HD
2*7tt ‘
N27
*960
(Cavnell Ifaiwmtg ptmwg
THE GIFT OF
AfA-
Aj.‘f.j...i±.y>?................x.±ldmi.Cornell University Library
HD2711 .N27 1900
Official report.
1924 030 064 335
olin
HAK&11S5
J J \	\
2 5 ^§1

The date‘Shows when this volume was^ taken.
HOME USE RULES.
All Books subject to Recall.
Books not needed
for instruction or re-
. search are returnable
& within 4 weeks.
Volumes of periodi-
cals and of pamphlets
are held in the library
as much as possible.
Jfor special purposes
they are given out for
a limited time.
.Borrowers should
not use their library
privileges for the bene-
fit of other persons.
Books not needed
during recess periods
should be returned to
^ urn during borrow-
r’s absence, if wanted.
Books needed by
more than one person
are held on the reserve
list.
Books of special
value and gift books,
when the giver wishes
it, are not allowed to
circulate.
Marking books strictly for-
bidden.
Readers are asked
to report all cases Of
books marked or muti-
lated.
It#
31924030064335OFFICIAL REPORT
Anti-Trust Conference
HELD
FEBRUARY 12, 13, 14, 1900
IN
CENTRAL MUSIC HALL
CHICAGO-.
I'UIIl.ISHERS,
llaPU
Cko. S. Bowen & Son, 344 Unity Building, Chicago.IMPORTANT ECONOMIC AND REFORM
PUBLICATIONS.
George S. Bowen & Son, Unity Building, Chicago.
The Official Report of the National Anti-Trust Conference,
held in Chicago, Feb. 12, 13 and 14.	586 pages. 100 portraits.
Contains all speeches, papers, discussions at the Conference, arid
the notable addresses at the great Auditorium mass meeting. A
desirable souvenir. The portraits of distinguished delegates well
worth cost of Report. Invaluable to students, teachers and
public speakers. Cloth, $1.00. Paper.............................ga‘
Live Questions. Speeches, Papers and Discussions of the Great
Issues of Today. Ex-Gov. Altgeld. 1009 pages. Cloth, $2.50.
Half Morocco .................................................. 350
Trusts or Competition. Gen. A. B. Nettleton. 304 pages. Both
sides of the great question in Business, Law and Politics. Cloth,
$1.00.	Paper....................................................50
Official Report Chicago Conference on Trusts, Chicago, Sept.
13-16,	’99. Paper...............................................50
To What Are Trusts Leading? James B. Smiley. 64 pages... .15
The Coming Democracy. Orlando J. Smith. 162 pages. “A
clear, compact and vigorous statement.” Cloth, $1.00. Paper. .	.50
Imperialism vs. the Bible, the Constitution, and the Declara-
tion of Independence; or the Peril of the Republic. Prof.
Percy T. Magan. 195 pages. Paper...........................25
A Short View of Great Questions. “If a Man Die Shall He
Live Again?” Creation and Annihilation are Unknown to Sci-
ence.	Orlando J. Smith.	Cloth, 50c. Paper......................25
Between Caesar and Jesus. Eight lectures. Prof. Geo. D. Her-
ron. 270 pages. Cloth............................................ .75Important Economic and Reform Publications.
Financial Catechism. /. W. Wilson. Over two millions sold.
A new and up-to-date edition just ready. 25c per doz.; per
100, $1.50; per 1,000, $10.00; single copy....................10
Science of Money, Deduced from Its History. Alexander Del
Mar. 229	pages.	Cloth.................................. 1.00
History of Monetary Systems. Modern. Various States. Del
Mar. 444	pages.	Cloth.................................... 2.00
History of Money in America. Alex• Del Mar. From the Dis-
covery to the Foundation of the American Constitution. 8vo.,
pp. 200-	Cloth.............................................. 1.50
Barbara Villiers ; A History of Monetary Crimes from B. C. 200
to A. D. 1900. Del Mar. Cloth...................................75
History of Monetary Crimes, by Alex. Del Mar. Illustrated,
8vo, pp. no; cloth..............................................75
The Beneficent Effects of Silver Money During the 17TH
Century, by Alex. Del Mar', 8vo. pamphlet; 7th ed...............10
Money, Banks, Panics and Prosperity. Hon. W. H. Clagett.
Brief, logical and comprehensive.	Paper.........................25
The Black Crime of '93. J. W. Sclmckers, Private Secretary
to Salmon P. Chase. The true story of the New York National
Bank Presidents’ conspiracy against Honest Commerce and In-
dustry. A new edition of this twice-suppressed eye-opener.
$1.00 per 25 copies; $3.00 per 100 copies; $20.00 per 1,000
copies; single copy ............................................10
National Platforms of All Parties Since 1789. Raynolds.
Paper ........................................................  25
Bell’s Industrial Financial System. In two parts. Part I.—
Guide to Municipal Ownership; Ways and Means for Construct-
ing Municipal Property and Public Roads Absolutely Free from
Debt, on the Plan of National Banking Without the Burden of
Interest. Part II.—The New Idea. National Ownership, the
Plan that will Give us Perpetual Prosperity and a Perpetual
Money System. Each, 15 cents; both..............................25
Voter’s Guide. Treats on Silver and Gold and Government
Issue of Money as Against Gold, Bonds and Bank-Notes.
Nearly half million sold in three months. Price................10
Book of Trusts. Valuable compilation. ILL. Chaffee. 64 pages. .10
Pauperizing the Rich. A. J. Ferris. Cloth ..................... 1.25
People and Property.	Jennings. 109 pages. Cloth.................50
Monetary History, 1850-1896. Geo. H. Shibley. 743 pages.
Cloth, $1.50. Paper	............................................50
Wealth Against Commonwealth. Henry D. Lloyd. “As much
an epoch-making book as "Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’’ 563 pages.
Cloth ...................................................... 1.00Important Economic and Reform Publications.
A Country Without Strikes, as Seen in New Zealand. Henry
D. Lloyd. 180 pages. Cloth................................. 1.00
Labor Copartnership. Henry D. Lloyd. 343 pages. Cloth......... 1.00
Civilization and Decay. Brooks Adams.......................... 2.00
The Rights of Woman. Carl Heinzen................................50
Even as You and I. Parables—True Life. By Bolton Hall. Con-
taining, in addition to thirty-two parables, an account of Tols-
toy’s philosophy ................................................75
Things as They Are. By Bolton Hall, with introduction by
George D. Herron. Cloth, gilt top, 293 pages............... 1.25
Wm. McKinley and the G. O. P. Under the X-Ray. By a Free
Lance in Politics. “For There Is Nothing Hid That Shall Not
be Manifested.”—St. Mark, iv. chap. 22 v. Just out; a good
thing. 344 pages. Paper..........................................50
The Enslavement and Emancipation of the People. J. B.
Hcrboldshimcr. Cloth..........................................75
The Dollar or the Man. The issue of today. Fifty cartoons
on the economic problems of our time. By Homer Davenport.
Introduction by Horace L. Traubel............................. 1.00
Anti-Trust Zephyrs. Songs and Recitations of the Twentieth
Century. Walter Martin, “The	Producer.”......................25
The United States Financial Law of March 4, 1900, with an
Appeal for its Re-investigation. John A. Grier................25
Liberty, Independence and Self Government. Everett Guy
Ballard. Invaluable for reference.	Cloth, $1.00. Paper........50
The Philippines and the Purpose. A. IV. Thomas. Facts
Concerning the Philippines and the Acts of the Administration
in Relation Thereto, as Officially Transmitted by the President
to Congress—Proving the Purpose of Imperialism..................35
Restraint of Trade. William Hudson Harper. A Bi-Partisan
Handbook on Trusts. Facts and Theory from Every Point of
View. 384 pages. Paper...........................................50
The National Watchman. /. M. Devine. Editor. The best
Political Paper Printed. Per year.......................... 1.00
The National Rural. 7. W. Wilson, Editor. A high-class agri-
cultural and family magazine, “Frankly Discussing Public Ques-
tions from the Standpoint and in the Interest of the American
Farmer,” Its Price Tables and Weekly Trade and Price Re-
view are unexcelled. Published weekly. Five subscriptions for
$3.00. Single subscriptions, per year................................. 1.00
The Social Forum. John W. Leonard, Editor. A monthly mag-
azine Devoted to Social Reform and Applied Christianity....................50
The Penny Magazine. George Francis Train, Editor. Yearly.. .10
Appeal to Reason, Socialistic. /. A. Wayland, Editor.........................50Important Economic and Reform Publications.
The Public, Ablest Exponent of Single Tax. Louis F. Post, Ed-
itor. Yearly ................................................. I.oo
The American. Populist. Wharton Barker, Editor. Yearly.... I.oo
The Philistine. Elbert Hubbard, Chief Incendiary. It Sparkles,
Illumines, Vitalizes. In Literature Unique. Morally Dynamic,
Intellectually Irresistible. Yearly........................... i.oo
Every voter should realize the importance of a clear understanding
of the great questions now confronting the people in this country. To
that end the reading of sound literature is the true educational idea.
Any of the books indicated herein will be mailed to any address, charges
prepaid, on receipt of the published price. The trade supplied on the
best terms.
GEORGE S. BOWEN & SON
Publishers and Dealers in
Economic and Reform Books
344 Unity Building, Chicago‘ ‘ Salus Populi Suprema Est Lex ''
Official D irectory
of the
American Anti-Trust League
NATIONAL OFFICE
1229 Pennsylvania Ave., Third Floor
Washington, D. C.
National Officers
M. L. Lockwood, National President
H. B. Martin, National Secretary Pro Tem
Wm. M. Morgan, National Recording Secretary
W. B. Fleming, National Financial Secretary
C. T. Bride, National Treasurer
National Executive Committee
M. L. Lockwood, Chairman, Penn P. E. Dowe, New York
H. B. Martin, Secretary, New York W. B. Fleming, Kentucky
F. S. Monnett, Ohio	F. H. Wentworth, Illinois
James Barrett, Georgia	C. T. Bride, Dist. of Columbia
William Prentiss, Illinois	F. J. Van Vorhis, Indiana
Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, Indiana W. T. La Follette, S. Dakota
Important Resolution
Adopted by the Anti-Trust Canference at Chicago, February 14, 1900 :
Resolved^ That the Members of the Anti-Trust League shall give practical effect to their
antagonism to trusts by giving preference in their patronage to non-trust products, as far as
possible.A.CONTENTS.
Official Directory American Anti-Trust League........... i
Table of Contents and Index............................. iii-xii
List of Portraits....................................... xiii
Poem—What Would Lincoln Say?............................ xv
Title ........................................................... I
Preface ....................................................... 3-6
Letter Proposing Conference.................................... 7-g
Letter Endorsing Conference.................................. 10-12
Call for Conference ......................................... 13-14
Signers of Call.............................................. 15-24
Opening of Conference .......................................... 25
Mr. Lockwood’s Opening Address............................... 25-29
Mayor Harrison’s Welcome .................................... 29-33
Temporary Organization ......................................... 33
Address of Judge William Prentiss............................ 33-38
Temporary Officers ............................................. 39
Committees Appointed ........................................ 41-42
Address of Captain W. P. Black, of Chicago: What’s to Be
Done? A Plea for the Initiative and Referendum............. 42-53
Afternoon Session, February 12.................................. 53
Address of Gov. Andrew E. Lee. of South Dakota: Public
Ownership a Necessity...................................... 53-60
Address of Jay D. Miller, of Geneva, 111. : Special Privilege
the Foundation of the Trust. Legal Status Analyzed. .. .	60-72
Address of Dr. George H. Sherman, of Detroit, Mich.. Direct
Legislation ............................................... 72-78
Address of T. Carl Spelling, of San Francisco: Shortcomings
of Existing Laws........................................... 78-81
Address of Frank W. Elliott, of Troy, Kan.: The Battle of
the Ages. Socialization of Industries...................... 81-87
iiiIV
CONTENTS.
Address of C. B. Matthews, of Buffalo. N. Y.: How Trusts
are Fostered and How Destroyed. Standard Oil Illustra-
tions ........................................................ 87-97
Address of Alexander Del Mar, of New York City: The Crime
of 1900. Some Financial History........................... 98-105
Evening Session, February 12..................................... 105
Address of Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow, of Cincinnati, Ohio: The
Menace of Monopoly.......................................... 105-110
Address of Bolton Hall, of New York City: Two Kinds of
Trusts. Absolute Monopoly as Opposed to Perfect Unprivi-
leged Organization of Men and Business Methods. Free
Competition Through Repeal of	Restrictive Laws.......... 110-113
Address of Congressman William Sulzer. of New York City:
Legal Control Possible. Remedy in Anti-Trust Act of 1890. 113-119
Address of J. R. Sovereign, of Arkansas: Can the Trusts Be
Trusted? Kingly Power Unsafe. Control of Commerce
Must Rest With the People.................................... 119-126
Address of W. J. Strong, of Chicago:	Blacklist Means
Slavery. Review of Conspiracy of Railway Managers.
Official Testimony. Attitude of Courts. The Celebrated
Clearance. Testimony of Discharged Employees.............. 126-145
Morning Session, February 13..................................... 145
Address of Judge George W. Beeman, of Indiana: Trust In-
fluence. Corruption of Court Officials Through Railroad
Passes and Other Courtesies. How the Farmer Is Af-
fected ..................................................... 145-149
Address of W. A. Spaulding, of Los Angeles, California:
Censorship of the American Press.......................... 149-151
Telegram to Hon. Charles A. Towne................................ 151
Address of H. L. Chaffee, of Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Re-
lations of the Trust to the Consumer...................... 151-155
Permanent Organization .......................................... 155
Gen. Monnett Accepts Chairmanship................................ 156
Address of C. J. Buell, of Minnesota: Monopolies and Trusts
—Their Nature, Cause and Cure. Consideration of High-
way Monopolies, Patent Monopolies, Currency Monopolies.. 157-163
Afternoon Session, February 13................................... 163
Address of C. A. Windle, of Ottawa, 111.: Trusts and Con-
centration of Wealth. Historical References. Modern
Instances ................................................ 163-168
Resolution on “Free Homes Bill”.............................. 168-169
Committee on National Organization...........................'	169
Address of Gen. E. B. Finley, of Ohio: Trusts and Their
Remedy. Examples of Railroad Combination and Discrimi-
nation. Historical Comparisons.............................. 170-175CONTENTS.
v
Address of Gen. James B. Weaver, of Colfax, Iowa: The
Money Trust. Origin and Development. Remedy in the
Constitution ........................................... 175-185
Address of Col. M. C. Wetmore, of St. Louis, Mo.: The
Manufacturer's Position. The Effect on Labor.............. 185-191
Address of Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, of Indiana: The Trusts
and the People. Standard Oil and American Steel and
Wire Methods Exposed. How They Work in Kansas. Re-
peal Patent Laws. Prohibit Watered Stock. Enforce Co-
operative Laws. State Supervision. No Federal or State
License of Trusts. Government Ownership. Legal Tender
Government Currency .................................... 191-202
Address of Jerry Simpson, of Kansas: Some Trust Remedies.
The Protective Tariff Evil. Railway Supremacy. Land
Monopoly. Tax on Land Values. Abolition of Protective
Tariff. Public Ownership	of	Railways.................... 202-206
Address of Rev. S. W. Sample, of Minneapolis, Minn.: Rad-
ical Remedies for Radical	Evils.......................... 206-213
Senator Mason’s Telegram...................................... 214
Mass Meeting at Auditorium, February 13................... 214
Telegram from Hon. Charles A. Towne....................... 214
Address of Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of Zelienople, Penn., Presi-
dent of National Anti-Trust League. Significance of Great
Demonstration. Success of Anti-Trust Movement. Appeal
to American Manhood. Protest Against Curse of Monopoly.
What Railway Discrimination Has Accomplished. The Rail-
way Debt a Government Debt. Saving in Reduced Interest
Will Pay for Entire Railway System of the United States in
Less Than Fifty Years....................................... 215-219
Address of Gen. F. S. Monnett, of Columbus, Ohio: The
State’s Control of Trusts. Historic Parallels. The Sover-
eign State. The Taxing Power of the Rockefellers. Some
Notable Testimony. Paul Morton of the A., T. & S. F.
R. R. Various Interstate Commerce Commissioners. Hon.
William M. Cook. Legal Authority. Prof. Richard T. Ely.
A Standard Oil Case. Ex-Gov. Larrabee, of Iowa. Pipe-
Line Charges. Table Contrasting Rates. Reference to Im-
portant Legal Decisions. General Summary. Remedy............ 219-254
Address of Hon. George Fred Williams, of Massachusetts:
Necessity for Anti-Monopoly Party. Man Above Prop-
erty. Forms of Monopoly Distinguished. Land Monopoly.
Telegraph and Telephone, Railroad and Bank Monopoly.
Control of Currency. The Rule of the People to Be Re-
established. The Party of Principle. Wasteful Process of
Distribution. Selfish Appropriation of Monopoly Profits.
The Ex-Traveling Salesman. Overcapitalization. Public
Ownership. Tariff Laws. Standard Oil Dividends. Sys-
tem of Public Ownership Outlined. Cost of Public Owner-
ship. Direct Legislation. Brutalizing Influence of the Pres-
ent System. The Aristocracy of Millions. Emancipation.. 254-273VI
CONTENTS.
Address of Hon. Samuel JVI. Jones, of Toledo. Ohio: The
Trust an Economic Development. Its Evil and Its Control.
The Blessings of Machinery. Individualism. The Idolatry of
Gold. Private Gain. The Social Product Belongs to So-
ciety. The Crime of Selfish Individual Appropriation. The
Outcry Against the Trusts a Healthy Sign. A Progressive
Course. All Organization for the Best. The Trust of Today
the Great American Brotherhood. Limited. Relief in the
Patriotism of the People. Liberty the Antidote for Monopoly.
Direct Nomination Will Lead to Direct Legislation. Initia-
tive and Referendum the Way Out...............................
Address of Col. John Sherwin Crosby, of New York City:
Trust Encroachments on Popular Rights. Definition of
Popular Rights. Why They Should Be Enjoyed. The
Trust Defined. Industrial Wrongs the Outgrowth of Legal-
ized Custom. The Land Question. The Tariff. Patent
Monopoly. Combination. Organization. Railway Discrim-
ination. Andrew Jackson’s Opinion. Control of Privileges.
Address of Hon. Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, Ohio: Com-
petition Commended. Legal Advantages. Special Privi-
leges Classified. Patent, Municipal, Transportation, Taxation
and Land Monopolies. Railways. Socialism Considered.
Governmental Favoritism Illustrated. The Single Tax....
Address of Ex-Gov. John P. Altgeld, of Chicago, 111.: The
Struggle for Independence. Intellectual, Religious and
Political Freedom Essential. Individual and Collective
Force. Competition Throttled. Transportation the Web and
Woof of Modern Society. Method of Trust Formation.
Evasion of Taxation. Notable Chicago Examples. Special
Privilege the Germ of Industrial Abuses. Corporations De-
fined. Effect of Tariff. Reference to Authority of Charles
A. Prouty, Interstate Commerce Commissioner. The Im-
possible "Good” Trust. A Higher Ethical Standard for
Trusts. Stupid Abandonment of Popular Rights. Examples
of Successful Governmental Control of Public Utilities—
Postal Service, Railways, etc. Industrial Supremacy the
Creation of Labor. Institutions Are Made for Man, not
Man for Institutions. The People Declare:	“We are the
State” .....................................................
Address of Hon. John J. Lentz, of Ohio: The Public Infor-
mation Trust. Suppression of News. Distortion of Fact.
Manipulation of Telephone, Telegraph and Newspaper Ser-
vice. The Discriminating Press Association. Tom John-
son’s Model Street Railway System. Standing Army Created.
The Legislative Trust. The People Misled. Half the Truth
the Worst Information. The Political Trust. Expense of
Elections. Republican Platform of Two Words:	"Gold
and Glory,” Better Expressed:	“Greed. Gluttony and
Grease” ....................................................
Morning Session, February 14..................................
273-281
282-289
289-305
305-317
317-323
323LUN I t.l\ 1 O.
vii
Currency Resolutions ........................................ 323-324
Committee to Present Currency Resolutions to Congress........ 324-325
Resolution Advising Patronage of Non-Trust Products..........	325
Address of Prof. John R. Commons, of the Bureau of Eco-
nomic Research, of New York City: Discriminations and
Trusts. Causes. Bank Combination. Freight Discrimination.
The Tariff. Factory Legislation. Equal Opportunity........ 325-329
Address of William N. Osgood, of Massachusetts: A Pro-
posed Plan of Action. Socialism Inadequate. Trusts
Create Classes. Masters and Serfs. The Small Manufac-
turer and Capitalist a Victim. Trusts Determine Prices and
Prospects. Trust Overthrown. Power in the Constitution.
Prohibitory Tax. Organization Necessary. Object of Or-
ganization. Free Public Forum. Public Opinion. Destroy
Artificial Conditions. The Liberty Trust.................. 329-336
Address of Prof. Edward W. Bemis, of the Bureau of Economic
Research of New York City:	Immediate Anti-Trust
Measures. The Proposed “Publicity” Remedy. Removal
of Special Privileges—Patent Laws, Tariff, Land Monopoly.
Bank Control of Currency. Railroad Discrimination. Stand-
ard Oil Rates Compared With General Rates. Rebates.
Consolidation of Railroads................................ 336-342
Report of Committee on Rules..................................... 344
Report of Committee on Resolutions............................... 344
Address of the National Anti-Trust Conference to the Ameri-
can People .................................................. 345-350
Platform Adopted by the Conference........................... 351-352
J. R. Sovereign Offers a Resolution.......................... 353
J. A. Parker Offers Resolutions Proposing Public Ownership.. 354
Parker on Personal Privilege..................................... 355
Afternoon Session, February 14................................... 357
Report of Committee on National Organization................. 357
Constitution .................................................... 358
National Officers................................................ 362
Ignatius Donnelly Speaks for National Convention. Pro-
poses Political Action........................................... 362
Jerry Simpson on Personal Privilege.............................. 364
Congressman Sulzer on Adoption of Report......................... 366
Judge William Prentiss, of Chicago, on Individual Privilege.
Appeals to the People......................................... 372
Gen. Weaver Supports Report of Committee on Resolutions... 374
Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, of Indiana, Proposes Complimentary
Vote to Parker ............................................... 375
Mayor Jones, of Toledo, Approves Conference, Explains Diffi-
culties of Campaign, Makes Characteristic Illustrations......	377
Election of National Officers.................................... 380CONTENTS.
viii
National Vice Presidents and Committeemen................. 381-383
Evening Session, February 14.............................. 383
Chairman Lockwood Explains Work of Anti-Trust League. .. ,	383
Address of Edwin B. Jennings, of New York City: The
Standard Oil Trust. History. Its Lawless Course. The
Buffalo Conspiracy. Standard Oil Senator Payne. Trial in
United States Court. Remarkable Testimony of Officials.
Their Astonishing Ignorance. Persecution of Offending
Employees. Standard Oil Possessions. Rockefeller King
of America. His Course as Dictator. Coeur D'Alene
Affair. The $200,000,000 National City Bank Deposit. Perse-
cution of Citizens. The Power of the Pe.ople................ 385-393
Committee on Propaganda.......................................... 393
Five Minute Rule Adopted......................................... 393
E. Quincy Norton, of Alabama, Speaks of Organization,
Pledges Activity, Describes Opportunity.................. 393
Delegate from Colorado Registers a Kick, Applauds Colo-
rado ....................................................... 394-395
John Z. White, of Illinois....................................... 395
Dr. Garrett Droppers, of South Dakota, Relates an Anecdote
Describing Boundaries of the United States. Makes Trust
Comparison ................................................... 396
Jerry Simpson, of Kansas, Refers to Statement of Wendell
Phillips. Speaks for Harmony and United Action........... 397
Judge W. B. Fleming, of Kentucky, Praises the Platform
Broad Enough for All.......................................... 398
Q. A. Smith, of Michigan, Speaks for Single Tax and Free
Press ........................................................ 400
John Ideson, of New York, Importance of Education and Thor-
ough Organization. Pictures Situation in Lima, New York.
A Plea for the Farmer......................................... 401
Delegate Merry, of North Dakota....................*........ 403
Judge Robert Neff, of Oklahoma, Describes Political Helpless-
ness in the Territory. Tyranny of Courts and Railroads... .	404
Telegram from O. D. Hill......................................... 405
Address of Leo J. Richardson. A Patriotic Inspiration........ 405-407
Concluding Address by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond.............. 407-409
Telegram from the Jersey City Anti-Trust Club.................... 409
Adjournment of Conference........................................ 409
Appendix (includes Addresses, Papers, Essays, and Statistical
Information contributed)...................................... 410
Address of Samuel Hallett Greeley, of the Chicago Board of
Trade. Dedicated to Philip D. Armour, Charles Counselman,
and the Various Railroad and Elevator Combinations at
Market Centers, in Recognition of Their Efforts to Depre-
ciate the Products of American Soil: Farmers of America,
Are You Slaves or Free Men? For Whom Are You Toil-CONTENTS.
IX
ing? The Chicago Railroad and Public Warehouse Grain
Monopoly. Principal Features. Combinations. Object of Al-
liance. Manipulation of Prices. Obstruction of Grain Deliv-
ery. A Striking Illustration. Competition Killed. “Hard
Times” Resulting from Operations of the Combination. Im-
mensity of Transactions. Circuit Court Decisions. De-
fiance of Law. Legal Enactments. Inter-State Commerce
Law. Accumulation and Storage of Grain the Object of
Dominating Forces. Result of Such Congestion. Lowest
Prices in History. Influence Markets of the World. Brazen
Manipulation. Fearless Views of Judge Murray F. Tuley,
of Chicago. Railway President Stickney Condemns Storage
and Transfer Rates. Self-Protective Action of Farmers.
National Grain Growers’ Association Erects Local Independ-
ent Elevators. Bribery and Corruption in Commissions.
Effect of Preferential Rates. The Railroads Criminally
Responsible. Railroad Despotism. Impossible for a. Young
American of Brains and Capital to be a Financially Successful
Grain Merchant and an Honest Man. Corrupt Practice of
Mixing and Blending. Criminal Deception. Proposed Reme-
dies ........................................................
Address of Rev. W. D. P. Bliss, of Alhambra, California,
President of the Social Reform Union : The Coming Crisis.
The Rule of English Capital. Debt Is the White Man’s
Burden. Uprising of the People Against Power of Wealth
Demanded. Organize and Act....................................
Address of Warren Worth Bailey, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania :
Advantages of Concentration and Organized System.
Greater Economy of Energy and Capital. Evil of Special
Privilege. Trusts Control Things Limited in Quantity.
Tariff as a Factor. The Paper Trust. The Steel Trust.
The Telegraph and Telephone Trust. Restrictive Measures
Will Not Restrict. The License Plan Grotesque. The
Essence of Kingship the Taxing Power. This Is the Root of
the Trouble. Let Labor Control Its Product. Good and Bad
Trusts Distinguished...........................................
Address of Judge W. B. Fleming, of Louisville, Kentucky:
Causes and Remedy for the Trust Evil. Evolution of the
Trust. Extent of Corporate Power. An Exhibition of Tre-
mendous Trust Capitalization. The Helplessness of Individ-
uals. Classification of Millionaires. How They Obtained
Their Wealth. Some Financial and Legislative History.
Some Remedies Suggested. The Power of Money. How to
Break It. Organize for Action..................................
Address of Charles E. Chadman, of Conneaut, Ohio: Funda-
mental Principles of Law Applied to the Trust Problem.
The Science of Law. Its Application to Trust Questions.
The Foundation of Government. The Progress of Govern-
ment. Political Rights. Restrictive Laws. Citations from
Important Cases. The Law in Ohio. Why Existing Laws
Are Not Enforced. Some Resolutions Submitted...................
410-424
425-427
428-433
433-440
440-452X
CONTENTS.
Address of Edgar Conrow, of New Jersey: The Trust Evil
and Its Remedy. Evidences of a Decaying System of Civili-
zation. Their Passing Will Usher in a Better Day. Trusts
Are Results, Not Causes. Initiative and Referendum. Dis-
tribution of Products of Labor. Free Speech................
Address of Mrs. Lucinda B. Chandler, of Downer's Grove, Illi-
nois: Shall Human Slavery, Once Destroyed, Be Suc-
ceeded by a More Cruel Tyranny?............................
Address of Abner L. Davis, of Findlay, Ohio: Modern Com-
mercialism. The Source of Monopoly. The Remedy. Prec-
edent a Barrier to Reform. Commercialism Rules Our
Destiny. Liberty Abridged. Direct Legislation Will Bring
Harmony Under the Co-operative Commonwealth................
Address of Edward Payson, of Chicago: A Manufacturer's
View. Case of the Small Manufacturer. Is He to Be
Crushed? Development of Foreign Trade. The Trades
Union. Illinois Court Decisions. Danger of Trade Agree-
ment or Combination........................................
Address of Rev. C. H. Rogers, of Elgin, 111.. The Proper
Adjustment of Present Unequal Conditions. “Trust”—a
Misnomer. New York Sweatshop Wages. Dishonesty of
Commercial Methods. Organization. Control of Govern-
ment Sought by Monopolists. Political and Commercial
Education the Antidote.....................................
Address of George H. Shibley, of the Bureau of Economic Re-
search, New York City: The Transition to Ownership of
Monopolies by Public Corporations. Evils of Private
Monopoly Enumerated. Evolution of Industry. Principles
of Caucasian Jurisprudence. History of Ownership of
Monopolies. Present System Must Be Changed. Imme-
diate Public Ownership Considered. Direct Limitation of
Monopoly Profits. Benefits. Extension of State Regula-
tion. Ownership and Corruption of Government. Practica-
bility of Securing Proposed Legislation. Appraisement of
Capital in Railways. Final Step to Public Ownership.
Summary ...................................................
Address of Charles I. Stewart, of Louisville, Ky.: Co-opera-
tion a Factor in Civilization, and the Control of Monop-
oly a Function of Sovereignty. Association the Law of
Life. Co-operative Industry. Industrial System in Dis-
order. Political Power Based on Industrial Power...........
Address of Thomas Elmer Will, of Manhattan. Kansas, late
President of Kansas State Agricultural College: The Trust,
the Flower of the Competitive System. Advantages of
Large Organization. Control of “Enlightened Self-Interest.”
Such Control Dangerous. A Defense of Monarchy Not to
Be Thought Of. What Shall We Do With the Trusts?
I. Laisscs Faire. 2. Regulation and Restraint. 3. Licensing.
45-"454
454-	455
455-	459
460-468
468-474
474-484
485-490CONTENTS.
xi
4. Taxation. 5. ‘'Carthage Must Be Destroyed.” By Trust
Annihilation and Return to Free Competition? No, but by
Trust Nationalization. “We Must Fight the Devil of Monop-
oly With the Fire of Public Ownership.......................... 409-501
Address of H. B. Martin, National Secretary American Anti-
Trust League: The Criminal Trusts and the Cure for
Them. The Security of Wealth. System of Reward. Pro-
hibition of Use of United States Mail Service. Freight Rate
Discrimination. Anti-Trust League....................... 501-505
Address of Mortimer Whitehead, of New Jersey, Past Lec-
turer National Grange: The Tyranny of Trusts. Some
Legislative Recommendations. Position and Influence of Na-
tional Grange............................................. 506-507
Address of Dr. Garrett Droppers, of Vermilion, S. D.: Dis-
couragement of the People. The European Contrast.
Abolition of Private Ownership of Public	Utilities...... 507-508
Address of Dr. H. W. Thomas, of Chicago: A Moral View.
The Social Order. Its Necessities and Responsibilities. Pre-
scriptional Morality. Commercial Expediency. Greed of
Might. Economic Value of Combination. Plea for Justice. . 508-514
Address of E. R. Ridgely, of Kansas:	The Enthronement
of the Trust. Penalties Inoperative. Confidence of Power.
Deception of the People. Lincoln’s Prediction. Remedy in
Taxation...................................................... 514-518
Address of Mrs. O. W. Dean, of Chicago: The Men’s Trust.
"Times Out of Joint.” Woman’s Wisdom Ignored. Impo-
tence of Man-Made Declarations. Striking Instances of Fail-
ure. Father of Trusts. Declaration of Independence a Mock-
ery. Equal Rights. The Essential Voice and Vote of Woman.
The Mother-Principle. Influence of Woman. Destruction
of the Race. Woman the Redeemer............................... 518-524
Address of H. L. Bliss, of Chicago: Statistics and Trusts.
Cost of Official Statistics. Statistical Juggling. Some of the
Jugglers and Their Methods. Carroll D. Wright. Startling
Examples of Statistical Legerdemain........................... 524-532
Address of P. E. McDonnell, of Chicago:	Six-Hour Wage
Day and Minimum Wage Law the Best Neutralizer of
Trusts and Promotor of Prosperity. Unit of Labor. Dis-
tribution of Employment. Necessary Laws. A Homeless
Nation. A National Weakness. Its Peril. Limit of Pro-
duction the Governing Key. Bill Proposing Better Condi-
tions. Legal Requirements. Six-Hour Federal Law. Prac-
tical Politics. The Ambition 6f Labor..................... 533-542
Address of Cotter T. Bride, of Washington, D. C.: Trusts
from an Economic Point. How They Are Formed. Wages /—
Considered. Combination of Manufacturing Interests.
Watered Stock. When Competition Ceases. Restriction of
Opportunity. Socialism Criticised. Relief at Hand. Remedy
in Constitution........................................... 543-549Xll
CONTENTS.
Address of Robert A. Neff, of Oklahoma Ter.: Government
of, FOR, AND by the Trust. Socialism and Single-Tax. Help-
lessness of Congress. The Supreme Court. The Majesty of
the Constitution............................................
Address of E. J. Dean, of Waverly, la.. Independent Action.
Failure of Old Parties. New Blood Needed. Political Evils. .
Address of D. L. Krebs, of Clearfield, Pa.: Suggested Reme-
dies for Trust Evils. Tariff. Patent Laws. Interstate
Laws. Trust Act of 1900. ' Inadequate Laws. Remedies
Proposed..................................................
Address of Mrs. Meribah E. Williams-Walker, of Chicago:
Law Monopoly. Laws Made by Proxy. Their Injustice and
Pliability. Direct Legislation. Right of Petition. Repub-
licanism Crucified..........................................
Address of Dwight S. Prentice: Some of the Causes Leading
to Monopoly. Governing Motives of Nations. War, Peace
and Brotherhood Defined. Land Monopoly and Patents....
Address of H. Butler, of Buffalo, N. Y.: How to Distribute
Benefits of Combination...................................
Address of H. A. Jerauld, of San Diego, Cal. : Prevention
of Incorporation of Trusts and of Combinations of Cor-
porations. Authority of Law. "When Doctors Disagree.”
Cases Cited. Method of Incorporation......................
Address of Bruce A. Campbell, of Champaign, 111. : The Trust
and the Farmer. No Advantage from the Trust. How
He Is Injured. Examples. His Unexerted Power..............
Address of Andrew J. Osborne, of Erie, 111.: The National
Banking System a Growing Monopoly. Its Unconstitu-
tionality. Power of the Banknote. Banking a Bunco Game.
Congressional Tools and Allies. Shameless Laws. Legal
Tender Money. National Debt. Blind Confidence of the
People. British Control...................................
Address of A. B. Westrup, of Chicago: Free Money the Rem-
edy for the Trust Evil. Two Very Extraordinary State-
ments. The “Gold Standard” Not Regarded as Final Solution
of Money Question. The Mutual or Co-operative Feature in
the Issue of Credit Money. Object Lessons by Clearing-
Houses. The Nature of Money and Its Supply Considered.
The Demands of Civilization and the Rights of the Individ-
ual. Discrimination Between Citizens. The Pretext. The Re-
lation of the Present Money System to Monopoly. Free
Money Monopoly’s Irresistible Foe.........................
Address of Le Grand Byington, of Iowa: Conviction of
Trusts. Catalogue of Crimes. Some Results. Measures to
Adopt. Execute the Law....................................
Address of D. A. Petrie, of Duluth, Minn.: The Distribu-
tion of Wealth. Census Reports. Contrasts and Compari-
sons. Plan of Equalization Specified........................
549-552
552-	553
553-	557
557-561
S62-564
564-	565
565-	568
568-572
572-577
577-582
582-584
584-586LIST OF PORTRAITS.
M. L. Lockwood.................................................... i
William Prentiss, Frank S. Monnett, Franklin G. Wentworth. .	17
George S. Bowen, Louis F. Post, John P. Altgeld, William P.
Black, R. W. Boddinghouse..................................... 48
Dr. Geo. H. Sherman, Warren Worth Bailey, Carter H. Har-
rison, Dudley G. Wooten, T. Carl Spelling........................ 81
Cotter T. Bride, Edward W. Bemis, Helen M. Gougar, Howard
S. Taylor, P. E. Dowe........................................ 112
Jas W. Wilson, J. D. Herboldshimer, Charles A. Towne, Rev.
Herbert S. Bigelow, Allen W. Clark ....................... 145
R. F. Pettigrew. Jerry Simpson, James H. Teller, W. B. Flem-
ing. James B. Weaver, D. W. Willson, Geo. S. Canfield........	160
Dr. H. W. Thomas, Andrew J. Osborne, M. C. Wetmore, H.
Butler, E. B. Finley, Dan B. Jesse........................ 177
M. F. Bingham, Jay D. Miller, Samuel M. Jones, Willis J. Ab-
bott, S. H. Greeley............................................. 208
Bolton Hall, Chas. E. Chadman, C. B. Matthews, E. R. Ridge-
ly, D. K. Clink.............................................. 241
Dr. Abner L. Davis, Alfred Sample, George Fred Williams,
John F. Shafroth, A. M. Todd.............................. 272
Nober Gottlieb, Geo. W. Beeman, Alex Del Mar, William N.
Osgood, Chas. I.	Stewart.................................. 305
W. A. Spalding, E. J. Dean, James R. Sovereign, D. A. Petre.
John Ideson ................................................. 336
Rev. C. H. Rogers, H. A. Jerauld, Andrew E. Lee, John R.
Commons, Q. A.	Smith................................... 369
Edward Payson, J. A. Vera, H. L. Chaffee, William E. Mason,
Edwin James Brown, H. B. Martin. J. R. Finn............... 400
Dr. John Stolze, C. J. Buell, William Sulzer, Eugene V. Brews-
ter, John Aubrey Jones.......................................... 416
Rev. S. W. Sample, E. Quincy Norton, John Sherwin Crosby,
Rev. Holmes Slade, M. R.	Lev-erson........................... 433
A. P. McGuirk, H. L. Bliss, Mrs. O. W. Dean, Garrett Drop-
pers, Daniel L. Cruice.......................................... 464
F. D. Larrabee, Jo A. Parker, Tom Johnson, William J. Strong,
Frank W. Elliott ............................................ 497
P. E. McDonnell, Bruce A. Campbell, John J. Lentz, Thomas
Elmer Will, George H.	Shibley............................... 528
Mrs. Meribah E. Williams Walker, Ignatius Donnelly, Rev. D.
S. Husted, Alfred B. Westrup, Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond,
Mrs. Lucinda B. Chandler, Robert A. Neff, Mortimer White-
head......................................................... 560
xiii“WHAT WOULD LINCOLN SAY?”
By Dr. Howard S. Taylor.
[Written for the Anti-Trust Conference.]
Could Lincoln come again with mortal breath
And here among his people living stand,
His lips no longer sealed by silent death,
His heart still hungry for his native land,
And could he voice some counsel, wise and kind,
To teach his country in a doubtful day,
A light to guide the blind who lead the blind,
What would the sage, immortal Lincoln say?
What would he say of men who spurn aside
The high ideal on which our sires were bent.
The great seed-fact for which they fought and died,
A government derived from free consent?
What would he say when all our strength and skill
Are mustered forth to crush and shoot away
The self-same cause that hallowed Bunker Hill,
What would the freedom-loving Lincoln say?
He held, with Washington, we should remain
A land apart—a refuge for the free;
Nor be entangled in the warring train
Of robber dynasties beyond the sea.
What would he say of compacts framed by stealth.
Of whispered leagues to make the weak a prey
Of Old World empires and our commonwealth
Yoked thus together—what would Lincoln say?
He held that toil should have the highest place
In all the land, East, West and North and South;
Held that the sweat of no true toiler’s face
Should fall for bread to fill another’s mouth.
Behold the reign of plutocratic greed.
The few who rise, the many who decay,
The classes’ surfeit and the masses’ need.
The wealth, the want—ah! what would Lincoln say?
What should he say? Speak out, oh, honored dust!
Send forth an answer from thy patriot grave!
Shall yon bright flag, our nation's hope and trust,
Float once again above a cowering slave?
Is this Republic, reared in blood and tears,
Doomed to decline and pass in shame away?
Speak out, thou Mentor of our better years,
We wait to hear what Lincoln’s tomb will say.
xv\OFFICIAL REPORT
OF THE
National
Anti-Trust Conference
HELD
FEBRUARY 12, 13, 14, I9OO
IN
CENTRAL MUSIC HALL
CHICAGOGEORGE S. BOWEN & SON,
PUBLISHERS.
Room 344, Unity Bldg., 79 Dearborn St
CHICAGO, -	- ILL.
Fetereon Linotype Company 87-01 Plymouth Place.PREFACE.
The laws of nature must be obeyed, not because there is force
which compels obedience, but because obedience to natural law
is the source of happiness. But man-made law which contra-
venes the mandates of natural law never has been and never
will be obeyed by mankind; for as the happiness of the human
family depends upon obedience to the laws of nature, the world
will never know the time when mankind can be made submis-
sive to laws which conflict with divine order.
God caused nature to bring forth fruit, and He caused man
to be dependent for his existence upon the nourishment con-
tained in that fruit. And as the fruit of nature must be gathered
ere life can draw therefrom the nourishment which is necessary
to its own existence, it 'follows that man must be a gatherer
of fruit in order to subsist. And that he might so gather, and
that each and #11 might gather, it is ordained by divine law
that all men shall have an equal right to employ themselves
upon the resources of nature in order that each may gather
according to his own need, for as it was God Himself who es-
tablished the equal dependency of all men upon the resources
of nature for existence, it follows that the equal right of all
for all time to free access to such resources is theirs by divine
right.
It is Holy. Writ that God made the first man after His own
image. And in this He ordained—as He caused the oak to
spring from the seed of oak, and all nature to give birth to its
kind—that the child begotten of man should be like parent,
created after His own image. And thus all men were created
equal, equal in the sight of God, and equal for all time to come
through the instrumentality of divine command.A
PREFACE
But the equality of men before God does not consist in
equality of bodily strength nor in sameness of mental activity,
nor in identity of striving or doing, for He has wisely ordained
these distinctions to be for the everlasting glory of His own
creation. No two leaves in all His forests upon the earth are
permitted to be alike, and no one living thing or growing herb
can claim its counterpart. And in this lies nature’s greatest
charm, for monotony has no place therein, and men differing
in their aims and inclinations make life to all worth living.
The equality of men before God consists in the equal right
of all men to free access to the bountiful resources of nature,
in order that each and all may be at freedom to develop their
God-given talents in the way and to the purpose best insur-
ing their welfare and happiness.
True conscience must ever condemn any doctrine which
places legal rights above the natural rights of men, and when
the Fathers of the American Republic in their immortal Decla-
ration of Independence proclaimed that all men were created
equal, they gave expression to the true voice of conscience
within them. And all the nations of the earth which in the
past have set at naught the natural rights of generations yet
unborn for the idle pleasure and vainglorious aggrandize-
ment of the living, have perished in their iniquity, and the
fatality of their transgression against the law of God marks
the lesson for the future.
The Christian spirit of the world is in harmony with the
self-evident truth that all men are created equal; and true
Christianity is identical with true democracy, for the natural
rights of mankind, living and yet to be born, can only be con-
served by denying special rights and special privileges to all.
And thus the motto “Equal rights to all and special privileges
to none” has been and is the beacon light of democracy, as it
must ever be the star of hope to mankind.
The contents of this volume leave no room for doubt that
the American nation believes in this democratic doctrine of
equal rights to all and special privileges to none, and solemnly
protests against the many violations of this doctrine committed^
in the past by its imprudent or corrupt public servants thatPREFACE	5
have brought such dire misfortune to the entire citizenship of
the nation.
Lovers of liberty are always watchful of efforts made to
abridge or destroy liberty, and wherever an attack is made
upon the inalienable rights of the people, there courageous
men rally in numbers to do battle in behalf of justice and hu-
manity. So, when it became known that a national confer-
ence to discuss the question of “Trusts” was to be held under
the auspices of the “Civic Federation of Chicago”—an asso-
ciation of men not suspected of being in sympathy with the
democratic doctrine of equal rights to all arid special privi-
leges to none; for it was a matter of public notoriety that spe-
cial rights and special privileges had been the means to make
many of them wealthy—it was but natural that steps should
be taken by consistent enemies of special legislation to frustrate
any attempt that might be made at said conference to blind
the American people to the dangers which beset them by
reason of the aggression upon their rights by monopolistic
combinations of capital and of business interests.
Foremost in the ranks of these lovers and champions of
human liberty stood the Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of Pennsyl-
vania, and his able co-worker, Judge William B. Fleming, of
Kentucky. It was primarily due to the indefatigable energies
displayed by these gentlemen that the magnificent Anti-Trust
Conference, which this volume reports, was subsequently held
in the city of Chicago, though the statement should not, be
omitted that a great portion of the ardent labors done in be-
half of the welfare of the people was successfully undertaken
by that venerable citizen of Chicago, Mr. George S. Bowen, as
chairman of the local Anti-Trust Committee.
The committee of which Mr. Bowen was chairman was re-
peatedly called into session at the Sherman House in Chi-
cago, both before and during the Civic Federation Trust Con-
vention; and as a result of the labors of this committee an
executive committee was finally chosen with power to call the
people of the nation together in Conference at the city of
Chicago for the purpose of devising means to arrest the evils
of monopoly and restore to the American republic those inal-6
PREFACE.
ienable rights which its founders had declared to be the per-
petual heritage of its people.
The membership of this executive committee, at the time of
its formation, consisted of the Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of
Pennsylvania, chairman; Judge Wm. Prentiss, of Illinois, vice-
chairman ; R. W. Boddinghouse, of Chicago, secretary ; George
S. Bowen, of Chicago, treasurer; Hon. A. M. Todd, of Mich-
igan, P. E. Dowe, of New York, Hon. Dudley G. Wooten,
of Texas, Hon. A. P. McGuirk, of Iowa, Judge W. B. Flem-
ing, of Kentucky, James W. Wilson, of Illinois, and Franklin
H. Wentworth, of Illinois.
No specific reference need here be made to the work per-
formed by this committee, and by the committee as subse-
quently enlarged, since the same is sufficiently disclosed in and
by the executive matters which comprise the early portions of
this volume.	R. W. B.COPY OP THE FIRST CIRCULAR LETTER ISSUED
BY THE COMMITTEE.
