same evil which tore the democratic party in twain in 1860 is tearing the re- publican party in twain in 1908 By natural processes. the political
 power of monopoly has become enthroned in the United States under forty years
 of republican administration. Pharaoh and his captains are in control and mill
 lions of Egyptians are praying for the
 privilege of working for a Pharaoh and
 his captains.
 Women Sacrificed.
 There are said to be over six million women driven by economic need out of
 the homes of America, outside of demo- cratic service. compelled to earn their
 daily bread in competition with the wages of man: hundreds of thousands of young and tender children are being sacrificed on the atars of Mammon under the grinding process of modern monopoly and the exact demands of corporation owners who cry for dividends. dividends. divi- dends' on watered stocks, of which only a fractional part Is honest capital entitled to interest
 ''The time has come in the United States when the great doctrine of equal ity should be recognized in our state craft
 Ut seems to me to be wise to destroy the great corporations which have been constructed in this country by our so- called captains of industry. we have a perfect right. however. to
 control these monopolies legally, morally.
 and it is a patriotic duty to do so. If
 they were so controlled 1t would give
 a stability to wages. we would hear no
 more of overproduction, nor of under consumption, but these enterprises would proceed upon rational lines and work for
 the welfare of all of the people of our common country"