Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-05-14
VIII. TAFT TONTRUSTS
CANDIDATE SHOULD POST UP ON
SUBJECT.
His Statement That to Extermjpste
Trusts Would be to Exterminatc
Business will Not Bear AnaIysiS.
Trust Regulation so Far Has Been
All Talk.

Secretary Taft is rapidly disclos-
ing his ignorance on the trust oues-
tion for to believe him ignorant is
more charitable than to believe that
he does not intend to interfere with
the trusts. although his language
would justify even this belief. He
takes Mr.. Bryan to task for favoring
the determination of trusts, and says
that to eXterminate trusts would be-
to externimate industry. The secre-
ary desires to regulate and control
the trusts. But has his party not
been regulating" and "cOntrolling'
for some eleven years now? And
have we not more trusts now than
we had when the regulating and con-
trolling began? The trust family is
a family big enough to satisfy the
presidents ideas of the size of FAM
lily, and the birth rate is greater than
the death rate. The administration
has commenced suit against a few
trusts, but not against many, and the
~ NoSS "iS otiii 6CAIlC CAOuSu W COIl0
up and eat out of the hand of the
administration. What has been done
in regard to the steel trust? Did it
not swallow up the Tennessee Coal &
Iron company? And was it not given
out that the swallowing was done
after the administration had been
consulted? Is the steel trust fighting
Secretary Taft? And what about the
international Harvester company?
Have the farmers secured any relief
yet? And what about the paper
trust? The steel trust has some
thing like a billion dollars of water
in its stock; it can afford to contrib
ute ten millions to the republican
campaign fund, because it can get
back many times that out of a re-
publican victory, and this is only one
trust out of the many. How can the
people hope to regulate or control
trusts when the trusts, by the cleo
ton of their favorite to office, are
able to control the government?
The determination of trusts is not
the determination of business. If,
for instance, a single corporation has
a monopoly of the production of a
necessary of life, and has ten fac
tories in different states for the pro-
duction of this particular article, the
determination of this trust would
mean the selling off of enough fac
tories to reduce the production of this
one corporation to a point where it
would no longer have a monopoly.
But this would not mean closing up
the factories. The people would stir
need the article and the article would
still have to be produced. But the
Independent factories coming into
competition with the original corpor-
ation-now no longer a monopoly
and the people at large would get the
benefit of the reduction. With a re-
ductiOn in price, the people could buy
more of the article produced, and this
would increase the demand for labor
and new factories would spring up or
factories would be enlarged.
With number of factories compet-
ing for laborers, the laborers' chance
of employment would be better, and
his wages would be higher. Then, too,
with a number of factories competing
for raw material, the price of raw
material would increase. In other
words, the determination of the trust,
instead Of destroying business, would
restore business to a healthy condi-
tion, while it reduced the price of the
product, increased the price of raw
and improved the condition
of the laboringman. Competition is
the natural condition, and the exter-
mination Of the trust would restore
competition. Monopoly is an unnat-
ural condition, and the republican
party has fostered monopoly and thus
built industry upon false basis to
the detriment of all of the parties
concerned except the monopolist, and
he has been demoralized by his un-
earned wealth while the rest of the
people have been victimized by the
practice of monopoly.
Secretary Taft ought to study the
trust question little more, or dis
cuss it less, for each speech reveals
his lack of familiarity with the sub
ject or his lack of sympathy with the
people at large.