Chicapo, October 3, 1899.
Dear Sir :—
You have been named to us as a citizen of public spirit, sin-
cerely opposed to monopolies and special privileges, including
what are commonly known as “Trusts”; and upon this assur-
ance we invite your co-operation in a National Ar^i-Trust
movement, having for its object the uprooting of the whole
Trust System. Your hostility to Trusts relieves us of the
necessity of urging upon you the pressing importance of organ-
izing against them, but you will properly need to know the
origin of this particular movement before giving it the benefit
of your influence.
You are no doubt informed that on the 13th day of Septem-
ber, a Conference was convened in the City of Chicago under
the auspices of the Civic Federation, a body of men largely
interested financially and commercially in speculative and
monopolistic enterprises. The purpose for which this Confer-
ence was called as delineated in the public press and through
the statements made by the officers of the Federation, was to
provide a forum for the free, non-partisan and non-political
discussion of the “Trust Question” by able men who were
expected to be learned in the intricacies of “modern industrial
evolution.”
Whatever may have been the real object of this Conference,
it must be admitted that a great service was thereby rendered
to the nation, for it has become apparent beyond misunder-
standing that in order to protect the monopolist in his plunder
the glittering sophistry of pharisaic oratory is to be employed
to obscure the perception and misguide the noble impulses of
the great American people, and meaningless, insufficient and
78
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
procrastinating remedies are to be the rivets which shall fetter
the chains of hopeless servitude upon the toilers of a continent.
Anticipating that moves would be made at the Conference
derogatory to the best interests of the people, steps were taken
to inaugurate a crusade against the blighting evils of monop-
oly, so apparent to all thinking people, and so abhorrent to all
who love their country; and the. movements in this direction
were greatly quickened by indications, appearing abundantly
soon after the assembling of that Conference, that friends of
the “trust system” were in fact endeavoring to use the Confer-
ence as a means to strengthen the foundations and further the
development of Trusts.
To check the operation of that design, delegates from all
parts of, the country, who were opposed to Trusts, came to-
gether between the sessions of this Conference, to discuss the
situation and formulate appropriate measures. As a result of
this collateral Conference, the principal Conference was pre-
vented from carrying out the plan of the pro-Trust delegates to
promulgate resolutions, nominally in opposition to Trusts, but
really in their favor, and upon the final adjournment of the
principal Conference, the Anti-Trust delegates joined in a con-
cluding Collateral Conference, at which they resolved to inaug-
urate the National Anti-Trust movement, in which you are
invited to participate.
To this end they appointed an Executive committee, con-
sisting of Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of Pennsylvania, President
of the American Anti-Trust League, Chairman of the commit-
tee,
Judge Wm. Prentiss, of Illinois, Vice-Chairman,
Hon. Dudley Goodall Wooten, of Texas,
Hon. A. M. Todd, of Michigan,
Hon. A. P. McGuirk, of Iowa,
Judge W. B. Fleming, of Kentucky, and
P. E, Dowe, of New York.
The executive committee has opened headquarters at Suite
344 to 348, 79 Dearborn St., in the City of Chicago, and when
proper arrangements shall have been made, it will call a Na-
tional Anti-Trust Conference for the purpose of deciding uponCONFERENCE PROPOSED.
9
an Anti-Trust policy, and permanently organizing an Anti-
Trust movement. The Conference wilt be composed of repre-
sentative delegates from all the states and territories, who are
identified in advance as sincere opponents of the “Trust” sys-
tem. If this-object appeals to your sympathies, your influence
in aiding us in securing a really representative and conscien-
tious Anti-Trust delegation from your state is earnestly de-
sired, and a prompt acknowledgment will facilitate the work
of the committee. Also please suggest to us the names of such
men in your state and elsewhere as' you think may be likely to
aid the committee in carrying its labors to a successful con-
clusion.
All communications touching the organization of Leagues
should be addressed to H. B. Martin, National Secretary, at
National Headquarters, 1229 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washing-
ton, D. C.
All communications with reference to the prospective Na-
tional Anti-Trust Conference should be addressed to R. W.
Boddinghouse, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the
Anti-Trust Conference, Suite 344 to 348, No. 79 Dearborn St.,
Chicago, 111.
By authority of the Executive Committee,
M. L. Lockwood,
President American Anti-Trust League,
Chairman.COPY OP SECOND CIRCULAR LETTER ISSUED BY
THE COMMITTEE, WITH THE INDORSEMENT
OP MANY PROMINENT ANTI-TRUST MEN
THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.
Chicago, III., November 25th.
Dear Sir :—
Encouraged by the deep interest which is being manifested
everywhere in the labors of this committee; and in view of the
magnificent response received to the appeals for the suppres-
sion of that great iniquity commonly known as “Trusts,”
which, in the form of monopolistic combination, is devouring
the substance of the poor, changing honest business methods
into ways of theft, turning the councils of state and nation into
carnivals of corruption, and is fast luring the pulpit from the
path of Christian doctrine; and further actuated by the belief
that the battle for the restoration of those great principles of
equal rights and equal opportunities so cherished by the found-
ers of the republic and so dear to the hearts of all true lovers of
mankind, may be won, if all who are possessed of the coufage
to fight for American honor and justice rally now and take
their place abreast the great host of noble men who are deter-
mined to wage this glorious battle, the committee feel impelled
to urge upon you the necessity of being one in this great pha-
lanx of courageous, liberty-inspired men, in order dhat the full
strength of all true patriots may be gathered to this one grand
combat for the right, to the end that justice may rule again and
that liberty and happiness, almost lost, may be regained.
The call to battle for the rights of men is the noblest call of
all, and in requesting your consent to the enrollment of your
name upon this call the committee are but fulfilling a duty
which they believe they owe the nation, for the knowledge that
10CONFERENCE INDORSED.
II
your active participation in this great movement will bring
hope and courage to many who are now oppressed and who are
weary of hope deferred, would render the committee unfit to
share in the task, the beginning of which they have undertaken
to formulate, but the leadership of which they are willing to
leave to wiser minds and stronger men, were they to refrain
from making this appeal for your aid and support.
We shall at once forward to you circular letters heretofore
issued, from which, if you are not already advised as to the
contents thereof, you will be able to ascertain more fully the
committee’s plan of work; and any further information which
you may desire shall be sent you without delay.
Appended hereto is a list of some'fifty patriots who have sig-
nified their intention to assume the leadership in this great
fight, and whose names, together with several hundreds of
other well known and influential men, will appear upon the call,
which is to be issued about December 1st next for the National
Conference to be held in this city at some time in January next.
Hoping for an early reply, we remain,
By order and direction the executive committee,
M. L. Lockwood, Chairman.
R. W. Boddinghouse, Secretary.
Hon. Frank S. Monnett, Attorney-General of. Ohio; Hon.
Charles A. Towne, Duluth, Minn.; Judge Le,vi McGee, seventh
judicial circuit, South Dakota; Hon. T. W. Sims, Member of
Congress from Tennessee; General A. J. Warner, Marietta,
O.; Hon. John Clegg, New Orleans, La.; Hon. Samuel M.
Jones, Mayor of Toledo, O.; Willis J. Abbott, New York City ;
Hon. R. F. Pettigrew, U. S. Senator from South Dakota; Hon.
James W. Helme, Senator 5th Senatorial District, Michigan;
General James B. Weaver, Colfax, la.; Professor Garrett
Droppers, President of the University of South Dakota; Hon.
Richard Dalton, Saverton, Mo.; Dr. Hiram W. Thomas, pastor
of People’s Church, Chicago; Governor C. S. Thomas, Denver,
Col.; Hon. John S. Crosby, New York City; Professor George
D. Herron, Grinnell, la.; Hon. Robert E. McKisson, Cleveland,
O.; Judge E. D. Benson, Superior Court, King County, Wash.;
Hon. W. H. Ryan, Member of Congress from New York; W.12
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
H. Burke, Editor'Farmer's Voice, Chicago, 111.; Professor J.
Allen Smith, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.; Judge
Murray F. Tuley, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois;
Judge Thomas G. Windes, Appellate Court, First District, Illi-
nois; Rabbi J. L. Stern, Cumberland, Md.; Judge C. Floyd
Huff, County and Probate Judge, Hot Springs, Ark.; Senator
Charles A. Ward, Tenth Senatorial District, Michigan; C. J.
Buell, Secretary Tax Reform Ass’n, St. Anthony Park, Minn.;
Hon. John P. Altgeld, ex-Governor of Illinois.; Judge J. D.
James, County and Probate Judge, Hampton, Ark.; General C.
H. Howard, Editor Farm, Field and Fireside, Chicago, 111.;
Geo. S. Canfield, Editor Reform Press Bureau, St. Paul,
Minn.; Hon. N. N. Cox, Member of Congress from Tennessee;
Hon. Alex Del Mar, New York City; Rev. W. D. P. Bliss,
President Social Reform Union, Alhambra, Cal.; Louis F.
Post, Editor of the Public, Chicago, 111.; Hon. David M.
Campbell, Attorney-General of Colorado; James L. Cowles,
author “A Freight and Passenger Post”; Hon. John W. Breid-
enthal, Bank Commissioner, Topeka, Kan.; Hon. S. A. Stock-
well, Minneapolis, Minn.; Hon. Champ Clark, Member of
Congress from Missouri; Hon. E. I?. Ridgely, Member of Con-
gress from Kansas; Professor Frank Parsons, Mt. Holly, N.
J.; Professor Thomas E. Will, Manhattan, Kan.; Hon. John G.
Shanklin, Evansville, Ind.; Hon. Chauncey F. Black, York,
Pa.; Hon. David L. Krebs, Clearfield, Pa.; Governor Andrew
E. Lee, Vermilion, South Dakota; Hon. Sidney Clark, Okla-
homa Territory; Rev. Alex. Kent, pastor People’s Church,
Washington, D. C.; Hon. William Sulzer, Member of Con-
gress from New York; Professor E. W. Bemis, Mount Ver-
non, N. Y.; Hon. William E. Mason, U. S. Senator from Illi-
nois ; and several hundred others.COPY OP THE CALL FOR A NATIONAL ANTI-
TRUST CONFERENCE, PROMPTED BY THE
VERY GENERAL APPROVAL OF THE
PLAN OUTLINED IN THE CIR-
CULAR OF NOVEMBER 25th.
To the American People:
Upon the adjournment of the conference relating to Trusts,
held in Chicago in September last under a call of the Civic Fed-
eration of that city, a number of delegates to that conference
who were opposed to Trusts met together with the view of
securing concerted action on the part of the enemies of private
monopoly, appointed an executive committee, of which M. L.
Lockwood, president of the American Anti-Trust League, is
chairman, and directed said committee, through its chairman,
to call, as soon as practicable, a National Anti-Trust Confer-
ence for the purpose of deciding upon an Anti-Trust policy and
permanently organizing an Anti-Trust movement.
Pursuant to this direction the said committee does hereby
make the follownig declaration and call:
We believe the criminal conspiracies in restraint of trade
commonly known as Trusts, which so alarmingly characterize
the present times, are a menace to liberty. They close the
doors of business opportunity to all but the rich and powerful.
They impoverish the producer and consumer. They degrade
labor. They have seized upon the avenues of transportation
and poisoned the fountains of public information. They de-
bauch the elective franchise. They are public enemies. Unless
they are overthrown there will be established in free America
a moneyed oligarchy on the one hand and a serfdom of the
masses of the people on the other. They must be destroyed or
1314
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
free government is lost. The only power capable of successfully
combating the tyranny of these gigantic capitalistic monopo-
lies is the aroused and organized hosts of the people to whom
the government and the country rightfully belong and in whom
all power of right inheres.
Our republic was born of the love of liberty which in 1776
impelled the fathers to rebel against the tyranny of the English
monarch and the special privileges of the British aristocracy,
and which inspired them to pledge to the cause of human free-
dom their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.
The same love of liberty destroyed the aristocratic institu-
tion of slavery, a power once fortified in the courts and en-
trenched in the constitution. That same spirit now will suffice
to overthrow the new slavery and tyranny of the Trusts.
In order to restore the equal rights of the people and deliver
them from the criminal despoliation of these monopolistic
combinations, it is imperative that the special privileges which
created and foster them be uprooted and forever destroyed.
This herculean task can only be accomplished by the organi-
zation of the lovers of freedom in every part of the republic and
through the persistent and determined efforts of a united peo-
ple.
To this end a National Anti-Trust Conference is hereby
called to meet in the city of Chicago on the birthday of Abra-
ham Lincoln, February 12, 1900.
Patriotic citizens from all states and territories duly accred-
ited and in full sympathy with the objects above named, and
representatives of known Anti-Trust organizations, are invited
to meet together in said conference.
Applications for admission to said conference should be
made to the Secretary, Unity Building, Chicago, at an early
date, as credentials of delegates must be countersigned by the
chairman of the Executive Committee.
M. L. Lockwood, Chairman, Pennsylvania.
A. M. Todd, Michigan.
Dudley G. Wooten, Texas.
A. P. McGuirk, Iowa.
W. B. Fleming, Kentucky.CALL FOR THE CONFERENCE.
IS
Alfred Sample, Illinois.
Wm. Prentiss, Vice-Chairman, Illinois.
P. E. Dowe, New York.
James W. Wilson, Chicago.
Louis F. Post, Chicago.
Geo. S. Bowen, Treasurer, Chicago.
Franklin H. Wentworth, Secretary, Chicago.
Executive Committee.
The undersigned citizens of the United States, moved by
deep concern for the public welfare, approved of the foregoing
declaration and call and joined therein:
Hon. Frank S. Monnett, attorney-general, Columbus, Ohio;
Judge M. F. Tuley, Chicago; Hon. Chas. A. Towne, Duluth,
Minn.; Hon. Alexander Del Mar, New York; Hon. Chauncey
F. Black, ex-governor, Pennsylvania; Senator R. F. Pettigrew,
South Dakota; Hon. T. W. Sims, member of congress, Ten-
nessee; B. F. Keith, Wilmington, N. C.; Hon. James B.
Weaver, Colfax, la.; W. C. Sturoc, Sunapee, N. H.; Rev. J.
M. A. Spence, Green Bay, Wis..; Hon. James Barrett, vice-
president Georgia State Agricultural Society, Georgia; Gov.
William A. Poynter, Lincoln, Neb.; W. S. Bryan, editor Valley
Democrat, St. Louis, Mo.; Hon. James Hamilton Lewis, Seat-
tle, Wash.; Hon. J. D. James, county judge', Hampton, Ark.;
Gov. Andrew E. Lee, South Dakota; Senator William E.
Mason, Illinois; H. D. Opdyke, secretary Farmers’ Alliance,
New Jersey; James R. Sovereign, grand chief, Mohawks, Buf-
falo, N. Y.; Rev. W. D. P. Bliss, president Social Reform
Union, Alhambra, Qal.; T. Carl Spelling, San Francisco, Cal.;
Ex-Senator Wilkinson Call, Florida; Mayor R. E. McKisson,
Cleveland, O.; Oliver Wilson, master Illinois State Grange,
Magnolia, 111.; Hon. Ignatius Donnelly, Minneapolis, Minn. ;
D. W. Williams, president Patrons of Industry, Ohio; H. A.
Humphrey, adjutant-general, South Dakota; Hon. Horace
Boies, Iowa ; James H. Ferris, Joliet, 111.; Hon. Cato Sells, Vin-
ton, la.; W. H. Burke, editor Farmer’s Voice, Chicago; Hon.
Richard Dalton, president Single Tax League, Missouri; Gar-
rett Droppers, president University of South Dakota; Lawson
Purdy, New York City; H. D. Devries, president Marylandi6
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Grange agency, Baltimore, Md.; Bolton Hall, New York;
Thomas J. Hastings, Worcester, Mass.; C. B. Mathews, Buf-
falo Refining Co., Buffalo, N. Y.; John T. Wilson, president
Public Ownership League, St. Louis, Mo.; S. H. Ellis, master
Ohio State Grange; George Black, secretary Patrons Co-oper-
ative Bank, Olathe, Kan.; Hon. E. D. Benson, judge superior
court, Seattle, Wash.; Louis F. Post, editor the Public, Chi-
cago; Henry D. Lloyd, Winnetka, 111.; C. C. Cole, ex-chief jus-
tice Supreme Court, Des Moines, la.; Rabbi J. L. Stern, Cum-
berland, Md.; Hon. William Sulzer, M. C., New York; Hon.
Stephen Lockwood, Buffalo, N. Y.; Prof. Frank Parsons, Mt.
Holly, N. J.; Willis J. Abbott, Chicago; John Sherman Crosby,
New York; Hon. Samuel M. Jones, mayor, Toledo, O.; Gen.
A. J. Warner, president American Bimetallic Union, Marietta,
O.; Hon. U. S. G. Cherry, Sioux Falls, S. D.; Lorin Miller,
secretary Bureau of Immigration, El Paso, Tex.; George Rice,
Marietta, O.; Professor George D. Herron, Grinnell, la.; W.
A. Spalding, Los Angeles, Cal.; Gov. Sheldon, California;
Robert Pyne, editor Examiner, Hartford, Conn.; Rev. Alexan-
der Kent, People's Church, Washington, D. C.; J. D. Botkin,
Winfield, Kan.; Judge John W. Willis, St. Paul, Minn.; Col.
J. A. Vera, oil producer, Custer City, Pa.; Ex-Gov. Lewelling,
Wichita, Kan.; Hon. George T. Juster, ex-lieutenant-governor,
Texas; Rev. S. W. Sample, Minneapolis, Minn.; Hon. John
W. Breidenthal, bank commissioner, Topeka, Kan.; Thomas E.
Will, president Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kan.; S. M.
Owen, editor, Minneapolis, Minn.; Hon. W. M. Morgan,
Idaho; Hon. A. A. Lipscomb, Virginia; Judge John Clegg,
New Orleans; F. D. Lyford, Lewiston, Me.; E. E. Knowles,
Portland, Me.; Alfred M. Webster, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Sen-
ator Charles A. Ward, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Col. George W.
Bird, Madison, Wis.; Hon. C. C. Brown, Charleston, W. Va.;
Hon. John A. Gaynor, Grand Rapids, Wis.; J. Burritt Smith,
Madison, Wis.; Prof. H. Swain, normal school, Montana; Ed.
Boies, president Western Federation of Miners, Butte, Mont.;
Robert B. Smith, Helena, Mont.; Judge Joseph Hall, New
Mexico; Hon. Sydney Clark, Oklahoma City, Okla.; James W.
Wilson, managing editor National Rural, Chicago ; Hon. J. E.William Prentiss.
Frank S. Monnett.
Franklin G. Wentworth.CALL FOR THE CONFERENCE.
17
Callahan, Kingfisher, Okla.; Hon. Jerry Simpson, ex-member
of congress, Kansas; Frank A. Peltret, editor Jerry Simpson’s
Bayonet, Wichita, Kan.; Hon. C. Floyd Huff, county and pro-
bate judge, Hot Springs, Ark.; Augustus High, master State
Grange, Vancouver, Wash.; J. F. Willits, president N. F. A. &
I. U., McLouth, Kan.; F. L. Gaston, Normal, 111.; W. H.
Tompkins, superintendent State Industrial School, Plankinton,
S. D.; Rev. Carl D. Thompson, Elgin, 111.; Hon. S. S. King,
commissioner election, Kansas City, Kan.; Charles I. -Stewart,
Dispatch Publishing Co., Louisville, Ky.; Ernest A. Weier,
Cincinnatier Zeitung, Cincinnati, O.; C. B. Hoffman, Hoffman
& Son, millers, Enterprise, Kan.; J. J. Cunningham, chairman
Democratic county committee, Janesville, Wis.; J. F. Harring-
ton, Allendale, 111.; Hon. N. M. Cox, M. C., Franklin, Tenn.;
George H. Shibley, author “The Money Question,” etc., New
York City; Capt. John Hickey, Chenoa, 111.; Franklin Wil-
liams, chairman People’s party, Ashland, Ore.; A. W. Bastian,
editor Fulton Journal, Fulton, 111.; John A. Unglaub, Wood-
son, 111.; C. C. Wilson, Fairfield, 111.; T. F. Alexander, the
Argonaut, Sparta, 111.; A. W. Files, Little Rock, Ark.; S. L.
Lincoln, Harvard, 111.; Col. N. C. Buswell, Neponset, 111.; O. J.
Cheney, Saybrook, 111.; James H. Crane, M. D., Reechwood,
111.; Robert P. Troy, San Francisco, Cal.; J. B. Harris, chair-
man county central committee, Champaign, 111.; Patrick Hen-
drick, Lima, N. Y.; D. A. Working, editor grange department,
Farmer's Voice, Denver, Col.; R. W. Sloan, Sloan’s Handbook,
Salt Lake City, Utah; J. M. Parsons, Rock Rapids, la.; J. T.
Anderson, White Sulphur Springs, Mont.; E. M. Edwards,
Bangor, Me.; Hon. John H. Rogers, United States district
judge, Fort Smith, Ark.; A. D. Black, Mason City, 111.; Albert
C. Croswell, Streator, 111.; Hon. Levi McGee, judge Seventh
judicial circuit, Rapid City, S. D.; Carroll Smith, Evansville
Seminary, Evansville, Wis.; Hon. J. Henry Humboldt, Jones-
boro, 111.; S. H. West, Arrowsmith, 111.; Mat P. Kelley, pub-
lisher Iroquois County Democrat, Watseka, 111.; George P.
Keeney, New York City; Henry Westerman, Metropolis, 111.;
Burdette Cornell, Chicago; R. J. T. Howell, Baton Rouge, La.;
V. Batz, Holdingford, Minn.; George H. Clark, Cobden, 111.;i8
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
W. H. Smith, Eureka, 111.; Charles McKenzie, Des Moines,
la.; M. H. Kiff, Tower City, N. D.; W. H. Calhoun, Marshall-
town, la.; S. F. Hay, Danvers, 111.; A. B. Choate, Minneapolis,
Minn.; Smith Misner, state’s attorney, Toledo, 111.; Monroe J.
Freidman, Chicago; John E. Hogan, Taylorville, 111.; Fred A.
Lawton, Dixon, 111.; D. W. Clark, Manson, Ind.; Ira Wake-
field, Phoenix, Jackson county, Ore.; S. H. Holt, Ashland,
Ore.; Cecil Smith, Sherman, Tex.; T. E. Ryan, Waukesha,
Wis.; J. W. Elsea, secretary Buckeye Ins. Co., Adamsville, O.;
James K. Vardeman, editor Commonwealth, Greenwood,
Miss.; A. J. Osborne, Erie, 111.; Gen. H. Haupt, the Concord,
Washington, D. C.; R. A. Southworth, secretary-treasurer
Farmers’ Alliance Mutual Ins. Co., Denver, Col.; Hon. W. H.
Ryan, M. C., Buffalo, N. Y.; F. J. Schulte, publisher, Chicago;
Rev. James B. Converse, Morristown, Tenn., author “Uncle
Sam’s Bible”; John W. Hays, Faulkton, S. D.; R. W. Burns,
secretary Friend Paper Co., West Carrollton, O.; Joe A. Par-
ker, secretary National Reform Press Association, Louisville,
Ky.; A. O. Brown, Cornelius, Washington county, Ore.; Hon.
Dudley G. Wooten, Dallas, Tex.; Frank Ewing, Decatur, 111.;
L.	H. Weller, editor, Nashua, la.; Isaac Harrison, Benton,
Ark.; H. C. Coffman, librarian, University of Washington,
Seattle, Wash.; A. H. Morris, M. D., Mason City, 111.; O. P.
Louden, Carbondale, 111.; O. K. Lapham, Kalamazoo, Mich.;
M.	J. Elzly, Cumberstone, Md.; Zachariah Groner, Dongola,
111.; C. M. Easterday, Tacoma, Wash.; Edward Chambers
Smith, Raleigh, N. C.; Hon. Alfred Sample, Bloomington, 111.;
Thomas A. White, St. John, Wash.; Frank K. Ryan, St. Louis,
Mo.; Hon. John P. H. Russ, ex-senator, El Paso, Tex.; Prof.
A. R. McCook, Riceville, la.; Hon. George O. Light, Para-
gould, Ark.; D. B. Cullums, Clinton Democrat, Clinton, Ark.;
W. A. H. Coday, Clay City, 111.; J. A. Walker, Texarkana,
Ark.; Sylvester E. Evans, Latourell Falls, Ore.; Dr. P. C.
Guinan, Rochester, N. Y.; J. E. Scanlan, Bee Branch, Ark.;
Robert Miller, editor the Jeffersonian, Washington, D. C.; J.
H. Ralston, Washington, D. C.; J. J. McCafferty, O’Neill,
Neb.; Rev. John L. Forte, Jr., Winooski, Vt.; Charles N.
Keith, chairman Democratic central committee, Princeton, 111.;CALL FOR THE CONFERENCE.
19
Dan B. Jesse, Illinois Savings and Loan Co., Chicago; George
W. McCelley, Newton, 111.; Hon. T. R. Carskadon, Keyner,
W. Va.; John O. Zabel, secretary People’s party state commit-
tee, Grand Rapids, Mich.; A. S. Phelps, Joliet, 111.; Josiah Ed-
son, Chicago; Charles A. Clark, county clerk, Taylorsville, 111.;
J. D. Porter, Alexis, 111.; I. N. Stevens, Denver, Col.; R. S. Mc-
Mahon, New Iberia, La.; Thomas F. Kelleher, Albuquerque,
N. M.; Geo. D. Epps, Francestown, N. H.; G. R. Malone, pres-
ident National Co-operative Library Ass’n, Marshall, Mich.;
M. J. McCumacy, Placerville, Cal.; J. N. Gaffin, state oil in-
spector, Lincoln, Neb.; H. G. Day, Freeborn County Standard,
Albert Lea, Minn.; D. D. Patterson, 234 Cornelius st., Brook-
lyn, N. Y.; Rev. Graham Taylor, Chicago Commons, Chicago;
William J. Ogden, Baltimore, Md.; Dr. C. S. Franklin, Chilli-
cothe, O.; D. A. Petre, Duluth, Minn.; D. Meredith Reese,
Baltimore, Md.; Charles J. Parker, Stevens, Ark.; S. E. Rus-
sell, Pentwater, Mich.; Col. Lee Crandall, Globe, Ariz.; E. Q.
Norton, Daphne, Ala.; J. Bellanger, Fairhope, Ala.; C. L.
Coleman, Fairhope, Ala.; Frank Damron, Hat Springs, Ark.;
Perry Papsen, Hardy, Ariz.; C. H. Castle, Merced, Cal.; Dan-
iel Stewart, Oakland, Cal.; John Aubrey Jones, Fruitvale, Cal.;
T.H. Wells, Santa Monica, Cal.; William Spalding, Los Angeles,
Cal., Dr. S. H. Taft, Santa Monica, Cal.; Robert G. Loucks,
Pomona, Cal.; W. A. Spalding, editor Herald, Los Angeles,
Cal.; David M. Campbell, attorney-general, Denver, Col.; C. S.
Thomas, governor of Colorado, Denver, Col.; Hon. James M.
Bucklin, Grand Junction, Col.; J. A. Edgerton, Denver, Col.;
C. A. Q. Norton, Hartford, Conn.; James L. Cowles, author
“Freight and Passenger Post,” Farmington, Conn.; Dr. E. M.
Ripley, Unionville, Conn.; Homer C. Cummings, Stamford,
Conn.; Charles A. Brothers, Dover, Del.; Col. John Hoffman,
Bloomington, 111.; Hon. Hugh R. Belknap, Chicago; Hon. E.
C. Pace, Ashley, 111.; Don E. Detrich, Chester, 111.; D. W. Will-
son, Elgin, 111., editor Dairy Report; J. W. Leonard, Wheaton,
111.; D. K. Clink, secretary N. W. Commercial Travelers’
Ass’n, Chicago; William H. Harvey, Chicago, 111.; Prof. H. B.
Loomis, Chicago; Robert Cummings, Peoria, 111.; Judge N. E.
Worthington, Peoria, 111.; Hon. Daniel R. Sheen, ex-state at-20
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
torney, Peoria, 111.; William A. Conover, Chicago; John Gil-
bert Shanklin, Evansville, Ind.; Allen W. Clark, Greensburg,
Ind.; H. A. Stauffer, Goshen, Ind.; W. H. Goblentz, Fort
Wayne, Ind.; C. M. Walters, Indianapolis, Ind.; Dr. T. J.
Bowles, Munsey, Ind.; William A. Garretson, Marshalltown,
la.; R. N. Douglass, Postville, la.; Frank Q. Stuart, Chariton,
la.; E. H. Hurd, Marshalltown, la.; Capt. J. W. Muffley, Des
Moines, la.; James Haggerty, Burlington, la.; L. S. Wood,
Marion, la.; John G. Farris, Mount Ayr, la.; James D. Briggs,
Grimes, la.; Dr. Fees, Lenox, la.; G. Patton, Lenox, la.; E. B.
Evans, Des Moines, la.; Judge W. A. Spurrier, Des Moines,
la.; James McCaugham, Des Moines, la.; Col. N. W. Rozelles,
Des Moines, la.; D. P. Breed, Creston, la.; S. D. Mercer,
Lenox, la.; Joseph Holmes, Marshalltown, la.; Daniel Curr,
Grundy, la.; B. F. Rogers, Milburn, la.; Henry Wallace, Des
Moines, la.; Hon. W. H. Calhoun, Des Moines, la.; J. J.
Carey, Lenox, la.; H. Martin Williams, St. Louis, Mo.; John
M. Barker, Danville, Mo.; Judge Samuel Miller, Bluffton,
Mo.; Dr. L. H. Davis, St. Louis, Mo.; Dr. J. W. Caldwell, St.
Louis, Mo.; C. H. X. Stewart, Kansas City, Mo.; Hon. Wil-
liam J. Stone, St. Louis, Mo.; J. S. Hackley, Moberly, Mo.;
Hon. Richard Dalton, Saverton, Mo.; Hon. Champ Clark, M.
C., Bowling Green, Mo.; John J. Daily, Rolla, Mo.; Rev. J. D.
Pinkerton, Jefferson City, Mo.; George J. Menger, Palmyra,
Mo.; F. H. Canghill, Morrison, Mo.; John R. Smith, Mt.
Washington, Md.; Charles E. Tendall, Towson,‘Md.; John F.
Preston, Baltimore, Md.; H. S. Field, Baltimore, Md.; Charles
R. Darby, Seltman, Md.; Hon. Fred J. Nelson, Frederick,
Md.; James A. George, state board of agriculture, West Vir-
ginia; Hon. Albert Constable, Elkton, Md.; D. Webster Groh,
Hagerstown, Md.; Frances B. Levesey, Sykesville, Md.; W.
J. Melbinger, Cumberland, Md.; J. W. S. Cochran, Cumber-
land, Md.; James C. Alegood, Salisbury, Md.; Hon. W. E.
Ryan, New York City; H. B. Morey, Alden, N. Y.; H. B.
Martin, New York City; Felix McCluskey, Brooklyn, N. Y.;
A. H. Bruce, Walcott, Wayne Co., N. Y.; Prof. E. W. Bemis,
Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; Prof. Arthur Rooney, New York City;
Amasa A. Thornton, New York City; S. D. Degoe, Virgil,CALL FOR THE CONFERENCE.
21
New York; F. M. Thorn, Orchard Park, Erie county, N. Y.;
Samuel Bruckheimer, New York City; J. B. Murphy, New
York City; Montague P. Leverson, Ft. Flamilton, N. Y.; H. L.
Case, Canadaigua, N. Y.; E. W. Burge, Bristol Center, N. Y.;
John McAndrew, New York City; Edward A. Dunne, Bing-
hamton, N. Y.; E. B. Jennings, New York City; Col. William
A. Brown, editor Daily News, New York City; John Edwards
McLean, editor Arena, New York City; C. S. Crosser, Buffalo,
N.	Y.; L. D. Mayes, New York City; Judge Carlton E. Brew-
ster, Bay Shore, N. Y.; Alfred J. Bolton, Brooklyn Citizen,
Brooklyn, N. Y.; Charles Frederick Adams, New York; Moses
Sweetser, New York City; William Ransom, Jamestown, N.
Y.; Hon. R. D. Sutherland, Nelson, Neb.; Neil Brennen,
O’Neil, Neb.; S. C. Fairchild, Oakdale, Neb.; O. A. William-
son, Neligh, Neb.; Clarence T. Atkinson, Camden, N. J.; L. P.
Barnes, Atlantic City, N. J.; Michael Hayes, Gloucester, N. J.;
Gen. William Brendle, Gloucester City, N. J.; W. G. Eggle-
ston, Asheville, N. C.; David Pierce, Hamilton, O.; George K.
Otis, Hicksville, O.; P. F. Golden, East Bank, W. Va.; W. J.
Atkinson, St. Louis, Mo.; F. A. Foreman, Upton, Pa.; E. D.
Smith, superintendent public instruction, Lincoln, Kan.; Wil-
liam Means, Yellow Springs, O.; C. C. Stokes, Rushylvania,
O.	; N. R. Tucker, Fremont, O.; J. F. Adams, Washington C.
H., O.; Rev. D. E. Huster, Greenville, O.; N. L. Mann, West
Mansfield, O.; L. R. Pugh, Columbus, O.; George W. Moore,
Greenville, O.; Judge F. M. Hagan, Springfield, O. ; R. E.
Betts, Clyde, O.; Hon. M. Walter Doty, Findley, O.; E. B.
Finley, Bucyrus, O.; Allen Smalley, Upper Sandusky, O.; O.
S. Brumback, Toledo, O.; John C. Clark, Greenville, O.;
Charles Adkins, Lima, O.; Hon. H. V. Marquis, Bellefonte,
O.; Hon. Daniel Babst, Crestline, O.; H. E. Valentine, Bucy-
rus, O.; Eugene Arnett, Earlboro, Okla.; Hon. Robert A.
Neff, Newkirk, Okla.; Hon. Virgil M. Hobbs, Kingfisher,
Okla.; Capt. John T. Taylor, Guthrie, Okla.; C. J. Wrightsban,
Pawnee, Okla.; Patrick S. Noble, Kingfisher, Okla.; Hon. W.
H. Clagett, Spokane, Wash.; Rev. Holmes Slade, Elgin, 111.;
W. S. Parsons, Chicago; Susan Look Avery, Chicago; C. C.
Post, Sea Breeze, Fla.; W. C. Green, Orlando, Fla.; S. Harlem22
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Hayes, Bloomington, 111.; Rev. H. W. Thomas, Chicago; Whit
M. Grant, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Ed. L. Dunne, Oklahoma
City, Okla.; John G. Moore, Enid, Okla.; A, T. Foster, Te-
cumseh, Okla.; H. J. Shulters, Washington, D. C.; John E.
Osborne, Washington, D. C.; C. T. Bride, Washington, D. C.;
Charles S. Slater, Washington, D. C.; F. L. Siddons, Wash-
ington, D. C.; A. M. Lawson, Washington, D. C.; A. M. Jack-
son, Winfield, Kan.; Claude Duval, Hutchinson, Kan.; M. L.
Lockwood, Easton, Kan.; J. H. Atwood, Leavenworth, Kan.;
W. F. Sapp, Galena, Kan.; W. H. Wakefield, Mound City,
Kan.; J. C. Cannon, Mound City, Kan.; J. C. Rupperthol, Rus-
sell, Kan.; Dr. George Behrer, Chase, Kan.; Hon. E. R. Ridge-
ly, M. C., Pittsburg, Kan.; Hon. W. D. Vincent, Clay Center,
Kan.; Hon. W. J. Babb, Wichita, Kan.; W. P. Knight, Topeka,
Kan.; George W. Lamphere, Moorhead, Minn.; Rev. S. W,
Sample, Minneapolis, Minn.; Hon. M. J. Daly, Perham,
Minn.; Judge John W. Willis, St. Paul, Minn.; D. H. Evans,
Tracy, Minn.; Hon. Henry Truelson, mayor, Duluth, Minn.;
Dr. J. A. DuBois, Sauk Center, Minn.; Humphrey Barton, St.
Paul, Minn.; A. E. Clark, Mankato, Minn.; James Arnold,
Vesta, Minn.; W. R. Hodges, Sleepy Eye, Minn.; C. J. Buell,
St. Anthony Park, Minn.; T. J. Knox, Jackson, Minn.; Hon.
Spurgeon Odell, Marshall, Minn.; Alfred Jacques, Duluth,
Minn.; Hon. S. A. Stockwell, Minneapolis, Minn.; P. H. Har-
ris, Minneapolis, Minn.; T. J. Caton, Minneapolis, Minn.;
James Bennett, Jr., St. Cloud, Minn.; William Looser, Green-
ville, Pa.; Jesse Dean, Newcastle, Pa.; Louis Edwards, James-
town, Pa.; J. S. Holmes, editor, Kittanning, Pa.; John M. Mc-
Conahy, New Castle, Pa.; John L. Sexton, Blossburg, Pa.;
George E. Mapes, associate editor Philadelphia Times, Phila-
delphia, Pa.; Hon. Wm. Braham, Harrisville, Pa.; C. C. Kauf-
mann, Greencastle, Pa.; William Foley, Connellsville, Pa.; W.
W. Bailey, editor Johnstown Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.; R. F.
Powell, Philadelphia, Pa.; E. D. Burleigh, Germantown, Pa.;
R. J. Straight, Bradford, Pa., oil producer; W. S. Beamis,
Apollo, Pa.; Dr. S. Schnatherly, Freeport, Pa.; Samuel Milli-
ken, Philadelphia, Pa.; J. E. Dean, Oil City, Pa.; John G.
Palmer, Welsh Run, Pa.; J. F. Herrick, Cleveland, O.; H. A.CALL FOR THE CONFERENCE.
23
Mykrantz, Ashland, O.; H. B. Harrington, Media, O.; George
S. Groot, Cleveland, O.; Judge J. J. Harper, Washington C.
H., O.; Hon. E. S. Perkins, Weymouth, O.; D. F. Pugh, Co-
lumbus, O.; William Gossage, Mt. Vernon, O.; George Brenti-
berger, Mt. Vernon, O.; Smith W. Bennett, Columbus, O.; rf.
S. Bigelow, Cincinnati, O.; Billy Radcliffe, Youngstown,
O.; Ralph Rogers, Vernonia, Ore.; Hon. Wm. Hasson, Oil
City, Pa.; Albert S. Dulin, editor The Assayer, Philadelphia,
Pa.; Hon. David Krebs, M. C., Clearfield, Pa.; W. M. Mor-
gan, Lancelot, Pa.; M. N. Allen, Titusville, Pa.; Clarence
Walker, Butler, Pa.; Geo. D. Liddell, Providence, R. I.; A. H.
Harris, Wichita Falls, Tex.; J. J. Pastoriza, Houston, Tex.;
Hon. C. M. Cureton, Meridian, Tex.; R. B. Hollingsworth,
Santa Anna, Tex.; Judge E. J. Simpkins, Corsicana, Tex.; C. C.
Apple, Corsicana, Tex.; Herbert F. Houston, Alderson, W.'
Va.; H. B. Scott, Jr., Marlington, W. Va.; O. D. Hill, Ken-
dalla, W. Va.; Hon. C. C. Brown, Charleston, W. Va.; Henry
Stephenson, East Bank, W. Va.; C. W. Ossenton, Montgom-
ery, W. Va.; James George, Ashton, W. Va., (State Board of
Agriculture) ; Gen. John McCushland, Grimes Landing, W.
Va.; John J. Cromwell, West Virginia; W. H. Brannon,
Weston, W. Va.; Wm. H. Ragus, Madison, Wis.; Hon. Wm.
Smith, Janesville, Wis.; Hon. Clinton Babbitt, Beloit, Wis.;
Col. George W. Bird, Madison, Wis.; Hon. S. L. Cleary,
Plattsville, Wis.; W. W. Brandon, Weston, W. Va.; H. Clay
Ragland, Logan, W. Va.; Wm. W. Rose, Kansas City, Kan.;
Geo. Bullock, St. Louis, Mo.; Hon. John Toohey, Milwaukee,
Wis.; N. S. Shreve, Evansville, Wis.; J. B. Baldwin, Poynette,
Wis.; Mrs. Catherine B. King, Inkster, N. D.; Chas. Dunlop,
Michigan, N. D.; S. F. Mercer, Larimore, N. D.; Judge Joseph
Hall, Gray, N. Mex.; A. R. Titlow, Tacoma, Wash.; James
Mayes, Lusk, Wyo.; M. A. Newell, Sheridan, Wyo.; W. I.
Wittinghill, Enid, Okla.; Hon. J. R. Caton, Oklahoma City,
Okla.; Joseph Wisby, Guthrie, Okla.; Jesse Baker, McCloud,
Okla.; J. S. Soule, Guthrie, Okla.; John R. Clark, Stillwater,
Okla.; R. S. McMahon, New Iberia, La.; Jas. B. Lawton, New
Iberia, La.; R. H. Debeck, Cumberland Mills, Me.; Chas. W.
Wentworth, Cumberland Mills, Me.; John Lawson, Calais,24
AN TI-TR UST CONFERENCE.
Me.; H. C. Casey, Auburn, Me.; Perry Marshall, New Salem,
Mass.; Anderson B. Edgerly, Boston, Mass.; Ella Ormsby,
Dorchester, Mass.; W. L. Crossman, Boston, Mass.; Jas. E.
Jordan, Boston, Mass.; Alfred M. Webster, Grand Rapids,
Mich.; Hon. J. W. Helme, Adrian, Mich.; Hon. Chas. A.
Ward, State Senator, Ann Arbor, Mich.; H. L. Chaffee, secre-
tary Traveling Men’s League, Minneapolis, Minn.; Samuel
Brazier, Boston, Mass.; Robert Bridges, Commissioner Public
Lands, Olympia, Wash.; Hon.E.C. Watkins, chairman People’s
party, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Prof. J. Allen Smith, University of
Washington, Seattle, Wash.; Hon. J. B. Romans, Dennison,
la.; Hon. John W. Orr, vice-president Citizens’ Banking Co.,
Champaign, 111.; Editor Chas. I. Stewart, Despatch, Louisville,
Ky.; Hon. S. S. King, Commissioner of Elections, Kansas
'City, Kan.; Hon. John R. Rodgers, U. S. District Judge, Ft.
Smith, Ark.; J. M. Harris, Supreme Commander United
Friends, Saginaw, Mich.; Hon. David Overmyer, Topeka,
Kan.; Gen. C. H. Howard, Editor Farm, Field & Fireside, Chi-
cago, 111.; Geo. S. Canfield, Mgr. Reform Press Bureau, Min-
neapolis, Minn.; Chas. F. Maas, President Ind. Commercial
Travelers’ Anti-Trust League, Indianapolis; C. M. C. Peters,
Organizer Commercial Travelers’ Anti-Trust Leagues, New
Carlisle, Ind.; Judge James P. Tarvln, Covington, Ky.; Prof.
John R. Commons, bureau of economic research, New York
City; Isaac R. Strouse, Rockville, Ind.; I. D. Ferguson, county
judge, Denton, Tex.; W. T. La Follette, Chamberlain, S. D.;
J. B. Herboldshimer, Gibson City, 111.; C. W. Ebert, Owaneco,
111.; W. R. Benkert, Davenport, la.; Abner L. Davis, M. D.,
Findlay, O.; F. S. Peck, M. D., Edmond, Okla.; Judge Rufus
Hardy, Corsicana, Tex,THE CONFERENCE.
On the morning of February 12, as announced, the dele-
gates assembled at an early hour; and after calling the meeting
to order Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of Pennsylvania, addressed the
Conference.
OPENING ADDRESS BY M. L. LOCKWOOD.
Twenty-eight years ago there gathered at the little town
of Franklin, Pa., just as we have gathered here, the represent-
ative men of the five oil-producing counties of western Penn-
sylvania—gathered to protest, aye, and to revolt, against the
infamous thing known as the South Improvement Company
contract with the five trunk railways. The contract gave to
the men who afterward created the Standard Oil Company a
rebate or drawback of more than $1 a barrel upon every bar-
rel of oil shipped from the oil regions of Pennsylvania, whether
shipped by the South Improvement Company or not. In other
words, the railway companies contracted to take more than $1
a barrel from the independent producers and refiners of Penn-
sylvania in excessive freights and transfer it into the coffers of
the South Improvement Company. The people of the oil
regions of Pennsylvania went into a revolt and defied this
railroad power. They declared that the equal rights of the
people over the highways of the country should not be
destroyed, that the railway companies must ship upon equal
terms to every American citizen, that the discrimination con-
tracted for by the South Improvement Company contract they
2526
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
would not submit to. They would tear up the railroad tracks
and burn their bridges first.
My friends, that little band of determined men, backed by
the mighty power of right, rocked that old Keystone State
to her center. They went before the legislature, then in ses-
sion, and demanded and secured the repeal of the South
Improvement Company charter; and the life of that corpora-
tion, a creature of the state, was snuffed out just as any cor-
poration’s life can be snuffed out whenever the public’s welfare
demands it. For “the public welfare is the supreme law.”
But the monopoly which the railway companies failed to
create under the open contract of the South Improvement Com-
pany they have since created by a system of secret rebates and
drawbacks which they have given to the Standard Oil Com-
pany.
Yes, my friends, and this same power of secret rebates from
the railway companies has since monopolized into the hands
of the favored few almost every industry in America. The
awful crime of railway discrimination has destroyed the equal
rights of the American citizenship. It has monopolized the
industries of the country; it has gone on and on creating
monopoly, transferring the wealth created by the masses into
the hands of the few, until today almost every developed
resource of this great land is under the control of some kind
of an accursed monopoly.
That little band of oil producers gathered in Franklin in
1872, protesting against monopoly, protesting against special
privileges—that little band has broadened and widened, just
in proportion as monopolies have touched the other industries
of our land, until today the representative patriotic men of
every state of this great nation have gathered here at Chicago
determined that the wrong of monopolies and trusts shall be
wiped from off the escutcheon of the republic.
The mighty power of right against wrong which shook the
old state of Pennsylvania in 1872, and forced the repeal of
the South Improvement Company charter, will shake the
republic of states in 1900. The mighty power of the Ameri-
can ballot focused upon the wrong of monopoly, focused uponOPENING ADDRESS
2 7
the laws by which special privileges have been granted, will
wipe out the wrong and purge from the statute books all spe-
cial privileges.
Up from all of the centuries, up from all of the sacrifices
of all of the patriots, heroes and martyrs of the past, has
come this government of ours, based upon the doctrine of
the equal rights of man. If we fail, liberty is lost forever.
