The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-11-16

smaller concerns until the business In
terests Will reach an alarming stand
81 ild.rew the audience until an in
tensity OF feeling held them breath
less. He strongly urged that the bat,
tie be on at once. as the situation l9
more alarming han can be realized
until the great crash comes.
He urged the interested members
OF the audience TO write TO him at
Madison. Wiss, for the little book OF
facts which he had at the expense OF
much time and labor complied. giving
positive proof and figures in support
of what he had said
His address in part, follows
When the great Declaration of In
dependence was framed, those men
who affixed their signatures to 1t
knew they were putting halter
around their necks II It failed its pur-
pose. They were liberty-lovinG men
and by their declarations wanted all
men TO be free and equal. The half
starved, half-froZen men who bivou-
acked at Valley Forge were fighting
for pure, representative government.
When the outcome of the great strug-
gle had been made certain, the citlo
zens Of the United States were endow-
ed with the privilege OF ballotting for
those representatives who would make
the laws by which all men would be
free and equal For some years the
government was pure and clean, but
how is 1t now? | am going to call two
witnesses, members of the Supreme
Court of the United States. A few
years ago, these men at different
times, realizing the great struggle
which was then forming, were request
ed 10 address the graduating law
classes OF leading universities of the
east Both spoke along the same lines
the moral obligation of the lawyer
as a lawmaker.' They advised the
young lawyers, some of whom were
to become statesmen, of the coming
battle with corporate influence and
corporate greed and what their duties
would be. Developments since have
shown that these justices of the high
est judicial tribunal OF the world were
farsighted. Both impressed upon tho
young students that bribery OF rep.
resentatiYes of the people would he.
come universal and that men who
were elected 10 legislative Offices
would so into Office with the expecta-
ton, IL not the understanding, that
they would obey the mandates of the
great corporations. Developments
have since shown these statements
TO be correct. Pressure Is brought to
bear In many ways. A unique ey-
ample might be found in the case OF
q legislator of Montana who shortly
after his election deposited $4,000 in
the bank when his acquaintances
knew he was almost pauper When
pressed for an explanation he said
that he had gone to bed with his tran
som open and when he awolie in the
morning he found the money on tho
floor II a lawmaker wants to keep
his reputation clean nowadays he
might profit by this incident and nov
er go to bed with his tranSom open.
For 75 or so years the government Of
this country remained pure. There
have been three cras of CONNER
csal history. First. individual and
partnership. second. corporations,
and third. the uniting together of
corporations engaged in every line
of business of Importance forming
the law defying trust of which this
country must rid itself.
CAS- early as 1871 Charles Francis
II
cific railroad company, saw that the
country would have a new power to
combat for which our language then
had no name. Other statesmen. who
had loftier and farseeing vision than
the ordinary politician, saw it Among
these were Presidents Lincoln and
Garfield, Three centuries ago the
powers of the trusts were eXerted in
England for the same purpose as the
organization here. TO suppress compe-
tition, but the effort had the life
choked out OF it by stringent criminal
laws. John Sherman OF Ohio, In my
opinion the ablest statesman OF his
time, later on saw it and introduced
measure known as the Sherman
Antitrust law of which excerpts
have been adopted by the legislative
bodies of nearly every state in the |
union.
In Wisconsin while | was governor |
OF the state, the railroads doing bus. |
mess there were made to file q cor |
rect return OF the value OF their hold |
ingS and we now have the best rail |
road commission in the country. The |
Southern Pacific Railroad company |
says that the cost OF their trackagc is |
$65.O00 mile. You could tear tho |
whole. system up Immediately and re |
build II at cost of $4,000 a mile. |
] am told that you have no |
railroad commission in this state.
why | do not know
Several years ago started an In
vestigation of the methods of tho !
great combines and trusts. / OBJ
tanned a book known as the Direct |
ory OF Directors of Banks |
from most of tho larger cit |
les Of the east. had a
list Of the directors of every big en-
terprise compiled and hung them on
the walls of my office. / went over
the list carefully and found that there
was frequent recurrence Of names.
BY the process of elimination | found
that 81 men controlled every big en-.
terprise in the country-tractional, |
industrial and financial made an
other revision and found such names
as Charles Dawes. of Chicago and