The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-02-05
.CUMN|NS WANTS
ANT|-TRUST LAW
Iowa Senator Tells Corporation
Magnates That Sherman
Act Is Useless.
HE ASSERTS M0N0P0LIES
MUST BE REGULATED
He Blames the Government, but
Not the Men Who Improved
Opportunities.
Ry Jeased Wire TO The Tribune

BY Leased Wire to The Tribune
NEW YORK, Feb. Before an audi
ence gathered in the Republican club to-
day, which included many men of promi-
ncnce I'm railroad and other corporations.
Senator Albert Il. Cummns of Iowa. in
a speech which at its end found every
man present standing on his feet and
cheering wildly. declared that the Sher-
man antitrust act had signally failed
to encourage competition and control
monopollcs and that the country was
rapidly reaching the point where a choice
might have TO be made between selfish
monopoly and government cooperation.
And j tell you that when the Ameri-
can people are confronted with selfish
monoDolistic institutions on the one side
and government cooperation on the other
] say the people Will take Socialism," he
declared.
You've got to look the question
dcncy OF the times is toward cooperat ton
and cooperation has had a tendency to
concentrate wealth in the hands of a
few ii is selfish cooperation, cooperation
of the classes. The alternative remedies
are to restore competition TO Its full
vigor, or to establish a tribunal which
must fix prices for everything from a
yard OF flannel TO a bushcl of wheat"
Senator Cummns said that anything
congress can do toward bettering the dis
tribution OF wealth must be done under
the power 10 regulate commerce be-
tween the states.
Mind you, l don't believe in an equal
distribution OF wealth." he said. II do
believe In inequality of fortunes. ! fear
II there was equality OF wealth we would
have entered upon the day OF our deca
dence, for il is the hope and belief that
we rise, can conquer obstacles that
makes us the nation that We are. | am
only insisting on fair chance for every
man 10 set his foot on the lowest rung
OF the ladder and TO rise TO the highest
heights, and this must be done under the
power to regulate commerce between the
states.
"It IS far from my purpose to discuss
the initiative and referendum, yet ! am
for both of them And the best proof
that they are needed is that IL took nina
years TO get congress 10 amend the inter-
state commerce act. Does anyone sup
pose for moment that Ii the people
could initiate legislation it would have
taken that long n time?
There Is one thing j believe should
be done at once. II relates to the capt.
talizat!on OF railroads. l won't harrow
your feelings by reciting the subject OF
the capitalization of the railroads OF the
United States 1t is a painful one TO
contemplate. Mind you. l am not CEN
surinG the men who issued the stocks
and bonds. | am censuring the govern
ment for its inaction, Those who took
them cannot be blamed | might have
done the same thing myself.
II say that the capitalization OF the
roads today represents billions OF dollars
more than the money from independent
sources invested in those properties. We
States over those corporations that
In future there shall not be n capitali-
zation that does not represent actual
honest investment"