There is no virgin soil, no unbroken wilderness in which to
plant-the tree of liberty again as our fathers planted it.
But we will not fail. This government of and by and
for the people must not go down into that awful night of an
oligarchy of corporate wealth. The old revolutionary spirit
is not dead. Out of its long sleep it is awakening with new-
ness of life, with strength sufficient for the reformation.
This American republic is founded upon the thought of
the equal rights of man, upon the thought that every little
boy and every little girl starting out upon life’s highway
might look up into the morning—the morning of life—with
the knowledge that there was no place of honor, prestige or
fame which they might not reach, that nothing but God-given
advantages could stand between them and the highest rounds
in the ladder of human attainments. But let this trust monopo-
lizing process go on, and mark the change. Then every little
boy and every little girl born into this land under the stars
and stripes, except a favored few, will be born into a condition
of human slavery, the worst the world has ever known—
with every resource of our great land monopolized by cor-
“ porate capital; and man, man made in the likeness of God,
chained to the rock helpless, while this vulture of monopoly
is feeding upon his vitals. God forbid that my children or
their descendants shall be subject to such conditions as this.
God grant that the children of America shall not be subject
to such conditions as that.
Now, my friends, what is the remedy? In my opinion,
one of the most important remedies is the national ownership
of the railways of the country, the highways. For I say to
you that there is hardly a monopoly in America today that
has not been created and maintained by railway discrimina-28
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tion. Establish equal rates over the railways of the country,
such as we would enjoy under government ownership, so that
every man can go to market with the products of his handi-
work, with the products of his mill or his mine or his farm,
just as cheap as any other man, and monopoly will wither
away.
But how can this reform be brought about? Only by the
ballot. Only by the organization of a great political power,
independent of party, independent of party bosses, strong
enough to drive from public life the tools of monopolies and
trusts, and put in their places men prompted by impulses for
the public welfare. When you have done this, the rest is
easy. When you have put into legislative halls and senatorial
chambers, into executive chairs and upon judicial benches,
the right kind of men, how long will monopolies last? Not
long.
But how can this power be created? Only by creating a
nonpartisan organization in every voting precinct of this nation.
It must be an organization interfering with no man’s politics—
so that every Republican, every Democrat, every Populist,
every Prohibitionist, every reformer, who is opposed to monop-
olies and trusts, can organize in their respective counties*and
townships, pledging themselves to vote against a candidate
who can be controlled by this corrupt corporate power. And
as by magic there is a power created greater than the power
of corporate money in our public life. Yes, my friends, that
power of the ballot intelligently used is the only power which
can save our institutions from disaster.
Here and there and yonder, in every state of the republic,
the rescuers, .the heroes and leaders, are gathering. The
patriotic impulses of the people are being aroused, and that
power is a power omnipotent. Upon that power we must
depend for the work that is before us.
And now, my friends, let us show by our words and deeds
that we are moved and prompted by lofty impulses and patri-
otic desires; that we are capable of raising ourselves above par-
tisan prejudices and personal ambitions. Into your care and
keeping is consigned this movement for the deliverance of theADDRESS OF WELCOME	29
people from the curse of monopolies and trusts; and may the
God above us direct and guide-you aright.
“For of what avail
Is land or life,
Or plow or sail,
If freedom fail?”
As Mr. Lockwood concluded he introduced Hon. Carter
H. Harrison, Mayor of the City of Chicago, whose address
of welcome was happily received by the large and enthusiastic
audience.
ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY MAYOR HARRISON.
In the past three years it has been my pleasure and good
fortune, as Chicago’s official representative, to welcome many
conventions and gatherings of distinguished citizens; but I
fail to recall any convention I have welcomed with greater
personal pleasure or with a fuller assurance that my words
meet with the approval of my fellow citizens than this con-
vention of today.
Unless we go to the monopolies themselves or to their
paid representatives and hirelings I do not suppose anywhere
in America can be found a sane, reasonable person who does
not sympathize with the purpose which has called you together;
who does not agree with you that the trusts and combinations
of capital, so popular in the financial world of late, are sapping
the strength of our nation, and are, today, the greatest danger
that threatens the integrity and permanence of our institutions.
It would not be proper for me in a brief speech of welcome
to dwell at length upon the dangers threatened by the trusts
or the best method of dealing with these pernicious and illegal
combinations of capital. It is for the accomplishment of this
purpose your convention has been called together and the peo-
ple may look with confidence to this distinguished gathering
to give the matter careful consideration and work out some
plan that will promise results.
You will pardon me, however, if I mention briefly what
to my mind are the most serious consequences of the trust
evil. In a republic, where the making and the execution of3°
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the laws depend upon the will of the people, there can be no
greater danger than the consent ration of vast power in the
hands of a few individuals. Individuals are selfish and rarely
use power except for the purpose of forwarding their own
interests. That the existence of trusts results in the con-
centration of just such a dangerous power in the persons of
a few citizens is evidenced on every hand. Corrupt influences
are at work in every branch of city, state and national admin-
istrations. No branch of government in all this broad land
has escaped at least attempted debauchery at the hands of
the briber. Today the people of the United States are reduced
to the pitiable condition of seeing the officers, elected by them
either to legislate new laws or to execute laws already in exist-
ence in the interest of the people at large, acting as the lackeys
and hirelings of corrupt corporations.
Not only are the trusts all powerful in their control of the
making and execution of laws, but as the result of killing off
competition they control absolutely the prices at which the
raw materials needed for the production of the goods they
manufacture are furnished to them. They dictate the price
at which the finished product is offered to the people; and
the salary or wage’ of each and every man employed by them
depends upon their will. And all this is done for no other
reason than for the purpose of paying greater dividends on
watered stock, stock that has been watered until it is in an
absolutely dropsical condition.
To my mind the greatest danger of the trusts is the damage
they do to the young manhood of the nation in that they kill
off all stimulus to ambition. The existence of the trusts robs
the youth of the nation of the power to place himself on an
equal footing with every other young American, of the power
to reach those heights in the business, social or political world
which his mental ability and physical powers entitle him to
reach.
What has made America great in the past is the fact that
our system of government has given each and every citizen an
equal opportunity to aspire to any office within the gift of the
people. It was this opportunity that has led millions of for-ADDRESS OF WELCOME
31
eign-born citizens to come to these shores in search of new
homes. They have come in search of freedom of life and of
conscience. Each desires to gain a competence-for himself
and at the same time to have assurance his children after
him will be able to look the whole world fairly and squarely
in the face and aspire with an equal chance of attainment to
any honor in the gift of the republic.
If the trusts are to continue to exist, growing stronger and
more dangerous, as they certainly will, from day to day, it does
not require the eye of a prophet to see that this power, which
has made American manhood great, will fade away and that
your children and my children instead of possessing the oppor-
tunity to work out a strong and noble future for themselves
will be reduced to the necessity of serving as clerks and
employes of a comparatively limited number of millionaires.
What would be the best remedy with which to cure the evil
of the trusts is a matter for your convention to discuss and
settle. Let me merely make one suggestion, a suggestion
which I consider all-important today. No matter how labori-
ously and intelligently you may work in preparing a scheme
that will remove this threatening danger from our body politic
your scheme will not be worth the paper it is written upon
unless through your efforts and the efforts of men like your-
selves a sufficient number of national legislators are elected
to give your scheme the force of a federal enactment. And
should you succeed in placing your scheme upon the statute
books as a part of the laws of the nation it would even then
not be worth the paper it is printed upon unless you place in
the executive chair at Washington a man of sufficient integrity,
determination and devotion to the best interests of the people
to give it strict enforcement as the law.
Many remedies for the trust evil have been mentioned of
late; indeed some leaders of thought believe the laws today
upon the statute books' are sufficient to remedy existing con-
ditions were they only to receive honest and determined enforce-
ment. As I have said, it is not my intention to discuss these
remedies. My attention has been called to one, however, and
I would crave your indulgence while I mention it briefly.32
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
A brainy president of one of the great eastern universities
who has lately traveled about the country, delivering addresses
before the alumni of his university, has suggested a novel rem-
edy for the trust evil. This learned gentleman, believing that
trusts and monopolies if properly handled are beneficial to
the great mass of the people, but that the great danger result-
ing from them lies in the possibility of their getting into the
hands of unscrupulous individuals, declares that the best
method of keeping trust magnates on their good behavior
is to work a social boycott against them and to bar them from
social life, unless they use their great power beneficially.
In other words, his remedy is that the plain people of the
nation should refuse to invite the wicked trust magnate, his
family and friends to their dinners, their receptions, their
high-noon lunches and their five o’clock pink teas!
In the first place this learned gentleman forgets that our
so-called society of today is made up of an aristocracy of
wealth; that as the trusts increase in power fortunes will
become more and more concentrated until the society of the
future will develop into nothing more nor less than the society
of the trust magnates, their families and those they are willing
to honor and favor. When that time comes the social boycott
he recommends can only be worked by members of one trust
upon members of another trust.
Perhaps he thinks in those days we will have different sets
of monopolists, some of them good and some of them bad,
and that the way to make them all good will be for the ladies
and gentlemen of the pious Standard Oil set to refuse to
accept any invitation extended by the ladies and gentlemen
of the wicked Steel Trust! I really mention this so-called
remedy only because it has received considerable notice lately
and because it shows how impractical a brainy man, given to
theorizing, may become, when he is brought face to face with
a great practical question.
Today is an appropriate day for this gathering to assem-
ble; today, the birthday of the nation’s martyred President,
Lincoln, who stood closest to the popular heart of any man
our nation has yet produced, who stood thus close because inJUDGE WILLIAM PRENTISS.
33
his every thought and act he remembered always that the
highest dyty of a public servant is to think of and serve the
interests of the great mass of the people. It is with a feel-
ing that a good start has been made by this convention in
that it meets on Lincoln’s birthday that I welcome you to
Chicago, the cosmopolitan city of America, the city that has
grown great in the past, is great today and will be greater
still in the future, because it stands for all that is typical of
American grit and manhood. To my mind there is something
auspicious in this convention meeting in Chicago, for if I
may be permitted to say it, many of the great movements of
the past which have had the betterment of the people’s condi-
tions for their purpose have originated in conventions held in
Chicago.
In the name of the vast majority of the citizens of Chi-
cago I am glad to bid you welcome and wish you God-speed in
your work.
TEMPORARY ORGANIZATION.
Mr. Lockwood—Nominations for temporary Chairman are
now in order.
Mr. W. P. Black, of Chicago—I beg to nominate for tem-
porary Chairman of this convention Judge William Prentiss,
of Chicago.
The nomination was seconded.
*
Mr. Lockwood—You have heard the nomination; are you
ready for the question?
Mr. Prentiss was unanimously elected as temporary Chair-
man of the Conference.
ADDRESS OF JUDGE WILLIAM PRENTISS.
I feel deeply the compliment you have paid me in selecting me
to preside over you temporarily. There is something about this
assembly which differs from most assemblages in this country;,
it sprang from no party, from no political organization. It34
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
came from people who hold no offices and have no favors to
bestow. It came from earnest, thoughtful men who saw dan-
ger ahead and determined that the only remedy for that danger
was to arouse and awaken the common people. This day and
place were selected for a purpose.
In the history of our country we have had four presidents
who towered above all the others. Washington, not especially
brilliant as a civilian, not brilliant perhaps as a soldier; yet
Washington was the great balance wheel of the movement
for our national independence. [Applause.] And there was
Jefferson [applause], whose heart felt, whose brain conceived
and whose hand wrote as great a document as was ever penned
by man. Though born in luxury, born rich in lands, rich in
slaves, yet in his heart was as deep a love for his fellowmen
as was ever found in the heart of man since the world began.
[Applause.] He was a man who believed in the equality of
all men everywhere. It was the expression of that great heart
that laid the foundation of this republic. At a later day
came another who was both a civilian and a soldier, rugged,
plain, determined, born in poverty, and yet a man whose voice
and hands were ever raised in behalf of manhood and in the
cause of his country. I refer to that grand old hero of New
Orleans, Andrew Jackson. [Applause.] At another period
in our country’s history a demand was made for a great man.
Slavery, an institution as old as the world, an institution that
was planted here long before the republic was born—a crisis
l^ad arisen in regard to that. Good men and women felt that
institution to be a menace to progress, a menace to equality
and justice among men. Jefferson had felt it. He would
if he could have destroyed it in his day. But the time was
not yet ripe. In i860 the crisis came. Abraham Lincoln
appeared. [Applause.] He had been born in abject pov-
erty ; when a boy he had lived for a time in a house without
even a floor; he had in the winter time walked barefoot upon
the virgin soil; a man, however, who was raised as all great
men are, through the instrumentality of that power which is
above all and the source of all. He sprang, as it were, from
the ground. He became in time a citizen of Illinois, then oneJUDGE WILLIAM PRENTISS.
35
of the far western states. It was in this city of Chicago that
he was first nominated for President of the United States.
[Applause.] It was in Illinois that his dust was finally laid.
It is fit indeed that this assembly should meet in this state—
the state of Lincoln—in the city that named him for Presi-
dent—in the state where he was finally laid to rest.
Why is Lincoln honored so much? We do not honor him
because he was President of the United States. We do not
honor him because he was a greater statesman than many
others. We honor Abraham Lincoln because he stood for
liberty and the equal rights of men; because it was his hand
that first struck the shackles from a race who for ages had
been property and not men. And now it is most fitting that
this great movement, not started through the instrumentality
of party or by men holding high official positions, but by the
common people, should convene on this sacred day—the birth-
day of Abraham Lincoln.
What is the purpose of this assembly? Why do we, rep-
resentatives of the people from all over the United States of
America, assemble here? Because it is felt that a mighty
wrong, a mighty evil, is abroad in the land, which demands
heroic action. What must we do? In my judgment the
first thing to do is to go to the people themselves, arouse
them, educate them, teach them that in truth and fact, as
well as in theory, this government belongs to them. [Applause.]
Make them feel that they are the sovereigns of this country;
that there is no allegiance higher than that which is owed to
them; that on each one of them is cast a part of the sover-
eign power of this country; that it is not only the right of
each one, but that it is his duty to exercise that power in
the interest of himself and of all the other people in the
land. Make the people understand that upon them rests the
responsibility and with this power ere long they will apply a
remedy.
This assembly is composed of persons from many portions
of the country who no doubt have different ideas as to the
remedy—the wisest and best remedy for the end sought. The
purpose is the same. They feel that an evil is here, gigantic in3<5
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
its proportions and most threatening in its aspect. That evil
must be met.
We are here for the purpose of conferring together; of
consulting with one another; of advising as to the best and
the surest means of accomplishing the end desired. Men are
here no doubt with theories that they believe to be adequate
and ample. Others are here with theories very different, per-
haps, which they believe to be sufficient. It is to bring these
people together having a common purpose, to decide upon a
remedy; and then -to go forth among the people, call them
together, educate them, talk to them, convince them of their
responsibilities and of their rights, and then the work will
have begun at the bottom, the place where it should begin.
There is one thing, my friends, that is fundamental if we
wish to accomplish anything aright—we must go back to first
principles. We must start aright. First we must learn what
the evil is; investigate and see what caused<it and then apply
the remedy. The evil in my judgment arose from one single
thing—the failure of the people to recognize and assert their
rights. Men talk about the government as something foreign
to them—some exalted thing—to which they owe allegiance.
Teach the people that the government is theirs. [Applause.]
Teach them that in them lies the remedy.
Another thing. Every wrong that has arisen—all these
mighty corporations and trusts that now exist and that are
coming into existence—arise from this fact, that the funda-
mental principles of the Declaration of Independence have been
violated. [Applause.] They arose because the representa-
tives of the people have violated the spirit of the Declaration
of Independence and the spirit of the constitution of the United
States—the principle that all men are created equal, that all
men have equal rights. It was the violation of that principle
that is responsible for the evil that confronts us today. No
special privilege, no favor of any kind, can be granted to any
man or any set of men [Cries of “Good.”], or any class, but
what deprives others of their natural and equal rights. Get
right back to first principles and require that every law that
in its effects gives to any person or class a privilege or a rightJUDGE WILLIAM PRENTISS.
3 ;
that doesn’t belong equally to every other class shall be wiped
from the books. [Applause.] And every new measure that
is proposed, let it be tried by the touchstone of equal rights
to all, and the problem is solved. [Applause.]
A few years ago I remember reading an article in the North
American Review written by a railroad magnate of this coun-
try, Mr. C. P. Huntington. It was a good article. He
asserted that it was for the interests of railroads and for the
interest of the people that all the railroad lines in the country
be combined and consolidated into one organization or com-
pany. [A Voice:	“They ought to belong to the govern-
ment.”] Mr. Huntington said that possibly we could get
along with three great systems, but that it would be better
that they were all organized under one management, and he
proved to a certainty that that was the wise and proper thing
to do. He was right as far as he went, but he poisoned all;
at the close he said in substance: “We do not want it under-
stood, however, that this railroad should be owned and con-
trolled by the government, but it should be a private affair.'
All he had to do to have made his solution of the problem
effectual, wise and just was to have said that all the men
and women and children of the land should be stockholders
in that railroad company. [Applause.]
But I will not attempt to go into details this morning.
You have heard a splendid address by Mr. Lockwood, the
able head of this movement, and whose heart and whose very
soul is wrapped up in the cause. [Applause.] You have
heard an able address from Mayor Harrison welcoming you
here. There are others who will discuss ways and means for
accomplishing the object we are seeking to gain who will ad-
dress you. My duties are simply ministerial, to act as your
chairman for the time being that we may start in our work.
I thank you again, my friends, for the honor you have
done me. I beg your further assistance in the performance
of my duties. Let us be careful; and let us be just. Let us
continue, however, to be in dead earnest in this fight.
[Applause.] Let us decide upon a course to pursue. Not
a course, I hope, that will be advantageous to somebody or38
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
some political party, merely, but a course that will accom-
plish the end we seek.
Let us start right and go right out among the people. There
is the place to go; reach the people as they were reached in
the early days. There was a time in this country when we
had such a thing as a free press. [Applause, long continued.]
That was one of the things that Thomas Jefferson spoke of
in his first inaugural and which he appealed to the people
to maintain—a free press, because the people were to be
enlightened thereby. The people wanted to know, wanted
to be informed, and the way to enlighten them was through
the press. But this mighty enemy, the trusts, this monster
that we have undertaken to confront today, has under-
stood the power and the influence of the press. One
of the most dangerous, one of the most insidious of the trusts
of this land today is the newspaper trust. [Cries of “Good.”]
They would keep the people in ignorance as to the enemies
that confront them. They would mislead them as to the
way. Hence when we start out in this movement, we must
go directly to the people themselves. [Applause.] We
must organize the people into little bands in every locality
throughout the land so they may not be compelled to depend
upon a press for information that is owned or controlled
by the trusts of this country. Do that, and you will have
started on the proper course in the proper way. Go for-
ward in this great work. This conference is like the gradu-
ation at a college or university. It is the commencement,
simply the commencement. First map out a method that
receives the united sanction of the wise, men and women of
this body. Then go to the people themselves. Explain
them anew that they are the government; that in them is
all the power; that upon their shoulders rests the responsi-
bility, with them is the duty to act; and I tell you a lot oif
people in this country who are now ready to be owned and
controlled by the trusts will be getting on their knees and
begging that the wrath of an outraged people may not be
visited upon them.TEMPORARY OFFICERS.	39
The next thing in order will be the election of a temporary
secretary and such assistants as you may desire.
Mr. Crosby, of New York—I nominate Franklin H. Went-
worth, of Chicago, as Secretary.
The nomination was seconded.
Chairman Prentiss—You have heard the nomination of
Franklin H. Wentworth as temporary Secretary of this assem-
bly. All who are in favor say aye.
Mr. Wentworth was unanimously elected.
Chairman Prentiss—Mr. Wentworth is the temporary
Secretary. It would be proper that he have some Assistant
Secretaries.
The following gentlemen were nominated and elected to
act as Assistant Secretaries:	George C. Olcott, Chicago;
A. J. Palm, Pennsylvania; Joseph A. Parker, Kentucky;
Thomas E. Will, Kansas; F. A. Monroe, Chicago.
Mr. Bowen, of Chicago—I desire to place in nomination
the following named gentlemen for Vice-Presidents:
LIST OF VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Judge Murray F. Tuley, Chicago; Gen. A. J. Warner, Ohio;
Hon. Jerry Simpson, Kansas; Rev. Holmes Slade, Illinois;
Judge John Clegg, Louisiana; Hon. F. H. Van Voorhis, Indi-
ana ; Hon. E. R. Ridgely, Kansas; Gov. Andrew E. Lee, South
Dakota; Ex-Gov. John P. Altgeld, Illinois; Col. John S.
Crosby, New York; Hon. Richard Dalton, Missouri; Hon.
Tom L. Johnson, Ohio.
On motion the gentlemen nominated were unanimously
elected as temporary Vice-Presidents.
Gen. Weaver, of Iowa—Mr. President, the convention will
need a number of committees, in order to facilitate the work.
I move that the Chair be empowered to appoint a Committee
on Programme, a Committee on Permanent Organization, a
Committee on Resolutions, a Committee on Ways and Means,
a Committee on Rules for the government of this body, and
a Committee on National Organization. We want to follow40
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
up this work. I move that the Chair be authorized to appoint
these committees.
The motion was seconded and carried.
A Delegate from Ohio—Allow me to say, for fear there
might be some misapprehension from a single remark that
was made by Mr. Lockwood, which might go out and be mis-
understood, perhaps, that this is the organization or formation
of a new party. Now, I have voted a certain ticket for forty-
six years; we are too old to commence making a new party.
This country is not broad enough—and one of the other parties
must work at this, and I simply want to say that so far as I
am concerned I don’t want it understood that I am here to
join in the formation of a new political party.
Mr. Lockwood—If the gentleman understood me to remark
that I favored the organization of a new party, he was entirely
mistaken.
The Delegate from Ohio—I am very glad.
Mr. Lockwood—I believe that the good men of both par-
ties should make this a non-partisan organization, and pledge
themselves against the re-election or the election of any man
who can be controlled by corporate power, to any office in
the gift of the people [applause], and that men should rise
above party in the interest of their common country, and
pledge themselves against the election of men who can be
used in the interest of capital as against the interests of the
common people.
A Delegate—I think this committee on plan of organiza-
tion should be composed of one from each state represented.
I think all the states represented here ought to have a member
upon that committee.
General Weaver—Mr. Chairman, I don’t see how the
Chair is going to know what states are represented, or their
members. I don’t know that it is very material that they
should come from each of the states.
Chairman Prentiss—Allow me to make a suggestion:
That will be the most important committee selected, becauseAPPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES.
41
it will be of a permanent nature. That committee should
be appointed when the permanent organization of this body
is effected and as the final result. The Chair, therefore, holds
that under the temporary organization the motion of the gen-
tleman is not in order. The Chair is ready to appoint a por-
tion of these committees now.
A Delegate—I move that those committees be appointed
by the Chairman—the Chairman of this convention naming
the Chairman of each, and each Chairman naming the bal-
ance of the committee. Now, it is of the greatest importance
that they be selected in a way to give satisfaction, and that
the Chairman of the committee should be named in the first
place by the Chairman of this convention.
General Weaver—I accept the suggestion that the Chair-
man appoint the Chairman of the committee and the Chair-
man of the committee appoint the other members. I make
it a part of my motion.
Chairman Prentiss—If there is no objection it will be
accepted as a part of General Weaver's motion. There being
no objection it is so accepted and ordered.
COMHITTEES APPOINTED.
The following committees were appointed, the first named in
each case being the chairman :
Programme Committee—Hon. John J. Lentz, Ohio; J.
Bellangee, Alabama; W. B. Fleming, Kentucky; Mrs. Dr.
T. E. Powell, Chicago; Dr. H. S. Taylor, Chicago; D. K.
Clink, Chicago; R. W. Boddinghouse, Chicago.
Committee on Rules—George Fred Williams, Thomas C.
McElligot, W. B. Fleming.
Committee on Ways and Means—M. F. Bingham, Illi-
nois; Tom L. Johnson, Ohio; E. S. Corser, Minnesota; A. C.
Wisner, Michigan; A. M. Todd, Michigan; Samuel M. Jones,
Ohio; Col. M. C. Wetmore, Missouri.
Committee on Resolutions—Louis F. Post, Illinois; M.
L. Lockwood, Pennsylvania; T. L. Johnson, Ohio;42
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Jerry Simpson, Kansas; C. A. Towne, Minnesota; ex-Gov.
Altgeld, Illinois; John S. Crosby, New York; C. B. Matthews,
New York; George H. Shibley, New York; A. P. McGuirk,
Iowa; W. B. Fleming, Kentucky; Prof. John R. Commons,
New York; T. Carl Spelling, California,; W. A. Spaulding,
California; Samuel M. Jones, Ohio; Frank S. Monnett, Ohio;
Willis J. Abbot, Michigan; Prof. Will, Kansas; Gen. J. B.
Weaver, Iowa; Judge John Clegg, Louisiana; George Fred
Williams, Massachusetts; Henry George, Jr., New York;
S. Howard Leech, Missouri; William Sulzer, New York; S. A.
Stockwell, Minnesota; Joseph Shackley, Pennsylvania; Gov.
Andrew E. Lee, South Dakota; John Z. White, Illinois; W. D.
P. Bliss, California; C. J. Buell, Minnesota; H. L. Chaffee,
Minnesota; Cotter T. Bride, Washington, D. C.
Me. Fleming, of Kentucky—As I understand this covers
the men; but I see, Mr. Chairman, that you have failed to
recognise the ladies in the appointment of these committees.
I therefore move that you add to the names already announced
on Permanent Organization Mrs. Lucinda B. Chandler, of
Downer’s Grove, 111., and Mrs. Dan B. Jesse, of Chicago; on
Programme, Mrs. T. E. Powell and Mrs. James H. Teller, of
Illinois.
Chairman Prentiss—The Chair will make these appoint-
ments with great pleasure.
The appointments were made accordingly.
The Chairman then introduced Capt. William P. Black, of
Chicago.
ADDRESS OF CAPT. W. P. BLACK.
I assume that it is a safe conclusion that the vast majority of
the citizens of our land are resolved “that government of the
people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the
earth.” The great army of the common people of this coun-
try still insist “that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ThatCAPT. WILLIAM P. BLACK.
43
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on
such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happi-
ness.”
We maintain that those who seek to strengthen and fortify
government as against the people are, consciously or uncon-
sciously, seeking the overthrow of our institutions, and are
advocating a return to monarchy “as a possible refuge from
the power of the people.”
In 1861, on the 3d of December, in his annual message to
Congress, Mr. Lincoln raised “a warning voice against this
approach of returning despotism” then discerned by him, and
especially laid stress and asked attention to one point, which he
stated as follows:
“It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if
not above labor, in the structure of governmerit. It is assumed
that labor is valuable only in connection with capital; that no-
body labors unless somebody else owning capital, somehow by
the use of it, induces him to labor.
“Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as
assumed. *	*	* Labor is prior to and independent of cap-
ital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have ex-
isted if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of
capital and deserves much the higher consideration.”
From the time this warning was spoken until our day, the
tendencies against which he warned us have become more and
more pronounced, and have been pushing on at a continually
accelerated pace in the direction of making government a mere
defense for property, controlled by the property class for their
own security and advantage ; therein departing from the theory
upon which our government was founded.
The people, busied with a struggle for life which has been
yearly growing sharper, have allowed this to be done without
realizing the extent or import of such action. The masses still44
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
hold that any government which is partial in the bestowment
of favors, or privileges, or of protection, or that gives its chief
concern to legislation in the interest of the few, rather than for
the general welfare, is unjust, vicious, and should be altered
or abolished.
The growth of conditions which take away from the masses
who toil the hope of advancement, for themselves and their chil-
dren; the economic status that by the operation of the law of
necessity, ever pressing upon the toiler to provide for the daily
wants of himself and those dependent upon him, renders the
condition of toil a fixed condition to substantially all who are
born in humble circumstances, and makes escape from the army
of manual toilers a matter dependent not on individual earnest-
ness, faithfulness, skill, but a matter resting in the favor of the
employer, thus making of the toiler a dependent; these condi-
tions are intolerable to men loving liberty, and resolved upon its
maintenance; and these conditions, if long tolerated, are de-
structive alike of personal independence and of free govern-
ment.
In a republic Such as ours we have the right to legislate for
the accomplishment of whatever, in the judgment of the major-
ity, expressed by constitutional methods, is conducive to the
general welfare.
We recognize no such thing as vested rights in property as
against the welfare, the necessity, of the whole people. And
above all we deny that there can be, as against the general wel-
fare, any such thing as vested rights in privileges, or favors, as
the result of legislative grants. We maintain that the unalien-
able rights of the people cannot be irrevocably granted away by
the legislative servants of the people. Whatever is given by
these servants, may be reclaimed; whatever is granted by them
on consideration may be resumed on making compensation.
Whatever creation of Statute law is found upon fair experiment
to be hostile in its results to the public welfare may, and must
be, destroyed by proper legislative action—or at last it will be
destroyed by popular revolution.
It is generally conceded that trusts are prejudicial to the pub-
lic welfare. Out of this conviction, that they are harmful, andCAPT. WILLIAM P BLACK.
45
contrary to the broad principles of the Common Law, has re-
sulted the legislation against trusts which has obtained in al-
most every State of the Union, and has even been entered upon
by Congress. It is realized as a practical result of the activity
of confederated capital, that the business of the country is more
and more passing into the control of a few men who are amass-
ing thereby fortunes that a half century ago would have been
beyond the dreams of avarice. And as a consequence of this
absorption and control of business, the middlemen are being
driven out of the field of remunerative activities into the al-
ready overcrowded wage class.
But it is said by the apologists for the trust system that
trusts are a mere evolution of modern business energy. Yet, if
this evolution be Selfish and narrow in its operation as to the
bestowal of its benefits, then it is evil and must stand con-
demned. Does it need statistics to satisfy an intelligent man that
the trust growth has not been in the interest of the toiler, the
producer ? If it be urged that the worker secures now as good
a wage, or even a better wage, than before the era of trusts, can
it not be replied truly, that the amount of the wage matters not
so much as the condition of the wage-earner ? And that if the
conditions brought about by this artificial development, or evo-
lution, deprive the worker of his independence, deny to him
access to a free market for that which he has to dispose of, and
by which he and his must live, his labor—if these conditions
make of him a dependent, subject him absolutely to the man-
dates of these employing trusts, the hurt to the Republic is in-
finitely greater than any possible gain by way of wages? If
the increased power of production, instead of ameliorating the
condition of the toilers by shortening their hours of labor and
improving their social conditions, is used for the overflowing
of coffers already full; to kill competition by crushing those
who have not the financial backing to engage successfully for
the control of, or even a share in, the markets; and to destroy
the spirit of independence through the blacklisting practices of
the trust managers, which deny to any laborer the right to quit
employment by barring all avenues to the industry in which he
is trained, except he can bring a permission from his last em-46
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ployer allowing his engagement by the new concern- to which
he applies; then surely the evolution is hurtful to the public—
and the laws enacted to suppress the formation and operation
of trusts are wisely intended in the interest of the State.
But how can this system that is so universally condemned, be
destroyed ?
It has been suggested, and plausibly argued, that the trust
system being an evolution of modern commercialism and busi-
ness energy, may be sc regulated as to eliminate its more hurt-
ful features and make it on the whole contribute to the general
advancement and uplifting of humanity. If we were to concede
that the trust system, if unselfishly operated with the primary
object of bettering the conditions of the masses of the people,
would be shorn of its most obnoxious features; yet inasmuch
as man has not reached the condition in which his highest de-
light incident to intelligent and earnest activity, would be the
consciousness that others are to be made happier on account of
such activities, it may therefore be assumed that men zvill not
conduct this system of business along the lines of a lofty
beneficence. Every effort for the regulation of trusts has been
defied; every demand for the limitation of corporate power has
been derided and denounced, and the advocates thereof branded
as cranks and socialists.
Now comes the suggestion, that rigid legislative exaction of
complete publicity in trust enterprises, so that every expend-
iture may be watched and audited, every enterprise may be
fully exposed for criticism ; that this species of oversight or cen-
sorship may prove effective for the restraining of the trusts
from undertakings hostile to the public interest or violative of
the law, and so may make this system, now admittedly inimical
to the general welfare, contribute to the betterment of the con-
ditions of the body politic. To this the reply is, that aside from
the fact that the proposed remedy is in the line of mere experi-
ment, and of unproved efficiency, the problem would thereby be
only removed one step; for who would enforce the required
publicity? Would the provisions of law in this direction be
cheerfully complied with ?CAPT. WILLIAM P. BLACK.
47
Let this be remembered in considering the existing situa-
tions : The struggle now upon us is one with the trained ben-
eficiaries and mercenaries of utterly selfish lawlessness. A host
is arrayed against us that recognizes no limitation but that of
the impossible; that respects no plea but that of expediency;
that yields to no rigfit but that of might.
And here let us recall that the material injury to the masses,
resultant upon the existence and growth of the trust system, is
not to be compared with the deep moral injury to the whole
people which has attended their Genesis and development.
The trust evil, as it now exists among us, has grown out of
the corporate system, and its most malignant and baneful fruit-
age is the debauching of public sentiment by its practices. It
is only within the present century that the sinister possibilities
of corporate activity have been made apparent. While always
there have been found men in every walk of life, and in con-
nection with every department of government, ready to betray
confidence, to pervert justice, to prostitute service, to enter
upon any enterprise, however criminal, to engage in any un-
dertaking, however desperate, that they might gain power or
wealth; yet for the successful pursuit of the industries of brib-
ery and corruption there was required -a treasure beyond the
control of most, and a concert of action, difficult to secure,
chiefly because of the condition of personal accountability. But
the device of corporations, a scheme under which vast treasure
gathered from multitudes of contributors can be controlled,
and the management thereof placed in the hands of a limited
directory, or even a single manager—and the conduct of the
business thus organized carried on without any legal liability
on the part of the shareholders in the enterprise for the doings
of those in fact controlling the corporation—has made it possi-
ble to reduce the crime of bribery to a regular industry, and to
rob the people through systematic frauds and lawlessness under
such conditions as to guarantee almost entire immunity to the
perpetrators of these wrongs.
No more deplorable result of this widespread corruption
practiced by corporate wealth with such general exemption
from penalty is to be seen, than the apathy with which these48
'ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
corrupt practices are regarded, not alone by the people at large,
but by the shareholders in these corporations, who profit by
this criminal activity. Men who claim to be leading citizens,
and who would be mortally offended at a suggestion that they
are increasihg their wealth by questionable practices, accept
without protest the fruits of the crimes of others, who hold
their positions by the action of these same reputable gentle-
men, and thus make themselves parties to misdeeds which
should forfeit their claims to honorable standing in the com-
munity. These “leading and influential citizens” sustain theii
representatives whom they know to be violators of the law, and
without objection submit to the use of the corporate funds, of
which they are part owners, for purposes of bribery and every
form of criminal corruption, including systematic subornation
of perjury; thus aiding in creating a perverted public sentiment,
tolerant toward even convicted law breakers, who are main-
tained in positions of great influence and power, and disposed
to condone every offense committed by the man shrewd enough
or strong enough to succeed.
Let us particularize a little. The recognized representatives
of the corporations and trusts, by the use of money are placed
in our halls of legislation, municipal, state and national. There
they join hands with other recognized representatives of the
same interests who figure in the “lobby” that is ever present
when any legislation is under consideration affecting these
special interests. Millions of money are annually spent to cor-
ruptly influence these matters of legislation, and the conduct
of legislators—and so, year by year the legislation in the inter-
est of the privileged classes goes on.
Every branch of the executive department of government is
corrupted by bribery. The organized corporate wealth of the
land sneers at the efforts of the people to exact through taxation
its fair contribution to the support of the very government by
whose favor its accumulation has been made possible. The
trusts openly defy such legislation as an aroused public senti-
ment has compelled, and procure, by the aid of their represen-
tatives and of the judges they are able to persuade to the ac-
ceptance of their views, a nullification of such legislation. AndGeorge S. Bowen.
Louis F. Post.
John P. Altgeld.
William P. Black.
R. W. Boddinghouse.CAPT. WILLIAM P. BLACK.
49
more often an understanding is reached with those charged
with the enforcement of the laws against trusts in pursuance of
which the trust’s violations of the law are persistently ignored;
and even where proceedings are initiated, they are rendered
abortive by the vis inertia of an unwilling or a half-hearted
prosecution.
The trusts have even entrenched themselves in the temples
of justice, and instances of outright bribery of the judiciary are
not wanting. But as a rule, plain bribery has become almost
obsolete with our higher courts. A more effective and a safer
way has been found. They educate men for the bench, and
then procure their nomination and election or their appoint-
ment. These judges are in the main men against whose per-
sonal character naught can be urged; but they are men who
have studied law in, or have been connected with, the offices of
the corporation lawyers, or have themselves been actively iden-
tified in litigation on behalf of corporate interests. Trained in
this atmosphere they are accustomed to approach the consider-
ation of every question involving corporate claims from the
point of view of the corporation lawyer, and the very sincerity
of their bias in favor of the corporation side of the controversy
makes them but the more dangerous to the public interests in-
volved therein. As to the appointing of judges, where such
appointment is provided for under the laws, Federal or State,
usually no one is appointed who is not reasonably acceptable
to the corporate representatives. In fact, it may be said, that
since that evil day when it was openly charged that the naming
of a man for a vacancy upon the bench of the Supreme Court
of the United States was conceded to a notoriously corrupt
railroad magnate, as a requital for an immense contribution to
the campaign fund of the successful party, no man has been
appointed to any position in the Federal judiciary over the op-
position of the corporate interests of the country. Before
tribunals thus constituted, what wonder that the trusts feel
secure against the penalties of the law!
The trust evil is the direct outgrowth of combinations and
practices that would not have been possible to people in their
individual capacity, but has resulted from our system of private5o
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
corporations. It is safe to say, that with no private corpora-
tions we would have no trusts. If every man, no matter what
his wealth, had to assume the full responsibility of a principal
or a co-partner in every business enterprise in which he en-
gaged ; if between the business man and what was done in fur-
therance of his business interests, there could not be interposed
the shield of corporate action; if every business man could be
held strictly liable for every act by which he profited; and if
in the matter of offenses based in, or committed in furtherance
of, frauds, where it is often impossible to secure direct proof
of the crime charged, it should be made the law that the jury
should hear evidence of any and all circumstances connected
with any of the parties implicated, such as help to form the
common judgment of men of ordinary capacity, giving to such
evidence such weight as they would reasonably give to it were
they not in the jury box; is it too much to say that many of the
evils under which the State now staggers helplessly would be,
if not totally eradicated, at least immensely reduced—and that
we would come again to a time when gilded lawlessness could
no longer command immunity—when “leading and influential
citizens’’ in their efforts for the accumulation of wealth, would
hesitate to embark in practices not only criminal, but perilous,
and putting a constraint upon their guilty greed, would bow
to the supremacy of law ?
Corporations are the creatures of statute law—they can have
no existence but by virtue of public legislation. No man has
any right to demand the enactment or continuation of such leg-
islation. When our corporation law was enacted, it was upon’
the theory that it would conduce to public welfare and prosper-
ity. Perhaps for a time it did so. But in these latter days this
system has been availed of by men whose selfishness has made
them unmindful of the interests of the people. Then has not
the time arrived when the people should repeal such legisla-
tion, and so discountenance these corporate combinations of
men and aggregations of money which are proving mortally
hurtful to the people as a whole ? Would it not be in the
interest of the State, to abandon the old policy, because it has
been perverted to injurious ends, and substitute in its place theCAPT. WILLIAM P. BLACK.
51
better plan of individual activity under personal accountability,
with its rewards for personal and honorable effort, its moderate
accumulations waiting upon honest and intelligent industry,
its open field for fair competition, its exaltation of manly qual-
ities and activities? Wealth would be gained more slowly, but
it would be clean. Manhood in labor would be rescued from
its present decay—where the workman, fixed by his necessities
in his position of dependence to the domination of massed capi-
tal, ill-gotten, and worse used,, feels his subjection, and loses
hope and power; and the Nation would be exalted in the uplift
and liberation of its plain people, no longer manacled in their
place of toil by the stress of dire necessity, but dignified by the
grace of a labor willingly wrought in the service of love for
their beloved and their land—for the strength and glory of any
nation is not in the multitude of its munitions, the array of its
armies, the increase of its material wealth, but in the character
of its common people, and the freeness of their love for the land
and its institutions. It is as true now as when first sung by the
poet seer,
“111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.”
If it be urged that many of the great industries and enter-
prises of our day are beyond the scope of individual endeavor,
and should be beyond the effect of the death, disaffection or
disaster of the personal proprietor or partner, the reply may
well be urged—that every such enterprise, involving public con-
siderations, such as furnishing our municipalities with water,
light, etc.—and all forms of what may now be termed corporate
transportation, should be in the hands of the public, the state
or the municipality, and not subject to private interests or con-
trol. No corporation should ever be sanctioned whose business
requires in order to its successful prosecution that the state
should confer upon it any of the functions of sovereignty or
the exclusive use of any public right or utility; or if ever, by
reason of exceptional conditions, such a corporation is allowed,
it should be upon the limitation of a reasonably short period
of use by the corporation, and then a surrender to the public
interested.52
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
But it will be said this scheme is impracticable; it will
involve not only an entire change in legislation, but also in
existing constitutions, and this not only of the state but of the
nation; and this will be impossible of accomplishment on
account, first, that the different conditions obtaining in differ-
ent states and sections as yet require a difference in policy in
dealing with the trust problem; and second, that by reason of
the malignant and unscrupulous activities of the trusts, this
requisite legislation cannot be uniformly secured, while in the
absence of uniformity the courts will be controlled to adjudge
isolated legislative reform invalid under constitutional limita-
tions. Is there any way of meeting this objection? Can we
get this matter of legislation where we can dominate it, beyond
the corrupting influence of the corporations? If we cannot,
then let us confess that democratic institutions are a failure;
that in the struggle for mastery a plutocracy has overborne
the democracy, and that millions of money have, finally, in
our so-called republic, triumphed over millions of men. I
believe in the divine right of the people to govern themselves,
free from the dominating power of capital. In the broad sense
of the expression, I am a democrat. I believe in the people,
I stand for their rights.
I suggest for your consideration a method of checkmating
the corrupting practices of the managers and dependents of
the conscienceless corporations, concentrated in the lawless
Trusts, namely, the adoption, State after State, and as rapidly
as possible, of the initiative and referendum. In other
words:	Let the people be secured in each state, as
fast as possible by constitutional amendment, the right and
power to initiate legislation by petition, which must be sub-
mitted to the vote of all electors affected by the proposed act,
and which, if adopted by the electorate, shall have all the force,
within the territory where operative, of a constitutional amend-
ment, beyond the power of the courts to adjudge invalid;
and to be enforced until repealed by a like vote of the people
upon like petition, or by the passage of a later Act, modifying
the law as so adopted. Let it be further, by the same amend-
ment of the Constitution, provided that all proposed legislationGOV. ANDREW E. LEE.
53
touching incorporations, or special grants of privilege of any
nature, must be referred to the people of the district to be
affected for their adoption or rejection; and when any Act so
referred is adopted by the electorate affected, let this legisla-
tion be beyond the veto of the courts or any other power save
the people themselves. Such reform, I believe, can be adopted
and put in operation; and once in operation the people can,
by legislation which the courts cannot annul, dominate this
whole question.
The Conference adjourned until 2 o’clock, P. M.
AFTERNOON SESSION, FEBRUARY 12.
The Chairman called the conference to order at 2 p. m.
It was moved and seconded that a committee of three be
appointed to ascertain the names of delegates from each state
and apportion the seats, so that the persons representing
each state could sit together. The motion was carried.
The Chairman—I will appoint on that committee Messrs.
J. R. Finn, C. M. Peters and T. M. Thompson.
The Chairman—The first address this afternoon is from
Gov. Andrew E. Lee, of South Dakota. The Chair takes
great pleasure in introducing to you Gov. Lee, of South Dakota.
ADDRESS OF GOV. ANDREW E. LEE.
The trust problem is first and last a problem of dealing with
full grown capital. It is a problem of dealing with big money
and men fully aware of the power of big money over men with-
out money. It appears serious to us now, because, for the first
time in our history, the awful power of capital is fully dis-
closed.54
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The trust is not a new thing in its elemental make-up. It is
not the growth of a day. It is the product of a century’s
growth of money. Its sudden consolidation into immense
masses leads many to think that it is a new creation, come sud-
denly into life to enslave the people. It is, on the contrary,
the simple organization into a solid force of the capital which
our workers have been creating for a hundred years. In its
old form, unorganized and at war with itself, it appeared in a
more harmless guise; indeed it was welcomed as a blessing;
it was sought with brass bands and courted with banquets and
fawning. Now it looms into view as a devourer of the people
and a robber of their substance as well as their political liber-
ties. Its changed form has been wrought by organizing cap-
ital and capitalists.
Big men with big money have got together.
They have quit fighting each other and gone to co-
operating to rob the unorganized people, who are still fighting.
But this new force, old in its parts and modern in its aspect
and purpose, makes a vast problem which is new. We are
confronted with facts, which become clear as we see the true
nature of capital. We are face to face with conditions, not
theories. Time spent in talking of “trust” evils is valuable
only to awaken the people and teach them the historic
growth of capital and the historic outcome of a system
which disclosed itself first in the rich man, then in the corpora-
tion composed of rich men, then in combinations of incorpor-
ated companies, and finally in single monopolies joining the
forces of all the rest in one concern.
It must be understood that the so-called “trust" of today
which is to be feared is not a mere combination, but a giant
monopoly, the product of multiplication and then addition of
the several capitals of many companies. It is the concentrated
cream of the country’s labor, of which labor has been robbed!
It is the piled-up surplus of the hard work of millions of toil-
ers which small capitalists and corporations, being unable to
waste in riotous living and commercial strife as fast as it was
created, have finally massed in the hands of a few monopolists
for the further robbery of the many.GO l' ANDREW E. LEE.
S5J
The trust now embraces every line of industry, controlling
everything in its own line and reaching many others.
For instance, ,the Standard Oil Company is the leading power
in steel and iron, coal, whisky and numerous other industries
aside from oil. It dictates the operations on the Wall street
stock market and draws on the United States treasury.
We cannot look back over the past twelve months, the most
remarkable in the history of trust making, without realizing
that these great monopolies are to be fewer in number, and
that the “trust” of the future is to be a single monopoly, the
Trust of Trusts, owning and operating every line of production
and distribution and dominating, absolutely, the entire com-
mercial and political life of the republic. We are face to face
then, with a state of universal ownership of wealth and the
sources and tools of wealth production, by monopoly, sup-
plemented with the universal slavery of wealth producers. In
this view of the case, unexplained, need I argue that our future
is the most hopeless since the dawn of civilization? Need I
remind you that, viewed simply as a prospect whose scientific
reason is not generally understood, and whose logical and I may
say inevitable outcome is not yet seen, there is well grounded
fear among the people ?
