Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-02-03

the necessary alterations to manutac-
ture such supplies in a remarkably
short space Of time. By enlarging the
government plants and operating them
in time of peace, the government could
have on hand sufficient ammunition,
guns, and SO forth, to equip the most
powerful army ever organized and
keep it in the field long time after
private plants, not engaged in the
manufacture of war materials, would
have been able to reOrganlZe their
shops and be turning out ammunition
and other supplies. In the event that
private manufacturers should not re-
spond to the necessity of the occasion,
the government could itself take over
such industrial plants as it might
| need, just as England has done.
The policy of taking profit out OF
war and preparation for war, by hay
ing the government manufacture its
own battleships, armor, ammunition,
and so forth, is non-partisan propo-
sition: and there are number Of re-
| publican members working for gov
eminent manufacture just as there are
democrats.
Now, I want to go a little further
| into the patriotism of some Of the
firms that have a monopoly Of the
manufacture Of war materials in this
country and to take up particularly
the singleness of the patriotism of the
Du Pont Powder company.
! AS to the Du Pont powder trust, it
has practically always had a monop-
| oily of the sale of powder to the gov
eminent of the United States. They
themselves claim that they have been
selling powder to the United States
ever since the Civil war. l want to
show you how patriotic the Du Pont
powder trust has been in the past to
/ the government Of the United States,
and what l will read is from the rec
ords of the circuit court of the United
| States | sent over to the congress
| sional library and got the official rec
ords of the circuit court of the United
| States, showing evidence used by the
government in it's suit against the Du
Pont powder trust.
For great many years, until the
| government began to erect its own
| factories, the Du Pont company had
| the government wholly at its mercy.
/ That was the situation, unless the
| United States government should have
sent abroad in order to buy its pow
der So what the Du Pont company
| did was to go into an agreement with
| foreign manufacturers by which it was
agreed that if the United States gov
| eminent should try to buy powder
from the powder concerns of one OF
the foreign countries, the powder max
ers in that country were bound by the
terms Of this agreement to first write
to the Du Pont Powder company in
the Du Points had submitted. Then
they were bound not to submit any
lower price. And if one OF the for
eign governments should try to es-
cape from their local powder trust and
write to the Du Points, the Du Points
were bound first to write to the pow
der trusts in those countries and find
what bid they had put in, and not sub
NIT lower one.
| Now, l am going to read to you from
this contract which was placed in the
records of the supreme court. l will
not ask you to take my word for It.
but the words of the contract itself
Here are two paragraphs in the
world agreement entered into in 1897
which agreement was used by the gov
eminent in its suit against the Du
Pont trust:
Whenever the American factories
receive an inquiry for any government
other than their own, either directly or
indirectly, they are to communicate
with the European factories through
the chairman appointed, as herein
after set forth, and by that means to
ascertain the price at which the Euro
pean factories are quoting or have
fixed, and they shall be bound not to
quote or sell at any lower figure than
the price at which the European fac
tories are quoting or have fixed
Should the European factories receive
an inquiry from the government OF
the United States of North America
or decide to quote for delivery for
that government, either directly or in
directly, they shall first in like man
ner ascertain the price quoted or fixed
by the American factories and shall
be bound not to quote or sell below
that figure.
1.-The American factories are to alb
stain from manufacturing, selling, OF
quoting, directly or indirectly, in OF
for consumption in any Of the Euro
pean territory, and the Europeans are
to abstain in like manner from manu-,
fucturing, selling, or quoting, directly
or indirectly, in or for consumption In
any of the countries of the American
territory. With regard to the syndf'
Gated territory, neither party is tc
erect works there, except by a mutua
understanding and the trade there is
to be carried on for joint account in
the manner hereinafter defined"
ITO be Continued.)
i kiel Canal for Britain.