Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-06-18

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traditions. In the process of develop
ment a point was reached where the
country was confronted by a situa-
ton more perilous than any it has
ever faced except in the Civil War
and we Republicans were, therefore,
obliged to deal with problems of the
most complex and difficult character.
Have Not Shrunk from Duty
To our honor, be it said, we have
| not shrunk from the task. Much has
been done-much, no doubt, still re-
mains to debut the great underly-
ing principles have been established
and upon them we can build, as me-
cessity arises carefully and deliber-
ately.
| have spoken of the seriousness
of the situation with which the coun-
try was confronted. It's gravity aal
| hardly be over-estimated. 1t grew
out of conditions and was the result
of forces beyond the control of men.
! Science and invention, the two great
! factors in this situation, have not
| only altered radically, human envf-
| ronment and our relations to nature,
but, in their application, they have
| revolutionized economic conditions.
These changed economic conditions
| have, in turn, affected profoundly
| society and politics. They have led,
among other things, to combinations
| of capital and labor on a scale and
| with power never before witnessed
They have opened the way to accu-
! mutations Of wealth in masses be-
yond the dreams of avarice and never
before contemplated by men.
The social and political problems
thus created, are wholly new. 1t is
a fallacy to suppose that because the
elements are old the problem itself
must, therefore, differ only in degree
from those which have gone before.
The elements may be old but the
problem presented by a change in
the proportion of the elements may
be, and, in this case is, entirely new.
Dealing With Trusts.
Great individual fortunes and rich
men are, it is true, as old as recorded
history. Nearly two thousand years
ago the tax farmers of Rome formed
q Trust" for their own profit and
| protection; the English people, three
centuries ago, revoIted against the
patents and fnonopolies granted by
| Elizabeth and James to their court
iers and monopolists, forestallers and
spectators in the necessities of life
were curse in our revolution and
bitterly denounced by Washington.
4 Yet, it is none the less true that the
same things today present questions
different in kind as well as in de-
gree from their predecessors.
It is the huge size of private for
tunes, the vast extent and power of
modern combinations Of capital,
made possible by present conditions,
which have brought upon us, in these
later years, problems portentous in
| their possibilities, and threatening,
not only our social and political vel
fare, but even our personal freedom,
if they are not boldly met and wisely
| solved.
| The great body of the American
| people, neither very rich nor very
poor, the honest, the thrifty, the
hardWorking, the men and women
who earn and save, have no base
envy-no fanatic hatred of wealth,
whether individual or corporate, if it
has been honestly gained and is wise
ly and generously employed with a
sense of responsibility to the public.
But this great body OF our people by
habit and instinct alike, wisely con-
servative, these people, who are the
bone and sinew of our country and
| upon whom its fortunes and its safe
ty rest, began to observe, with deep
alarm, the recent manifestations Of
the new economic conditions. More
and more they came to believe that
these vast fortunes and these huge
combinations Of capital were formed
and built up by tortuous and dishon-
est means and through a synical dis
regard Of the very laws which the
mass Of the people were compelled to
obey. They began to fear that POI
litica1 power was being reft from
their hands and put into the posses
sion Of the money holders. that their
dearest rights we're in danger, that
their hopes Of success and advance
| ment were cut off by business sys-
TENS which they could not under
stand but which the Individual was
sacrificed and held down.
To those who looked beneath the
surface an ominous unrest was APP
parent. The violent counsels OF vio-
lent men, who aimed at the destruc-
i fiar1 ~ Y,pors,,fxy fI,n i, -,