The groping after remedies and the discussion of purely
surface facts which characterized most of the record of the
former session of this conference, and which has been seen
in all the newspaper and platform talk since this question be-
came of sudden and paramount importance, shows that most
of the disputants are either wholly lost or satisfied with the
present aspect of the trust. Fear and frenzy on the part of the
majority and cunning sophistry by trust owners and retainers
has been the rule. But it is clear to me, after a calm view of
the facts, that, having grown into this situation through the
natural accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few men under
a. legislative and commercial policy which has sacrificed every-
thing to the cause of money-making and capital creation, we
should be able to find a simple, logical and Orderly means of
turning all these conditions to the advantage of the whole
people without disarrangement or destruction of wealth or56
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
methods of wealth-making. It is plain to me that having
permitted a few men to take all but an existence from our
farmers and laborers in exchange for the use of capital, until
the few find themselves overloaded with money and the means
of money making and the many find themselves with no money
and no means of making a living, there is but one way out of
the difficulty, and that lies in transferring the ownership and
control of mines, machines and means of transportation and
distribution from the few to the many. Of one thing I am
certain: We shall never go back over the past to get out.
Monopoly’s forts can never be taken by flank movements.
They can never be reduced by compromise. They must be
taken by a forward movement based on common sense and
justice.
Some argue that our future lies in a retreat to the days
which preceded private monopoly. Various clumsy devices
are put forward to modify our burdens and make them
easier. Some men are continually looking backward, de-
manding the re-establishment of the little rich man, and
the small corporation. They cry out for the re-establish-
ment of competition, out of which and because of which the
present system of combination has come. They seem disposed
to demand whatever benefits there may have been or may be
to themselves in the competition of other men, but they are
unwilling to accept the fruits of that competition, seen in the
organization and combination of those who refuse longer to
waste money by a perpetual business war. All this puttering
is waste of time and brain power. We shall not return to the
stage coach, nor to the little rich man, nor to the stub railroad,
nor to any of the institutions of thirty years ago. We shall
go ahead. We could not go back if we would, and we would
not if we could, once the people understand the promise of
plenty and liberty involved in a proper use of the knowledge
which they possess.
The workmen of England once smashed the machines in
their frenzy to be rid of an invention which displaced the most
arduous hand-labor. It is only within recent years that labor
has given up hope of escaping the results of invention in itsGOV. ANDREW E. LEE.
57
application to the production of goods. ' We should be con-
sidered insane if we proposed to destroy the labor-displacing
machines of the country and return to the handicraft method
of producing goods. Nobody would listen to such nonsense,
yet the trust is no less a labor-displacing machine, because a
flesh and blood organization. You would not knock down the
machines! Why would you disorganize the scientific methods
by which machines have been organized to save time, muscle
and waste? You would not rob the race of its knowledge of
mechanics. Why should you place a bar to the organization
of mechanics? You would not contend against the saving of
time and energy. Why should you contend for the breaking
up of our improved methods of directing and administering
human energy? What is meant by the wild cry: “Smash the
trusts”? Is it the voice of reason, or is it a destructive wail
having origin in the wounded man who knows that he has been
hit but don’t know who hit him or how to escape being hit
again ?
We agree that the private monopoly is a robber of labor, a
breeder of want and a killer of conscience, and that, run to its
full conclusion, it will wipe out the middle classes and create
a great mass of dependent people.
"We do not oppose the trust because it saves time and toil.
That ought to be the chief purpose of industrial progress.
There is no sense in wasting wealth or human life and energy.
Life is hard enough and short enough in its best and highest
development. We object to the trust because there are too
few in it. We shoidd find no fault with a trust which included
all men and showered its blessings upon everybody as it now
surfeits a constantly diminishing number of people.”
What is the remedy? We cannot hope to successfully “con-
trol” capital, because capital, in private hands, will control us.
It is bound to be supreme, as it now is, under any system which
admits its existence in that form. There can be no gain in
tormenting it; and to try to “regulate” by legal restrictions
simply countenances its evils under conditions which would
not wipe out the system’s wrongs. It is the fundamental58
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
wrong of the system, not its surface aspect, which makes it
imperative to do something more than compromise with the
people’s oppressors. Licensing monopoly would be like licens-
ing train robbery. You would not get rid of the robber, nor
secure relief from his continued plundering; you would simply
recognize the robber system and admit your inability to con-
quer him. You cannot get rid of him by refusing to recognize
him in social intercourse. He has created a society for him-
self into which you cannot get, unless you are as prosperous
a robber as himself; and he looks down upon you from the
pinnacle of the “Four Hundred” and visits his scorn upon you
while he buys your public servants and despises your laws.
He fears nothing but an attack upon the system by which he
maintains his tyranny over the people. If you would reach him,
you must exterminate the whole system of robbery. When
that is done, he must go to work or become a social exile.
We may legislate against private monopoly till doomsday,
but so long as we do not deprive these institutions of their
ownership of the means of production and distribution, we
need entertain no hope that they will cease to torment us, for
experience has shown that they thrive under hostile legisla-
tion. The remedy will be found in an attack upon the system
of which these monopolies are the fruit. Revolutionize the
control of production and distribution. Make it democratic.
It is now an imperial system. Substitute public for private
ownership. Throw off private for public monopoly. Crush
the rule of money and establish the rule of men. Do not destroy
the machines, nor blot out the details for swift and perfect
handling of commodities, but make things for people to use,
not to fight over, and maybe die later for want of. Produce
and distribute wealth for the enrichment of the race; for the
gratification of needs and the satisfaction of worthy aspira-
tions. Such a policy can' be squared with the Declaration of
Independence and the Golden Rule. Such a policy will destroy
public and private rascality and give birth to a new social life
of which the people are capable when they are delivered from
the dread of starvation and death.GOV. ANDREW E. LEE.
59
How are the details to be arranged? I do not propose to
go into that. No system ever had a fixed line of unchangeable
details. Fit details will be supplied as the requirements of the
system dictate. Details'will come fast enough when the principle
has been agreed to. The details of the present system are good
enough, if the engines of capital were reversed, and put to work
for the whole people. Details are a matter of experience. No
man could have predicted fifty years ago the details of the
present business system; no man can foretell now the details
of any system fifty years hence. Details change every day,
but one thing is settled: a set of details which enriches 5 per
cent of the population at the expense of 95 per cent ought to
be put to work in behalf of the great masses as speedily as
possible. There is only one question involved in this whole
matter: “Shall the blessings of God and the ingenuity of man
be monopolized for the benefit of a constantly narrowing col-
umn of plutocrats, or shall those blessings be appropriated to
the use of the whole people ?” When that question is answered
in the interest of the majority—as it certainly will be—the
details of our new life will adjust themselves to harmonize
with the principle of equity upon which the system is built.
These propositions are met with the rejoinder that “this is
socialism.” Granted. That does not disprove, but rather con-
firms its truth. The trust is socialism—unregulated—run for
a few at the expense of the many. The problem is to change
the form of socialism. “You are a Christian” was once con-
sidered a sufficient answer to the claims of Jesus’ followers. It
did not disprove the teachings of Christ. “You are an
abolitionist” was once a powerful argument against the
abolition of chattel slavery. The sail boat twitted the steam
boat; the ox cart ridiculed the stage coach; the stage coach
made fun of the locomotive, but the facts were not changed.
The best will survive, as it has survived. Socialism must suc-
ceed capitalism in the natural order of progress.
These changes are not within the limit of an ordinary day’s
work. The conversion of production for private profit to
production for the general welfare cannot be brought about till
the Trust of Trusts-^the all-absorbing, all-dominating, all-oo
AN'I'I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
owning monopolist has taken possession of the country and
forced the people, in self defense, to expel him as this monopo-
list has in turn expelled all with whom he has been at war. The
people are slow to move and patient in- bearing burdens, but
there is evidence that they are commencing to see the hopeless-
ness of their prospects. Public ownership, already a well-
defined political issue, must soon give birth to a political party
organized to put it into force.
The process of political and economic evolution through
which the country must go before an abrupt change of system
can be made, will be marked by brutal exhibitions of trust prac-
tices. It will be marked by the smashing of laws, the proposing
of new patch work to make up the rents of the monopolies in
the statutes, and the prostitution of every branch of public
administration. It will be marked by a continued policy of for-
eign conquest, and an attempt to substitute a political empire,
with its army and tinseled institutions of force, for the Republic
of Jefferson and Lincoln.
This is the logical outcome of great wealth accumulated in a
few men’s hands. An empire of money must have an empire
in government to sustain its power over the people. The his-
tory of this period will be signalized by the further degradation
of the working people to the level of our newly acquired Asiatic
brethren, and a waste of wealth by the American plutocracy
such as history does not equal. But in good time, when they
have reached the forks of the road where one route leads to
the death of freedom and the other to liberation, the American
people will rise to the dignity of the call as they have risen to
meet every past crisis. They will exterminate the empire of
capital, expel the capital lords and erect on this continent a
system of life at once natural in its growth and in perfect har-
mony with the teachings of Christ.
ADDRESS OF JAY D. MILLER.
A few years ago the Chicago papers announced that Frank
Parmelee, who was engaged in hauling trunks and passengers
to and from railway stations in Chicago, had sold his businessJAY D. MILLER.
61
for $1,000,000. None of his competitors enjoyed extraordinary
success. With an earning power of $100 per month, it would
have required the service of any one of his competitors for
more than 830 years to earn $1,000,000.
Inquiry into the cause of Parmelee’s prosperity shows that
he enjoyed a monopoly based upon the special privilege of
entering all trains on all roads centered in Chicago, to solicit
the business of passengers, which privilege was denied all com-
petitors. This case is cited not for the purpose of complaining
of Mr. Parmelee, but to illustrate that a special privilege may
be just as effective in the hands of an individual as a corpora-
tion. Also, to further show that the basis of monopoly is not
the corporation, but special privilege.
The magnificent falls of the St. Louis River are located at
the very doors of the splendid cities of Duluth and Superior,
and furnish ample power to turn the wheels of industry of an
empire. The people have long desired to use this gift of the
Creator, but an Eastern speculator living hundreds of miles
away obtained title. Neither he nor any of his grantors ever
did anything to make it valuable. He cared nothing for the
water power and has never used it. What he really wanted
and obtained was legal power rather than water power. Fifty
years ago the American slave owner wanted his slave, not be-
cause he cared for the slave, but because ownership gave him
legal power to appropriate the result of the slave’s labor. This
Duluth water power speculator obtained the same thing that
the slave owner formerly had, to wit: legal power to com-
mand and appropriate to his own use the product of the labor
of others without giving them anything in return. According
to press reports he now declines to use this water power, or
to get out of the manger and permit others to do so, unless
they pay him $1,000,000 and thus permit him to levy a charge
upon commerce for all time. This case is mentioned not for
the purpose of complaining of the owner, but to further show
that legal privilege conferred by a land grant may produce a
monopoly which is just as effective in the hands of an individ-
ual as a corporation.
There is no reason why persons may not form a co-partner-
ship and they again with others form a larger co-partnershipANTl-l KUST CUNEEKENCE.
U2
or they may incorporate and this corporation may be consol-
idated with other corporations, but so long as they enjoy no
special privilege, either directly or indirectly, any attempted
monopoly will be comparatively short-lived and successfully
overtaken by competition.
Special privilege exists in different forms, prominent
among which are:
1.	Permission given to individuals or corporations to exer-
cise functions of government, such as railroads, telegraphs and
pipe-lines.
2.	Second-hand privileges extended by those who exercise
functions of government, such as discriminating railroad rates
and other favors.
3.	Privileges in natural resources resulting in land monop-
oly.
4.	Protective tariff.
5.	Patents.
Before proceeding further let us divert and inquire (using
the light shed by the leading political economists) why govern-
ment is organized and what are its necessary functions? The
fact that government exists plainly indicates that something
existed before government. Man then engaged in the most
simple occupations and exchanged the products of his labor
for the products of the labor of others. This is civilization.
It precedes all government and is denominated by political
economists the body economic. History shows that in the de-
velopment of this body economic there has existed a universal
tendency of the selfish and piratical to impose upon and disre-
gard the rights of the weak and unsuspecting. Therefore the
latter have always found it necessary to organize the body
politic, called government: Thus the body politic grows from
that greater thing called civilization or the body economic.
Political economists agree that government may be swept away
and society will continue to exist, but to destroy the body
economic would instantly destroy civilization. The people
should understand that the unfortunate consequences to the
body economic which may result from permitting the selfish
pirates of society to exercise functions of government canJAY D. MILLER.	63
scarcely be overestimated. The necessary functions of gov-
ernment are:
1.	Exercise of police power.
2.	To establish and maintain highways.
3.	To establish and maintain a land tenure.
The first function of government, police power, is necessary,
because order must be established and men must be protected
in the enjoyment of what they produce; otherwise, they will
not produce to the fullest extent.
The second necessary function of government is to estab-
lish and maintain highways so that people may freely move
about and transport property and transmit intelligence.
The United States Supreme Court said in Alcott vs. Super-
visors, 16 Wallace, p. 678:
“That railroads, though constructed by private corpora-
tions and owned by them are public highways.” This decision
has repeatedly been confirmed by the same court.
Permitting individuals or corporations to own and operate
railroad highways or telegraph highways gives them a special
privilege to exercise functions of government and upon this
privilege such monopolies are based. This is as indefensible
as to permit them to own and control common roads or streets,
which would enable them to determine the price and terms on
which the people might walk or ride, with power to discriminate.
According to the statistical reports of the Interstate Com-
mercial Commission the railroads of this country are mort-
gaged for all that they cost. These mortgages bear on an
average at least five per cent interest; hence the people of the
United States in twenty years pay for railway service, in inter-
est alone (exclusive of dividends) one hundred per cent, which
equals the full cost of reproducing all the railroads in America.
During the succeeding twenty years they repeat the dose and
under private ownership will continue to do so until the end of
time. Thus each generation pays in interest alone the full cost
of the railroads almost twice.
It is the established policy of the railroads of America con-
tinually to carry this excessive bonded indebtedness while pay-
ing dividends on watered stock, instead of applying earnings
to the payment of mortgages.i>4
ANT1-TKUST LUNbbKbNLb.
The first mortgage bonds of the West Shore Railroad
run 475 years, being dated December 5, 1885, and maturing
in the year A. D. 2361, and other lines are bonding, evidently
with the fixed intention of placing the people and their descend-
ants in industrial slavery for generations and centuries to
come by absorbing a sufficient amount of their earnings to
repeatedly pay for these railroads and also dividends on wa-
tered stocks. In fact, under this unfortunate system, one of
the chief occupations of the people of America in the future
will be to continue to pay for the railroads again and again;
but though they are often paid for by the people, the people
never acquire title.
Mr. Justice Brown, of the Supreme Court of the United
States, contributed an article to the Forum for August, 1895
(page 649), in which he says:
“If the government may be safely entrusted with the trans-
mission of our letters and papers, I see no reason why it
may not also be trusted with the transmission of our telegrams
and parcels, as is almost universally the case in Europe, or of
our passengers and freight through a state ownership of rail-
ways, as in Germany, France, Austria, Sweden and Norway.
If the state owns its highways, why may it not also own its
railways?” He then shows that “the tendency of modern
legislation” is toward government ownership of natural monop-
olies “in nearly every highly civilized state but our own, where
great corporate interests, by putting prominently forward the
dangers of paternalism and socialism, have succeeded in secur-
ing franchises which properly belong to the public.”
Government ownership of railways has proved suc-
cessful in all countries where tried, and the Prussian gov-
ernment pays one-half of all its expenses from profits realized
from operating its railroads. (See United States consular re-
ports.) In countries having government ownership, all per-
sons go to market on the same terms. According to state-
ments of members of the Interstate Commerce Commission,
no such equality of opportunity exists in America.JAY D. MILLER.
65
The experience of Mr. George Rice, of Marietta, Ohio,
with the Standard Oil Company, gives a practical demonstra-
tion of the kind of discrimination that enables the benefi-
ciaries to establish great colleges and universities. The fol-
lowing important facts came to light in the circuit court of
the United States, southern district of Ohio, eastern division,
in case of Handy et al. Trustees, versus The Cleveland &
Marietta Railroad Company et al., which is set forth at some
length in Professor Ely’s “Problems of Today,” p. 203.
“The arrangement was that on oil shipped from Macksburg
to Marietta, Mr. Rice should pay thirty-five cents a barrel and
the Standard Oil Company ten cents, but that of the thirty-five
cents collected from Mr. Rice, twenty-five should be turned
over to the Standard Oil Co.”
The car lot rate on canned fruits, meats and vegetables
from Chicago to Hong Kong, China, during the last year,
has been seventy-five cents per hundred pounds, while the
car lot rate on the same commodities from Chicago to Spo-
kane, Washington, has been one dollar and thirty cents per
hundred pounds. Similar discrimination in favor of foreign
manufactured articles and other foreign commodities consti-
tutes the rule instead of the exception.
The failure of the United States government to perform
one of its necessary functions has placed it in the humiliating
position of paying rent each year for postal cars, in excess
of the cost of the cars, and in addition, one hundred and
sixty dollars per ton for carrying the mail.
Government ownership of telegraph exists in all the princi-
pal progressive countries in the world except the United States.
If we should base our opinion upon the method of raising
war tax on our telegrams and the extortionate rates paid for
carrying mails, may we not reasonably conclude that the tele-
graph and railway companies largely control the government
of the United States?
Government ownership of railroads and telegraphs would,siiv i i-± i\.v± C/ wi\rc,i\c,iy
under civil service, remove from politics that corporation influ-
ence which now is and in the future will be almost an irresist-
ible force.
On the fifth day of the present month (February, 1900)
Henry Watterson said editorially in the Louisville Courier
Journal that “in the recent state campaign the Louisville &
Nashville Ry. Co. supplied material resources in such abund-
ance as to draw out all the dangerous elements of society
and to put into activity all the forces of political adventure
and the head and front of all our present troubles in Kentucky
is the Louisville & Nashville Ry. Co.”
In his book entitled “The Railway Problem,” Mr. A. B.
Stickney, president of the Chicago Great Western Railway,
shows the power of railways to tax, and says that the small
increase in freight rates of one mill per ton per mile will
annually increase the revenue of the C. & N. W. R. R. Co.
$1,804,701, C. M. & St. P. R.- R. Co., $1,620,923, N. Y. C. &
H. R. R. R. Co., $2,775,582, Pennsylvania & Ft. Wayne rail-
roads, $5,470,108. It should be regarded by the American
-people as significant at this time in our political history, that
on the first day of the present year the principal railway freight
associations of this country entered into an agreement whereby
freight rates have been enormously increased, which increase,
according to telegraphic commercial reports, varies on dif-
ferent articles from fifteen to sixty per cent. The surplus
political campaign fund which it may be possible to raise from
such an increase in freight rates is enough not only to bewilder
and confuse, but to debauch a nation of patriots.
We now refer to the third function of government, which
is to establish a land tenure. All men must live on and from
land. If, therefore, government fails to establish a just land
tenure the most fearful consequences must necessarily follow.
What enables a few coal barons to rob eighty millions of
people and prevent thousands of miners and large amounts
of capital from obtaining employment? Nothing but the factJAY D. MILLER.
67
that under our present laws it is profitable to buy or lease
coal lands to hold out of use and prevent others from using
them. The same condition exists in the coal fields; the oil
fields; the iron fields and copper fields.
In order to destroy the coal, iron, copper, oil, and water
power trusts as well as every other trust which exists by
legal privilege resulting in land monopoly it is only neces-
sary to heed and act upon the unanswerable logic of Henry
George. Let us recognize the great truth that whatever the
individual earns belongs to him and that whatever values the
community produces belong to it. Unimproved ground values
are not the product of individual effort, but result from the
presence and activity of population. These values are pro-
duced by and belong to the community, but to no individuals
The community has this great fund from which to pay its
public burdens. It is therefore wrong and immoral for the
government to refuse to take from that fund to pay the pub-
lic burden and while so refusing to levy its taxes upon the
products of labor. If all taxation were removed from build-
ings, machinery and all other products of industry and levied
upon unimproved ground values it would no longer be profit-
able to own or lease coal, copper, oil, iron and gas lands or
water power for the purpose of holding them out of use.
When such legislation is adopted land speculators who have
been limiting both the output of the mines and the opportuni-
ties for labor and capital will call in the workers. The prod-
uct of the mines will thereafter only be limited by the demand
and labor and capital as well as the consumer will be corre-
spondingly benefited.
Buckle in his “History of Civilization in England,” Vol. 1,
p. 56, says:
“There is no instance on record of any class possessing
power without abusing it.”
This was written fifty years ago. It was true when written, it
is true now and always will be true, because selfishness is inher-68
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ent in man. Monopoly in private hands is power born of legal
privilege. It is not natural power, nor the result of natural law.
On the contrary it is the logical result of unnatural law. It
is not the result of natural evolution, but the fruit of inhuman
law made in direct violation of the laws of the Creator. The
exercise of the power of legal privileges, which is now arous-
ing the just indignation of society in all lands, merely con-
firms the words of Buckle. We should remember that the
power of the monstrous combinations of today, which
are universally harmful, lies not in capital but in legal privi-
lege; therefore the withdrawal of all legal privileges will de-
stroy the unnatural advantage which they enjoy over com-
petitors and render them powerless for harm.
If there are those who have been taught to regard the
present combinations of special privilege with approval, and
are lulling themselves to sleep with the idea that these mon-
sters are the result of natural evolution, let them beware!
Let them more closely discriminate between that which is cap-
ital engaged in production and that which is not capital, but
special privilege. Every right-minded, intelligent citizen will
endeavor to encourage and promote the employment of labor
and capital. Special privilege on the other hand is the per-
sistent enemy of both labor and capital. The power of spe-
cial privilege to entirely prohibit labor and capital gaining
access to the bounties of nature is well illustrated in the Duluth
water power; in the coal fields of Pennsylvania the same kind
of legal privilege limits the opportunity of labor and capital
to supply the demand of consumers and levies upon society
such price for coal as may be deemed.necessary to appease
the greed of its conscienceless holders. If idleness produced
wealth, we could readily understand why so little wealth escapes
through the cracks to those below; but all wealth is produced
by labor. How then is it possible that those who do so little
get so much ?
One of the professors of the University of Chicago recentlyJAY D. MILLER.
69
stated in a public lecture that one per cent of the people now
own more than half the wealth of America and that eighty-
seven per cent of the people have almost nothing.
What is the power which engulfs the workers in this slough
of poverty and brings to idlers these mountains of riches?
It is not capital but special privilege.
The city of London contains an Astor who has renounced
his native land and sworn allegiance to the queen. He holds
and uses the legal power to compel some of the American
people to pay him millions of dollars annually, as bare ground
rent for the privilege of living in their own country.
In England lives Lord Scully who collects from the farmers
of Illinois an amount reputedly in excess of one hundred
thousand dollars annually as unimproved ground rent for the
privilege of a chance to earn a livelihood. What do Astor
and Scully give their tenants in return for bare, unimproved
ground rent? They do not give the ground, the Creator did
that; they do not give them government, the State does that;
they give them absolutely nothing.
Can we now understand what power it is that gives the
earnings of the workers of Illinois and America to monopo-
•listic loafers in a foreign land? It is special legal privilege
resulting in land monopoly. The remedy for this form of
monopoly lies in removing all taxes from products of industry
and levying the same on unimproved ground values.
Another form of special privilege is the protective tariff,
the monopoly value of which is, under modern methods capi-
talized and absorbed in dividends, while the laborers employed
are subject to the open competition of the world. This form
of monopoly is evidenced by the sugar trust, the paper trust,
and hundreds of other trusts.
The form of monopoly growing from the patent office is
familiar to all. If the inventor who obtains the protection
of the government should be required to permit all persons to
use the invention upon the same terms, as a condition prece-7o.
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
dent to the issuance of the patent, which terms shall be fixed
by the inventor and made a public record at the time of apply-
ing for the patent, subject to change of terms at stated periods,
to be made by him or his assigns, which change shall apply
equally to all persons who may desire to use the patent, the
same to be recorded in the patent office, monopoly growing
out of future patents would be impossible, and inventors would
be fully encouraged and protected.
There is no way to monopolize lake or ocean traffic, except
through dock and wharf privileges, or through gifts from the
government, called subsidies. The Payne-Hanna subsidy bill,
now pending before Congress, will, if adopted, create such a
monopoly.
We should not blame or envy the holders of privileges. If
it is right to grant a special privilege, it is also right that
the grantee and his assigns should use it to the fullest extent.
If it is not right to give such grants, then the people alone
are at fault, for they have the power to correct the evil.
In my judgment the most important sign of the present
hour lies in the fact that the great masses of the people now
understand that the present unequal distribution of wealth is
rapidly resulting in correspondingly unequal distribution of’
power, and hence the immediate necessity for action intelli-
gently directed.
The holders of great privileges are evidently deeply con-
cerned because of the approaching contest, and in the future
their efforts will doubtless be concentrated to divert the public
mind from the real issue.
But the people should recollect that no great fundamental
reform in history has ever come from the ruling or highly
educated classes, but always from those who have been pinched
by poverty. History shows that the greatest reformation in
the annals of England and to which the Anglo-Saxon race
largely owes its present measure of political and religious lib-
erty, was accomplished by men who filled the common stationsJAY D. MILLER.
71
in life. It was an uprising from the very foundation, and
those commonly called the “dregs of society,” defeated the
royalists everywhere. Joyce, the tailor; Pride, the drayman;
Venner, the cooper; Tuffnel, the carpenter; Okey, the fireman;
Deane, the servant, and Cromwell the brewer with other trades-
men gained control of Parliament and wielded an influence on
behalf of the people which will continue to radiate until the
end of time, i
. Buckley says (Vol. i, p. 251) that Oxford University has
“always been esteemed as the refuge of superstition.” This
should serve to warn the people against the blighting influence
of holders of special privilege who seek, through endowments,
to control the educational policy of colleges and universities.
Is it not possible and even probable, that we are breeding a
class of educational institutions which are looking for more
endowments rather than for truth? Are they not rapidly
becoming a refuge for the support and protection of special
privilege ?
At the recent Chicago conference on trusts, representa-
tives of heavily endowed universities artfully and eloquently
endeavored to educate the public to believe that the remedy for
monopoly is publicity, without uttering a word in favor of
removing or abrogating the privileges on which monopoly is
based.
According to press report leading politicians are now about
to submit for the approval of the people, platforms advocating
publicity, and regulation of corporations as a remedy for
monopoly, and John D. Rockefeller recognizing this as the
best method of throwing “dust” in the people’s eyes, recently
gave this scheme his indorsement in his testimony before the
industrial commission. Rockefeller is happy because he sees
that the politicians of both parties are about to “pull the
wrong tooth.” In solving this problem the people must ever
remember and keep before them the fact that special privi-72
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
lege is the fortress to which constant and successful siege must
be laid. Nothing short of this is worthy the serious considera-
tion of intelligent, candid men.
ADDRESS OF DR. Gr. H. SHERMAN.
The purpose of this conference, I take it, is not so much to
decry the trusts as to provide means for protection against
their evil results. We are here not to diagnose the disease,
but to carefully consider and discuss the remedies at hand.
The fact that so many mature thinking men, from all walks
of life, have considered it necessary to interrupt their work, to
leave their business for days, and come from far and near and
in the dead of winter to this conference, shows conclusively,
not only, that the evil is widespread but also generally recog-
nized as destructive of the economic independence and political
rights of the individual citizen as well as the free institutions
of our government.
I shall, therefore, not take up your time in going into the
details of the wrongs and sufferings we bear; I shall not here
describe the symptoms of the disease, with which we all are
acquainted; nor point out the iniquity of a system which, under
private ownership, by the removal of all competition enslaves
alike producer and consumer; but if we are to look for and find
a remedy we must, in the first place, inquire and ascertain the
cause of the disease.
I am no orator, but simply a doctor of medicine. I desire the
privilege to express myself in language and terms best known
to me; should therefore my figures of speech be too professional
I hope you will pardon them.
Many a time have I stood at the bedside of a dying patient
and wrestled honestly for the life which I knew was passing
away. Should I do less for this nation—my mother country—
which bore me, which nurtured me, of which I am part? Dis-
ease is but a change; the one now permeating this nation must
soon reach vital parts. The lancing of some of the boils, by
means of judiciary and legislative investigations, has not
removed the evil but only revealed the nauseating corruption.DR. GEORGE H. SHERMAN.
73
Politicians, ever ready to serve vested rights and special priv-
ileges, are endeavoring to hide the, festering sores under star
spangled banner plasters, stuck on with paper; they are apply-
ing their soothing lotions of a counterfeit prosperity, com-
pounded of bonds, mortgages and war taxes; they are urging
the nation to swallow their intoxicating drug of imperialism,
in order that in the delirium thus produced the nation may not
feel the fatal change going on.
These are the conditions as they present themselves to my
view, but the cause of the disease is to be found in the progress
of civilization, in the change now going on in our economic
system from the independent tradesmen, farmers and artisans
of a generation or two ago—who owned their stock of goods,
lands, tools, etc.—to the corporations, syndicates and trusts
who dominate our industries and our commerce today.
There is no denying the fact that this transition has already
taken place; that it was occasioned by the development of labor
saving machinery, better methods in the division of labor, wiser
regulation and control of production to consumption and, last
but not least, by the centralization of capital.
The inevitable result is now before us in the new system
for the production and distribution of commodities which
tends in the one direction to debase labor.
By means of aforesaid improvements labor has been saved
to such an extent that it has become a drug in the market;
we are all aware of the fact that the percentage of labor saved
on the one hand represents an equal percentage of enforced
idleness on the other; and that, as labor is the only means of an
honest livelihood for our citizens, it has ceased to be their in-
herent right and has become a privilege. The inauguration of
the trust means, not only, the removal of competition, a safer
investment and higher dividends to capital—but much more,
a fiercer competition, lower wages and inferior conditions of
labor. While wealth accumulates in the hands of a few, the
army of the unemployed swells in proportion; both effectively
engaged in reconstructing society and government on a differ-
ent basis. I, therefore, say again that in this direction the
trusts have a debasing influence on labor and consequently on74
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
our people, as they make it impossible for the worker to own his
tools. Thus by-depriving him of the ability to apply his labor,
they destroy his economic independence. A citizen thus de-
pending on someone else for the privilege to live cannot be
politically free.
In the other direction, that of capital, the incoming system
is making the most rapid progress. It is in this direction that
the greed of gain induced the individual business man and
employer to adopt the principle of co-operation. The individual
had to give way to the corporation, which in its turn is super-
seded by the syndicate or trust. And this centralization of
capital, of wealth, of power must inevitably—and this is as
inexorable as the law of gravitation—culminate in the one
gigantic corporate body, “The Government.”
In dealing with this problem of the trusts we are really deal-
ing with the great social problem, imperatively demanding to
be solved. Who is to solve it? Is it to be solved by the people
in its own interest or by the owners of the trust in theirs?
Shall we, as a people, retrace our steps in civilization or ad-
vance? These are really the questions now before us. Mr.
Chairman, I submit that I believe in the words of Abraham
Lincoln: “This should be a government of the people, by the
people, for the people”; and not that it should be a government
of the people, by the politicians for the trusts. I believe in the
people; I believe that majority rule is the only just rule, be-
cause what the majority wants suits the greatest number and
is a safer guide than minority rule. Minority rule, as exempli-
fied by the trusts, carried out to its logical conclusion leads to
imperialism, leads to monarchy. I believe the problem before
us should be solved by the people in its own interest.
The pressing need of the hour is a suitable vehicle by means
of which the will of the people can make itself manifest. Direct
legislation would be that vehicle. I draw your attention to
the fact that the people is the only power able to solve this
problem correctly. That every other means, whether by legis-
lative, judiciary or executive efforts, must fail because the
tremendous power to be controlled will inevitably control the
controller. Karl Burkli, the Swiss authority, says:DR. GEORGE H. SHERMAN.
75
“Experience has taught the ruling class the great advantage
they derive from political forms favorable to themselves and
they will, surely, do all they can to prevent the adoption of a
form of government abolishing their privileges as rulers.
Socialism, even of the most radical kind, has no dangers for
them as long as the political fulcrum is missing to the social
lever.” Social reform is condemned to remain in a state of
theory until the right means are found to put it into practice,
and these means can be no other than, above all, to bring about
a governmental reform of such a nature that the laws shall
henceforth be made by the voice of all the citizens and no
longer according to the wishes of a privileged few.
Thomas Jefferson says: Sometimes it is said that man can
not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then
be trusted with the government of others ? Or have we found
angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history
answer.
Does the past history of legislatures, city councils or Con-
gress show in them any divine gift or superior wisdom that en-
titles them to govern the people as the “people’s representa-
tives” rather than that the people should govern themselves
directly? If the people are unfit to vote on measures con-
cerning them, are they fit to vote at all? When a man votes
on a measure it is within his power to know what he is voting
on; when he votes 'for a candidate he votes an unknown quan-
tity, for God only knows the mind of man and knows how the
candidate will act, under all circumstances, after his election.
Direct legislation is not only a return to first principles, a
simple and economic tool in effectively removing and pre-
venting the corruption of our agents and representatives, a
destroyer of the enormously expensive quasi governmental
party machinery, but far more it is the greatest educatory
force ever known. By means of the initiative petition a
minority is enabled to present new ideas, new issues embodied
as measures or laws, and force all voters to take action on them.
In deciding these questions the voter’s self-interest and sense
of justice will prevail. These two powerful factors force the
voter to inform himself.76
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE,
Direct legislation will be the instrument in the hands of the
people to create new forms and laws, not according to precon-
ceived social theories or the interests of any ruling class, but
according to the real wants of all the people as they make
themselves felt.
And now, perhaps, it will be proper for me to state how
direct legislation may be applied, and how it is proposed to
bring it about.
Direct legislation is simply an extension of the right of
petition so that when a certain (say five) per cent of the voters
of any district (town, city, county, state or union) have signed
a petition and filed the same with the proper officials, it be-
comes a mandate for these officials to submit the matter peti-
tioned for at the next election in similar manner as is now done
in voting on constitutional amendments.
Here, again, I draw your attention to the very important
difference between laws made by representatives and laws thus
made by the people direct. Laws enacted by the people direct
occupy the same ground as the Constitution; they are, in fact,
and de jure, part of the Constitution; no legislative body can
alter or amend them; no mayor, governor or president veto
them; no court declare them unconstitutional. Whenever a
trust succeeded in removing all competition and thus became
a monopoly, a petition would bring it before the court of last
resort-—the sovereign people. The people would decide whether
or not that monopoly was a public utility to be owned and
operated by and in the interest of the people. The people
could not be bribed; errors might be made but they would be
corrected as soon as discovered.
The solving of the trust problem involves a number of com-
plex questions of municipal, state and national concern. These
cannot be solved in job lots. The people most concerned will
deal with each one separately, they will do it most intelligently
and effectively. As long as these questions are to be dealt with
by irresponsible representatives, we will have the lobbyist, the
corruptionist, the political boss and tool of corporate interests.
As long as political parties and promises of party candidates
must be depended upon to decide these issues the people areDR. GEORGE H. SHERMAN.
77
powerless. The history of the world abundantly proves that
law is but a written expression of the interest of the law
giver.
The prevailing system of parties constructing their platform
of many planks makes it impossible for a voter who favors one
or more planks, and is opposed to others, or who is strongly in
sympathy with a plank of an antagonistic party, to vote his
convictions. In the interest of equal rights to all should not
such a voter, generally the most intelligent, have as good a
right to vote according to his conviction as the undiscriminating
partisan? If the issue is separated from the candidate no such
difficulty can arise, every citizen can vote according to his con-
victions ; now they have to lump it in job lots.
I admit that the masses of our fellow citizens must be
aroused, must be educated on social and economical questions,
so they may meet the exigency as it arises; but of what avail
is this all if no provision is made that the will of the people
may express itself intelligently and be enacted into law?
There is only one way by which direct legislation can be
brought about, and that is by amending the Constitution.
Amendments have been before the legislatures of most states,
but, as legislators and politicians are shorn of their power
thereby, and as it requires a two-third majority in each house,
only few have adopted, and only one, South Dakota, has rati-
fied such an amendment. Political heelers and pap-seekers,
and all those desirous of office “for what is in it,” lobbyists,
corruptionists and their employers, are invariably, and it is
immaterial to what party they may belong, against direct legis-
lation and may be depended upon to side-track the issue when-
ever possible. Very few dare oppose it openly before the peo-
ple, for as fatal as it is to their interests as beneficial is it to the
welfare of the people. This is now so generally recognized
that it needs no argument to convince the voter, a simple ex-
planation of how the system of direct legislation works, to
decrease the power of the official and increase that of the ballot,
is sufficient. There is no difference of opinion among American
citizens on this question, it is outside of all party lines, and,
therefore, the greatest vote getter. But it would have to be78
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
made the only issue, the doctrine laid down in the Declaration
of Independence its only preamble.
This, then, Mr. Chairman, is the remedy we seek. Direct
legislation by the citizens; a single issue which disposes of all
others. This conference should declare for it unequivocally
so that leaders of the political parties will thoroughly under-
stand that this issue is no longer to be side-tracked but that if
they do not take it up we will appeal to the people direct.
ADDRESS OF T. CARL SPELLING.
The far-reaching evils of that form of monopoly known as
trusts have been or will be fully pointed out by others. The
subject to which the best thoughts of statesmanship will be
directed is that of remedies. I shall confine myself to a brief
discussion of the existing statute, which passed Congress, and
was approved July 2, 1890. If the Fifty-first Congress had in-
tended to gain credit for striking a blow at the trusts under
false pretenses, it would not have acted differently than
by passing that erroneously prefixed Anti-Trust Bill. It did
not even frighten the trusts; perhaps it was not intended that
it should. It attempts to. create and punish an offense not
previously known to the laws of the United States as criminal,
nor even to the common law, except when the act sought to be
made an offense was the culmination of a conspiracy, and to do
this by language so vague and general that the courts found
omissions large enough to let through “coaches and fours.”
To point out all the shortcomings and defects of the act
would require considerable circumlocution, but some of them
ought to be specified: First, it is in its main features a criminal
statute and imposes only one fine for each offense regardless of
its magnitude or duration, so that the greater the evil the less
fear of punishment and the less grievous when inflicted. The
act does not provide, as any criminal statute on the subject
should, that even the small penalty of $5,000 shall be inflicted
for each day’s continuance of the offense, or that each day’s
maintenance of the trust after conviction shall constitute a
separate offense. Consequently, the Sugar Trust, with itsT. CARL SPELLING.
79
capitalization of $75,000,000 and its annual income of $10,000,-
000 can, by the payment of one fine of $5,000 for each of the
corporations and firms composing it, go on to the accomplish-
ment of its objects with perfect immunity from further prose-
cution.
Second. There is no provision for restraining the mainte-
nance and continuing to operate the trust, but only to restrain
persons from violating the provisions of the Act—that is, from
entering into monopolistic agreements or contracts in restraint
of trade. Whatever the intention may have been, nothing is
said about restraining the maintenance or continued operation
of the trust or monopoly or restraining the carrying out of
the restrictive contract after being made. The difficulties in
the way of anticipating the making of the restrictive contract—
that is, of creating the trust, are obvious. Was it expected
when a number of manufacturers had come to a secret under-
standing that before reducing it to form and making the
necessary transfers they would go and lay all the facts before,
and expose their designs to, the proper law officer of the
government, in order to give him an opportunity to apply
for an injunction before it was too late? This narrowness in'
the scope of the Act also operates as a shield against prose-
cution for restrictive contracts and combinations entered into
before it took effect, so that some of the most oppressive and
extensive combinations, those whose extortions and burdens
had been most felt and complained of, were exempted from
punishment or restraint in their operations just as effectually
as if the statute had said so in so many words, and had been
entitled “An Act to protect the Sugar trust, the Standard Oil
trust and the several steel and iron trusts, and to punish and
restrain their future competitors.”
Third. But the most serious defect, and one which is inher-
ent in every line and section of the Act, is the failure to specify
what acts and agreements shall constitute restraint of trade,
monopoly, trust, etc. It is as if an act should provide that any
person, guilty of long continued idleness, should be punished
as a vagabond, without defining either “long continued idle-
ness” or vagrancy, these being terms unknown in criminal8o
4NTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
*
sense to the laws of the federal government. Is it any wonder
that President Harrison’s Attorney General instituted few
prosecutions and no proceedings to restrain trusts, and that
President McKinley’s Attorney General has done little or
nothing ?
All these shortcomings of that Act have been pointed out
or indicated from time to time by the courts, either expressly
or by the logic of judicial decisions which were almost with-
out exception favorable to the offending trusts. And yet the
President in his message delivered to Congress on the 5th day
of last December said, in reference to it, that “the provisions
of this statute are comprehensive and stringent/' and then he
quotes approvingly from the last message of President Cleve-
land as follows: “The fact must be recognized, however, that
all federal legislation on this subject may fall short of its
purpose because of inherent obstacles, and also because of the
complex character of our governmental system, which, while
making the federal authority supreme within its sphere, has
carefully limited that sphere by metes and bounds which can-
not be transgressed.” President McKinley then suggests what
he considers serious difficulties in the way of relief by State
legislation; nevertheless he strongly intimates that congres-
sional action within constitutional limitations should merely
supplement State legislation on the subject, and closes by
recommending serious consideration of the subject, but with-
out any definite suggestion whatever.
It would seem that if there are doubts they should be
resolved in favor of the people and against their enemies, the
trusts. The President need have no fear that the courts will
fail to extend to the trusts whatever protection the letter and
spirit of the constitution warrants when it comes to the con-
struction of an act of Congress.
But I beg leave to disagree with the President and his con-
stitutional adviser on the proposition that Congress does not
under the constitution possess ample power to provide remedies
for the trust evil. Harsh legislation against trusts is fully
warranted as police regulation. The subordination of all
private interests to the purposes of good government, subjectDr. Geo. H. Sherman.
Warren Worth Bailey.
Carter H. Harrison.
Dudley G. Wooten.
T. Carl Spelling.FRANK IV. ELLIOTT.
81
only to the condition that the object to be accomjflished shall
be one in which the public has an interest, is no longer an open
question. In its general bearing this principle is too well
settled and uniformly recognized—underlying the adjudica-
tions by courts in all cases involving constitutional provisions—
to require more than a mere statement. But whether justified
upon the ground of being police regulation or general legis-
lation for securing the welfare of society, or the regulation of
interstate commerce, it is evident that Congress has the power
to make all laws necessary to protect the great community of
the Union from all forms of injustice and oppression, as fully
as it may provide for the stamping out and checking of
epidemics, and regidate the administration of justice.
Sovereignty reserves at all times and under all circum-
stances the plenary power to prohibit everything hurtful to
the comfort, safety and welfare of society. It may be exer-
cised to control the use of property, of corporations and
individuals. Laws passed for the common good and necessary
for the protection of the public cannot be said to impair any
right, or the obligation of any contract, or to do any injury
in the proper and legal sense of the term. And, although it
may be conceded that Congress cannot appropriate private
property without making due compensation, it would be repug-
nant not only to reason, but to the spirit of the constitution,
to say that while Congress cannot do this, yet it has power to
prevent persons, natural or artificial, from taking for private
use, without adequate compensation, indirectly through con-
spiracy and secret combination, and by means of extortion,
that which the Government cannot itself take, except upon
the return of its just value. These remarks apply to all forms
of monopoly.
ADDRESS OP FRANK W. ELLIOTT.
In every civilization of every age of which we have any
record, either written or traditional, the same crisis as the
present has been reached, but under different circumstances.
When civilization had reached a certain stage the oppression82
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of the ruling classes became so great as to result in revolution
or rebellion. If the uprising proved successful it was a revo-
lution; if it was suppressed, then it was a rebellion. If it
proved a revolution, then civilization made mighty onward
strides, the country progressed, the intellect broadened, the
arts and sciences flourished, and the noble sentiments of human
liberty and progress were cherished. If it proved a rebellion,
then progress turned to retrogression, the fatal blight of indus-
trial slavery settled over the land, the arts and sciences
dwindled, civil wars and religious bigotry and intolerance suc-
ceeded, civilization declined, and all of the nobler sentiments
of the human heart and soul were crushed and strangled.
Those patriots who escaped the wrath of the ruling powers
fled to unexplored worlds, there to found new empires which
would grow and flourish, become powerful and intolerant, and
finally sink into decay. Thus may we trace civilization’s
course through all the ag^s of the past, from China and Japan
to Persia and to Rome; from Greece and Gaul down to the
states of western Europe. These, too, became oppressive,
and the patriots sought a refuge on the shores of the continent
which Columbus had discovered. Here, too, oppression fol-
lows swift upon the wings of civilization’s flight. You and I
must meet and solve the problem of the ages. The problems
which our ancestors escaped by flight to shores unknown, you
and I must meet and solve. There is no escape. No worlds
remain undiscovered. The effete civilization of the Oriental
East meets the progressive civilization of the mighty West.
We have circumnavigated the globe. We have bound it round
with bands of steel, o’er which the cars of progress roll. We
have chained the lightning to the earth, and you may have
at your breakfast table on the morrow the happenings of the
world today. The material progress of the last fifty years
has been as wonderful as the moral retrogression, which, like
a black and threatening cloud, seems destined to overwhelm
the civilization of this age, turn progress to retrogression, and
sink all the nobler sentiments of the human heart and soul
in the. slimy depths of sordid selfishness and greed. In this
battle of the ages is concerned a question of transcendantFRANK W. ELLIOTT.
83
importance. As compared with it the slavery question sinks
into insignificance. The slavery question was local. It was
limited to this country. The question of modern commercial
combination is world wide and its final determination may,
and probably will, involve a readjustment of the whole social
fabric.
The possession of wealth gives power, social as well as
financial, and, what is more important and more ominous, it
gives political power as well. The consolidation of wealth
everywhere taking place on a stupendous scale, means the
concentration of power in private hands, and vast power
can never be safely entrusted in the hands of a few; there is
no affinity between political democracy and commercial aris-
tocracy. Either the one or the other must perish from the
earth. Landlords, Coal Kings, Oil Kings, Money Kings,
Railway Kings and a hundred other kings, who make up our
commercial aristocracy, are as inimical to a democratic form
of government as any king or queen of royal purple and golden
crown and scepter. “The trust question is merely one phase
of one which is still deeper, namely: what shall be the action
of organized society toward consolidated capital? The trust
is merely an advanced stage of a movement as old as civili-
zation itself. The partnership was the first step, and that
step was the result of natural law. It was discovered at an
early date that larger capital under one harmonious manage-
ment could be more profitably employed than could the same
amount of capital in independent and competing establish-
ments. Next came the corporation, which is merely another
form of the same thing. The same natural cause which pro-
duced the partnership gave to us the corporation. Though
in existence hundreds of \ears ago, the increase in number
and magnitude of these forms of consolidated wealth within
the past generation has been beyond precedent. Their forma-
tion was due to the fact that there was a natural demand for
them. The resulting benefit to the world has been enormous.
