The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-26
CoiZs Of 7he Octobus Ent0a
 Shucfuye Of GoUeyument
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against guilty trust magnates and off 1 cials. and demand the enactment of such | additional legislation as may be necessary to make it impossible for a private mos nopoy to exist in the United States. Among the additional remedies we spec fly three: First, law preventing a du- pllcation of directors among competing corporations; second, a license system which will, without abridging the right of each state to create corporations, or it's right to regulate as 1t will foreign 1 corporations doing business within It's limits, make it necessary for mahuIac- | turing or trading corporation engaged Ill interstate commerce to take out Iea- eral license before it shall be permitted l to control as much as 25 per cent of the product in which it deals, the license to protect the public from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such cor l porations of more than 50 per cent of the 1 total amount of any product consumed in the United States; and, third, law com- 1 polling such licensed corporations to sell to all purchasers in all parts of the coun- try on the same terms, after making due allowance for cost of transportation
 Here is plain, candid statement of the l party's position. There is no quibbling. no evasion, no ambiguity. A private mo- I nopoly is indefensible and intolerable. It 1 Is bad-bad in principle. and bad in prac-
 
 and no people should endure it. Our i party's position is entirely in harmony l with the position of Jefferson. With knowledge of human nature which few men have equalled and none surpassed and with extraordinary foresight, he ex- pressed unalterable opposition to every l form of private monopoly. The student of history will find that upon this sub 1 ject, as upon other subjects of govern ment, the great founder of the demo- cratic party took his position upon the 1 side of the whole people and against those who seek to make private use of government or strive to secure special privileges at the expense of the public. Remedy Presented.
 l have, in discussing the tariff question, presented one of our remedies, namely, the removal of the tariff from imports which compete with trust made goods This, we believe, would greatly lessen the extortion practiced by the trusts, and bring about the dissolution of many mo- nopolstic combines. But we are not sat isfied merely with the lessening of extor | ton or with the dissolution of oome or 1 the trusts.
 1 Because the private monopoly is inde- 1 fensble and intolerable, the democratic party favors its extermination. It pledges l itself to the vigorous enforcement of the 1 criminal law against trust magnates and 1 officials. It is impossible for the republi- can party to enforce the present criminal law against trust officials; these officials are intimately connected with the repub- lican party in the present campaign. Take for instance, the chairman of the republi- 1 can speakers committee, MT. Dupont of Delaware. He is the defendant in a suit which the government brought and Is now prosecuting. MT. Dupont is charged with violation of the antitrust law. Why lu1aC haI Ia nn he mittee and then be given control of the speaking part of the campaign? If you talk to a republican leader about peni- tentiary punishment for offenders, he favors fining the corporation on the ground that it is impossible to convict individuals, but when you urge fines you are told that fines are unjust to inno- cent stockholders. We favor both fine and imprisonment, but we think 1t is bet ter to prevent monopolies than to first authorize them to prey upon the public and then try to punish them for doing so MT. Taft favors control of trusts instead of extermination, but after years of ex- perience the people have learned that the trusts control the government.
 Our platform does not stop with the en- forcement of the law; 1t demands the enactment of such additional Legislation as may be necessary to make it impossi. ! ble for a private monopoly to exist in the United States.
 The democratic party does not content itself with definition of the wrong or | with a denunciation of it. It proceeds to outline remedies The first is a law preventing a duplication of directors among competing corporations. No one can object to this remedy unless he is in sympathy with the trusts, rather than with the people who are victmized by the trusts. There is no easier way oi
 
 board of directors serve for a number oi competing corporations. It is not neces. sary for corporations to enter into ar agreement for the restraint of trade ii the corporations can, without violating the law, reach the same end by elect ing the same directors.
 License System.
 The second remedy is one upon which l desire to dwell at some length We believe 1t to be a simple, complete and easily enforced remedy. As stated in the platform 1t is:
 "A license system which will. without abridging the right of each state to ere. A ate corporations, or its right to regulate as 1t will foreign corporations doing bus mess within its limits, make it neces- . . sary for a manufacturing or trading cor U poration engaged in interstate commerce D to take out a federal license before if
 
 as 25 per cent of the product in which 1t deals, the license to protect the pub lie from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such corporation of more than 50 per cent of the total amount of any product consumed in the United States"
 It will be noticed in the first place that care was taken by those who drew t the platform to provide that there should be no abridgment of the right of a state ! to create corporations, or of its right to = regulate it will foreign corporations doing business within its limits. This plan, therefore, does not in the least in- fringe upon the right of the states to protect their own people. It simply pro vides for the exercise by Congress of the power vested in 1t to regulate inter state commerce. As long a corpora ton confines itself to the state in which = it is created Congress cannot interfere , | with it; but when the corporation en gages in interstate commerce Congress is the only power that can regulate iti interstate business
 gn proposing the exercise of this power the democratic platform is not asserting