No man can consistently oppose the consolidation of capital
and proclaim the undeniable benefit of labor-saving machinery
at the same time. Trusts and monopolies are but modern84
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
commercia! machines, and the small capitalist bears the
same relation to the trust and modern monopoly that the
mechanic and laborer did to labor-saving machinery fifty
years ago. His battle against the trust will be as futile as
was that of the laboring man against the machine. The sys-
tem which engaged the services and attention of the small
capitalist and laborer was doomed the hour the first machine
was invented, the first corporation or partnership formed.
Not only has the result of the combination of capital been a
vast saving of the world’s wealth, but the outlay and duration
of time necessary for the successful conduct of various enter-
prises of the utmost importance has been entirely beyond the
capacity of private individuals. In fact, it might be said that
the higher progress of civilization has depended upon and
has been due to the consolidation of capital under corporate
control. But the operation of natural law requires a still
further advance. Modern invention has conjured forth gigan-
tic powers of production which can only be operated by con-
solidated capital. The trust may be regarded as the composite
result of their operation. As a result of the unprecedented
improvements in labor-saving machinery the operation, for a
few months, of all the world’s capacity for the production of
a given article would supply the demand for the entire year.
The manifest result of continuous operation would be ruinous
competition, violent fluctuation in prices, an overstocked mar-
ket, and general insolvency among manufacturing establish-
ments. The laborer who operated the machinery in the fac-
tories of the trust or monopoly having been paid a less wage
than would buy back the product of his toil, there came a glut
in the market—the economic paradox of an overproduction
in the midst of poverty and want, indescribable. Ruin over-
takes the employer as well as the employed. Then, as a purely
necessary result of the operation of natural law, came the
trust, which is an aggregation of aggregations, in order that
all may be operated by a single management for the purpose
of adjusting the output to the demand and keeping the market
steady. The trusts were not, in the first instance, organized
from an improper motive. They were formed because theirFRANK W. ELLIOTT.
85
organizers found that they must unite or die. It was an act,
on the part of the capitalist, of self-preservation—an act in
which the interest of the public and the individual member
of society had no consideration and in which they have none
today, except as a foundation upon which the trust magnate
bases his calculation of profit at a rate equal, in all instances,
to all the traffic will bear. The inventor of the steam engine
scarce realized the world-wide power discovered unto him.
So neither did the first trust promoter realize the power of
his invention to absorb the people’s substance. But the trust
magnate of today is not so innocent, and, spongelike, the bil-
lions of dollars of aggregated capital absorbs the substance
of the world’s workers, and the people are left with the empty
husk of disappointment, and hunger, and ruin, while the cream
of prosperity, in which all the world should share alike, is
poured into the coffers of the favored few.”
“Competition today means combination tomorrow; combina-
tion tomorrow means still greater combination the next day,
and still greater combination means monopoly. We have
passed the ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ stages in the consolida-
tion of capital, and are now face to face with the ‘next day’
stage. It is no longer a question of competition or monopoly,
for competition is dead in the commercial world. It is only
a question of what form of monopoly.” Shall we own monop-
oly or shall monopoly own us? Shall we submit to taxation
without representation in the matter of the prices of the
world’s necessities, or shall we have a voice in the matter of
taxation? Today the modern capitalist has socialized the
commercial world in the matter of production. It occupies
the time of not one man, but fifty, to make a shoe, a hat, or a
pound of bacon; and here the private monopolist declines to
go further in the socialization of industry. He favors com-
bination in production. He is an avowed individualist in dis-
tribution. With his first proposition we agree. With his
second we take issue, and demand that as all contribute to the
work of production, all of society is entitled to the benefits
in distribution. There is no other solution of the industrial
problem. The evil of trusts is not in the trusts per se, but in'86
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the private ownership of them. Public ownership alone can
bring relief. You ask how the transfer of title shall be made
from private to public hands. Go ask the victim of the Stand-
ard Oil monopoly how the transfer was made from the indi-
vidual to the monopoly. Goi ask the innocent victim of
capitalistic greed how Pierpont Morgan’s syndicate came to
possess title to fifty thousand miles of railroad. Go ask the
countless victims of private monopoly’s onward march how
the transfer of title from private to corporate hands has been
accomplished. The millions of the disinherited of earth shall
at last claim their own. Not as individuals, but as society.
The law of the superior right of all to that of the individual
will operate to give back to the outraged and despoiled the
heritage that is their own. The centuries of wrong and injus-
tice will be adjusted. The judgment day is not afar off.
Organized society must interfere, and it will interfere. The
vested rights of special privilege and private property in
trusts and monopoly will go the way of the vested right to rule
and govern and'to own another human being. The autocratic
sway of property over the mind of man is doomed to pass away.
From out the thralldom of capitalistic slavery the human race
will rise to heights unknown and undreamed; we will meet
and solve the problem of the ages. Universal man shall mount
to that high plane from which the poet beckons on. Neither
the damning weight of mighty wealth nor the degradation
of supplicating poverty shall corrode the soul of man. In
the words of William Lloyd Garrison, the immortal, I throw
down the gage of battde:
“They tell me, Liberty! that in thy name
I may not plead for all the human race;
That some are born to bondage and disgrace;
Some to a heritage of woe and shame,
And some to power supreme and glorious fame.
With my whole soul I spurn the doctrine base,
And, as an equal brotherhood, embrace
All people, and for all fair freedom claim.C. B. MATTHEWS.
87
Know this, O man ! whate'er thy earthly fate,
God never made a tyrant nor a slave;
Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate
His glorious image—for to all He gave
Eternal rights which none may violate,
And by a mighty hand the oppressed He yet shall save.”
ADDRESS OF O. B. MATTHEWS.
I believe much good was accomplished at the first confer-
ence held in this city last September, delegates then having
been appointed by the Governors of many States. The execu-
tive officers of those States apparently selected those best
representing their own views and the controlling industrial
powers of their States. We therefore assemble here today,
having with us the very best arguments and impulses recently
given by the chosen representatives of an intelligent and patri-
otic people, as well as those given by The highly paid attorneys
and professors of organized greed.
Abraham Lincoln never made a grander or more charac-
teristic declaration than he did in that letter to Boston friends
in which he said, “I am for both the man and the dollar; but,
when they come into conflict, I am for the man and not the
dollar.” It is needless to say to this conference or to the world
that the conflict is now on. Shall it be humanity, or the dollar?
Would to God we had a Joshua as of old who could stand
at the threshold of the new century as Joshua did at Shechem,
and say to the people of this broad land, “Choose you all this
day whom you will serve.”
The trust fattens on ignorance, idolatry and income. These
three work harmoniously together—the latter covering a mul-
titude of sins. The ignorant are told that all they need in this
world is a kind master, and if they suffer they are sure some-
body some time has suffered worse, and that grievous burdens
here bring great joy hereafter. The man or woman who wor-
ships money adores as well as supplicates those who possess
it. But “the real thing” nowadays is a superb income; for it is
untaxed, and the Supreme Court has discovered that it is
untaxable.88
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The trust is built on the idea that it is the most successful
form of private monopoly. Its early promoters boldly claimed
it evaded public reports required for corporations, and that
corporations and individuals entering the trust could obtain
much lower freight rates on their shipments by rail than
individual mills or factories could. The founders of the big
trusts now claim that they have dissolved the unlawful trust
organization, and that, technically speaking, there are no
trusts. The Standard Oil combine evidently worked their
wiles and rebates just as successfully under various aliases,
such as Standard Oil Company, South Improvement Company
and American Transfer Company, as they did under the
more delusive cognomen of trusts. It makes little difference
what they call themselves so long as they operate private
monopolies or work to that end. Bryan well said at the Sep-
tember conference, “There is no good monopoly in private
hands.”
Need anyone ask for plainer or mofe sweeping* exposure of
trust methods and results than were given by the Supreme
Court three years ago, when it described trusts in the following
language: "Combinations of capital, whose purpose in com-
bining is to control the production or manufacture of any
particular article in the market, and by such control dictate
the price at which the article shall be sold, the effect being
to drive out of business all the small dealers in the commodity
and to render the public subject to the decision of the combina-
tion as to what price shall be paid for the article.” The court
further said:	“In this light it is not material that the price
of an article may be lowered. It is in the power of the com-
bination to raise it, and the result in any event is unfortunate
for the country, by depriving it of the services of a large
number of small but independent dealers who are familiar
with the business and who had spent their lives in it, and who
supported themselves and their families from the small profits
realized therein. Whether they be able to find other avenues
to earn their livelihood is not so material, because it is not
for the real prosperity of any country that such changes
should occur which result in transferring an independentC. B. MATTHEWS.
89
business man, the head of his establishment, small though it
might be, into a mere servant or agent of a corporation for
selling the commodities which he once manufactured or dealt
in, having no voice in shaping the business policy of the
company and bound to obey orders issued by others. Nor is
it for the substantial interests of the country that any one
commodity should be within the sole will of one powerful
combination of capital.”
Many years ago Lord Coke well said that a monopoly led
to three results: an increase of price, a decrease in quality,
and the impoverishment of artisans and others.
Much time and effort have been expended by trust solicitors
and experts, lay and clerical, to show that oil, sugar, iron, etc.,
had been cheapened to the public by the operators of trusts.
I scarcely need to remind an intelligent audience like this that
oil derricks in Oil City and Bradford, a Buffalo refinery and a
Chicago distillery were not blown up to cheapen the price of
oil and whisky. It is easy to see that the enormous production
of crude and raw material beyond the control of these combina-
tions reduced prices. But now that intrenched monopoly more
fully controls the products of land and sea, prices are easily
advanced to figures that will soon list many necessaries of life
among the luxuries of the rich.
Surely no intelligent person outside of the trust magnates
themselves will claim that God has endowed a few men with
his own attributes, such as justice, holiness, goodness and
truth, so that they will decree with unerring wisdom what
all producers must receive for their labor and its products,
and what the hungry world shall pay for the necessaries of
life. The strange thing in this connection is that those men
who claim most, as trustees for the Almighty, are the very ones
who refuse to testify about their doings lest their evidence be
used to convict them of crime.
Twenty years ago the country was startled by the exposures
of the Hepburn investigation in the State of New York show-
ing that Rockefeller and associates had received by secret
contract with four railroads $10,000,000 in rebates in sixteen
months, they getting just the same rebates on oil shipped by90
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the great body of outside shippers as they did on what the
road carried for the pious Rockefellers and Pratts. The great
Anti-Monopoly League was formed with F. B. Thurber as a
leading spirit in it. He was at the head of the importing
house of Thurber at the time whdn nearly every great com-
mercial house with large shipments which advocated the Anti-
Monopoly League fell by the deadly force of what' Henry D.
Lloyd termed “the smokeless rebate.” Today as I scan the
list of membership in the old Anti-Monopoly League, I find its
members have died or grown weary and sat down, or “crooked
the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift might follow
fawning.” And now one A. P. Hepburn, of the National City
Bank of New York, urges our Secretary of the Treasury to
specially favor his bank with large deposits of public funds
on account of their great contributions in money to the suc-
cessful campaign of ’96. Hepburn’s argument obtains: and
who shall dare to set a limit to the colossal campaign funds
to be received this year from those fortified with government
permits to issue or restrict our money, and to' control the
freight and passenger rates on all our railroads?
Lincoln and Judge Jerry Black and Senator Trumbull and
many other eminent patriotic leaders warned us repeatedly
that our industrial and civil liberties were imperiled. But then,
as now, there wera those who, like their prototype described
in Pilgrim’s Progress, always had the same ready answer:
“I see no danger.” The man in the allegory was called “sim-
ple-minded.” Very simple-minded must be the man who
today says, “I see no danger.” Twenty years ago there were
those who looked wise when they said, “These evils will soon
correct themselves.” Others said when a few oil, coal and
railroad kings had died there would be no further trouble.
So men today with considerable assurance of their ability to
fathom the subject say the same things. Others there are
with equal wisdom, or lack of it, say they are going to study
the question, but they cannot speak hastily. A few sanguine
ones there are who think they have not been injured in their
business by trusts and are sure the publicity idea is the coming
squelcher of trusts. This is a genteel method, as the trustsC. B. MATTHEWS.
91
will not be offended while being thus destroyed. Of course
the new-born idea of stopping larceny and extortion by pub-
licity will have its advocates as long as it is believed that a sin-
gle trust magnate has a daily income equal to the annual sal-
ary of the President of the United States. Publicity will draw
partners and allies as well as the fire of enemies, and as long
as no man can enforce the Federal anti-trust law without the
aid of the Attorney-General the trusts will support the Pres-
idential candidate they can depend upon to give them a friendly
Attorney-General under the flag of “National Honor.” Gov-
ernor Roosevelt thinks the time has come for a commission to
examine and report, while Professor Hadley of Yale College
recommends social ostracism of the bad men of the bad trusts.
Before Professor Hadley tries social ostracism on the great
endowing powers of colleges and universities, let him consider
Haman’s fate in building the gallows on which to hang Mor-
decai. Instead of an arrogant trust, an endowment-seeking
university might find itself dangling in midair.
Trusts beget low moral standards among the people, and
thrive best when a public office is a private snap. While trusts
and private monopolies have come into command of every
field of industry, pauperism, crime, insanity and suicide have
increased in rapid ratio far beyond our increase of population.
Trusts and monopolies furnish the big campaign funds to cor-
rupt the people and buy class legislation. Far beyond the
most dangerous form of treason, threatening our liberties, is
the breaking down of our government through the bribery
of our officials and voters. The average clergyman accepts a
half-fare ticket on the railroads, believing it to be given him
because of his high calling; but the corporation gives it for
the same selfish reason that it gives a free ride to the law-
maker or judge. Money worshipers have gone so far in this
country that it is claimed by some that every man has his
price, so that seats in Congress and even on the bench often
go to the highest bidder. And as the captains of industry
have closed all the avenues heretofore open before the enter-
prising man with small means, the candidates for office mul-
tiply, and when men and women can produce nothing to sell92
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
for a living, they almost involuntarily sell themselves. The
American home as well as the church itself is imperiled „
when the common people become too poor to furnish moneyed
support for the needs of the church and the college. The loot
of the buccaneer is gladly received, and the money-raising
clergyman or college president is now extolled, while the
proclaimer of economic truth and the Golden Rule is cast aside
as weak and defective. The reign of the dollar has brought
manhood to where the advice and society of Dives is every-
where sought, and poor Lazarus still gets only the crumbs of
charity while his sores multiply.
I do not wish to deal in invectives or criticise those who
discuss this great question in a namby-pamby or academic
style, but I have been forced through bitter experiences to
my knowledge and convictions on this question, f have been
compelled to own the tank cars transporting my oil, and for
a long time it took, on an average, twenty days for my cars
to make a round trip of 260 miles, while the oil monopoly
made Fhe trip over the same railroad with its cars in from
two to four days’ time. For years my shipments have aver-
aged about sixteen days in transit from Buffalo to Philadel-
phia. Our cars were not only purposely sidetracked, but in
some cases shipments refused. One day I read a telegram
from a general freight agent saying to a refiner that all naptha
shipments from his town to the city of Washington, D. C.,
must be refused unless goods were consigned to the Standard
Oil agency there. And it has sometimes looked as if candi-
dates for Congress and the Senate in order to reach Wash-
ington had to be consigned to the same agency. You will
pardon me for alluding so much to the Standard monopoly,
and for speaking of myself, but it may be better to speak of
the oldest and most representative of trusts and of things
coming under one’s own knowledge than to speak in parables.
When I began business in Buffalo we could ship goods to
the seaboard for thirty cents per barrel, and after the passage
of the interstate commerce law the freight rate was raised to
sixty-six cents per barrel, and this during a period when
rates had been largely reduced on coal, grain, lumber andC. B. MATTHEWS.
93
iron. In the meantime pipe lines had been built to the sea-
board, and the manager of the Standard Pipe Line System
testified that it cost less than six cents per barrel in operating
expenses to pump oil from the oil fields to the sea coast cities.
A contract had been entered into between the railroads and
the pipe line companies to charge what the traffic would bear,
dividing the excessive profits between pipe and rail companies.
A few years ago I was told by the manager of a line of steam-
boats running to Duluth that he was urged to double the rate
on oil to the upper lakes, and was promised the shipment of
30,000 barrels of oil that year from Cleveland alone by the
oil monopoly if they would double the freight rate, thereby
prohibiting independent shipments. I need not tell you how
well the Standard knew under those conditions that the homes
of the Northwest could be charged extortionate prices on every
lampful of oil they required. Of course, we all hailed with
joy the enactment of the interstate commerce law and went
diligently at work to have our wrongs righted, but soon found
the law and the Commissioners were easily outwitted by trust
and transportation conspiracies then and now existing, so that
there is no more hope of good government by commissions
than by injunctions.
We do not wish to speak harshly of individuals, but weak
laws and a faulty system must give way to better ones. The
millionaire and the pauper are both elements of weakness and
danger in the Republic. Any man with wealth so far beyond
his earning power is a constant menace to the public welfare,
and especially so is the soulless corporation that monopolizes
the trade in large areas, so that when it chooses it can give
away its goods when necessary in localities where competitors
are to be destroyed. Able representatives of current thought
tell us that ethics and the moral law have been banished from
the realm of politics and business, and the coarse, cruel form
of lust and greed are ever ready to gloat over “the survival of
the fittest,” while the oil, sugar and whisky trusts roll the
laissez faire doctrine like a sweet morsel on their tongues,
because the best government of the people governs least; that
is, when the trusts run the government.94
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
It has been persistently asserted by the captains of industry
that a large amount of business could be carried on at far
lower rates than a small one could. And now when the
volume of freight is nearly doubled on all our roads we are
told it is necessary to increase prices and freights enormously
because wages have been advanced ten per cent. The innocent
buyer and shipper is led to think that the trust and corporation
plants and railroads have to be replenished at least once a year
with a new outfit, running down the whole line from mills to
cars, locomotives, tracks and everything needed in business,
from Senators to Aldermen.
But the serious phase of this question lies in the fact that
intrenched land and transportation and money monopolies
expect to live forever, and have taken from us the titles, char-
ters and franchises without number. While we in the State
of New York were carrying on in local elections a sham battle
on the tariff, Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Depew, Astor,
Seligman, Mills, Flower, Sage and a few others, controlling
half of the wealth of the United States and a good part of
England’s, obtained for their own benefit, their heirs and
assigns, the use of the matchless water power of Niagara
Falls for a thousand years. The New York electors knew as
little about their property being donated to these rich men
by their so-called representatives as is now known about leg-
islation that may be going on in other planets of our solar
system. Surely these law-making millionaires are not adored
because of their superior mental, moral or physical worth!
The few absorbers of our property now furnish us electric
power, steam power, coal and transportation at just what the
traffic will bear, and the people burn incense before the Money
Gods their own hands have made, and we hear the voice of song,
“Would you catch the heavenly breeze,
Get down in the valley on your knees.’’
But why longer discuss these well known and dangerous
conditions? The time has come for action. Have we reme-
dies? And care we, or dare we, apply them? No thinking man
longer hopes to defeat a cruel private monopoly by the crea-
tion of a rival of the same class. Natural monopolies mustC. B. MATTHEWS.
95
be owned by the public for the public good. The Government
must perform its true functions in furnishing those essential
tools of trade—money and transportation—and we must not
bestow upon a few favored individuals through special class
legislation the privilege of taxing for their own benefit the
people, or practicing extortion in the use of money and the
highways. Give the individual a fair show and he will work
out his own salvation. He would like to be both just and
generous, but how can he do so, peeled as he is by the trusts
at every turn? People want direct legislation. We want no
more franchises given without our consent, through a direct
vote of the people. My grandfather petitioned Congress in 1840
to have the Government construct and operate a railroad from
the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, to build said road in
sections, the expense to be mainly paid from the sale of lands
enhanced in value by the construction of such a national high-
way. The arguments set forth in the petition were almost as
clear and convincing as could be made today with all the
Credit Mobilier and other frauds and robberies of our first
transcontinental road in full remembrance. He at least saw
clearly what a few selfish souls now deny; and that is, that all
the people with all their resources can carry forward great
enterprises for the public good better than a few people can
for private gain.
I am glad to see this Conference held in a non-partisan
spirit. Having been an ardent Republican nearly all my life,
I wish to be as non-partisan in the people’s fight against trusts
as they are in their fight against the people. The trust is not
a Republican or Democrat or Populist. It will always fight the
party or individual that fights it, whether it be in Massachu-
setts or Kentucky. I must tell you what I saw last week from
a window in my house:	There was about a foot of snow in
the back yard; a large black cat was on the top of a tight
eight-foot board fence, when presently a little bob-tailed,
short-legged white dog saw the cat and started for her. We
now have a mad-dog scare on in our city, and all the dogs,
big and little, wear tight muzzles. This little dog had one on
so tight he could hardly bark. He began jumping furiously96
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
at the cat. The cat soon saw he could not jump half way up
to her, and there she sat long and patiently, watching the dog
jump and bark; she never even ruffled her tail. But still
the dog exerted himself furiously. I afterward learned the
dog and cat were fed at the same table. To me the cat was
the trust; the dog the Republican party fighting the trust.
Industrial and territorial expansion hewn out by the sword
are not new-found virtues. The rose would be just as sweet
under another name as that of rose. So wars of conquest
are just the same cruel, murderous destroyers of human rights
when carried on under the name of “destiny,” “higher civiliza-
tion” or “benevolent assimilation,” as they were under their
true names a thousand years ago. The buying of far-away
nations and tribes from those who do not own them, and
killing them off as rebels by those who now claim ownership,
may divert the attention of our own people somewhat from
the invasion of their industrial liberty here for a time. But
the new expansion of trusts and monopolies at home and terri-
torial expansion abroad are born of the same cruel greed
and promoted by the' same agencies, and must be met by the
same high sense of justice possessed by our common people.
If we cannot destroy trusts and monopolies, and that soon,
at the ballot box, we can not hope to benevolently assimilate
them when they become more fully entrenched with larger
standing armies and bigger money deposits from the United
States Treasury. The importance of voting right this year
cannot be overestimated. The sufferings of Hades are just
the same, whether we vote ourselves there or are forced there
by imperial edict.
If we are determined to secure industrial liberty we should
organize anti-trust leagues in every part of the country and
conduct a campaign of education. The trust cares but little
what we think. But its very life depends on how the people
vote; the people must capture the government at the ballot
box at the coming election, and operate it according to the
principles of justice and equality as laid down in the Declara-
tion of Independence and the Constitution. I care not whether
you believe in competition or the co-operative commonwealth,C. B. MATTHEWS.
97
you surely believe that taxation, the transportation of passen-
gers, news and freight, as well as the issuing of money, are
governmental functions. These secured, and other needed
reforms will follow soon after these are recognized and estab-
lished, but as long as railroads remain in private hands they
will conspire with the trusts. If private monopolies are to
be destroyed and the people liberated we must not continue
an everlasting quarrel about freight rates and watered stock.
The people must own public utilities, including city, state and
national governments.
The well-to-do members of this Conference and our country
may give to their children a few thousand dollars, but I believe
it is in our power to leave to posterity that far better and
grander legacy, a just, free and pure Government.
When we comprehend the f^r-reaching consequences of the
present struggle, it will awaken in us the deepest religious zeal
and the loftiest patriotism.
“Surely we must fight if we would win, the battle ne’er give
o’er;
Renew it boldly every day, and help Divine implore.”
Would you improve the morals of the people? You must
give the common man access to the soil; permit him as of old
to produce and deal in iron, coal, wheat and cotton; let him
sell bushels and pounds, the value of which he understands,
and not ensnare him with delusive trust and corporation certifi-
cates, the real value of which cannot be known until assayed
in the crucible of bankruptcy. We have banished with pious
desire the Louisiana lottery ticket. Why not attack the ten-
fold more dangerous seller of trust certificates and of watered
stocks ?
The national platforms of the great political parties have
fulminated against trusts and monopolies for twenty years,
and the successful party has steadily aided them until the
present moment. The people demand a platform for 1900
that means something, and states that something in plain terms.
This is the issue, Which is to rule—Imperialism or Democracy?
The people or the trusts?98
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ADDRESS OF HON. ALEX DEL MAR.
The present phase of the Money Question relates chiefly to
two propositions, both of which are extremely ancient and
have been often passed upon by legislators and magistrates.
One is this: Of what substance shall the symbols of money
be made? The other is this: Who shall control the issues;
in other words, who shall regulate the supply, the outstanding
volume, or circulation of such symbols? Under ordinary cir-
cumstances the first proposition would be relatively unimport-
ant; but under the operation of the British Act of 1666, which
has been smuggled into the American Mint Code, and still
forms part of it, the question of material cannot be ignored.
The second proposition is of transcendent importance; it in-
volves the very existence of the government; and an attempt
to usurp this prerogative almost deserves to be made a capital
offense.
Let us consider these propositions separately. The question
of material was decided in a summary manner more than
two thousand years ago and has been frequently decided since
that time. In B. C. 91, during the Social War led by Minius
Ieus, the exigencies of the Roman Commonwealth rendered it
necessary to alloy the silver denarii with one-eighth part of
copper. This was done in the public interest and upon the
suggestion of Livius Drusus, Tribune of the People. At the
same time, or shortly afterward, the legal value of the bronze
ace was advanced from one-sixteenth to one-tenth that of the
denarius. In B. C. 86 the exigencies of the Commonwealth
rendered it necessary to coin silver denarii consisting one-
fourth part of copper. This was done under the authority of
Valerius Flaccus, the Interrex. But the exigencies of State
was a plea that only met with derision from its creditors, who
had lent the government this very sort of money and who
demanded to be paid in more valuable coins than they had
advanced. In B. C. 84 they obtained, probably through brib-
ery, of Marius Gratidianus, president of the College of Praetors,
a decree from that body authorizing an issue of denarii con-
taining but one-twelfth part of copper, accompanied in allALEX. DEL MAR.
99
probability by an ordinance which demonetized the previous
issues. The practical operation of these edicts was to make
all debts payable in the scarcer and dearer money of today,
rather than the more plentiful and cheaper money of yesterday.
The creditor classes were so delighted with these inequitable
laws that they erected full length statues of Marius Gratidi-
anus in several parts of Rome and even called upon its victim-
ized citizens to pay heroic honors to this man who had so
grossly betrayed them. Two years later, in B. C. 82, the people
tore down these statues and compelled the dictator Sylla to
send Marius Gratidianus to the block. Modern politico-
economical writers, especially those of the Bank of England
school, have expended a good deal of false sentiment upon
this Roman official, whom they applaud as the champion of
what they are pleased to term “honest money.” Cicero, who
was a relative of Gratidianus and probably knew him better
than these modern sciolists, proved him to have been a liar,
cheat, demagogue and traitor.
In condemning Gratidianus, Sylla was guided by something
more than popular resentment; he was guided by that great
principle afterward laid down by Paulus in the Digest of the
Civil Law, a principle which was evidently born of the earlier
Commonwealth, and which, no matter when it was born, must
ever form the essential and fundamental pillar of civilized
states, namely, that that is money which the state declares to
be money, no matter of what material it may be made.
Coming now to modern times, we find that in 1551, shortly
after the opening of the silver mines of Potosi, the landlords
of France hastened to insert in their leases a clause making
their rents payable in gold coins of “the present weight and
fineness.” This is precisely the sort of stipulation which your
representatives have inserted in the Act of March 14, 1900.
When the King of France heard of this practice he was at
Angers, where he at once consulted the judges of the presidial
court concerning the proper course to be pursued. The result
of this conference was the revival of an ancient ordinance
requiring all contracts for money to employ the ordinary mone-
tary terms of £ s. d. and the issuance of an edict forbidding
1100
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the exaction or even the mention of special moneys in a con-
tract, under pain of imprisonment. (Grimaudet, “Law of
Payment,” p. 63.) The offense of attempting to exact special
moneys was termed Billonage. Statutes were made against
it in 1559, 1574, 1578 and 1629, and a judicial decree in 1600.
This decree afforded ground to the celebrated Mixt Moneys
Case of England in 1604, wherein the same principle was
affirmed, supported this time by the most august array of
authorities ever cited in a judicial decision. The court said in
effect that that was money which the State declared was money,
no matter of what materials the symbols were made.
This great principle of law was approved by Grotius, Puf-
fendorf and Vattel, put into practice by Oliver Cromwell, and
reaffirmed by Pope Benedict XIV, a few years previous to the
American Revolution; it was repeated in the laws and practice
of the American Colonies and of the States which grew out
of them; and it has been frequently affirmed by the Supreme
Court of the United States. The limits of time do not permit
me to show you in what manner and by what means this
principle (concerning the material of money symbols) has
been practically overthrown in this country. The various
works which I have published on the subject will afford you
every detail.
I pass to the second great aspect of the Money Question:
namely, Who shall control the issuance and retirement of
money ? Shall it be the government, which is American; or
the Banks, which are largely owned in England; or the specu-
lators of Wall Street, who may with no impropriety be termed
of cosmopolitan nationality? Which of these authorities or
bodies shall have the power to control the volume of money
in this country ? This is not a party question. It is a question
of vital importance to the nation and to the myriads of indus-
tries covered by its flag.
The Volume of Money is the Measure of Prices. The whole
sum of money and of substitutes for money, when multiplied
by their various ratios of activity, must and does exactly
equal the whole sum of exchanges, or purchases and sales,
during any given interval of time. One is the measure of theALEX. DEL MAR.
IOI
other. The Act of 1900 declares that the unit of money shall
be a certain piece of gold which it describes. This is a physical
impossibility. The unit of money is not and cannot be any one
piece of money, whether of gold, silver or paper; it is the
whole sum of money multiplied by its frequency of use and
re-use. As this is the crux of all monetary questions, it needs
some elaboration. The United States Treasury Department
reports that the sum of coins and paper notes which constitutes
the circulation of this country amounts to about two thousand
million dollars. Though I believe this to be an exaggeration,
I will accept it for the purposes of illustration. These coins
and notes, as determined by numerous observations, are used
and re-used in payments, about fifty times a year. Therefore,
if considered by itself, the currency would, at present prices,
represent exchanges amounting to fifty times two thousand
millions, in other words, one hundred thousand million dollars.
In addition to coins and notes there is used for the purposes of
exchange a sum of credits represented by bank-checks and
other orders for, or promises of, money, which amounts to
twenty times as much as the total currency, but which never-
theless circulates twenty times slower. To exhibit one part
of this fact and conceal the other is the stock device of bankers.
“The volume of money is unimportant (they cry). Behold
the much superior function discharged by credit. Nineteen-
twentieths of the exchanges are effected with bank checks
and only one-twentieth (say they) with money!” On the
surface this is quite true; below the surface it is entirely
misleading. The bank-check, or bill-of-exchange, can only
make one payment; when it is destroyed. While coins and
notes, after they have made one payment, are ready to make
innumerable others, just as fast as hands can count them out
or express trains can carry them. In short, money does
twenty times as much work in a given time as checks, bills-of-
exchange, telegraphic transfers, promissory notes, or book-
credits combined. Without going further into detail the gen-
eral result is this: that in this country coins and notes effect
one hundred thousand millions of exchanges, while credits
effect another one hundred thousand millions, making alto-102
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
gether two hundred thousand millions of exchanges per annum
at present prices. This sum represents two things: it repre-
sents the entire annual volume of trade at present prices; it
also represents the entire volume of money and credits multi-
plied by the various ratios of activity of its component parts.
One is the complementary, and the necessary complementary,
of the other. If the money is withdrawn from circulation or
the credits fail, one of two results must follow; either the
exchanges will diminish in number and trade will languish,
or else prices will fall, until the combined sum of transactions
in time exactly fits the combined sum of money and credits
when multiplied ky their respective ratios of activity. The
inevitable consequence of these conditions is that whoever
controls the circulation, controls prices, controls trade, controls
production and consumption, controls the value of securities,
the value of real estate (both farm lands and city lots), con-
trols wages, controls the purchasing power of salaries, of pen-
sions, of incomes from securities or property, in short, he con-
trols the entire industrial affairs of the country; and through
these he also largely controls its administrative policy and its
foreign relations. He becomes the supreme arbiter of its
destinies. The Act of 1900 takes what remains of such control
out of the hands of government to confer it upon the banks;
and as the banks are largely owned in Wall Street, which in
turn is largely controlled by the English Lombard Street, this
Bill virtually bestows the management of our monetary system
upon a body of foreigners, who will inevitably employ it to
alternately stimulate and depress the industry of this country,
so as to extract from it the last effort of enterprise and from
bankruptcy the last dollar. I repeat that the bill confers the
virtual control of the currency upon the banks and bankers.
This tremendous power has been placed substantially in the
hands of a few banks and largely in the hands of one bank.
If a similar monopoly and control of the currency has not
been attended with evil consequences in England it is because
the trade of that country is largely with foreign states and is
transacted mainly by bills-of-exchange, which is not the case
with our trade. There are many other considerations touchingALEX. DEL MAR.
103
this subject which cannot be gone into here. For example, the
Crown, through its prerogative to confer Titles of Nobility,
retains the power, which it continually exercises, to draw
from the overgorged hand of usury, a portion of its gains, and
bestow them upon public improvements, enterprises and chari-
ties. We have here no titles to sell and no Royal Fund in
which to deposit the price. The British system of money does
not fit our affairs and the Act of 1900, which foists that system
upon us, can only end in disaster.
As a banking scheme it has been promoted largely through
the influence of our Secretary of the Treasury. Next to the
office of sovereign-pontiff, or the Augustus Caesar of the
Roman Empire, the Secretaryship of the American Treasury
is the most powerful and important public office ever created
by man. Mr. Hamilton, who was the author of it, had it all
his own way; and into it he emptied a large portion of all the
powers and functions of this great government. None but a
colossus can fill this office. During the past half century—that
is to say, since Mr. Guthrie’s incumbency—it has been filled
chiefly by inexperienced men. Many of them were men of
good intentions, honest, zealous and hard working; but, with
the exception o"f Mr. Chase, none of them was competent to
understand, much less to manage, the tremendous engine which
Hamilton’s ambition had subjected to their hands. For ex-
ample, the account books of the United States Government are
not kept by double entry, but by single entry. There is no
“stock account,” no “balance account,” no correspondence
between the accounts of the various departments, no adequate
means of preventing fraud or of detecting dishonesty. The
Treasury is a vast chaos, filled with grasping politicians, who
corrupt and destroy all who disturb their operations. Unless
he happens to be a man of transcendent firmness and ability,
thoroughly acquainted with the history and regulations of the
Treasury, its subordinate officers simply force the new Sec-
retary into a corner, where his whole time is engrossed with
three functions: the consideration of appointments to office,
the perfunctory signing of warrants on the Treasury and the
preparation of his annual report. Such is the position of the104
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
present incumbent. His views concerning money are those
of a child. His recommendations are those of the banks and
bankers, who constitute the Money Trust. His attempt to put
the money of the Treasury into circulation by thrusting it into
the vaults of a private bank, is that of a tyro. It has been
charged that he is playing into the hands of the Money
Trust, in order to secure for himself a future lucrative office
in its service. Little men, like some who could be named,
may have been content to relinquish their high and honorable
offices in the Treasury for the sake of the increased reward
of serving a private bank; but I cannot believe that the present
Secretary is actuated by any such motive. He is simply help-
less. The bankers play and he dances. Meanwhile the inter-
ests, the opportunities, and it may be also the liberties of the
country, are steadily passing away into private hands, perhaps
never to be recovered.
Is there any rift in this cloud; is there any balm in Gilead;
is there any way out of this deplorable state of affairs? I see
but one. It is the election of a Congress and a President, I
care not of what party, who will resolutely undo the bad work
of the past years, cast off the shackles which have been imposed
upon the nation by avid corporations, liberate the currency
from the control of banks and restore the Royal Prerogative
of Money to its only proper custodian—the Government.
Nature has endowed this country with advantages which, with
man’s assistance, would have enabled it to control the markets
of the world. The Money Trust, in forcing upon the country
a foreign system of money, has deprived it of these advantages
and made it the slave rather than the arbiter of the world’s
markets. Already has the price of our wheat been made to
hang upon the event of a battle in South Africa. Our fore-
fathers established this government upon principles so elevated
that to simply say “I am an American” would have been the
proudest boast a man could make. The avidity and dishonesty
of corporations have exposed this boast not merely to ridicule,
but contempt.
To rid herself of the tyranny of trade corporations and the
anarchy and civil wars which their operations had fomented,REV. HERBERT S. BIGELOW.
105
republican Rome was forced to yield all the power of the
State to a single man, in order that he might destroy the obnox-
ious growth. The result was that the corporations all fell in
a single day; but in their place there arose another tyranny:
that of Caesar himself. Are we waiting until the disease
reaches a similar phase in order to employ a similar remedy,
or shall we take it in hand and suppress it now ? I am no
partisan. I appeal alike to Democrats, Republicans and Popu-
lists. I ask, is it not time to act? The amazing policy and
transaction of the Treasury and the Bill to alter the Mint and
Currency laws, which constitute the Crime oT 1900, combine
to menace every interest of the Government. They not only
create a Money Trust, they surrender into its hands all the
affairs of the country; and unless the designs of the Trust are
defeated by a total change of public men and measures I
greatly fear that it will be difficult to preserve the future peace
of our people.
At the conclusion of the reading of Mr. Del Mar’s paper
the Conference adjourned until 7:30 p. m.
EVENING SESSION, FEBRUARY 12.
The Conference was called to order at 8 p. m. The Chair-
man introduced as the first speaker of the evening, Rev.
Herbert S. Bigelow, of Cincinnati.
ADDRESS OF REV. HERBERT S. BIGELOW.
According to popular usage a trust is a corporation which
merges under a single management smaller industrial organi-
zations. What right have we to throw obstacles in the way
of this tendency toward industrial combination? The friends
of the trusts have a right to demand of us proof that their
combinations are subversive of the natural rights of men.
We have no ground for interference unless we can show that
they are doing wrong, that they are unjust.106	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Do I wrong anyone if I sell my labor to the highest bidder?
My right to freedom is the basis of my right to ask my neigh-
bor as much as I please for my labor. My neighbor’s right
to freedom is the basis of his right to pay what I ask or not,
as he chooses. If my neighbor and I unite for the purpose
of raising the exchange value of our labor no law can interfere
with us without invading our liberties. The same principle
that gives a man a right to ask all he can get for his labor
gives the manufacturer a right to ask all he ian get
for his wares. The same principle that gives two or more
workmen a right to combine to raise the exchange value of
their labor gives two or more manufacturers a right to com-
bine in the hope of getting a larger return for their exertion.
We do not call trade unions conspiracies of labor. Why call
trusts conspiracies of capital? No wrong can be committed
by a mere act of combination. If it is not wrong for men to
combine, what is wrong about the trust? Find the wrong
and restrict that.
These combinations are not in themselves wrong. How,
then, do they become agencies of harm? If the trust has
power, not only to ask high prices, but to compel the people
to pay them, it is not a harmless combination of capital, it is
a monopoly and therefore a menace to liberty.
Suppose a trust is effected, including all the iron industries
in the United States. The people say: “You ask too much
for your iron. We will buy elsewhere; we will go abroad."
But there is a law by which they permit themselves to be fined
if they go abroad for their iron. That law is a “bull pen” of
their own construction into which the trust drives them. There
is the element of injustice, not in the combination, but in the un-
just law which gives to the combination the character of a
monopoly. Justice demands not that the combination should be
punished for taking advantage of the law, but that the law
should be repealed. Men have a right to combine, but the peo-
ple commit folly when they authorize these combinations to tax
the industries of the country for the purpose of maintaining
their artificial prices. This system levies a tariff upon freedom
and lends protection to monopoly. It does for the people ofREV. HERBERT S. BIGELOW.
107
America what the English fleet is ready to do for the people
of the Transvaal—it prevents foreign intervention while their
property is confiscated and their liberty destroyed. Free trade
is the first principle of international brotherhood. Let us
raise the blockade of our ports and thus take from the trusts
one of the weapons with which they threaten our liberties.
But the trusts have picked up from our social system another
weapon of infinitely greater power. The control of public
highways is clearly a Government function. Tremendous are
these powers of government that we have left in private hands.
It is the function of the State to see that men have equal rights
on these- great avenues of steam and electricity. Leave these
subject to private control and you have taxation without repre-
sentation. People are more dependent upon trunk lines than
upon armies and navies. It were as safe to farm out the
defense of the nation as to leave these highways for thoughts
and things in the possession of private corporations whose
stocks increase in value with the growth of population, whose
rates are always as high as the traffic will stand, and whose
favors are more coveted than the smiles of a sovereign. Do
you believe interstate commerce commissions could ever pre-
vent the thousand ways by which these highwaymen may
favor some and ruin others ? Is it not time to demand that these
public highways shall be operated directly by the people to the
end that one man may have this service as cheaply as another
and that all may have it as cheaply as possible?
But the trust has a more deadly weapon still. The abolition
of land monopoly cannot be omitted from any effective anti-
trust programme. We do not wish to restrict the liberties of
the trusts. We wish to destroy those social conditions which
furnish the trusts the opportunity to restrict the liberties of
the people. Our present property laws in regard to land furnish
such opportunity and we demand, therefore, that they be
changed and made to conserve the natural rights of all.
When a man makes a pair of shoes the laws of property pro-
tect him in his right of private ownership in those shoes. Sup-
pose the shoemaker wishes to exchange shoes for a slave. The
law says: “No. You may own shoes. All men have a rightio8
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
to own shoes. But for that very reason no man has a right
to own slaves.”
Now, men are not the only things that cannot be made
subject to private property without the subversion of property
rights. A corporation buys of the city council a ninety-nine
year franchise. What has the council sold ? What did not be-
long to it or the people represented, the privilege of taxing
future generations. You cannot respect the right of private
property in these long term franchises without abrogating the
property rights of unborn generations. A half century may add
millions to the value of the franchise. These millions must be
paid by the people who use the streets. Shall they pay extor-
tionate sums for the use of what is really theirs because of the
folly or the wickedness of dead men?
But there is another kind of franchise that deserves atten-
tion. A pioneer settles on the shores of Lake Michigan. The
State issues to him a franchise, not for one generation, nor for
three, but a perpetual franchise guaranteeing to him and his
descendents forever the exclusive use of that farm. A few
generations pass and this farm becomes the center of the great
metropolis of the West. The heirs of these pioneers toil not
neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of them. They have castles for their homes.
They buy princes for their daughters. They live in lordly revel
like the patricians of ancient Rome. Courts are their oracles,
legislatures their lackeys, and across the land their deep
shadows are beginning to fall while the light of liberty is fad-
ing from our view.
When the State issued to them a perpetual franchise to
collect from future generations the rent for that ground it
gave them a legal right of confiscation over the property of
all useful citizens. All have a right to use the earth. But you
cannot respect the right of some to charge their fellows for the
use of it without denying to all but a class their inalienable
property rights. How does the coal trust compel people to pay
its prices? It simply takes advantage of the unjust laws of
property by which it is possible for individuals or corporations
to gain exclusive control of coal fields. Destroy the monopolyREV. HERBERT S. BIGELOW.	109
of the business locations in Chicago, destroy the monopoly of
the roads leading into the city, and destroy the monopoly of
the mines and what power for harm would the trust have?
Respect the right of men to possess more fields than they can
use when there are idle men who would be glad to use them
and you simply extend the laws of property until they have
destroyed the right to work. Respect the right of men to con-
trol more coal mines than they can use when men are shivering
and women and children freezing and you simply extend the
laws of property until they have destroyed the right to life.
Allow any individual class or corporation to hold land as private
property and charge others for the use of it and every citizen
who has not been able to take advantage of these laws is robbed
of his birthright and has no right to live an honest life outside
the poorhouse without paying others for the privilege.
But there are some who say:	“The trust is the result of
evolution. Do not disturb it. Let it grow, and when it is of
age we will make it the adopted child of the commonwealth.”
There is truth in that view. It would be folly to attempt to
legislate against the legitimate results of evolution, to throw
obstacles in the way of a natural tendency. But men lose sight
of the chief factor in evolution. We are makers of our own
destiny. Evolution is a ship which must be manned by men
who are resolute to do the right, and who hold the helm of
justice with a steady hand. This Republic is under no com-
pulsion from heaven to live forever. If we do not supply our
history with a strong will to do the right, if we act as the
irresponsible atoms of fate, if we don’t understand that our
God-given part in the work of evolution is to do the just thing
always, we may discover that, inevitably, in the course of
evolution the men who will not be guided by faith in eternal
justice are permitted to drift to their destruction.
If these combinations are a natural growth they cannot need
the support of injustice. Nurse the evils of the combinations
in the fond delusion that out of them there is to grow a better
social order and you may learn by bitter experience what history
should teach you, that the only order that grows out of injustice
is the order imposed by despotism. To permit wrongs to existno
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
and call the conditions that grow out of them the results of
evolution is like calling “national recklessness as to right and
wrong” manifest destiny. The school boy knows that algebra
problems do not solve themselves. If the trust problem is
solved we must solve it. There are forces at work mightier
than we, a wisdom transcending our own. We have not the
wisdom to create a new civilization. That must grow. But we
may co-operate with these forces that are evolving a better
social order. Our part in this work is to do right, to clear
away all injustice, that God’s way may prevail.
Justice requires that all trade restrictions be removed, for
these are sure to favor some at the expense of others. Justice
requires that all public utilities be operated at cost, giving to
each citizen, great or small, the same service for the same pay.
Justice requires that the burden of taxation be placed where it
belongs upon ground rent that no citizen may be deprived of his
share in the common gifts of God. Neglect these reforms and
our liberties must “survive or perish in a convulsion.”
Bolton Hall, Congressman Sulzer, J. R. Sovereign and W. J.
Strong followed Mr. Bigelow in the order mentioned.
ADDRESS OF BOLTON HALL.
In the discussion of principles, we must be careful not to be
drawn aside to non-essentials, or to be drawn into disputes as
to the status or effects of particular combinations. For instance,
as to whether they have cheapened commodities or not. They
may have reduced prices and prices still be higher than they
would be were there no trusts. There are few ills so gross that
some good cannot be shown to come from them.
To the extent that labor or capital can come into any business,
the business is a free and natural growth and the force of free
competition can be trusted to cure any evils that attend it. If
an open business succeeds it is because it gives the best service,
and ought to succeed. To the extent that competition is
rendered impossible by special privileges, the beneficiaries of
the privileges are enabled to rob the consumer.BOLTON HALL.
Ill
There are two classes of trusts—those that are open to com-
petition and those that are based upon monopoly. Every coun-
try store that absorbs or buys out another business is a trust,
but it is exposed to competition. Department stores are merely
the higher development of such business. They grow naturally,
under competition, from the necessity for economy in producing
and distributing goods. It is true that such stores, in propor-
tion as they succeed in reducing the expense of business, get
along with less help and thereby displace clerks and others, re-
ducing the demand for labor. But this is done in reducing
expenses, and competition will force the store to give the most
of the benefit to the consumer.
Legislation against such stores or such trusts is in principle
and effect exactly like legislation against machinery. A depart-
ment store or a combination of manufacturers that has no
monopoly is only an organization of men. A machine is only
an organization of matter. To fight against either is to oppose
ourselves to natural law and to the forces of the universe.
Should an unprivileged combination attempt to unduly ad-
vance prices, it would at once raise up competition to share the
inordinate profit. It would also stimulate the business of
smaller stores, which could sell at a lower price.
It is different with those concerns that have an entire or
partial monopoly. These can limit the supply and raise the
price; as the so-called coal barons annually limit the output
of coal in order to maintain the price.
These monopolies depend principally upon tariff, patent
money and land monopoly. The tariff alone is not enough to
make a monopoly, but by shutting out the competition of foreign
countries, it enables some to build up monopolies and enables
some that have monopolies to maintain them.
Many of the trusts that themselves have little or no
monopoly are able to combine with the railroads, all of which
in greater or less degree have a monopoly; these trusts thereby
secure for themselves such advantages as shut out competition.
Others do the same thing by buying up patents to work under,
or oftener by buying them to prevent others working under
them. Still others take advantage of privileges deliberately or
accidentally conferred upon them by law.112
'ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Where law prohibits or restricts some from doing anything
which is not an infringement of the equal rights of others, that
prohibition will give the others an advantage that will be a
greater or less degree of special privilege.
We are threatened now with a money trust, if indeed we have
not got it already.
This, like other true trusts, depends upon restrictions or
special privileges. These are (i) the privilege to national' banks
alone to issue currency against deposits of government bonds;
(2)	the ten per cent tax on currency of all other banks, and
(3)	the privilege awarded to gold alone of free coinage.
The remedy for it is the same as for other restrictions—
liberty. The remedy is not, to extend the same privileges to
wheat according to the Farmers’ Alliance plan; nor to silver,
according to the Bryan plan, but to abolish it as to gold and
to put all banks, corporations and individuals on the same foot-
ing as to the issue of money.
The hope of some socialists that the organization of all trusts
will facilitate the taking over by the community of all industry
is a vain one.
In the first place, the trusts are creating only the machinery
of organization, the easiest thing in the world to get, when the
spirit of combination becomes strong enough.
In the second place, those trusts that are monopolistic in
their character are strong organizations of interests opposed
to the public interests. They have their attorneys, their officers,
their employes and their dependents, who will fight in every
way with all the power of combination for their special
privileges.
Practically, all protective legislation has been designed to
protect producers, and a small class of producers at that; this
protection must be at the expense of the consumers.
But all men are consumers, therefore, all have an interest
in the freest production; the remedy for the evils of restricted
competition is to make competition free. Free competition has
never yet been tried. Competition can be freed, not by more
laws, but by repealing as fast as possible, restrictive laws, pat-
ent laws, financial laws, tariff laws and land laws, and any other
laws that foster monopoly.Cotter T. Bride.	Howard S. Taylor.
Helen M. Gougar.
Edward W. Bemis.	P. E. Dowe.WILLIAM SULZER.
113
Our immediate aims must be to modify the patent laws so
as to make unused patents void and eventually to do away
with patent laws; to repeal the ten per cent bank tax and
the privileges of banks and of gold; to abolish the tariff and,
finally, govermental ownership of all highways, whether paved
or railed, and to tax the value of land so high that it will be un-
profitable to keep it out of use.
ADDRESS OF CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM SULZER.
Mr. Sulzer said in part:
It has been said by some unthinking persons that there are
good trusts and bad trusts. That we should applaud and com-
mend the good trusts and denounce and condemn the bad
trusts.
Under the law this specious argument is untenable, and
the men who make it are the hired attorneys and the special
pleaders for the trusts, or they are facetious fellows poking
fun at the victims.
Under the law of our country trusts are criminal, and there
is no distinction between a so-called good trust and a so-called
bad trust—between a big trust and a little trust. Every trust is
contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the law. To seri-
ously contend otherwise as a legal proposition would be pre-
posterous. If we did so, by analogy, we might as consistently
assert that there were good pirates and bad pirates. If robbery
is criminal it is immaterial, so far as the crime is concerned,
whether the robbery is a big one or a little one. The violation
of law is the same.
The law on the statute books against trusts is clear and plain,
and the highest court in the land has passed on its validity,
and sustained the constitutionality of its provisions. The
Anti-Trust act of 1890 declares that every contract or com-
bination in the nature of a trust in restraint of trade and com-
merce among the several states and territories, or with foreign
nations, is a conspiracy—illegal and void—and punishable by
fine and imprisonment.1X4
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Under this Anti-Trust act it seems to me every trust in the
United States can be prosecuted for violation of law—the
charter annulled, and the men behind it punished for conspiracy.
Every trust by its very nature is in restraint of trade and com-
merce, and in violation of this law.
If you will read the Anti-Trust act of 1890 and the decisions
of,the United States Supreme Court in the trans-Missouri
freight case and the Addyston Pipe Line case, the conclusion
will be irresistible to the logical mind that the fault is not so
much with the law as it is with the men who are sworn to en-
force the law. The law, so far as it goes, is all right—the do-
nothing attorney-general is all wrong. The imperative mandate
of the day is—enforce the law, and every trust in the country
will dissolve. Whenever the trusts have been brought before
the courts, and their true character shown, they have been de-
clared illegal.
In my opinion—and I say so advisedly—the Department of
Justice under the present law can institute and successfully
maintain actions against every trust doing business in the
United States. The law is clear and plain and the facts are
within the knowledge of all and too obvious for controversy.
Let us pause here and briefly consider the facts:
Today about two hundred trusts control, wholly are in large
part, every conceivable product and industry of the country.
These gigantic conspiracies and combinations called trusts
constitute, in my judgment, the greatest and the gravest menace
at the present time to our Democratic institutions. They con-
trol the supply, monopolize the product, and dictate the price
of almost every necessary of life. They force out of legitimate
employment every year thousands and thousands of honest toil-
ers. They limit the production, enhance prices, reduce wages,
and arbitrarily write the terms of their own contracts. They de-
stroy successful competition, paralyze honest industry, assassin-
ate struggling labor, and hold the consumers of our country in
their monopolistic grasp. They levy tribute like robber barons
of old on every man, woman and child in the Republic. They
blight the poor man’s home, darken the hearthside of his chil-
dren, cloud the star of youth's legitimate hope, and destroy equalWILLIAM SULZER.
115
'opportunity. They control State and National legislation,
escape taxation, and evade the just burdens of government,
while their agents construct and maintain tariffs to suit their
selfish ends and greedy purposes. They imperil traffic, stag-
nate trade, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, declare
quarterly dividends on watered stock, and make fortunes every
year by robbing the people. Their tyrannical power, rapid
growth, and centralization of wealth is the marvel of recent
times and the saddest commentary the future historian will
make on our legislative history. They practically own, run,
and control the government, and defy prosecution for viola-
tion of law. If their power of concentration and centralization
is not speedily checked, and they go on for another quarter of a
century like they have in the past few years, I believe our free
institutions will be destroyed, and instead of a government of
the people, by the people, and for the people, we will have a
government of the trusts, by the trusts and for the trusts.
How much longer will the people consent to be robbed and
submissively permit a continuation of this outrage? The trusts
have their being and grow by special legislation; they live and
wax fat by governmental favoritism.
If the question is ever presented whether the trusts shall run
the government and enslave humanity, or whether the people
shall own the trusts—not for the benefit of the few, but for the
good of all—and to free the industrial masses—then I shall
vote with the people in favor of government ownership of
trusts. They must either be destroyed or owned and conducted
by the people for the benefit of all.
All legislation bestowing special benefits on the few is unjust
and against the masses and for the classes. It has gone on until
less than 8 per cent of the people own more than two-thrids of
all the wealth of our country. It has been truly said that mon-
archies are destroyed by poverty and republics by wealth. If
the greatest republic the world has ever seen is destroyed, it will
fall by this vicious system of robbing the many for the benefit
of the few.
Let us pause again and briefly consider the situation.
The total population of the United States is about 75,000,000.n6
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The total aggregate wealth of the United States, according
to the best statistics that can be procured, is estimated at about
$65,000,000,000, and it appears, and no doubt much to the sur-
prise of many, that out of a total population of 75,000,000 less
than 25,000 persons in the United States own more than one-
half of the entire aggregate wealth of the land. And this has
all been brought about during the last twenty-five years by
combinations and conspiracies called trusts fostered by special
legislation and nurtured by political favoritism.
The centralization of wealth in the hands of the few by the
robbery of the many during the past quarter of a century has
been simply enormous and the facts and figures are appalling.
Three-quarters of the entire wealth of our land appears to be
concentrated in the hands of a very small minority of the peo-
ple, and the number of persons constituting that minority grows
smaller and smaller every year, impartial students of,these
startling facts and statistics can hardly escape the irresistible
conclusion that a conspiracy exists, and has existed for some
time, to convert the government of the United States into a
powerful oligarchy of wealth consisting of a few thousand
multi-millionaires who will ere long own and control all the
other people.
The plutocrats, the trusts, the monopolies, and the syndicates
seem to be supreme and legislate for their own interests, their
own benefit, and their own protection. If it continues the
yeomanry of our country will soon be reduced to a condition
of industrial serfdom more pitiable than ever existed before in
the history of the world.
The money power, the trusts, and the favored few of the
land, threaten the perpetuity of our free institutions by sub-
sidizing the pulpit, buying the press, seating well-paid attorneys
in legislative halls and courts of justice, stifling free speech, and
the right of lawful assembly, and stretching out their tenacles
to the colleges of the land to crush professors who have the
courage of their convictions and dare to tell the truth regard-
ing economic and social principles.
“The trusts must go,” should be the battle cry of the people
in the coming campaign.WILLIAM SULZER.
ii 7
What is the remedy? My friends, I hear many suggestions
—some good—some bad. But let me ask what is the matter
with the remedy we now have—the remedy of the Anti-Trust
act of 1890? Whenever that remedy has been applied it has
been effective. Whenever we have had an official courageous
enough to invoke the power of that act it has been adequate
and successful to crush the trust.
The people who oppose and condemn trusts will receive no
encouragement from this trust-ridden and trust-owned admin-
istration. The Republican Attorney-General is the mere crea-
ture of the trusts, and will take no action against them.
The Republican party in all its power stands fearlessly for
trusts and is openly and boldly supported by trusts. Every
trust in the country was for William McKinley for President in
1896, and every trust will zealously and loyally aid him in 1900.
If you ask what for I answer for value received, for the bless-
ing of a pliable Secretary of the Treasury and a derelict At-
torney-General, for a lively sense of favors yet to come, and
above all and beyond all for Mark Hanna who runs the Repub-
lican machine for the benefit of the trusts, and who turned
down in Ohio an honest and fearless Attorney-General who
was brave enough to do his duty, and courageous enough to
make an attempt to enforce the law against the Standard Oil
Trust—the greatest, the most relentless, and the most cold-
blooded monopoly of them all.
The Republican party is the party of plutocracy. It stands
today for economic errors that rob the many for the benefit
of the few—for financial heresies that centralize wealth and
paralyze industrial freedom—for political policies that enslave
the masses. The Republican party spurns the people, overrides
the Constitution, tramples on the rights of man, turns to the
wall the picture of the great Emancipator, and laughs to scorn
the Declaration of Independence.
To sum it all up, the Republican party stands for Hanna,
and the Republican party is Hanna. What a difference be-
tween the party of Lincoln and the party of Hanna!
The Democratic party is the party of the plain people. It is
opposed to trusts, to monopolies and to special privileges. ItANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
118
stands for the supremacy of the law. It believes in freedom of
thought, freedom of speech, freedom of action, freedom of
trade, and free institutions. It believes in the Constitution, in
fostering commerce, unfettering trade, establishing industry,
aiding enterprise, maintaining equal opportunity, defending
liberty, unshackling the mind and the conscience, and handing
down unimpaired to future generations the blessings of our
free institutions.
While the Republican party is in power the trusts will flour-
ish like a green bay tree.
When the Democratic party comes into power a Democratic
President will appoint a Democratic Attorney-General who
will enforce the law against the trusts and they will dissolve
and disappear like mist before the rising sun and be gone for-
ever.
Now, my friends, a few words in conclusion. We are enter-
ing a most momentous political campaign to determine the
question whether the trusts or the government shall survive.
Whether the people or the plutocrats shall rule—whether this
land shall continue to be a government of the many for the many
or an oligarchy of the privileged and for the favored few. You
ask me what will the outcome be? I cannot tell, but I believe
history repeats itself—that God in his infinite wisdom raises up
a man from the plain people in every crisis, and in the pending
crisis we have such a man—a born leader of men—whom we
can all trust and whom we can all follow—and who will lead us
to victory, and rescue the people from the money lenders and
the money changers.
A hundred years ago the Democratic party—the party of
the plain people—after a most momentous campaign, came into
power under the matchless leadership of its famous founder,
Thomas Jefferson, and the impetus his administration gave to
popular government carried forward free institutions unim-
paired for a century.
We are beginning another momentous campaign under the
leadership of a second Thomas Jefferson—the stalwart, the fear-
less, the gallant and the intrepid young leader of Nebraska—
William J. Bryan—to test the perpetuity of popular govern-I. R. SOVEREIGN.
119
ment and of our free institutions, and by the grace of God and
the power of the free men of America, he will win, and the
impetus his administration will give the government of
Jefferson, of Jackson, and of Lincoln, will carry it forward un-
impaired for another century, and generations yet unborn will
sing the gladsome song that the government of the people, by
the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
ADDRESS OF J.R. SOVEREIGN.
The privilege of addressing this magnificent assemblage,
called in the interest of honest government and the public wel-
fare, is to me both an honor and a pleasure. To my mind, the
thanks of all the good people of these United States are justly
due to the American Anti-Trust League for this splendid
representative convention. A convention that seeks not a gov-
ernment for the special benefit of the poor; not a government
for the special benefit of the rich, but a convention that goes
back to the first principles of liberty and seeks a government
for the benefit of all the people.
To my mind this is the most conspicuous assemblage in this
country for more than a quarter of a century. It comes in the
very acme of our productive supremacy and at the sunrise of a
new century like a danger signal displayed in the heavens as
a warning to a people in whose hearts and veins there burns a
patriotism as pure as the luster of the morning stars.
The motives of this convention are in the interest of both
capital and labor. The intention is to arouse a public senti-
ment which, when crystalized into law, will prevent capital
from stealing and save labor from begging; keep capital out
of revolting tyranny and labor out of degrading servitude;
spare the country the pain of the tramp trust from New
Jersey and the shame of the tramp laborer from Illinois.
I refer to these two states without prejudice and only to
recall the fact that immediately following the benevolent
colonization by Mark Hanna in 1896, most of the tramp trusts
came from New Jersey and most of the tramp laborers from
Chicago.120
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
My friends, referring to the subject of my remarks : “Can the
Trusts be Trusted,” it must be conceded that animal nature
and brute propensity still comprise potent factors in human
character. All men are more or less prone to selfishness and
greed. If the generality of mankind were not more or less
victims of inordinate cupidity the abolition of statutes and
courts might prove a blessing to the human race. But, fully
realizing the implacable lust in human character, governments
are instituted, purporting to make men better by law than they
are by nature.
The prime object of all good governments is to checkmate
individual selfishness among their citizens, to prevent the rich
and powerful from imposing unjust tribute or cruel exaction
on the poor and more dependent elements of society. The
blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness guaran-
teed to all our people at the foundation of our government was
only another way of expressing the faith of the government
to the protection of the industrial masses against the encroach-
ments of sordid, selfish individuals or combinations.
Republican government differs from monarchy in character
only to the extent that the arbitrary forces of government are
eliminated from kings and princes, lords and nobles and con-
centrated in the hands of the people. A kingdom is as whole-
some a form of government as was ever instituted to define and
enforce the rules of human conduct so long as the king remains
pure in character and defends the rights of the masses.
The civilized world does not object to kings on the ground
that all kings are necessarily tyrannical and oppressive, for the
history of the world contains a record of many wise and
humane rulers who have occupied the thrones of great king-
doms, dispensing justice and promoting the welfare and the
happiness of their subjects.
The one great unanswerable objection to a king is founded
on the true fact that so great a concentration of arbitrary
power and executive authority in the hands of one man, assisted
by a titled nobility, affords the greatest possible incentive to
tyranny and oppression, and ultimately results in extreme
segregation of society into conflicting elements, with the ar-}. R. SOVEREIGN.
121
rogant, supercilious on the one side and the crawling, cringing
vassals on the other.
Kings cannot be safely trusted with the welfare of the peo-
ple. Man’s cupidity is too strong and the temptation too great
to warrant the delegation of such dangerous authority.
Our forefathers tried a king to their heart’s content and
fought the battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill
while appealing to their king for a redress of the same charac-
ter of grievance now imposed on the American people at the
hands of the trusts. But our forefathers finally decided that
kings could not be trusted, and wisely declared that all govern-
ments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed.
Now, my friends, we do not object to the trusts on the
ground that all trusts are_ necessarily greedy and oppressive.
Combinations of capital and brains for the promotion and suc-
cessful operation of great enterprises need not necessarily rob
or oppress anybody. The co-operation of capital and practical
experience in the development of great industries may be so
managed as to prove far more beneficial to the common people
than the individual efforts of many persons applied singly to the
same industries.
All this is admitted. But we object to the trusts because the
concentration of so great arbitrary power over the fields of
productive and distributive enterprise furnishes the greatest
possible incentive to robbery and oppression, and already the
process of extreme stratification in society so destructive of
individual liberty and so dangerous to the perpetuity of repub-
lican government is everywhere in evidence as a result of their
arrogant domination over the industries of the country.
Trusts, like kings, cannot be trusted with the welfare of the
people or the business interests and the commercial life of the
nation. We have tried them to our heart’s content, and find
in them a haughty, dictatorial policy no less subversive of
liberty and equality than were the tyrannical exactions imposed
by King George on the American Colonies against which our
forefathers rebelled.122
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Prior to the Revolutionary war, England, true to her history,
wanted to make an exorbitant profit off the necessities of some-
body else, and she naturally turned to this country for the
victims of her extortion. One of her first acts of tyranny in
America was the prohibiting of manufacture in the colonies.
By that act England knew she could dictate the market price of
raw material at the receiving end of her counter and the price
of manufactured products at the other, and grow rich and
powerful off the poverty and dependence of this country.
The trusts today are striving to make exorbitant profits off
the necessities of somebody else, and by their prohibitive and
restrictive orders and policies they seek, like England in her
colonial policy, to hurl into the vortex of financial ruin the last
possible person who dares assume the individual right of in-
dependent operation.
Already hundreds of the silent establishments of the ostra-
cised victims of the trusts stand before us as crumbling monu-
ments to wTeckage and disaster like the jagged outlines of an
ancient temple before the horizon of the setting sun.
From 1710 to the close of the Revolutionary war, the honest
yeomanry of this country denounced the voracious determina-
tion of Great Britain to dominate the markets through the
prohibition of independent manufacture in the colonies as a
violent application of vicious despotism. And in God’s name
what was despotism then is despotism now. It can make no
difference with the facts or the effects whether the orders come
from the throne of England or whether they emanate from
a charter granted by the State of New Jersey.
No nation can be free while its industries are in slavery, and
to enslave a people it is only necessary to control the means'
and opportunities of their livelihood. Today we maintain all
the prejudices of a free government and a free people, but we
blindly sacrifice all the virtues of freedom in the slavery of
industry at the feet of the trusts.
Chattel slavery gave way before the onward march of a
higher civilization, but in the jubilee of that victory industrial
slavery found the citadel of liberty unguarded and thrust its
venomous fangs into the very vitals of our social superstruc-/. R. SOVEREIGN.
123
ture; a thousand trusts and monopolies are our masters
now; imposing bankruptcy and business ostracism on every
man who dare squirm beneath their iron heel; controlling
everything from the raiment of the new born babe to the shroud
of the dead; bribing the courts, corrupting legislatures, under-
mining the foundation of public morals, and debauching the
carrying trade through unjust discriminations in the rates of
transportation.
I am in favor of forcible expansion, but I want that kind of
expansion that will curb the powers of the trusts through the
forcible annexation of the railroads to the government of my
country.
I am in favor of forcible expansion, but I want that kind of
expansion that will insure the benevolent assimilation of all
our people through the forcible annexation of the archipelago
of Wall Street to the territory of America. It would be far
better for the people to have the conquest of Manhattan Island
than to have the conquest of Luzon.
But the annexation scheme reaches out to Porto Rico, to
Cuba, to Hawaii, to the Philippines, to the Sulu Archipelago—
bottles them all up, throws in the United States and then in-
vites Wall Street and the other trusts to dam the bottle for
a thousand years in the name of benevolent assimilation.
The scheme of the trusts is to offer a slight increase in wages,
reduce the working force to offset the increase, force an ex-
orbitant increase in the market price of manufactured products,
limit the output through the destruction of competition, attrib-
ute the increase in prices to the increase of demand and then
pose before the American people in the coming campaign as the
white-robed angel of general prosperity.
We cannot trust the trusts for the reason that their every in-
terest is inimical to the principles of self-government. No man
can speak three words in support of the trusts without op-
posing the principles of self-government in the same sentence.
Trusts and self-government are conflicting forces and cannot
dwell together in the same house, and it is a remarkable coin-
cidence when we reflect that simultaneously with the growth of
the trusts comes the sentiment from the trust centers of the124
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
country that we ought to resist the notion that governments
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Show me a trust and I will show you the organized forces of
imperialism. Show me a trust and I will show you the vital-
izing forces of oligarchy and aristocracy. Show me a trust and
I will show you an association that would renounce our Decla-
ration of Independence, repudiate our Republican institutions
and order this nation to begin the dreary march of retreat back
on the blood-stained road over the battle grounds and the graves
of our heroes and martyrs to that desolation and despotism
from whence we came.
But they tell us that we must trust the trusts in order that
great industrial enterprises may be rapidly developed and the
aggregate wealth of the nation enormously increased. My
friends, I know not what your prayers may be, but as for me,
I would a thousand times rather that this nation become a little
poorer than it now is, and all the people share its benefits in
proportion to the wealth they create, than to have it become the
richest nation on the face of the earth and its wealth concen-
trated in the hands of the few.
I would a thousand times rather have twenty thousand more
independent citizens added to the Christian homes of my coun-
try with a competency of ten thousand dollars each than to have
one Rockefeller defying the courts, burning his books to conceal
his crimes and trying to bribe his way into heaven with contri-
butions from his two hundred millions.
I would a thousand times rather go back to the shoemaker
in the corner and the family tailor on the bench, with the old
spinning wheel and the hand loom by the hearthstone and the
family altar, than to establish a system that monopolizes the
richest bounties of nature, steals the patrimony of the unborn,
puts money above humanity, makes property out of persons and
manors and estates for idle holders out of God’s richest
domain.
I would a thousand times rather spend the balance of my life
defending in my humble way the equality of all men before the
law and the liberty of individual enterprise than to utter one
short feeble whisper in defense of the a'varicious combinations/. R. SOVEREIGN.
125
which canonize robbery as business success, overawe the peo-
ple with threats of bankruptcy and change the character of
man from fortitude and virtue to beastliness and hate.
I would a thousand times rather that the jurisdiction of this
government be forever confined to our forty-five States and
four Territories at home than to have it float our flag a single
minute over the Philippine Islands in support of the trust com-
bines which seek to rear the fabric of social life on the enslave-
ment of God’s deserving poor and the robbery of the weaker
nations of their labor and their liberty.
My friends, if man had not been created with more natural
wants than his individual capabilities could supply there never
would have been a semblance of civilization in the human
family. If every man born in the world had been endowed by
nature with all the talents and strength to produce with his
own hands all the necessary comforts and requirements of his
life there never would have been any reciprocal relations be-
tween men and nations.
But God in his wisdom placed us all on the stream of time
dependent on the efforts of each other for the comforts and
requirements of our sojourn on earth, and any trust or other
combination that impairs the easiest possible exchange of the
necessaries of human life and happiness commits an outrage
on the laws of nature and turns backward the hands on the
dial of civilization.
We take up the history of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Persia,
Rome and of the other civilized nations which have long since
gone to their reward, and we read them with pleasure and
satisfaction from the incipient stages of their national growth
to the noonday of their power and glory. But we lay the his-
tories all down with sorrow and regret as we trace those nations
through shadows of greed into the valley of death and find
that the cause of their dissolution and decay was the concentra-
tion of the wealth of the many into the hands of the few and
its employment to impair the easy exchange of commodities
among the common people.
Now in the youth of our nation and in the zenith of our glory
we go over into the graveyard of those nations and we pluck126
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
an epitaph from the crumbling tombs of folly and shame and
pin it to the escutcheon of the grandest republic the world ever
knew as our guide and faith in the progress of our civilization.
But notwithstanding all this madness for money, all this
hypocrisy and cunning in politics and commercial life, we can
still whisper to the spirit of the martyred Lincoln that the hope
of liberty has not yet perished from the face of the earth.
Cold and dull must be the temper, saturnine and unhappy must
be the heart of him who cannot discern in the economic thought
of the age the spirit of reform still alive. And through a better
understanding among the plain people, a warmer brotherhood
and a keener sense of justice, we will soon give to capital that
credit and respect which all honest accumulations merit, and to
the industrial masses the just profits of their labor in proportion
to their contributions to the wealth of the world.
ADDRESS OP W. J. STRONG.
The question of trusts has been discussed principally from
the standpoint of monopoly of markets and prices. Their effect
on the small producer, manufacturer, merchant and the middle-
man has been exploited. That the power to arbitrarily raise
the price of the necessaries of life is a serious one no one
denies; that a change of the whole industrial system, which
throws large numbers of wage-earners out of employment and
turns them loose on the community wholly unqualified to
engage in other pursuits, owing to the fact that nearly all lines
of business have become specialized, and that they have spent
the best years of their lives in acquiring knowledge and skill
in their particular avocations, is fraught with the gravest con-
sequences to public welfare no thinking man will question.
It is not, however, my purpose to speak upon those phases
of the trust question; but rather upon an evil which has be-
come rooted in our industrial system, without having attracted
the attention of publicists or statesmen, and without having
received any serious notice from the metropolitan journals of
the country, as they, too, have united in a course of silence, so
to speak; an evil which strikes at the very liberty of every manW. J. STRONG.	127
and woman who toils for wages or a salary, and one which the
trust alone can make effective.
The price of the necessities of life is important, and the
opportunity to work is also of the highest importance; these
would be serious matters under any form of government, be
it a despotism, a monarchy or a democracy ; but the liberty of
working when there is an opportunity open, and the freedom
to contract is of a higher importance in a government which
is to remain a government of the people.
The evil I speak of is the blacklist. It denies the toiler the
right to work when he can find an opportunity.
The system has become thoroughly established among the
steam railroads of the country, and its efficacy as a means to
subjugate labor and to destroy the power of labor unions has
been so thoroughly demonstrated by the railroads that it is
now being adopted by many other branches of corporate indus-
try, such as street railroads, which have formed a national
organization; the great packing establishments, clothing man-
ufacturers, telegraph companies, coal mines, iron and steel mills
and even the retail dry goods and department stores; and it
now threatens the liberties and the independence of all classes
of labor; yea, it threatens the very existence of republican
institutions.
The facts which I will show to you tonight picture vividly
the fulfillment of a prophecy uttered by Wendell Phillips nearly
a quarter of a century ago. At that time, describing the evils
of blacklisting in our New England manufactories, he pre-
dicted “that should the system be allowed to gain a foothold
and spread throughout the industrial system, a new slavery
far worse than that of the negro in its effects on both the indi-
vidual and national life would be developed.” It is one of the
dangers apprehended by the great Lincoln, and I think it fitting
tonight to call your attention to his prophetic words when
speaking of corporations at the close of the civil war. He said:
“As a result of the war corporations have been enthroned,
and an era of corruption will follow. The money power of
the country will endeavor to prolong its reigfi by playing on
the prejudices of the people, until all wealth is concentrated128
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
in a few hands, and the republic will be destroyed. Before
God, I fear more for the safety of my country now than when
in the midst of the war.”
The blacklist is especially dangerous by reason of the fact
that the means whereby organized capital effects its objects,
while more far-reaching in their effects for evil than the
weapons of organized labor, work for the most part silently,
and do not create the local disorders which follow strikes and
the boycotts of laborers.
And it is undoubtedly for this reason that courts find it
possible to give definite redress against boycotts and strikes,
while generally similar combinations of capital escape, and the
public knows nothing of them.
It has been my fortune to be employed in the prosecution
of the cases against the railroads for blacklisting the men who
quit work during the strike of 1894, commonly known as the
A. R. U. strike, and while engaged in these cases I have
learned the following facts, which I propose to detail to you
tonight so that you may know upon what I base my charges.
This question has passed beyond the stage of platform agita-
tion and rhetorical protest, as the facts have been proved in
courts of justice under the strict legal rules of evidence. The
charge in these cases is that the railroads in the United States
entered into a conspiracy to prevent every man who quit work
during that strike from getting employment from any other
road, without he first had the consent of the railroad he last
worked for prior to that strike, and that in pursuance of that
conspiracy they agreed to give, and did give, to each 'other
information concerning all their men who quit during that
strike; and when it was learned by any road to which one of
those men applied for employment that he had quit during
the strike, he" was denied employment unless he produced from
his last employer its consent that he might be employed; this
consent being commonly called among railroad men “a clear-
ance.”
When my right to leave my employer and get work elsewhere
depends upon his consent, he becomes my master and I his
slave.W. J. STRONG.
129
Bear in mind that these actions are based upon a conspiracy
and that it takes two or more to form a conspiracy. When
any industry is combined, under one corporation or trust, being
but one person in law, it cannot be convicted of conspiracy.
The proof of conspiracy is always difficult, owing to the fact
that conspiracies are always secretly formed, and are seldom
capable of being proved by direct evidence. The proof of this
conspiracy is what I intend to show.
In the first place, we placed the chairman of the General
Managers’ Association on the stand, and he testified that it
was a voluntary organization of all the railroads running into
Chicago, that their meetings were secret and that the object of
the association was to bring about uniformity among the differ-
ent railroads in all matters affecting their operation.
We then introduced the records of the proceedings of the
General Managers’ Association of May 18, 1893, more than
a year before the strike, showing that even then they had been
considering the question of blacklisting, and we proved that
thirteen out of the twenty roads represented at that meeting
voted to adopt the recommendation of the committee.
The report of the committee is as follows:
“The matter of the establishment of an employment bureau:
“The subject has been discussed at great length and it is
the opinion of the committee that such a bureau would be of
advantage to the association.
“First—In assisting them in the procurement of men both
under ordinary conditions and in times of emergency.
“Second—In assisting the roads to guard against the em-
ployment of a man who has proved unworthy on some other
road.
“Third—In abolishing the state of affairs with which we are
all familiar, that is expressed when a man is disciplined, by
the statement, ‘Your road is not the only road in Chicago,’ and
that ‘employment can readily be obtained on some other road,’
although an offense has been committed.”
They then followtd that recommendation by the ostrich-like
statement that they wanted to be understood that they were
“opposed to any idea of blacklisting.”130
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
What! I would like to know, did it mean to abolish the state
of affairs wherein a man would say to some tyrannical boss,
“Your road is not the only road in Chicago. I am a good man
and can readily get work on some other road.”
How? By what means did they expect to abolish the state
of affairs when a self-respecting, independent American citizen
would say that?
He would be sure to say it if he knew he could get work on
some other road.
The only way they could prevent him from saying it would
be to let him find out in some way that he could not get work
on other roads, and he would very soon find that out when he
applied to other roads which were hiring men and was told they
could not hire him without a clearance from his last employer;
and when he presented letters showing his good'habits, indus-
try, skill and sobriety, and was told that such letters were not
a clearance, and learned that a clearance meant a letter giving
the consent of his last master was necessary, he would then
know he could not readily obtain work on some other road.
This state of affairs would soon spread among railroad
employes and the terrors of the blacklist would soon be mani-
fest in the deportment of the men.
Stalwart, manly men, who had women and children depend-
ent on them for support, would not then dare to say to any
boss: “Your road is not the only road in Chicago, and work
can readily be obtained on some other road.” This is the only
way they could abolish that state of affairs.
Their solemn and uncalled-for declaration that they were
opposed to any idea of blacklisting carries with it the sugges-
tion of a guilty conscience.
What suggested the idea of blacklisting at that time? Why
did they use the word in connection with their report, if they
did not know that what went before meant blacklisting? Truly
the French proverb applies that “He who excuses accuses.”
But I must hasten along with the other proof. In the case of
Fred Ketcham against the Chicago & Northwestern Railway
Company, Ketcham introduced a letter showing ten years’
faithful service, and he testified that he had quit during theW. J. STRONG.
131
strike and stayed at home and away from the railroads, and
that he did nothing to hinder the railroads and took no part
in any disturbance; that about July 4 or 5 Superintendent
Stewart came to his home and asked him to take out a train;
that he refused to do so, saying to the superintendent that he
did not feel under any obligations to risk his life at that time;
that Stewart threatened to have him arrested and to have him
named in the blanket injunction that was issued against the
strikers if he did not take out the train, and told him he would
have difficulty in getting work on any other road. That a few
days after that he made up his mind the system of blacklisting
had been adopted, and he went to the Chicago Great Western
and got a position as freight conductor; made one trip to
Dubuque and back, and on the morning of his return was
arrested by a United States marshal and taken to the United
States court and locked up for about a week, until he was
able to give a $3,000 bond. The case was never prosecuted
and the files were mysteriously lost, and he never knew the
cause of his arrest. After being released he went back to the
Great Western and Superintendent Kelly told him he could
not employ him further, because he had received information
that he was a Northwestern striker. Ketcham asked him from
“whom he got his information?” when Kelly replied: “From
the one we all get it from.” Ketcham then asked him if he
was blacklisted, whereupon Kelly replied: “You may call it
that or anything you please. I can’t hire you without a clear-
ance from the Northwestern. You go to Stewart and he will
know what to give you. I am sorry, Ketcham, for you are a
good man, but it comes from above me. If you will get a
clearance I will be glad to give you a regular run.” Daniel
Cash, who was with Ketcham, also applied for a position and
showed Kelly his letter from the Northwestern, and was told
it was not a clearance, and that he could not hire him without
a clearance. Ketcham had a letter just like it, but did not show
it after hearing what he said to Cash. Both letters, after
showing many years of employment and good service, had at
the bottom: “Left his post during A. R. U. strike and was
active in persuading others to do likewise. When he returned132
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
for duty his place was filled.” Ketcham applied to several
other roads when they were hiring men and was refused work
because he did not have a clearance. Cash corroborated Ketch-
am’s testimony in every particular about the conversation with
Superintendent Kelly.
Frank Dryer testified he had quit the Michigan Central rail-
road during the strike, applied to several roads who needed
men after the strike and was refused by some because he did
not have a clearance; that he asked the Michigan Central for a
clearance and was refused one. Finally he got far enough to
put in a written application and was given work pending the
result of inquiries, but was discharged in a few days because
his application was not approved. Having this experience
several times, he became discouraged in trying to hold a posi-
tion under his own name, so secured the letters of his brother-
in-law, W. G. Cherry, who had quit the railroad business in
the latter part of 1893, and, denying his name and birthright,
applied to the Chicago & Erie railroad, under the name of
Cherry; when they investigated his references they found he
(Cherry) had quit before the strike, and so his application
was approved, and he continued at work, giving satisfaction,
until he testified in the Ketcham case, in the fall of 1897, and
it was discovered he was working under an assumed name,
when he was immediately discharged.
John D. Green, a conductor on the Illinois Central railroad,
testified he quit during the strike and after the strike tried to
get a clearance, but failed; that among the other roads to
which he applied where they needed men was the Chicago
Great Western railway. When he applied to the trainmaster
he was told they needed conductors badly and asked if he had
a clearance from the strike. When he said no, the trainmaster
told him he did not dare employ him, because he had hired a
man named Ketcham without a clearance and that he got hell
for it. He told him he did not care if he had wrecked trains
or what he had done he would give him a job if he could get a
clearance from the Illinois Central. He never succeeded in
getting work from a railroad, although he had the best of letters
as to his qualifications.W. I. STRONG.
133
Michael Driscoll testified he quit the Pittsburg-Fort Wayne
railroad; that he deceived Superintendent Warner of the Chi-
cago & Western Indiana and managed to get in several weeks’
work. When it was heard that he had quit the Pittsburg-Fort
Wayne during the strike he was immediately discharged; that
he went to see Superintendent Warner and asked why he was
discharged; that Warner told him “it was the Pittsburg-Fort
Wayne which kept him from working.”
Between thirty and forty other men testified to similar expe-
riences, embracing every railroad in Chicago and nearly every
railroad in the United States.
All these men had good letters, showing them to be skilled,
sober men, and testified that they were told they could not be
hired without a clearance. Without taking up the time to
detail their evidence, I will close my recital of facts with the
testimony of a few witnesses who produced documentary evi-
dence of the blacklist.
Norman Ford testified he was an office boy in the office of
J. W. Higgins of the Illinois Central during the strike; that
in August, 1894, he was instructed to make fifty mimeograph
copies of a list containing 524 names of the employes of the
Chicago terminals department; that he made the fifty copies
and mailed one to every road in Chicago. I want you to s^e
photographic copies of the documents that were introduced,
as I know the pictures of these documents will burn their
memory into your minds so that you will remember them
when you have forgotten my words. The first picture I will
show you will be the front page of the Illinois Central railroad
blacklist, which Norman Ford swore he mailed to every road
in Chicago. You will notice the language:
“The under-noted men of transportation department have
been discharged, or have left the service under circumstances
rendering it undesirable for them to be re-employed by this
company, and should they apply to you you are requested to
deny them employment without first conforming to general
rule No. 636. J. W. Higgins, Superintendent Terminals.”134
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Under the column “Remarks” you will see the reason:
“Participating in the A. R. U. strike.” That is the reason
given for the whole 524 names, with but a few exceptions.
General rule 636, on page 50 of the book of rules of the
Illinois Central Railroad Company is as follows:
“636. No person suspended or dismissed from one depart-
ment or division of the service shall be employed in another
without the consent of the head of the department or division
from which he was dismissed, subject to approval of the
superintendent of lines and general superintendent.”
Their defense to this was that this rule referred only to the
Illinois Central, but it must be remembered that all the other
roads had the same rule, and also that this rule was referred to
in the communication they sent other roads, when they request-
ed them not to employ these men without first conforming to
general rule 636. I do not question the legality of sending
this list to all their own officials on different divisions, but I
do deny their right tc send it to other roads to prevent these
men from getting employment.
Ford’s testimony was corroborated by Mr. Atwater, super-
intendent of the Grand Trunk, who testified he saw a list like
the above in the office of the general attorney of the Chicago
& Northwestern railroad.
To be sure, several general managers took the stand and tes-
tified they had never received or seen such a list, and that there
never was any agreement or understanding to blacklist the men.
Perhaps they chloroformed their consciences with the fact
that their private secretaries are the ones who opened their
mail, and were the only ones who received or saw such a list.
Mr. Atwater of the Grand Trunk, however, in an unguarded
moment, testified to seeing such a list in the office of one of
the officers of the Chicago & Northwestern railway.
I am willing to take the opinion of the Interstate Commerce
Commission as to the value of the testimony of railroad offi-
cials. It will be found in the report of Interstate Commerce
Commission for the year 1897, pages 32 to 47. I quote their
exact language regarding the investigation concerning dis-
criminations in freight rates:W. J. STRONG.
135
“Railroad men themselves tacitly admitted that rates were
not maintained. The press openly charged it and what inquiries
the Commission could make led us to the same conclusion.
Finally, for the purpose of ascertaining what could be devel-
oped in the way of investigation, we began the inquiry into
grain rates. *	*	* That inquiry was participated in by
the several members of the Commission in person. *	*	*
Those officers of the different railroads engaging in that traffic
who must have known had the rate been departed from were
called before us and compelled to give evidence under oath.
That evidence was without exception that the rate had been
in all cases maintained.
“Now, these gentlemen must have known whereof they
spoke. Their testimony covers a period in which the rates of
the kind involved were said to have been more than ordinarily
disturbed, and that testimony shows that during all that time,
and in reference to all those shipments, the published tariff
was scrupulously exacted.
“Nevertheless, there are strong reasons for believing that
the fact is otherwise. Those who are in a position to know
say that it is so. *	*	* Facts which are morally convinc-
ing, although not of a character to secure a legal conviction,
lead us to the same opinion.’’
A very polite way, is it not, with charging those railroad
officials with deliberate perjury?
Another letter introduced is the following:
“Subject: Application of A. L. Henton.
“The Wabash Railroad Company, Office of Trainmaster,
Forest, 111., August 16, 1894.—A. L. Henton, Esq., 2711 Bon-
field Street, Chicago—Dear Sir:	Referring to attached. If
you have not been concerned in recent strike, and can bring
clearance to that effect, showing where you were working
June 30 and since, can give you a job of braking. Yours truly,
“H. W. Ballou, Trainmaster.”
He could not bring such clearance, and it is needless to say
he did not get the job, though he had always been sober and
industrious. He traveled over the country for two years trying136
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
to find work at his trade, and was finally killed while stealing
a ride on a freight train in search of work.
The following letter was obtained from the superintendent
of motive power and machinery of the Wabash railroad after
Mr. Snyder had been discharged and had asked for a clearance:
“The Wabash Railroad Company, Office Superintendent Mo-
tive Power and Machinery, J. B. Barnes, Superintendent M. P.
& M., Springfield, 111., February 10, 1896.—John Snyder, Esq.,
4205 Atlantic Street, Chicago, 111.—Dear Sir:	Replying to
yours of February 14, below please find your record while
with this company: Employed as fireman, October 30, 1882;
promoted to switch engineer, February 6, 1883 ; resumed firing,
April 6, 1888, account slack business; promoted to switch engi-
neer, June 2, 1888; assigned as road engineer, March 25, 1893;
August 1, 1892, fined five days, violation smoke ordinance; quit
July 1, 1894, giving as reason that it was not safe to run on
account of mob violence; allowed to resume work July 19,
1894; discharged August 3, 1894, for being in sympathy with
the strikers; worked only a short time in July and August.
Yours truly,
“J. B. Barnes, Superintendent M. P. & M.”
This letter shows it was a crime punishable with starvation
to harbor the vile emotion of human sympathy.
The next letter is one given to J. H. Dungan by the super-
intendent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Com-
pany, when he was discharged after five months of satisfactory
service. It is as follows:
“Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, Office
Superintendent, Kansas City, Mo., March 21, 1895.—Certifi-
cate No. 176.—This is to certify that John H. Dungan has been
employed in the capacity of switchman at Argentine, Kan., on
the K. C. terminal division from August 23, 1894, to March 18,
1895; was discharged on account of previous record unsatis-
factory; services while here were satisfactory.
“John Z. Roraback, Superintendent.”
Dungan testified that at the time of the strike he was in the
employ of the Northern Pacific railroad and quit with the restW. /. STRONG.
137
of the men; that after the strike he made out applications
referring to the Northern Pacific and secured several temporary
positions, but in each instance was discharged when the North-
ern Pacific was heard from, and was told his applications were
not approved; that he finally obtained a situation in Argentine,
Kan., on the A., T. & S. F., put in an application, referring to
the Northern Pacific as the last road he had worked for, and
was allowed to work about five months, when he was again
discharged; that after his discharge he went to his immediate
superintendent and was given the above letter. Knowing his
services had been satisfactory, he determined to try and get
reinstated and wrote to the general superintendent, H. U.
Mudge, stating all the facts in his case. He received the follow-
ing reply, showing that even the receivers of that road, who
were officers of the United States court, were parties to the
conspiracy:
“Subject: Re-employment.
“Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company; Aldace
F. Walker, John J. McCook, Joseph C. Wilson, Receivers;
H. U. Mudge, General Superintendent; Office of General
Superintendent Eastern Grand Division; on the line Middle
Division, March 27, 1895.—Mr. J. H. Dungan, Argentine
(Postoffice box, 69) :	Dear Sir—Acknowledging receipt of
yours of the 21st, I have investigated the matter and find that
immediately upon your being employed letters were written to
ascertain your record with the Northern Pacific; the delay is
entirely due to the fact that they neglected to reply earlier to
references. It is against the policy of the receivers to have any
man who was mixed up with the strike; and if we intended to
do so there are certainly a large number of men who had worked
for this company who should be given preference over men
from other roads. In being allowed to work five months you
were more fortunate than most others, and I regret to say that
I do not see my way clear to do anything for you in this case.
Respectfully,	PI. U. Mudge, General Superintendent.”
Think of a man whose services were satisfactory being con-
sidered fortunate in being allowed to work for five months!ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
13**
The only reason given for not allowing him to continue
work is that “it is against the policy of the receivers to have
any man who was mixed up in the strike.”
Can it be possible that the officers of our courts have become
so servile to the corporate interests that they are willing to join
a conspiracy to deprive American citizens of their right to
work, unless the consent of their last master is given?
John J. McCook, one of those receivers, was prominently
urged for the office of Attorney-General of the United States,
the head of the legal department of our Government.
Where are we drifting? This ideal democracy of the world,
whose chief harbor is adorned with a statue of the Goddess of
Liberty enlightening the world!
Another document introduced in evidence was the following:
“Illinois Central Railroad Company, Office Superintendent
Terminals, Chicago, December 23, 1895.—To Whom Pre-
sented : The bearer, Louis Burnham, was employed by this
company from 1887 to 1892 as freight brakeman and? conductor,
from 1892 to 1894 as switchman in Chicago yard.
“During that time he was sober, performed his work satis-
factorily. Unfortunately he was influenced to leave the serv-
ice, but so far as I am aware he was not actively aggressive;
did nothing to hinder the transaction of this company’s busi-
ness.
“I believe he now regrets his action, and as he has been
out of work a long time, has an invalid wife to care for* I
should be glad to see him given employment and feel satis-
fied that he will make his employers a valuable man.
“J. W. Higgins,
“Superintendent Terminals.”
Burnham testified that he had sought work at his trade for
a year and four months after the strike, and was refused
because he had no clearance; that he then went to Mr. Hig-
gins and asked for a “clearance” so that he could support
his family; that the next day after getting the above letter
he applied to Robert Cherry, general yardmaster of the Nickel
Plate railroad, and asked if he needed any men; that CherryIV. J. STRONG.
139
replied:	“Yes, I need a man or two. Have you a clear-
ance?” That he then produced this letter and handed it to
him. Cherry read it and said:	“That’s a d——d good let-
ter, Burnham, but I can’t hire you on that, as it would do
no good to send that letter into the office, as lots of as good
letters have been rejected.” Burnham testified that he trav-
eled all over the west looking for work and failed to get it;
that one railroad official to whom he showed that letter laughed
at him, and said when he refused him work that there was
reading between the lines.
What better letter of recommendation could a man have?
Even an invalid wife could not move these representatives of
soulless corporations. Human sympathy is not on the cata-
logue of these monsters. Snyder, you will remember, was dis-
charged because he had manhood enough to sympathize with
these unfortunate men and their families.
I suppose you are wondering by this time what a clearance
is. I will show you one. Andrew Stader, to whom it was
given, testified that at the time the strike broke out he had
been in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway
as a locomotive fireman for about four years; that he was
off on a leave of absence at the time. That about the 6th
of July, 1894, they sent a caller to his house, ordering him
to report to the roundhouse that night and take a train to
Milwaukee. His wife, who was at home, took the message,
and when he returned home she begged him not to go. As
she was in a delicate condition he yielded to her entreaties,
and went to the roundhouse and told the foreman the situ-
ation, and asked him to send some one else until he could
quiet her fears. The foreman flew into a passion and accused
him of sympathy with the strikers, and ordered him to go
or be discharged. Stader told him he would suffer discharge
before he would go; he went to see the master mechanic, John
Heath, who had supreme authority, and Heath stood by the
foreman and discharged him. After the strike was over he
returned and tried to get work, but was refused; he tried'
other roads and failed. Finally Alderman Stanwood of the
13th ward used his influence with General Manager J. M.140
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Whitman, who ordered an investigation, which resulted in
his being re-employed as an extra man. He was not restored
to the rank which he had earned, but allowed to work extra
when the regular men did not want to work, until March, 1895,
when he was discharged. Knowing of the existence of the black-
list, on April 26, 1895, he went to John Heath, the master
mechanic, and asked him for a clearance so that he could
get work on some other road, and was given this letter. This
is a clearance; ponder it well, and consider the situation of
an American citizen who is compelled before he can get work
at his trade to get such a letter from the corporation which
has discharged him because of reduction in force. Would
Mr. Heath have ever given such a letter when asked for a
clearance if he had not known it was necessary to enable
him to secure work from other railroads? The letter exhib-
ited is as follows:
“Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co., Motive Power De-
partment, Office of the Master Mechanic, Wisconsin Division,
Chicago, April 26, 1895.—To Whom It May Concern. This is
to certify that the bearer, Andrew Stader, has worked for
the C. & N. W. Ry. Co. since July, 1890, as locomotive fire-
man. Mr. Stader has been laid off on account of depression
in business, causing reduction in force.
“He has permission to obtain work elsewhere, providing
he can obtain a position that is satisfactory to himself, but
in the event of his not getting work elsewhere he can return
to us for service when we have work for him. Any favors
shown Mr. Stader will be appreciated. Yours truly,
“John Heath, M. M.”
I suppose that if he could not find a position that was sat-
isfactory the permission would not be valid.
This is his emancipation proclamation. If Lincoln could
see it I fear he would be envious of his great rival in that
line. When this emancipation proclamation was issued it would
*The letters read were exhibited by stereopticon.W. J. STRONG.
141
have been appropriate for the general managers to have held
a meeting and united in singing that grand old hymn,—
“My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty.”
An American citizen has been given the permission of a
corporation to earn a living at his trade! My limit of time
will not permit me to detail the testimony offered to show
that the officials of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway tried
to bribe Mr. Stader to leave the state and not to testify in
his case, nor of the numerous other letters from other roads
offered in evidence to prove the existence of the blacklist.
All the letters were proved to be genuine, and the existence
of the blacklist is established beyond any doubt.
We have proof that the same system exists among the tele-
graph companies, and that before the consolidation of the
Pullman and Wagner Sleeping Car companies it was in force
between them, and be proved, and as it requires two or more
to form a conspiracy, the evil cannot be reached when any
industry is combined under one corporation or trust.
There is no doubt, from the facts which are patent to all
who will take the pains to see and read the signs of the times,
that there is a determination on the part of organized capital
to crush labor unions and subjugate labor by means of the
blacklist. It can be worked without sending to each other
lists of names, by adopting the system of requiring men to
produce clearances, or by compelling them to sign applica-
tions, giving the names of previous employers, and then com-
municating with each other by letter or telephone; and the
latter method is the one now in vogue, it being less danger-
ous and not so liable to exposure as the old method of ex-
changing lists.
Organized capital says strikes must stop, and is using the
blacklist as a weapon, and as labor unions or strikes cannot
be made effective without officers or committees to conduct
them, when the corporations blacklist all such officers they
terrorize the men so that none dare act, and the union is help-
less. To be sure, it has not yet been accomplished in all trades,142
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
but it is fast becoming established, and a trust in any industry
will make it possible at any moment. Thus will be seen the
power for oppression residing in the trust. When a man
realizes he cannot leave his employer and go elsewhere and
secure work at his trade he will not dare resist any oppres-
sion the employer may see fit to impose upon him; his wages
may be cut to the starvation point, and he dare not protest;
they may demand additional hours of labor, and he cannot
object. He becomes obsequious and servile, and a sullen and
seditious conspirator against the government and society which
tolerates such a violation of his manhood. How long will it
take under such a system, for the masters to make them do
their bidding in the exercise of the elective franchise? In
a few years their power of resistance will be gone. Even
now it hangs like a black pall over about one million of men
engaged in moving the traffic of our country. Only last month
the public press published the statement that the general man-
ager of the Wabash Railroad refused to confer with the Broth-
erhood of Railroad Trainmen concerning a demand for an
increase of wages, saying he would treat with his individual
employes.
When a man is backed by an organization of his fellows
he has some chance to obtain redress for the abuses of which
he complains, but as an individual he is helpless.
Only last month Mr. P. H. Morrissey, the president of the
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, used the following lan-
guage in a letter written to me on Dec. 13, 1899:
"While our organization is conscious of the evils resulting
from the blacklisting of railway employes, and is constantly
seeking legislation and other means of relief from the influ-
ences of the system, I am not in a position to help you,” etc.
I have the original letter in my possession. When a man
cannot find work he becomes a pauper or a criminal and a
charge upon the state. The public is interested in having all
men find work at their trades. When a man has followed a
trade for a number of years he is unfitted for any other work.
He cannot compete in other trades, for lack of skill, and is
wholly incapable of performing common labor.W. J. STRONG.
143
The blacklist is the solution of the irrepressible conflict be-
tween labor and capital if the people will tolerate it. In a
few years the lion and the lamb will lie down together, only
the lamb will be inside the lion.
Can a government of the people long endure with an elec-
torate composed of such obsequious vassals? Verily, the
author of “The Man with the Hoe,” which was inspired by
that celebrated picture of Millet’s, which I now show you,
may well exclaim of these men ground down by years of in-
dustrial oppression:
“Is this the thing the Lord God made and gave,
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who Shaped the suns,
And pillared the blue firmament with light?
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf,
There is no shape more terrible than this—
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed—
More filled with signs and portents for the soul—
More fraught with menace to the universe.”
This, picture is only symbolical of humanity betrayed, and
illustrates the state to which labor may come after years of
subjugation. Perhaps it is true that but few have yet reached
that deplorable state in this country. It’s only a question of
time, however, and already we begin to see the shadow of
the “emptiness of the ages” in the faces of many who toll
in the sweat shops of trade.
No, my friends, this is not the ideal American citizen, neither
is it the American citizen of the future. The American citi-
zen (with apologies to Walt Whitman as bp described him com-
ing up to congress from the uttermost parts of the country) :
Farmers, mechanics, merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, doc-
tors, and all classes meeting to make laws for the government
of their country. Erect their carriage, responsive their man-
ners and speech; they have the step and look of men who144
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors.
These are the true ideals of American citizenship, and not
the cringing, obsequious serfs who, hat in hand, timidly ap-
proach these corporate bosses asking for their permission to
earn a livelihood in this land of boundless resources.
These railroad magnates justify this infamous un-American
policy by saying these men were not loyal. We want none
but loyal men in our employ. They discharge their men with-
out any notice, yet when the men exercise the same right to
quit without notice they call is disloyalty.
I deny that any man in this country owes loyalty to any-
thing but his country and his flag.
Corporations have not yet attained the powers of sover-
eignty, though they claim it.
The trouble is the people have not been aroused to their
danger; they have grown to consider the government as some-
thing away off there; when it is here, in you and in me. Shall
labor, which hewed this nation of freemen out of a wilder-
ness—labor which created all the honest wealth of our coun-
try—bow its neck to the yoke of these corporations which
were created by the people to be their servants? In the lan-
guage of De Tocqueville:	“Can it be believed that democ-
racy, which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished
kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?” .
No! If private individuals cannot administer our railroads
without making slaves of their employes. If they are so dis-
honest with each other and the public that they cannot resist
the temptation to give special rates to large shippers, I be-
lieve there is enough patriotism, virility and love of liberty
left in the manhood of America to take over to the people
the ownership of these public utilities and place the men un-
der civil-service rules, the same as in our postal service.
We will then have a contented, self-respecting citizenship,
capable of self-government, and when other industries are
organized into trusts, and become oppressive, we will not only
stop discrimination in favor of these large shippers, but will
penalize every shipment they make ioo per cent, if necessary,
and then stand back and see how long it will be before theyJas. W. Wilson.
J. D. Herboldshimer.
Charles A. Towne.
Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow
Allen W. Clark.JUDGE GEORGE W. BEEMAN.	I4S
will totter and fall, and their owners make up their minds
that it is better to obey the law.
* * *
An eminent Frenchman of the last century, who was one
of Thomas Jefferson’s schoolmasters, said:	“God in creating
man a creature of wants, made the right to labor the property
of all men, and this right is the first, the most sacred and the
most imprescriptable of all.”
Mr. Strong’s address closed the evening session and the
meeting adjourned until February 13, at 10 a. m.
MORNING SESSION, FEBRUARY 13.
Promptly at 10 o’clock, a. m., the chairman called the meet-
ing to order and introduced as the first speaker Judge George
W. Beeman.
ADDRESS OP JUDGE GEORGE W. BEEMAN.
The control of trusts must rest with the legislatures of the
various states and with the National Congress. The matter
of determining whether a trust is lawful or unlawful must
be determined by the state and federal courts.
In order that the determinations of this conference be put
into practical effect and the country be relieved from the
iniquities of trusts and the encroachments of great corporate
powers our legislatures and congress must be composed of
representatives who are in thorough sympathy with anti-trust
principles, and the courts must be so far removed from the
influence of trusts or corporations that they will refuse to
accept any special privileges from them, because it is a diffi-
cult undertaking to try to convince the millions of honest
electors in this country that courts can honestly administer
the laws while they continue to be the recipients and holders
of special privileges granted by trusts and corporations.
Rebates given by trusts and passes given by corporations
should not be accepted as New Year presents by legislators146
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
and judges, and until these courtesies are refused by legis-
lators and courts we cannot hope to succeed with the plans
adopted by this conference.
The class to which I belong, the farmers of this country,
are the people who are most and more directly affected than
any other large proportion of the electors, and the supporters
of the principles of this conference if they hope to succeed,
must turn to the farmers for much needed encouragement and
support.
The farmer is affected as a producer and as a consumer.
The iniquities of trusts fall doubly on the farmer. He goes
to bed at night with prices about as follows: Wheat 75 cts.,
corn 25 cts., pork $4.50 per hundred, barbed wire $2.00, nails
$2.00 per hundred, and well pipe cts. per foot. He awakes
in the morning with prices about as follows:	Wheat 65 cts.,
corn 23 cts., pork $4.25, barbed wire $5.00, nails $4.00, and
well pipe 20 cts. His house has not been burglarized, but
he has been robbed by trusts who are a multiple of thieves by
robbers; and there is something strange about the reports of
prices; if the price of wheat goes down it travels by telegraph;
if the price goes up the report travels by canal; but the far-
mer, regardless of party affiliations, if properly educated as
to the effect of trusts on his interests, will make it possible
to return to the legislatures and congress a majority of rep-
resentatives who will be honest and patriotic enough to en-
act laws that will control the trusts, and we will be safe in
leaving the matter of control and regulations of trusts in the
hands of such chosen representatives.
In the popular form of government like ours the right
must prevail, for the people make the laws, and before this
country was discovered the ancients had learned that the voice
of the people is the voice of God.
Down in Indiana a farmer was the owner of a small tract
of land which he was compelled to fence in order to protect
his crops. His family consisted of a good Hoosier wife and
several very interesting children. This farmer owned two
cows that were fed and loved by the children, the one named
Bess, and the other named Daisy. The farmer and his goodJUDGE GEORGE W. BEEMAN.
147
wife had persuaded the children to give their consent to sell
Bess to obtain money to build a wire fence around the little
farm. The farmer sold Bess for $40.00, enough to buy one
ton of wire, and went to town to get the wire. He came
back without it, and his wife asked him why he did not bring
the wire. He said, “Wife, wire is $80,00 a ton.” “Why is this?
It cannot be so,” said the wife. “Yes, too true, the trust has
raised the price of wire.” “What is a trust?” inquired the wife.
“I do not know, wife, but it is some damnable iniquitous blood
sucker that will compel us to sell Daisy too before I can
bring the wire home.” The children plead with tears in their
eyes for Daisy, the last cow, but the last cow had to go to
enrich a trust.
Mr. Chairman: for every tiny tear that trickled down the
faces of those innocent children when Daisy was sold, one
hundred thousand brave men at the polls will avenge the
wrong.
Trusts regulate and fix the price of all raw material in
this country; trusts regulate and fix the price of the manu-
factured article and thus rob both the producer and the con-
sumer. Trusts destroy competition and if not checked will
destroy our inherent rights and our form of government.
Trusts compel the farmer to sell at trust prices and buy at
trust prices. When trusts deal with the farmer in what he
sells or what he purchases they make both sides of the con-
tract and the farmer has no more to say or do about the
transaction than a door knob has to do with the flow and
ebb of the tides.
The farmer raises his crops at the mercy of the elements;
he sells his crops and buys his winter clothing and school
books at the mercy of the trusts. He is between the good
Lord and the Devil, and his only hope is by his ballot against
trusts to make such a confusion in the “Old Ship of State”
that trusts will take their leave like rats out of holes in the
barn loft when two small boys enter the barn with a tin fife
and a toy drum.
Only the most blind can fail to realize what the real
issue now is, which is whether the trusts and corporations148
ANTI-TRUST -CONFERENCE.
should rule our government-or the government regulate and
control trusts and corporations. The battle is on. We stand
today among rights ignored, duties neglected, pledges unkept
and broken, the farmer without prestige and the liberties, rights
and privileges of the common people slipping away. We stand
amazed and humiliated at the birth and growth of trusts.
Is it true, is it true, that the Goddess of Liberty is to be torn
from the pedestal by the ruthless hands of trusts, monopolies
and combines and in her place be raised the golden calf? If
it is, some great iconoclast now lives who, under God’s guid-
ance will quicken within us the memories of the past and
arouse the people to their native sense of right, and then again
in this blessed land of ours beneath the folds of “Old Glory”
the Goddess shall be restored from whence she was torn and
the right shall prevail.
Much has been said and published in opposition to trusts
which has crystalized and resulted in this conference, but
the work remains to be done in the education of the
people. The people who are opposed to trusts do not
belong to one political party but they belong to all parties
and come from the laboring and producing classes to a great
extent, and it should be a grand, patriotic initiative if the pro-
ducers and laborers of this country would refuse to support
any candidate for a legislative or judicial office, who will not
give his pledge and solemn obligation to his constituency that
he will not accept a pass from any railroad or steam ship line,
and will not during his term of office accept any rebate from
a trust or own any interest whatsoever in a trust. This ini-
tiative would make it possible for the enactment and enforce-
ment of a law making it a felony for any appointive judicial
officer to accept a pass or become a stockholder in a trust,
or who will not agree to aid in the enactment of laws pro-
viding for the election of federal judges and U. S. senators
by the people.
The very great majority of farmers are more interested in
the price they obtain for their produce and the cheapness of
the necessities of life than they are in the acquisition of the
Philippines or a compact with England. If the farmer is toW. A. SPALDING.
149
be interested in any undertaking he must be shown first that
it is to his interest, that it will make his home more comfortable
and happier.
As we leave this conference to resume the various pursuits
in which we are engaged let us make the fight against trusts
all along the line, \yith our streamers floating o’er us bearing
the inscription, “Special privileges to none, equal rights to all.”
ADDRESS OF HON. W. A. SPALDING.
The newspapers of the country are already aligned, to a
degree, on opposite sides of the great trust issue. I say on
opposite sides, although a great preponderance seems to be
on one side. If it be allowable to ascribe human attributes
to this semi-impersonal and quasi-moral entity, then I might
say, in the majority of cases, where the newspaper’s treasure
is, there will its heart be also. It should be borne in mind
that the newspaper is, primarily, a commercial enterprise;
it is published to make money for its owner, and the more
money it makes the more successful the newspaper is consid-
ered. The journals of our large cities—commonly described
as the metropolitan press—are large commercial enterprises.
Many such institutions might be indicated, each represent-
ing In the plant and franchises alone an investment of more
than a million dollars. Our large neivspapers belong to the
millionaire class. Many of these establishments are operated
at an annual expense of a quarter of a million to a million
dollars. Such extensive enterprises naturally gravitate to the
hands of capitalists. Ownership gives control, not only of
the business management, but of the editorial policy as well.
A considerable proportion of the metropolitan dailies are
owned by stock corporations. Get at the personality of this
ownership if you can, and you will frequently find it vested
in banks and bankers, real estate operators, manufacturing
and merchant princes, and in others holding large interests
in the community outside of the newspaper property which
they dominate. Perhaps the newspaper investment is to them
a mere bagatelle compared with their other possessions. Per-ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ISO
haps the policy advocated by their newspaper, as it affects
their other affairs, is of more importance to them than any
revenue which they expect to derive from their journalistic
holdings. I have heard of newspapers that were purchased
and operated outright by certain large semi-public interests
for the manifest purpose of controlling the utterances of such
papers. Perhaps the people of Chicago know something about
this sort of thing. In my own state there are two daily
papers—one -at the capital and one at San Francisco—which
are the acknowledged property of a railway corporation. This
corporation probably considers its newspaper enterprises mere
incidents of the business, as it operates, besides, a vast coast-
wise and transcontinental system of railway, and comes very
near operating the state of California as well. May be it
has a hand in the national government, too. You know as
much about that as I do. How many other newspapers are
owned in part or controlled through patronage and subsidies
by this gigantic corporation it would be hard to tell.
This ownership of the metropolitan press—this control of
the opinions of the metropolitan press by the capitalistic class,
is a fruitful subject. I venture that you could go into any
city of 100,000 inhabitants or over in this country, and by
taking up the line of ownership of one or more of its news-
papers, you would find at the other end a street railway
company, a gas company, a water company, a real estate syn-
dicate, a bank, a stock jobbing concern, or some other insti-
tution that has large dealings with the public. In some places
you might find several newspapers thus owned and controlled;
in a few cities you might find all. Now, I want to ask you
a practical, common-sense question. In the event that some
important issue should arise between the interests of these
proprietary corporations and the interests of the community
at large, what sort of opinions would you expect to get from
newspapers thus owned? Would they be apt to espouse
the cause of the public? Would they be in any sense expon-
ents of popular sentiment ? Could you rely upon a single para-
graph in one of them to give you the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth concerning that particular question ?H. L. CHAFFEE.
ISI
The country press, so called—the newspapers of the smaller
cities and towns—are less under capitalistic control. Many a
country editor, looked down upon and snubbed by the news-
paper world—many a poor devil who has to rustle around
and collect bills before he can obtain his next week’s paper
supply—is more independent in his editorial utterances than
his lordly brother of the metropolis who can touch electric
buttons and call in his heads of departments. The country
editor owns little, perhaps, but he controls it, and what is
greater than all else, he is master of his own opinions. Be-
ing a poor man and a hard working man, he is also closer
to the struggling masses, and he comes nearer, naturally, to
voicing their opinions. But let us not paint too bright a
picture of the country press. The capitalist is reaching out
for dominion in that field also, and he is acquiring it with
great rapidity. The country editor, with large necessities and
meager revenues, is often an easy subject.
At this point the Conference directed that the following
telegram be sent to Hon. Charles A. Towne:
Chicago, Feb. 19, 1900.
Mr. Chas. A. Towne—
On motion of Stockwell, Minnesota, unanimously carried:
The Conference sends cordial, friendly greetings and best
wishes for speedy recovery. Franklin H. Wentworth,
Secretary.
Mr. Spalding was followed by Mr. H. L. Chaffee, of Minne-
apolis.
ADDRESS OP H. L. CHAFFEE,
Secretary Commercial Salesman’s Anti-Trust League.
While it has been demonstrated that the commercial sales-
man is one of the first to feel the blighting hand of the trust,
we should not as a class be found opposing them, could it be
shown that they are beneficial to the people as a whole. The
traveling man is too broad minded to stand in the way of152
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
progress and we are willing to discuss the workings of these .
modern monopolies, not alone in their relations to the trav-
eling men, but upon that broad principle upon which every
republic must stand, the greatest good to the greatest num-
ber. Unfortunately these great corporations, in their organ-
ization, capitalization and actual workings, have already dem-
onstrated that they are founded upon the least good to the
greatest number. Their primary and sole object is to con-
trol production, eliminate competition, and advance prices.
The American citizen who advocates or apologizes for this
modern inquisition must brush aside history, shut his eyes to
facts, harden his heart to humanity, and intoxicate himself
with the ambition of his own greed and avarice. The trust
of today knows no law but its own. It has but one end to
serve and that end its own profit by extortion. I submit this
proposition; that the trusts of today as organized and operated
impose an additional burden upon the consumer. The pres-
ent plan in vogue is for several corporations in the same
business to sell their properties to a new corporation. This
of itself, though it eliminates competition, would not neces-
sarily add to the burdens of the people were they honestly
capitalized and content with a fair margin of profit on their
output. In nearly every instance, however, the new organi-
zation or trust issues preferred stock far in excess of the
value of the plants purchased, and then to this is added a
large block of common stock, which in most cases, repre-
sents no value whatever. These corporations are capitalized
for about $8,000,000,000, about one-half of which is pure
water. The efforts to pay profits on this fictitious capitaliza-
tion necessitates an advance in prices to the consumer. No
trust has been known to lower prices except temporarily to
crush out some smaller competitor. Apologists are constantly
referring to prices of coal oil during the war and the pres-
ent price as an example of how the father of trusts has
lowered one of the necessities of life. They overlook the
improved methods of refining, the cheapening of transpor-
tation, the discovery of new wells and the utilization of waste
products, at first almost valueless, to say nothing of the fallH. L. CHAFFEE.
153
in wages since the Standard Oil Company was formed. Many
other articles during this same period, which have not been
controlled by a monopoly, have been cheapened to even a
greater extent. During the past few months carbon oil and
gasoline have been advanced from three cents to five cents
per gallon in territory where the Standard Oil Company reigns
supreme. This additional plunder in a single year would
build several universities. While worthless stocks have been
unloaded upon large and small capitalists during the past
year—in the aggregate far exceeding all the operations of
confidence fakirs and contract frauds ever imposed upon the
farmers of this country—our sympathies are not so much
with the investors in common stocks as with the consumers
of trust goods, the prices of which are in many instances
doubled for the purpose of earning a profit upon a large capi-
tal which never existed. These so called industrial corpora-
tions are trying to float about four billions of watered stock.
A five per cent earning on this water would mean a total of
two hundred million per annum. It is a heavier burden
thrust upon the consumers of this country than that imposed
upon the people of Germany in supporting a standing army
of nearly half a million men. Germany’s annual budget for
the army is about 600,000,000 marks or $150,000,000. It is
an amount equal to nearly the entire wheat crop of the United
States for 1899 at 50 cents per bushel. This burden falls
back upon the shoulders of the “Man with the Hoe.” This
mountain of fictitious value opens up an economic question
which makes the relation of the traveling man to the trust
sink into insignificance. The attempt to earn $200,000,000
annually upon something which never existed is virtually a
tax levied upon the consumers of trust articles.
Capital, we are told, is timid, yet capitalists fell over each
other in subscribing for stock issued upon wind, backed by
faith in the gullibility of the people and the continuance of
the trust party in power. Capitalists are shy of inflation, yet
five per cent of this inflation foots up more than all the silver
minted in any ten consecutive years of our history. Does
this stock stand for honest dollars? In attempting to pay
dividends on this dishonest capitalization, prices have been154
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
forced up from twenty to two hundred per cent. This has
been shown to be true on a list of several hundred articles.
Tin ware and enameled ware have been advanced from forty
to sixty per cent. Crackers have been nearly doubled in price.
Nails and barbed wire have, within fourteen months, been ad-
vanced nearly two hundred per cent. Where one year ago
it took only three bushels of wheat to buy a hundred pounds
of wire or nails, now it takes eight bushels. So we may go
on down the' list. The milk trust robs the cradle
and the coffin trust robs the mourner at the grave. The
tariff keeps out foreign competition and the trust eliminates
home competition. The consumers foot the bills.
Mr. Chaffee also read the following tabic of comparative
prices in December 1898 and 1899:
	1898	1899
Wheat, 3c lower			684	654
Oats 5^c lower 			284	23
Barley 8c lower 			'• -41	”33
Lumber advanced 30 per cent.
Sulky plows advanced 10 per cent.
Binders advanced 20 per cent.
Sole leather advanced 45 per cent. Bellies (from which
counters and shanks are cut) advanced 80 per cent.
Eyelets advanced 70 to 600 per cent.
Rubber goods advanced 20 per cent.
Hardware:
Carriage bolts, 200 per cent.
Sheet iron, 75 per cent.
Tinware 40 to 60 per cent.
Copperware 60 per cent.
Nails and barbed wire, 180 per cent.
Galvanized iron, 90 per cent.
Builders’ hardware, 40 per cent.
Spades, shovels and scoops, 40 per cent.
Stoves, 30 per cent.
Rope, 200 per cent.
Gas pipe, 200 to 300 per cent.PERMANENT ORGANIZATION.
155
Family necessities;
Clothing advanced 15 per cent.
Hard coal, 20 per cent.
Groceries, 10 to 40 per cent (except coffee and sugar).
Oil and gasoline, 30 to 40 per cent.
Glass, 60 per cent.
PERMANENT ORGANIZATION.
The chairman announced that the committee on permanent
organization was prepared to report. Following is the re-
port by the chairman:
Mr. Chairman:
Your committee on permanent organization report that they
have considered the question of a national organization to
combat the evil of the trust and monopoly power of the land.
And they have thoroughly considered the plan of organization
of the American Anti-Trust League and we find that the
plan of organization therein provided for is admirably suited
to the work before us, beginning at the precinct league and
running up to the township organization, from that to the
county organization, from that up to the state organization
and from that up to the national organization, the plan being
well adapted to easily massing together the men of
America, opposed to monopolies and trusts and thereby mak-
ing their forces effective in driving from the legislative halls
of the state and nation the tools of monopolies and trusts
and putting in their places men in sympathy with the public
welfare.
And we therefore recommend to the conference that they
indorse the plan of organization of the American Anti-Trust
League, and that each state delegation of this conference here
assembled consult together and appoint from their state
a national vice-president for their state and three men to rep-ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
156
resent their state in the national committee and that the said
body of men composed of the national vice-presidents and
the three national committeemen proceed to organize
in every voting precinct of the United States of Amer-
ica non-partisan anti-trust leagues, to which the test of
membership shall be that they will vote at every state and
national election against every man who can be controlled
by corporate power against the interests of the people by what-
ever party nominated.
T. L. Johnson, Chairman.
E.	Q. Norton,
J. R. Sovereign,
W. A. Spalding,
J. H. Ferris,
F.	H. Van Vorhis,
E. R. Ridgley,
J. A. Lyons,
C. H. Stewart,
W. N. Osgood,
A. M. Todd,
W. P. Brecken,
O. T. Erickson,
F. D. Larrabee,
C. J. Buell,
L. Vuster,
E. W. Bemis,
T. R. Commons,
B. F. Keith,
E. B. Finley,
Andrew E. Lee,
J. H. Davis,
Mrs. Lucinda B. Chandler.
PERHANENT CHAIRHAN.
The conference next proceeded to the election of a perma-
nent chairman and Gen, Frank S. Monnett, of Ohio, was unan-
imously chosen to fill this office. In an uproar of applause he
was escorted to the chair by Tom L. Johnson, of Ohio, Elwood
S. Corser, of Minneapolis, and Dr. Howard S. Taylor, of
Chicago, and in a well-timed and characteristic speech thanked
the conference for the distinguished courtesy shown him.
In accepting the chairmanship Gen. Monnett said: This in-
troduction and this warm applause I assure you is deeply appre-
ciated by me. I feel that I am entirely unworthy of it. I know
that there is scarcely a gentleman in my hearing, and I think IC. J. BUELL.
157
am safe in saying, not a delegate upon this floor, whether he be
an editor or a traveling man, a commercial man, a farmer or
manufacturer, but what in his particular sphere has done his
duty as fully and as fairly as I have done in the position that
the people of Ohio placed me for a short time. [Applause.]
Inasmuch as your committee has kindly placed me on the
programme for the evening, and your programme for the
afternoon is well provided for, I will not consume time in
discussing the question now before you.
Next in order is an address by Hon. C. J. Buell, of Minne-
sota. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. Buell.
ADDRESS OP C. J. BUELL.
Every monopoly, and every trust in any way injurious to
the people, is the outgrowth of some privilege, or unjust ad-
vantage—some violation of the principal of equal rights. All
monopolies are either natural or law-created.
A natural monopoly is one that is based upon the exclusive
control of some portion of the natural resources of the earth.
The only natural monopoly is land monopoly in some of its
forms; and out of land monopoly has been hatched a power-
ful and pestiferous brood of trusts.
Now every person born upon the earth has a natural right
to hold and use land—to have some place on earth he can
call his own—some portion of the earth from which, by his
labor, he can draw forth the materials necessary to furnish
food, clothing, shelter, and the comforts and luxuries of life.
The right to land is not a right that some people may con-
fer upon others; for he who may confer, may, if he please,
withhold. The land was not made for some, but equally for
all. Originally and naturally each person has as much right
as any other to hold and use any particular piece of land.
But no one’s righ tis greater than another’s. Therefore it
follows that when a man has located himself on a piece of
land and is making use of it, no one has a right to dispos-
sess him; for that would give the dispossessor a greater rightANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
I5»
than the dispossessed. Of course if all the people need for
common or public use any particular piece of land, their com-
bined right is greater than any individual right and the indi-
vidual holder must yield his private possession to the com-
mon good. It is on this principle that the so called right of
eminent domain is founded.
Land monopoly—that is, the exclusive possession and con-
trol of land—is right and proper, and civilization would be
practically impossible without it.
The fact that a person is actually using a piece of land is
the only natural title; and it is the duty of government to
protect each individual in the continued possession and enjoy-
ment of such land as he is really using; but it is equally the
duty of government to see that no one is permitted to fore-
stall and exclude others from the land that he cannot or will
not use himself. Here lies the entire evil of land monopoly.
To permit men to keep as their personal property those values
that attach to especially desirable lands, puts a premium upon
land grabbing. The mere landlord may let others use his
land for a price and grow rich off the difference between the
ground rent he receives and the land tax he has to pay; or
he may hold his land idle, keeping willing workers off, until
such time as the demand for land has enabled him to reap
great wealth as the reward of his forestalling.
Not in our system of land tenure, but in our system of
taxation, is to be found the cause of the evils of land monop-
oly and all the trusts founded thereon. Change the system
of taxation. Require each land holder to pay into the public
treasury the annual value of the land that he monopolizes—
no more, no less—and he will have no desire to monopolize
more land than he can use to the very best advantage. Another
result will be plenty of revenue for all public needs without
resort to tariffs, licenses, or excises—without taxing labor or
the products of industry.
What, then, would become of that mighty horde of trusts
that rest upon land monopoly and feed and fatten upon tar-
iffs and other dishonest systems of crooked taxation? What
would become of the coal trust if all coal lands were taxedC. I. BUELL.
159
to their full value regardless of use? Whac life would there
be left in the steel and iron trusts, if their tariff protection
were taken away and their mines taxed as they ought to be?
And isn’t this equally true of the glass trust and the lumber
trust; of borax and copper, of salt and marble; of tin plate
and all its products; of silk and cotton and cordage; of rope,
twine and rubber; of paint and oil, pulp and paper; of sugar,
tobacco and pottery; of whisky, beer and all other protected
beverages; in short of all that tribe of blood sucking trusts
and monopolies whose mother is the tariff and whose father
is landlordism? Free trade and the single tax will utterly de-
stroy all this class of trusts, and this is the only way they
ever can be destroyed.
Aside from law-created monopolies growing out of the tar-
iff and other methods of crooked taxation we may note (1)
highway monopolies; (2) patent monopolies; (3) currency
monopoly.
1. Highway Monopolies.
Perhaps the most dangerous class of law-created monopolies
are those that may be classed as highway monopolies. All
railways, street railways, telegraph, telephone and pipe lines,
as well as all privileges to use the streets of a city for laying
pipes and wires—all these are in their nature, highway monop-
olies. In every case a private individual or corporation is
granted a privilege in the whole or a part of the common
public way.
If there is any one thing that is essentially and peculiarly
a public duty, it is the making and maintaining of public ways.
Without public ways the people themselves can neither move
from place to place nor can they transport the products of
their labor. If without land men cannot live at all, without
highways men cannot rise above the condition of savages.
Without common public ways, there can be no considerable
intercourse, no trade worthy the name.
Nor can any person build and maintain a highway beyond
the limits of his own land, without the direct co-operation of
the government. Unless the government grant to the indi-l6o	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
vidual a part of the public function and invest him with sov-
ereign power, no privately owned highway is passable.
The right and duty of making and maintaining public ways
falls necessarily Upon the whole people, through their proper
agents—the government; and only by the government abdi-
cating part of its duty can a private individual or corpora-
tion become the owner of a highway, or special privilege there-
in.
The remedy is obvious. No government function should
ever be abdicated in favor of any man or set of men. This
principle has been observed as far as our natural highways
are concerned; and no one would think of turning one of
our great water ways over to a corporation. Our country
roads are mostly public and free, though in some backward
communities, the toll gate still obstructs traffic. Does modern
commerce require great steel highways stretching from ocean
to ocean ? Then it is the duty of the people through their
proper agents to construct such highways, and open them free
for the use of all. Does the development of a city demand
great tunnels under each and every street, for the accommo-
dation of the sewers, water mains, and all sorts of pipes and
wires? Then let such a tunnel be built by the city and the
cost assessed against the abbutting and benefited property,
just as we assess for water mains, curb, gutter, paving, walks,
sewers, etc. In such a system how could there be any monop-
oly in furnishing gas or electric light or power? If you don’t
like your gas man, how easy to drop him and employ another!
No more trouble than to change grocers or butchers.
Nor does the public ownership of the railways involve the
public in the carrying trade. There is no more reason why
any person cannot run a train on a common iron highway,
properly constructed and managed than there is against the
private operation of wagons on a country road or a city street.
Much confusion has arisen from supposing that public owner-
ship of railways necessarily means the public operation of
trains. The rivers, lakes and most canals are publicly owned,
but the government does not operate the boats. The coun-
try roads and city streets are public property, but the carts,R. F. Pettigrew.
Jerry Simpson.
Tompc T-T T*»11p.r
James B. Weaver.
D. W. Willson.
Geo. S. Canfield.
W. B. Fleming.C. /. BUELL.
161
drays and wagons thereon are privately owned, and the im-
mense traffic is under private management. Upon these high-
ways all have equal rights and competition regulates charges
for transportation.
When all highways of whatsoever name or nature, are owned
and controlled by the people, and the carrying trade over them
is open and free to all, then persons and property will be
carried at cost, and no trust can increase the charge.
2.	Patent Monopolies.
There may be a question whether any form of patent right
is just; but there can be no question that our system of at-
tempting to protect inventors by giving a direct and exclu-
sive monopoly for a certain number of years, is greatly in need
of reformation. It does not protect the inventor and affords
great opportunity to rob the public.
Many a poor inventor has been forced to sell for a song
the result of years of hard labor, only to see the purchasing
corporation reap millions out of his work, or suppress his
invention entirely as might best suit their scheme of plunder.
It would be a much wiser plan to allow any new invention
to be produced and put upon the market by anyone who saw
fit' to engage in its manufacture, subject to the payment of a
reasonable royalty to the inventor. The more the article was
made and sold the more his reward, and the public would
get the benefit of the lowest possible price. Under such a
system no trust could be helped by the ownership of patent
rights.
With tariffs and internal revenue taxes abolished; with our
patent laws reformed; with our highways restored to the peo-
ple ; and most important of all, with land monopoly destroyed,
and those natural and social values that attach to land turned
from private pockets to public treasuries to pay for common
needs, no industrial trust could live for a moment.
3.	Currency Monopoly.
There is, however, another monopoly in this country that
is assuming vast proportions, and is threatening our people
with dire disaster. Corporate greed has always desired toANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
162
control the currency of the people; and just to the extent that
the masses are robbed and impoverished by land monopoly,
highway monopoly, tariffs, patents, and indirect taxation, just
to that extent do they fall easy victims to the usurer'—-the
currency monopolist.
No one can deny the right of government to issue its own
paper, properly engraved and in suitable denominations, to
facilitate the transaction of public business. If such goverr
ment paper proves a safe and suitable currency, well and good.
Who need object? Who, indeed, would object except a banker
itching for a currency monopoly of his own.
And I presume that* it is true that any banker, or any
private person, in fact, has an undoubted right to print as
many of his own notes as he pleases, and by all fair means to
get people to accept such notes in place of money; but no
banker has any right to ask, and no government has any right
to grant, the privilege of counterfeiting. And what is it but
legalized counterfeiting, when a bank, by sanction of govern-
ment is empowered to issue its notes in such close resemblance
to government paper that only a student of currency could
detect the fraud? Moreover no bank can justly ask and no
government can justly grant, the credit of the whole people
to back up the notes of any individual or corporation. Our
national banks of issue rest upon two great fundamental
wrongs : first, legalized counterfeiting; second, the credit of the
government to back up their counterfeit notes. And now they
have the assurance to push through congress a bill that will
prohibit the government from using its own paper, thus leav-
ing their counterfeits with a complete monopoly of the field.
Let bankers attend to their own proper and legitimate busi-
ness, as financial agents between borrowers and lenders. Let
governments issue their own paper, as a medium for the trans-
action of public business. Such paper can be made the most
perfect currency ever devised by the brain of man. And the
evils of banking and currency monopoly will melt like the
mists of the morning before the rising sun.
Finally the only way to destroy monopolies and trusts is to
repeal all statute laws that grant favor or privilege, and se-C. A. WINDLE.	163
cure to all men their natural, equal and inherent right to the
use of the earth.
“Equal rights for all, special favor to none.” Jefferson
pointed the way a hundred years ago. Let us walk therein.
At the conclusion of Mr. Buell’s address the conference ad-
journed until 2 p. m.
AFTERNOON SESSION, FEBRUARY 13.
The chairman called the conference to order at 2 p. m. and
stated that the morning programme would be continued until
completed. Mr. C. A. Windle, editor of the Ottawa Illinois
“Gatling Gun,” made the first address.
ADDRESS OF C. A. WINDLE.
Writing to a friend about the close of the civil war, Abraham
Lincoln said:
Yes, we may all congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is near-
ing its close. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. It
has indeed been a trying hour for the republic. But I see a crisis
approaching which unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the
safety of my country. As a result of the war corporations have been
enthroned, an era of corruption will follow in high places, and the
money power will seek to prolong its reign by working on the preju-
dice of the people until all wealth is aggregated in the hands of a
few and the republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety
for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of
war.
The crisis Lincoln saw is upon us today. Gigantic corpo-
rations in the form of trusts have been enthroned and a flood
tide of corruption is sweeping through the land.
Through the medium of trusts the wealth of the country
is rapidly being concentrated in the hands of the few. Out;
ship of state is gliding down a placid stream, but just ahead
we see cruel rocks rise in the mist and hear the roar of a
Niagara. About us dash the wrecks of empires, while the
ghosts of dead republics chatter in the rigging.164
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
We can only judge the future by the past. It was Lincoln’s
knowledge of history that made him fear the concentration
of wealth, and tremble for the safety of his country.
Turning to the annals of nations, we learn that when Egyp-
tian civilization stood at its zenith, ninety per cent of her
people owned her wealth, but when Egyptian civilization per-
ished from the earth, three per cent of her people owned her
wealth. Today the once fruitful fields of the Orient are given
over to the wild wanderer of the plain, and the splendors of
her civilization lie buried beneath the drifting sands of the
desert, with only now and then an eternal monument like the
great Pyramid which marks the ashes of the dead nation.
At the battle of the Pyramids, Napoleon stirred his soldiers
to greater deeds of valor by making an address in which he
said:	“Forty centuries are looking down upon us.” These
centuries in serried ranks from the hoary battlements of the
past, look down upon us today, and with trumpet tongues
warn us of impending danger from the concentration of wealth.
Babylon was wrecked on the same rock. At the time of
its fall the wealth of the nation had found its way into the
hands of the nobles. It was expended with lavish hand in
building hanging gardens, artificial lakes and mighty fortifi-
cations. Belshazzar was the last king. The Bible informs
us that he was a mighty man of war. He went forth con-
quering and to conquer, and after each expedition, he returned
in triumph to the throne with kings chained to his chariot
wheels and their wealth in his coffers. When the cry of dis-
tress went up from the struggling masses, the ruling classes
promptly informed them that “confidence” had been restored,
and immediately called a great feast. “Beauty and chivalry”
were there. “Bright lamps shone o’er fair women and brave
men.” But in the midst of their Bacchanalian orgies—at the
height of their prosperity, a hand came out of the black sleeve
of midnight and wrote “Mene Mene Tekel Upharasin,” on
the gilded walls of the palace.
The Pyramids of Egypt stand as a warning, the crumbling
towers of Babylon, and the marble ruins of Athens proclaim
to us that nations can die, while the wrecks of empires, king-C. A. WINDLE.	165
doms, thrones, and systems of government strew the path of
human progress. History repeats itself.
There was a time in the history of Rome when every Ro-
man was a land owner and ninety per cent of her people owned
her wealth. Then it was greater to be a Roman citizen than
to be a king. But there came a time when 1,800 of her citi-
zens owned the then known world. Then to be a*Roman citi-
zen was to be the vassal of a slave.
The question for us as patriots is not whether trusts will
help or hurt our party, make goods cheap, or dear, but do
they mean the concentration of wealth? And does the con-
centration of wealth mean the overthrow of the rapublic?
What are the facts?
The latest official figures establish the startling fact that
30,000 men today own more than half the wealth of this
nation. If trusts have come to stay, how long will it take
them to get the other half? Tell me and I will tell you when
some Gibbon will dip his pen in the blood of revolution and
write the rise and fall of the American republic.
Show me one of those thirty thousand men who today own
more than half the nation, and I will show you an advocate
of organized greed, a champion of trusts.
A few years ago Chauncey Depew astonished the world by
saying there were fifty men in the United States who had the
power to paralyze American commerce and stop all the wheeL
of industry in twenty-four hours. Think of placing the des-
tinies of seventy-five million people in the hands of fifty men!
Garfield said that whoever controlled the “finances and trans-
portation of a country, was absolute master of its destiny.”
In the fall of 1897 there was organized a gigantic railroad
trust with J. Pierpont Morgan at its head. Since then this
huge octopus has added many new tentacles. Here are the
headlines announcing the formation of this great trust as they
appeared in the Chicago Tribune:
“J. Pierpont Morgan King of the Rail.” “His Word is Law
on Most of the Lines Throughout the Country.” “Opposition
to be Throttled.”
The article then went on to state that “J. Pierpont Morgan,166
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
representing his own interests and the interests of the English
bondholders and such allied interests as the Vanderbilts, was
able to dictate the policy of all the great trunk railways in
the United States,” and added:
“It is the most colossal combination on record. In a short
time all the avenues and outlets of this country to the seas
will be dir^ted by one man and one mind.”
The wealth formerly controlled by many men and many
minds, is henceforth to be controlled by one. This is what
takes place at the organization of every trust. Avenues
through which wealth was formerly distributed to many mil-
lions of men are closed, or converged into a mighty Mississippi
that pours a golden stream into the coffers of the few.
When placed at the head of a great trust, I want to show
you what “one man and one mind” can do. In a leading edi-
torial on Morgan’s trust the Tribune said:
It is not difficult to see the dangers which will grow out of the
combinations which Morgan is making—combinations which will put
him in a position where he and the men acting with him can dictate
the price of all products and other property in the United States.
He will become the possessor of unbounded power. When Morgan
has perfected his plans, he will be in a position where he can fix
railroad rates to suit himself. Whatever he charges all will have to
pay. Then he can raise rates on food products, the eastern consumers
will have to pay more for their food and the western producer will
receive less for it. Manufacturers will get less for their goods and
purchasers will have to pay more for them. Their losses will go to
swell dividends on watered stock. The value of all city property will
also be at Morgan’s mercy, for it will be in his power to build up one
city and pull down another. What will the people do when Morgan
puts on the screws? At first they will appeal to congress. But what
good will that do? A combination which represents so many billions
in stocks and bonds will be able to buy all the congressmen it needs.
It will seek to get control of the press which denounces it and in most
cases will succeed.
This was the calm dispassionate opinion of one of the great-
est editors that ever lived. Lincoln said “corruption in high
places” would follow the enthronement of trusts. If it will
“do no good to appeal to congress,” then what becomes of
popular government ? Where your boasted liberties ? Either
trusts or free institutions must die. You must crucify Christ
or Barrabas.C. A. WINDLE.
167
When the Tribune made the statement that trusts would
eventually “control the press,” there was not a single paper
in America that dared to defend them. Six months ago there
were not a half dozen papers in the United States so lost as
to do them honor. Now there are hundreds that “crook the
knee that thrift may follow fawning.” How are the mighty
fallen!
At first these papers discovered that there are trusts, and
trusts. The former were “good trusts,” and the latter were
“bad trusts.” Show me a good trust and I will show you
a white black bird. Show me a good monopoly, and I will
show you a sanctified devil.
What is true of Morgan’s trust is true of Havemeyer’s, and
Rockefellers’. Where will the trusts get the money with which
to buy “all the congressmen they need” ? Take Morgan’s trust
for example. When congressmen are to be purchased he will
not call on the foreign bondholder, nor use the surplus earn-
ings, but by one stroke of the pen, J. Pierpont Morgan will
advance freight rates and collect from the pockets of the peo-
ple the money with which to buy their own representatives.
Think of petitioning your congressman for relief and then
furnishing the money to buy him! These are “signs of our
times,” that ought to alarm every patriot in the land.
This is an age of trusts. Why, if you sweeten your coffee,
you must pay tribute to the sugar trust. When you strike a
match, it is by grace of the Diamond match trust. If you
read your Bible by lamp light you must burn incense to the
Standard Oil trust. The paper upon which the news of the
day is printed is the product of a trust, that not only controls
the mills, but the spruce and pine timbers from which it is
made. Should you become disgusted with trust rule and want
to hang yourself' the National Cordage trust will furnish the
rope, and the coffin trust will make you a box in which to
stack your bones.
It is fortunate for the people that Shylock has no influence
with Almighty God, else there would be a trust in rain, air
and sunshine as soon as the authorities of New Jersey could
issue the charter.168
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
But they tell us that trusts have come to stay. If this is
true, industrial slavery for the masses is inevitable. If trusts
have come to stay, the middle classes, which in all ages have
been the bulwark of liberty, must go. Then we will have only
the two extremes, the millionaire and the mendicant. The gulf
separating these classes will be the grave of liberty.
If trusts have come to stay that great army of commercial
missionaries—the traveling men—must quit. These heralds
of civilization and good cheer must give way to the one cent
postal card.
If trusts have come to stay then government of the people,
for the people and by the people, must perish from the earth.
Emerson said that “America was only another name for
opportunity,” but if trusts have come to stay America will
henceforth be only another name for despair.
There was a time when every wage earner and renter looked
forward to a gladsome day when he would be master of his
own destiny. It was this hope that, like a star, ever burned
above his tomorrow and lured him on to the promised land
Hope was a “cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.” It
made his burdens light, his sorrows fleeting as sunshine show-
ers, and transformed the tragedy of poverty into a comedy of
life’s morning. But that day is past, leaving the honest toiler
a burning tear, a sad heart-sigh in a night of blackness, with
not a star to tell that God lives.
The inalienable rights of man are “life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness.” Gigantic combines are robbing millions
of their right to pursuit of happiness, and this will be fol-
lowed by centralized power which will ultimately deprive them
of their right to life and liberty except the life of a slave, and
the liberty of a dog to eat the crumbs that fall from their mas-
ter’s table.
RESOLUTION ON THE “FREE HOME” BILL.
The Chairman introduced Judge Neff, who offered the fol-
lowing resolution:NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.
169
Whereas, This government in the past has granted millions
of acres of the public domain to railroad corporations, and is
today granting right of way through government lands to rail-
road corporations, and,
Whereas, This conference believes in the principle of “equal
rights to all, with special privileges to none,” and,
Whereas, The Republican, Democratic and Populist national
conventions of 1896 promised free homes to the settlers upon
government lands, • Therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the desire of this conference that Con-
gress extend to the settlers upon government lands the same
advantages that have been given to railroad corporations, and
grant to said settlers free homes, by the immediate passage of
the Free Homes Bill, now pending in Congress.
The resolution was unanimously adopted.
The Chairman—By a former resolution the chairman was
authorized to announce a Committee on National Organization.
On consultation I take pleasure in nominating the following
committee, which is requested to meet at once in the room
below:
COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.
M. L. Lockwood, Pa.; C. B. Matthews, N. Y.; J. R. Sov-
reign, Ark.; J. Clegg, La.; E. Q. Norton, Ala.; H. B. Martin,
N. Y.; Tom L. Johnson, Ohio ; P. E. Dowe, N. Y.; C. T. Bride,
Wash.; William Rann, N. Y.; George Fred Williams, Mass.;
William Prentiss, Chicago; Jerry Simpson, Kan.; J. B. Weaver,
Iowa; H. A. Mykrantz, Ohio; Mrs. Helen Gougar, Ind.; Col.
M. C. Wetmore, St. Louis; Mrs. O. W. Dean, Chicago;
William Sulzer, N. Y.; E. R. Ridgley, Kan.; A. P. McGuirk,
Iowa; C. J. Buell, Minn.; Nathan Cole, Col.; C. H. Howard,
Chicago; W. A. Stuart, S. D.; M. G. Sperry, Pa.; Judge J. D.
Lynn, A. M. Todd, Mich.; Louis F. Post, Chicago; R. Bod-
dinghouse, Chicago; W. D. P. Bliss, Cal.; Willis J. Abbot,
Mich.; Dr. Abner L. Davis, Ohio; Judge R. A. Neff, Okl.; W.
B. Fleming, Ky.-170
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
When the committee had retired speaking was resumed and
addresses from Gen. E. B. Finley, of Ohio; Gen. James B.
Weaver, of Iowa; Colonel M. C. Wetmore, of St. Louis; Mrs.
Helen M. Gougar, of Indiana; Hon. Jerry Simpson, of Kansas,
and Rev. S. W. Sample, of Minneapolis, were made.
These notable speeches and papers are arranged in the order
of the distinguished speakers named.
ADDRESS OF GEN. E. B. FINLEY.
In recent years conspiracies in restraint of trade, known as
trusts, have grown up in this country and within the past four
years have so multiplied in numbers and have become so arro-
gant in defiance of all laws for their restraint, as to be a menace
to the welfare of the people. As is well said in the address
calling this convention: “They close the doors of business
opportunity to all but the rich and powerful. They impover-
ish the producer and consumer. They degrade labor. They
have seized upon the avenues of transportation, and poisoned
the fountains of public information. They debauch the elective
franchise. They are public enemies.”
Of the whole brood of trusts thus aptly described, the most
hurtful, perhaps, is the combination of railroads to -control the
carrying trade and prevent competition in freight and passenger
traffic. A combination of this kind, powerful enough to con-
trol practically the entire transportation of freight and passen-
gers east and west, if not already effected, is in process of com-
pletion.
The small group of capitalists owning the New York Cen-
tral, I understand, also own or control fourteen other connect-
ing or competing roads, and if it be true, as rumored in the
newspapers, that the Vanderbilt and Morgan interests are com-
bining in a trust to prevent competition, such combination will
add fourteen other railroads to the list; and it is said that this
Vanderbilt-Morgan combination has either purchased a con-
trolling interest in the Pennsylvania railroad, or has entered
into a combination with that company.GEN. E. B. FINLEY.
171
This gigantic combination, controlling substantially all of
the east and west roads, will place the carrying trade of the
country, freight and passenger, in the hands of half a dozen or
more men, who agree as part of the deal not to compete by cut-
ting rates.
Six of these railroads leading through the anthracite re-
gions, in combination with the Pennsylvania Coal Company,
have formed a hard-coal trust, absolutely controlling the price
of hard coal; while six roads form a trunk line from New York
to the bituminous field in Western Pennsylvania, and in like
manner control the price of soft coal. With this state of fact
existing, it should require no illuminated diagram to satisfy
the average citizen that so far as transportation and the price of
coal goes, he is helplessly in the hands of “our friends, the
enemy.”
The earnings of the railroads of the country amounted in
1899 to a sum equal to a per capita of not less than $16 for
every man, woman and child.
They employ a million men, dependent upon them for their
bread and butter.
The power to regulate transportation and traffic, together
with the power to control prices of certain necessities of life,
coupled with the influence that these combinations exert in the
political affairs of state and national government, is dangerous
and a menace to good government and the welfare of the coun-
try and people.
The. shameless part of the business is that these monopolies
not only defy the law, but since the election of 1896 have, with-
out rebuke from the administration, so conducted their opera-
tions as to plainly say by inference, at least, that they, having
“paid the freight,” are entitled to loot without molestation on
the part of the administration, which they claim they assisted in
placing in power.
As Hon. Chauncey F. Black has well said:
The trusts have written their tariff, managed the finances, dictated
war and peace, and meanwhile have carefully looked to it that nothing,
even moderately disagreeable to the trusts, took place in congress, in
the attorney-general’s office, or in the courts.172
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
And what has President McKinley’s administration done
toward enforcing the law and repudiating the inference that
the administration is favorable to the trusts by reason of favors
bestowed and to come ? Nothing, simply nothing.
The President in his message to congress disposes of the
question by a suave intimation that the law is inadequate and
powerless, thereby attempting to shift the responsibility upon
congress.
When newspaper criticism of the Attorney General became
so intolerable to that gentleman as to drive him into print, he
attempted to excuse himself by saying:
A combination or trust for the purpose of maintaining a monopoly
in the manufacture of a necessity of life, is not within the scope of
the Sherman act, and cannot be suppressed by the federal courts.
About (his same time Senator Allison came out in a seven-
column article in the Munsey, entitled “The Campaign of
1900,” in which he found space to say of the trusts that the
Republican party had declared against trusts in their platform
of 18S8, and that in his opinion no one could truthfully say
that the Republican party would shrink from facing the ques-
tion now.
Senator Hanna, who in the last campaign in Ohio, first
declared on the stump that there were no trusts and afterward
defended them, is made to say in a recent interview that:
“The Republican party will take care of the trusts.” I have
no doubt whatever that he is right; and if the Republican party
continues in office under the present regime, it will take good
care of the trusts. This reminds me of a story of two Isra-
elites, who, after a prosperous year, concluded to treat them-
selves to a good dinner, and accordingly went to Delmonico’s
and ordered a sumptuous repast, without regard to what it
might cost them. When the bill was presented, and they found
that each had eaten a $10 dinner, it fairlv took away their
breath, and for a while deprived them of the power of speech.
They paid the bill, however, and quietly departed, and neither
spoke a word until after they got out on the street, when one
of them said, “Moses, dat was a awful bill, what dose Del-
monicos’ charged us; don’t you dink dat God will some dayGEN. E. B. FINLEY.
173
punish dose wicked Delmonicos’ for charging us so much
money for dat dinner?” The other replied: “Isaac, God have
already punished dose wicked Delmonicos’, for I have der sil-
ver spoons in my pocket.”
Senator Hanna would have been more accurate perhaps if
he had said, “The Republican party has already taken care of
those wicked trusts.”
Present conditions are not without parallel in • history.
Macaulay in his history of England tells us that about the
year 1601 Queen Elizabeth “took upon herself to grant patents
of monopolies by scores.” To one favorite she gave a monop-
oly of the sale of iron; to another, coal; to another, glass, etc.,
until her favorites throughout the kingdom had a monopoly of
all the leading articles of commerce; and, as a consequence,
iron, oil, vinegar, coal, saltpeter, lead, starch, yarn, skins,
leather, and glass were sold by these monopolists at extortion-
ate prices; and these favorites of the queen amassed fortunes
out of the necessities of the people.
After a while, however, the whole nation arose and rebelled
against .the trusts inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth. The House
of Commons met in angry and determined mood. “The coach
of the chief minister of the crown was surrounded by an indig-
nant populace, who cursed the monopolies and exclaimed that
the prerogative should not be suffered to touch the old liberties
of England.”
For a time it seemed that the long and glorious reign of
Queen Bess would have a shameful and disastrous end, but she,
with admirable judgment and temper, declined the contest and
at once redressed the grievance, and with one stroke relieved
England of a trust—called a monopoly—that was rapidly tak-
ing root, and in time doubtless would have grown to gigantic
proportions.
How to remedy the evils of which we complain appears to
be a problem not so easy of solution.
Various methods have been suggested, among others, to
put all articles controlled by a trust on the free list. The advo-
cates of this remedy contend that a “protective tariff is the
mother of trusts”; that the majority of the trusts deal in174
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
products protected by the tariff in whole or in part from
foreign competition, and that if the tariff is taken off of these
articles competition will do the rest.
Another remedy suggested is to tax trusts as the circulation
of the state banks is now taxed by the general government.
This, it is contended, will tax them out of existence.
Another suggestion is, that congress shall pass a law pro-
hibiting a corporation from doing business outside of the
state where organized, except upon a license granted by some
officer authorized in the premises, and only when it is made
to appear to the satisfaction of such officer that such corpora-
tion is not a monopoly. It is contended by those who advocate
this plan that this method would have a tendency to make the
affairs of a corporation public and prevent monopoly and the
watering of stocks.
Still others contend for an income tax, and for more drastic
legislation, state and national, as a potent remedy.
The remedy that occurs to me is the enforcement of the
laws now in existence. We need little, if any, new legislation.
The federal law is broad enough and strong enough, if enforced,
to reach all trusts affecting interstate commerce. Nearly all,
if not all, of the states have law sufficient to reach trusts
operating within the states. One amendment now pending
before the Ohio legislature is important and perhaps would
be efficacious, if engrafted into law wherever applicable. It
is to the effect that in the prosecution of trusts, no person
or officer of any corporation charged with a violation of the
law against trusts may refuse to testify or refuse to disclose
any fact sought to be obtained by interrogatory or otherwise on
the ground that his testimony may tend to criminate him.
As long as the executive and judicial departments of gov-
ernment, state or national, are administered by persons friendly
to the trusts, whether their partiality arises from the fact that
they owe their elevation to office to the substantial aid given
their party by the trusts and corporations, or from any other
cause, so long the laws will be violated and the trusts will
continue to multiply and flourish.GEN. JAMES B. WEAVER.
m
The remedy in our case, as it was in England, is with the
people. As long as the people remain indifferent and permit
the trusts and corporations to dictate the election of their
friends to office, all laws on the subject will remain a dead
letter upon the statute books; on the contrary, whenever the
people become sufficiently aroused to elect faithful, trustworthy
people to office, who will enforce the laws we already have, the
problem of “what to do with the trusts” will be solved:
To that end I believe this convention is a step in the right
direction. Our proceedings, published in all the newspapers,will
have a tendency to arouse public interest in this direction, and
each delegate ought to and probably will become an active mis-
sionary to promote and keep alive the interest thus aroused by
which, let us hope, good results will follow in the elections of
1900.
ADDRESS OF GEN. JAMES B. WEAVER.
Trusts concentrate wealth and power into a few hands.
Imperial governments do likewise. A republic fosters the dif-
fusion of both wealth and power among the many and is the
organized foe of monopoly. An empire distributes the
honors, advantages and perquisites of official station among the
few who stand near the throne. Trusts seek to install their
friends and advocates in official position and to close the ave-
nues of advancement against all except their known apologists.
To all intents and purposes, an empire is a governmental trust;
and a kindred financial system—and all empires have such—
is the most efficient instrument in its equipment of tyranny.
The philosophy of republics is expressed in the maxim “equal
rights to all, special privileges to none.” If our republic is
to live it must have a money system, not copied from empires,
but equal to the broad and generous character of its funda-
mental laws. Trusts concentrate into a few hands not alone
the profits of industry and trade, but sinews of war and polit-
ical power fall into their keeping sequent to heartless com-
mercial conquest. It is the natural connection of consequent to
antecedent. Having excluded the many from profitable em-176
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ployment they find it an easy task to advance and wrench
political power from the excluded classes.
In their origin and throughout their development trusts,
great and small, are essentially imperialistic. Their fruit, how-
ever alluring and tempting, ripens only in the deadly shade
of despotism. They are simply intolerable in a country whose
settled policy is that of freedom. A republic whose industries
are dominated by trusts is already stricken with a fatal malady
—a deadly paralysis—and can only be rescued by united and
heroic action. Where the leading industries are dominated
by trusts the government may be Republican in form, but it
will be found to be monarchial in spirit and in administration.
The trust, in its last analysis and best definition, is simply or-
ganized criminal aggression in business.
Conscience and the Golden Rule, those divine restraints
which should qualify and temper all human transactions, are
excluded from its business code. Its law is force. It holds
no parley with its victims. It looks to a large military estab-
lishment and not to the affection and support of the people for
safety. It demands that the plundered classes shall be held
in subjection. The trust is full brother to militarism. The
twain are of one blood and both are black with the guilt of
Cain. Each in its sphere destroys human life and lays desolate
human habitations. The skull and cross bones, or crouching
panther, should be blazoned as a trademark across the dooi
of the council chamber where trust magnates and beneficiaries
meet to plot the plunder of mankind.
‘‘He takes my house who takes the prop that doth sustain my
house. He takes my life who takes the means whereby I live.”
The East India Company was the first great chartered
monopoly known among English-speaking people. It was or-
ganized solely for the criminal exploitation of the defenseless
inhabitants of India. It has spawned its voracious progeny
over all Christendom. Edmund Burke says this company
“was a state disguised as a merchant.” It gradually absorbed
and exercised all attributes of sovereignty belonging to the
British empire. Although a mere corporation, yet by act of
parliament it was clothed with authority to levy war and con-Dr. H. W. Thomas.
Andrew J. Osborne.
M. C. Wetmore.
H. Butler.
E. B. Finley.
Dan B. Jesse.GEN. JAMES B. WEAVER.
177
elude peace. Our trusts exercise similar power. They use the
government as their policeman. From the days of the East
India Company to the birth of its last lineal descendant in
New Jersey, in this year of our Lord, the growth of the whole
trust family has been one unbroken evolution in crime. It is
simply a highly developed species of amphibious piracy, made
perfect by methodical selection aaid stimulated to a develop-
ment which enables it to act with like efficiency upon sea or
land. Piracy was regarded as legitimate industry for cen-
turies, just as trusts and trust depredations are now regarded
in the opinion of many.
The pirate and the promoters of trusts are related in blood,
and blood will tell. Their mission is the same—plunder. The
bloody rover of the sea cleared from no port. He repre-
sented no state or sovereign. His sword and cutlass constituted
his commission. Finally all nations rose and drove these free-
booters from the seas. They were forced to do so or surrender
the common highway of nations to cut-throats and the dominion
of the black flag. But the trust pirate of today carries letters
of marque issued by states which are members of the Federal
Union, and in some instances by the Federal Union itself.
Wherever they exist they are always managed by the “conserv-
ative classes of society,” who constantly dote on “law and order.”
They delight to have people accept without murmur the “sta-
tion to which providence has assigned them.” It was ever so
with their prototypes. Nothing so delighted the pirate as to
see the merchantman he was pursuing haul down its flag and
come under one management without struggle. It was not
battle, but booty they wanted. They cherished orderly sur-
render, and deplored organized resistance above all things.
They had regular organizations among themselves, each flotilla
its prescribed territory, or sea limits, which were not to be
encroached upon by other pirates. Only a limited number of
vessels were permitted to engage in the business and dividends
were declared and booty distributed at the termination of
each cruise. Kings, courtiers and crown counselors often con-
nived at these bloody ventures. Highly pious people frequent-
ly furnished the means to equip piratical craft and shared in178
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the division of spoils. But while they furnished the money
to equip they always left the ugly work to professional cut-
throats. Like many trust magnates of today they kept their
conscience at home as unimpaired capital for use in benevolent
and educational enterprises.
But let us examine briefly the outline of the great central
money trust which is just jiow in process of final develop-
ment in congress. It is at this time tugging at its tether
anxious to spring upon its victims. It would be doing vio-
lence to philology to call it an octopus, as it has more than
eight tentacles or legs. Myriapod would be a better classifica-
tion. The myriapod is described in zoology as a many jointed,
nocturnal, carnivorous and very active animal with powerful
biting jaws and a,pair of feet for each segment of the body.
The similitude seems perfect. I feel sure that both philologist
and zoologist will readily agree that myriapod is the correct
grouping for this huge parent trust. Its myriads of tentacles
extending into every department of trade call for nourishment
and vitality. Myriapod seems right and myriapod it shall be.
The four controlling powers of government, under our con-
stitution, are:
First, the power to declare war; second, the power to lay
and collect taxes; third, the power to regulate commerce
among the states and with foreign nations; fourth, the power
to coin (issue) money and regulate the value thereof and of
foreign coins.
Can we not all see that the power which controls the money
output of a nation has in its hands the controlling attribute of
sovereignty and holds the whole body of the people and all
lines of business at its mercy?
There is no more pitiable spectacle in this world than a
highly organized state of society writhing in torment for want
of an independent system of finance. Once you allow the banks
to assume and exercise this sovereign function of determining
the money supply, you have assisted them to drive from the
field their only possible competitor—the government—and you
have placed in their hands the very citadel of sovereign power.
For we all know there can be no war without the purse; noGEN. JAMES B. WEAVER.
179
adequate collection of taxes without a nimble circulation of
money; no commerce worthy the name without an adequate
circulating medium to facilitate it. It is the purpose of the
'legislation now pending in congress to exalt the money trust
to a. position of supreme power, to displace constitutional
authority and enthrone self-appointed money kings holding
their positions for life and give them a carte blanche to do as
they please. All these grants of power are express and exclu-
sive. They are all found in Section 8, Article 1, of the consti-
tution. Congress has as much right to farm out the war mak-
ing power to gunsmiths and powder manufacturers as it has
to farm out to banks its power over the currency.
In the case of ordinary commercial trusts, combinations
strangle and crush competition. But the money trust cannot
reach its ends in this way. The government with all its plenary
power over the whole question stands squarely across its path-
way. How to get rid of this supreme and omnipotent rival in
the money industry is the great question which the associated
banks now have in hand. In fact, with this class of men, it
has been the uppermost question in this nation for more than
one hundred years—since Thomas Jefferson crossed swords
with Alexander Hamilton upon this very question, in the cabi-
net councils of President Washington. The contest has always
been the banks against the mint, the corporations against the
people, from that day to this. The bank won the first round
and leaped into the field nearly twelve months ahead of the
mint. But it lost caste under Presidents Jefferson, Madison
and Jackson, and there has been a protracted struggle ever
since. If they can, as now proposed, strike down all classes of
money recognized in the constitution except gold, which is
already within their control and will there remain, held simply
as a redemption fund and largely in the shape of gold bars,
ready for shipment to Europe, then they will have a clear field
with all rivalry eliminated.
This will create a vast artificial vacuum—which the trusts
will be authorized to fill with their own product—their own
watered dollars—when its suits their imperial purpose. The
money trust is a law made trust, and it is the foster-parent andi8o
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
life-giver to the whole brood of vampires that are now sucking
the good red blood of legitimate trade. By controlling the
quantity of money they regulate its value in the same way that
any other trust controls the price of its 'wares by destroying
competition and controlling the output. By limiting the money
output they also control the price of all things which must be
exchanged for money. Furthermore, the power which they
will have under the pending bill to throw present forms of cir-
culation upon the Treasury for redemption in gold will enable
them, at their pleasure, to expel every dollar of currency now
floating in the channels of trade in competition with their pri-
vate proYnises to pay.
This is their unquestioned scheme and has been since the
close of the civil war. Now, the constitution vests this power
to issue and regulate both the value and volume of money in
congress, to be exercised for the benefit of all. The banks de-
mand that congress shall surrender this sovereign function
and transfer it, not to chosen servants, but to the heads of
syndicates, to be exercised along lines that will yield the great-
est dividends to speculative stockholders. In all our history
there has never before been mooted a proposition so monstrous
and revolutionary. The power of the government over this
great question, if it becomes the settled policy, is to lie dormant,
except when invoked into activity by these all powerful favor-
ites ; and then its action is to be limited to printing private
promises to pay which are to be turned over to corporate bene-
ficiaries as a gift, to be put in circulation only when it will
result in profit to themselves. It is plain that this is exactly
the reverse of the constitutional method which clothes con-
gress with exclusive authority over the whole question, and
denies, even to states, the right to coin money or emit bills of
credit. Is a corporation greater than a state?
This bill of the Atlantic City cabal reverses the whole fabric
of government in this regard. And, ignoring federal author-
ity and passing by the states of this union, it descends to
a corporation, an artificial person wholly unknown to the con-
stitution, to man-made man—lawless in origin, lawless in
action and always lawless in spirit and intention, and clothesGEN. jJlMES B. WEAVER.
181
it- with sovereign power. To paraphrase Burke, the corpora-
tion is the state disguised as a bank. Gentlemen, the conflict
is irrepressible' and there is no middle ground. The banks
grasp at imperial and complete control and will divide this
function with no one—not even the government.
Common business safety requires that no corporation organ-
ized for private gain shall ever be permitted to issue or retire
one dollar of circulating paper. The history of the world is
full of warning against the perilous scheme. Those who ad-
minister our government are responsible to the people and can
be quickly displaced from power. This is one of the reserved
rights which can never be dispensed with. Trust magnates
and those who control great banking institutions hold their
positions for life. Neither they nor their successors are
chosen by the people or amenable to them. Trust coteries legis-
late and plan their raids upon the marts of industry in secret
and there is no defense. They strike suddenly and without
mercy or warning. To illustrate: when the India mint was
closed against silver coinage, were the 300,000,000 people—the
most concerned of all—consulted? Not at all. To consult the
people or seriously inquire how their welfare is to be affected
would not be in harmony with imperial methods. Congress,
under the safeguards of the constitution, sits with open doors,
and a journal of their proceedings must be kept and published
from day to day and each member must answer for deeds done
in the body.
We have all been amazed at the rapid increase of trusts
during the past year. Their joint capitalization exceeds, three-
fold, the circulating medium, and the end is not yet. This
phenomenal growth ran parallel with the Indianapolis mone-
tary scheme which is now ready for passage. It was very
appropriate that the financial trust bill, which, like a beast of
prey, is now ready to spring upon the country, should have
been whelped at Atlantic City, in the state where trust mag-
nates do most congregate, and where the atmosphere seems so
admirably adapted to giving life to this class of belly-god
omnivora. It was very fitting that it should be spawned upon
Congress from the trust hot-bed, and passed by a subservient182	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
house in the closing days of the record breaking, trust-creating
year of the departing century. It was strictly in keeping with
general trust methods that it should trip through the house
upon light feet, like a pestilence that walketh in darkness, be-
fore public attention could be centered upon its nefarious
features or the people prepare to quarantine against it.
When the present congressmen were before the people as
candidates asking for votes, every man of them, particularly
in the northwest, doggedly denied that they were in favor
or contemplated the passage of any such measure. This denial
amounted to a clear-cut confession that the passage of such a
bill would be endangered if it were laid before the people. After
it was agreed upon at Atlantic City last spring it was con-
cealed, exactly as confederates in crime conceal the evidence
of their guilt. It was tucked away until after the late fall elec-
tions. This is confession number two of its unpopular and per-
fidious character. Then, notwithstanding its grave and revolu-
tionary provisions, it was whipped through the house in hot
haste without even referring it to the ordinary committee for
investigation and report. Thus we have, on the part of the
authors of the measure themselves, a three-fold confession that
the complot could not with safety be revealed to the people at
any time prior to its enactment when they had the power to
signify their disapproval. It is what the French would call a
sudden stroke of policy, unheralded, and forced by intrigue for
the benefit of the cabal. It was concocted as far from con-
gress as possible; withheld from congressional supervision to
the extent possible; concealed from the public gaze as long as
possible and only placed in contact with the congressional bat-
tery long enough to galvanize the corpse and give it technical-
ly the vitality of a statute.
It is clear from the circumstances attending the origin and
passage of the bill that it can have none of the moral sanctions
of a bona-fide United States law. It was'born in the dark, its
very existence and the purpose of its authors were denied and
concealed, and it has lurked and sneaked along every step of
its progress. Its very title is a fraud. “To define and fix the
standard of value, maintain the parity of all forms of money,GEN. JAMES B. WEAVER.
1%
and for other purposes.” There is where you will find the
concealed tiger—"For other purposes.” It should be entitled:
A bill to legalize the Atlantic City conspiracy, enlarge the ra-
dius of the endless chain, emasculate the government, stimu-
late the demand for government bonds and guarantee at all
times a bond supply equal to the demand. Every feature of
this bill is vicious; and all of them combined conspire to justify
the accusation implied in the change of title, which I have here
proposed. The influences which inspired this measure aim
simply at addition, division and silence.
The fortunes acquired through the agency of trusts, it will
be readily understood, will not be reinvested in anything but
trust enterprises, and the policy is not to extend but to limit
the number. The same considerations which induced them to
strike down competition will restrain them from encouraging
the erection of competitive establishments. But they must have
some ready-investment for idle accumulations, and what more
attractive than untaxed government bonds? This very thing,
outrageous as it seems, is amply provided for in the pending
bilj. Passing by for the present the important question of
standards on account of its well defined partisan bearing, I
specify the following as the chief vices of the pending meas-
ure : It creates a vast speculative money trust and places its
management in the hands of corporations which are to operate
it for private gain; it deposes the government from its rightful
and constitutional exercise of the most important function of
sovereignty; it provides for the increase or decrease of the
volume of money at the will of the trust; it impairs the obliga-
tion of all classes of contracts for the payment of money now
outstanding; it enables the trust to throw all classes of money,
except gold, upon the Treasury for redemption in gold and
thus creates a vacuum for their own notes, and affords a pre-
text for an issue of bonds; it transforms nearly one thousand
millions of money now in use among the people into a debt
payable on demand in gold; it provides for an ever-increasing
bonded debt which is to be the basis of a banking system which
is to expand with population; if the debt is paid the banks are
destroyed. Thus two crimes become confederated, and one isANTI- TRUST CONFERENCE.
184
made the apology for the other; it provides the machinery for
the increase of the public debt from-year to year and from gen-
eration to generation by the action of one man—the Secretary
of the Treasury—without consulting either congress or the peo-
ple; it makes that officer the autocrat and sole judge in every
emergency.
Congress is not to pass upon either the wisdom or necessity
for such action. The only thing left for congress, in this con-
nection, is the power to impeach, and as every lawyer knows,
conviction upon impeachment can only be had where the secre-
tary acts corruptly, and then only by a two-thirds vote, which
party bias can always be relied upon to defeat. Was ever abdi-
cation or humiliation more marked or complete? This is the
last great master stroke from a band of conspirators who start-
ed out more than thirty years ago to change the current of this
once serene and placid republic and to start it upon its back
flow toward the abyss of despotism. Many individuals who
have given the plot their support have not understood all they
were doing. The same can be said of the so-called statesmen
who steered to their downfall all the republics that now lie
buried in the graveyard of nations. History avouches that
many of them were men of charming personality and really
did not mean to destroy their country. But they had not
learned that men who have the united support of the powerful
classes—of monopolies and trusts—could not be trusted to
govern. This has been the rule universal throughout all ages.
How can the country protect iself? What the remedy ? tVh en
we are troubling our heads about remedies against these evils,
let us remember that for this one great over-shadowing enemy
—the omnivorous money trust—we havj, thanks to the master
builders of the republic, the remedy already provided, full,
ample and complete in the constitution of the United States,
“graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever.” The
whole question is specifically lodged in the hands of congress
and congress is the creation of the people. There can be no
money trust as long as we take shelter under and cling to the
constitution as it was made by our sagaciaus fathers.COL. M. C. WETMORE.
185
Unless we deliberately surrender this citadel of our liberties
we have in our own hands the power to protect ourselves. But
if we are going to surrender this to the king of all the trusts,
what is the use of erecting palisades against the swarm of pests
that will issue from this parent hive ?
Let us see to it that we elect a congress that will stand by
the plain letter and spirit of that admirable, comprehensive
and blood-bought instrument. See to it that congress pro-
vides this mighty country with a money system clearly within
the intendment of our great charter—consisting of gold, silver
and legal-tender paper—all to be issued by the government,
conservatively and definitely limited in amount; and then pro-
vide postal savings banks where the people can safely deposit
their surplus earnings and where money sharks cannot corner
our cash. Do this and no storm can arise with force sufficient
to shake a single timber in the structure. Flee, then, to the
rock of the constitution! Cling to it as the ship-wrecked mar-
iner clings to his last plank when storm and tempest are howl-
ing about him.
ADDRESS OF COL. M. C. WETMORE.
It is frequently claimed that there is no such thing as a trust
doing business in this country today, and that the grouping
together of all or a majority of the factories or mercantile
institutions engaged in any particular line of business does not
constitute a “trust” but simply a large corporation. This as-
sertion, however, is generally if not always made by those
directly interested in the profits of what the ordinary individual
terms a “trust,” and it is hardly necessary to enter into any
long or fine-spun arguments as to what constitutes a “trust.”
Beyond a doubt the great majority of the people understand
that the combination of manufacturing and mercantile institu-
tions into huge corporations in no wise mitigates the pernicious
influence and disastrous effect of the ordinary trust and is
simply an attempt to escape the penalties by evading the letter
of the laws which have been enacted for the protection of the
people. The intention of the promoters of these gigantic cor-186
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
porations is to crush out all competition and reduce the price
of everything they buy while increasing the price of everything
they sell—to make raw material cheaper and beat down the
price of labor—and it goes without saying that if this were not
true there would be no incentive for the formation of pools,
trusts and gigantic corporations. It is claimed by those inter-
ested in trusts that they can purchase raw material at a much
less price than could be done under the old system of inde-
pendent manufacturing and mercantile establishments, and that
in consequence they are able to sell the finished product at much
less than could otherwise be done. It may be readily granted
that where all the factories in any one line are combined or
consolidated they can and do purchase raw material cheaper
than is possible where each one is acting on an independent
basis, but it does not follow that the prices to the consumer
will be reduced, for it has been demonstrated to all of us that
the articles in common use controlled by a trust have been in-
creased in price ranging all the way from one to two hundred
per cent, and the price of their product will continue to ad-
vance in proportion as the trust succeeds in crushing out com-
petition and ruining the independent manufacturer and mer-
chant. That the trust is formed for purely selfish purposes and
opposed to dividing its profits with labor is well understood by
all, and the increase in the wages of workmen, whenever this
takes place, is never in proportion to the advance in the price
of the trust products. As the trust is capitalized at from five
to twenty times its real value it requires of course a greater
profit to permit of the payment of dividends on its heavily wa-
tered stock. The fact is there is no feeling of philanthropy in
its make-up. The trust is formed for the single purpose of
making money, and making more money than could be made
in a legitimate business on the amount of capital actually in-
vested, and all promoters of trusts may be justly termed con-
spirators against the interests of the human race.
The trust system is but another step in the conspiracy to
plunder the people which was so successfully inaugurated dur-
ing the civil war, when the urgent necessity of the government
for revenue and the distraction of the public mind by thatCOL. M. C. WETMORE.
187
sanguinary conflict permitted these conspirators to enrich them-
selves by means of the so-called protective tariff, but this sys-
tem is infinitely worse in its effect, for while the protective tariff
shut out foreign competition and heavily taxed the necessities
of life the trust system not only destroys home competition and
makes monopoly complete, forcing the entire population to pay
tribute to these conspirators while the burden falls most heavi-
ly upon those least able to bear it, but it is likewise undermining
our civil and political institutions and reducing the people to a
state of vassalage more abject than was ever the Russian serf,
and no man can foresee its ultimate effects.
The advocates of the protective tariff induced the American
workman to believe that it was a panacea for all his ills, in-
tended to protect him from the pauper labor of Europe and
furnish him with all the comforts of life. Now the trust pro-
moter is endeavoring to convince him that the trust system
is a natural and economic measure which will cheapen produc-
tion and increase his comforts. The steady decline in wages
under the protective tariff and the rapid advance in prices un-
der the trust system plainly tells its own story and furnishes
absolute proof of the falsity of their statements. As a matter of
fact both were simply schemes for the spoliation of the people
and designed to enrich a few at the expense of the many. The
protective tariff, in shutting out foreign competition, has pro-
duced such enormous profits to the promoters that we cannot
wonder that we now discover the same idea is being carried
to its logical conclusion and an attempt is now being made to
destroy home competition by means of the modern trust with
its long train of attendant evils.
The trust system is born of a spirit of avarice and rapacity,
entirely selfish in its character. Nothing is sacred in its sight
and it has a supreme contempt for the laws of nature, God and
man. The trust knows no law which it is bound to respect,
and with it the end always justifies the means. Its sole aim
and object is to extort money from the public. In other words,
the trust is an illegal combination formed for the purpose of
destroying competition and robbing the people. As a conse-
quence the “infant industries” have now become giant mon-188
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
opolies and in their insatiate greed for wealth are threatening
the liberties of the people and striking at the foundations of our
democratic form of government. Although only in its infancy,
the centralization of power and wealth which has already taken
place in these colossal combinations is a serious menace to this
country, as was illustrated by recent events in Wall street. At
the present time there are about five hundred in operation in
the United States, with a capital stock whose face value is
more than eight billions of dollars, two-thirds or more being
“water,” or in other words representing no real value, but
upon all of which the public is expected to pay tribute in order
that dividends may be declared. In order to form a trust in
any particular line of business the conspirators first get control
of a majority of the most desirable plants, some being secured
at exorbitant prices where the owners cannot be coerced, while
others are intimidated by threats of ruin if they refuse to join.
The small and undesirable plants are then ruthlessly crushed
out, the usual method being to reduce the price of the article
in the competitor’s market, without reference to cost, until its
object is accomplished, when the price is immediately ad-
vanced. Having crushed out its competitors the trust then
turns its attention to the producer, the workman and the con-
sumer who are now defenseless. The farmer will readily
understand that where there is but one person or concern to
whom he can sell his product, such as his cotton, his leaf
tobacco, his wheat or his corn, he cannot hope to realize as
much as he would if there were a thousand bidders to com-
pete for them, and in this way the trust secures its raw material
at reduced figures. The workman can also understand that
with only one concern in his line to whom he can apply for
work he is compelled to accept the wages and terms it may
offer him, and when he offends them by asserting his man-
hood and independence he knows how effective will be the
“blacklist.” Without competition the consumer must pay the
price arbitrarily fixed by the trust if he must use their product.
It is thus that the trust is enabled to reduce the price of raw
material and of labor under this system while advancing the
price of their product. Great reductions have already takenCOL. M. C. WET MO RE.
189
place in the wages of some of the trust’s employees while it
has been publicly stated by representatives of the trusts that
the commercial traveler and advertising agent are doomed, and
thus far about fifty thousand of them have been dismissed.
The same fate awaits those employed in other departments and
when it is considered that there are more than 3,500,000 people
in the employ of these combinations the amount of suffering en-
tailed by this so-called “economic measure” can be better imag-
ined than described. For the purpose of restricting production
and thus artificially enhancing values, or for the purpose of in-
timidating a community, the trusts can at any time close down
their plants at any point and are actually doing so at the present
time as can be seen by the public prints, and thus the workman,
with all those depending upon his earnings, must suffer while
the trust is a distinct gainer by so doing.
While the greatest hardships incident to the trust system are
more immediately felt by the industrial classes and those
directly dependent upon them, the farmer need not flatter him-
self that he is secure. Let him not think that the comparative
freedom and independence of his mode of life, will protect him
from the machinations of these gigantic combinations. In
times past he has been a favorite victim for unscrupulous sharp-
ers, and he cannot escape now. Thus far he may have only
heard the rumbling of the storm in the distance and felt a few
rain drops. Perhaps he has yet only been squeezed a little by
the agricultural implement trust, the barbed wire trust, the
nail trust, the steel trust, the lumber trust and the hundred and
one other trusts that control the production of the articles he
uses. Perhaps his land has been decreasing in value while the
increasing poverty of the people has depressed the prices of
the product he sells in his neighborhood. But the lightning
has not yet struck him; he believes he still has the foreign mar-
ket, and expects to realize fair prices for his wheat, his corn
and other products. But what is to prevent the trust magnates
from entering the agricultural field when the industrial has
been absorbed and exhausted? What assurance has he that
this will not be done when the proper time arrives ? Certainly
it will not be for the want of the necessary means, as thousandsANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
190
of millions of dollars are at the disposal of the promoters of
these huge combinations, and as the system grows it gathers
strength and the money made out of one plant purchases
another plant while the public continues to furnish the “sinews
of war.” The irony of fate seems to have decreed that the
people must feed the flames that consume them; that they must
carry the club to beat out their own brains. And just here it
may be observed that without the patronage of the people the
trust system could not exist for a month, but the trust magnates
know that for a slight temporary gain a thoughtless public will
sacrifice all their prospects of permanent prosperity and peace
and have profited accordingly.
The foundation of the trust system is the monopoly idea, and
the sole barrier that protects the people from plunder and pil-
lage is removed when competition is destroyed. In England
the granting of monopolies was a prerogative of the crown in
former times, although so strongly resisted by the people that
even the powerful Queen Elizabeth found it necessary to claim
some public benefit when conferring this privilege on some
favored subject, and finally, in the reign of James I, monopolies
were declared illegal and the power of granting them trans-
ferred to parliament. In this country, likewise, the national
and state governments have declared in unequivocal terms that
trusts and monopolies were illegal, but the money and power
of the trusts have secured them immunity from punishment,
until now we find that in levying tribute on 70,000,000 of peo-
ple they have usurped the prerogative of the sovereign and are
attempting to establish the feudal system in the republic.
We are now up to the question of what we shall do about
it. It seems to me that the American people have it in their
power to make laws that will absolutely destroy all trusts,
and wherever you find a legislator who says that it is impos-
sible to make laws to fit the case it is the duty of the patriotic
citizen to vote against him, and whenever a judge renders
a decision inimical to the interests of the people and in favor
of trusts you should vote against him. I am an old-fashioned
Democrat, but I say to you now that if my party should ally
itself with the trust system, or nominate men for any positionHELEN M. GOUGAR.
igi
who would not, in my judgment, do everything in their power
to favor the people and to make and administer the laws in
favor of the people and against the trusts, I would cast my
vote and my fortune with the party which should the nearest
approach my ideas of right and justice in this respect.
In my judgment the trust system will be, to a great extent,
the issue on which the great political battle of this year will
be fought, and the party in which the people have the most
confidence on this question will triumphantly carry the elec-
tions, and that by so great a majority that there will be no
question as to the intentions of the people. It is the greatest
question that has ever come before the jury of American vot-
ers for adjustment, and as they follow the plow and the jack
plane they are preparing a verdict to be rendered at the polls.
This question will not be settled by a few national bankers
or trust magnates; it will be settled by the great body of con-
servative people.
ADDRESS OF MRS. HELEN M. GOUGAR.
“Every great reform which has been effected has consisted,
not in doing something new, but in undoing something old.”
—Buckle.
Trusts are here. We know them by their hideous hand of
power and oppression raised against the common welfare of
the masses; they are organized greed and legalized robbery;
like chattel slavery of old, they have their existence in laws
that create and protect them; like the same slavery they must
have their destruction in laws that prohibit them. I have no
patience with the statement of political demagogues, that
trusts are superior to law, the will of the people, that they
cannot be abolished but must be “regulated.” The laws that
make trusts possible and protect them must be relegated to
the list of wrongs associated with the auctioneer’s block of
human slavery; the trusts are a far more dangerous form of
slavery than that of old for they know no color, no section
and love no flag; the dollar mark is their fetich; their lash192
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
is cruel, their taskmasters relentless; they must be abolished,
not regulated; no excuse can be made for them that has not
its foundation in organized, oppressive greed. If trusts are
beneficial to industry, trade and commerce let them alone, if
they are harmful prohibit them. The voters may have the
trusts if they want them and they can rid the country of them
if they want to be rid of them; this is no monarchy; it is
still a government of, by and for the people. Elect men to
make and execute the laws who have no sympathy with trusts
or the laws that make them possible, and they will be destroyed,
providing there are no trust-sympathizing Supreme Courts to
nullify these laws after they are made. Even Supreme Courts
can be prevented from nullifying statutes by the sovereign
people.
Trusts and tramps were born in 1873; they are offsprings
of the same parents; as one has grown strong so the other
has multiplied; they are concomitant parts of one whole; trusts
cannot exist without producing tramps; trusts are combina-
tions of a few men to take possession of the products of the
toil of the masses without adequate compensation to the toil-
ers ; the multi-millionaire has stolen three-fourths of his wealth
from its legitimate producers; he has taken possession of the
product of the toil of other men’s hands; he has done this
under the protection of statutes, maybe, but in the sight of
God every multi-millionaire is a thief. Laws must be enacted
to make trusts, tramps and multi-millionaires impossible in
this land of liberty, vast undeveloped resources and compara-
tively limited population.
The country is so under control of these modern freebooters
that almost everything a man needs in his march from the
cradle to the grave is controlled in labor, output and price by
a few multi-millionaires and monopolists, in the name of trusts.
These institutions are capitalized for over $10,000,000,000;
ten dollars for each inhabitant in the whole world and twenty
times the amount of all the gold and silver money in the world!
But one trust, worthy of the name, was in existence when Mr.
McKinley was inaugurated president of the United States,
namely, the Standard Oil Trust; the three years of his presi-HELEN M. GOUGAR.
m
dency have seen over two hundred of these commercial free-
booters organized and at work ruining thousands of industries
and making tramps and paupers by the millions. They are
here, booted and spurred, to ride tne people to ruin and old-
world serfdom. Their causes and cures are the problems con-
fronting us; if we can fathom the causes we can apply the
remedies.
One illustration at hand is sufficient to show the dangerous
power of these combinations, how they organize, how they
operate and the conditions that make them possible.
The American Steel (it should be spelled s-t-e-a-1) and Wire
trust is one of the largest trusts in the country and is doing
as much harm, probably, as any other except the Standard Oil
trust. Its president was recently called before the Industrial
Investigating Commission in Washington; the Associated Press
reports of November 14, last year, gave an account of this
remarkably frank and interesting evidence, which throws much
light on the subject in hand. He related how he started in life
a poor boy and worked eighteen hours each day, always saving
something from his earnings; his confession was a tribute to
his executive head. He accumulated until he was strong
enough to manipulate a trust; he tells how he studied the proj-
ect for one year before undertaking it; his first step was to
gain control of all patents used in producing the steel and
wire wares which he was to manufacture; he then put spies
on all the steel and wire factories in the country; when he
ascertained about the amount of business each was doing he
made an offer for the plants and compelled surrender; so his
large concern swallowed up the smaller ones; he acknowledged
he dismantled these small concerns and threw many men out
of employment, among them over two hundred traveling men.
To the question, “What became of these idle men?” he an-
swered, “It is none of my business; I am not supposed to find
employment for men that I do not need.” He contended that
he had cheapened the product to the consumer, had raised the
wages for labor and in short had been a commercial benefactor
in every way. It is sublime to note the missionary spirit that
takes hold of these monopolists when they manipulate a trust;194
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
judging from their claims they are always in the interest of
the “dear people” and in direct communication with the Al-
mighty.
This man stated that no dividends would be declared to
the shareholders for two or three years to come, or until he
could secure a franchise from congress that would put him out-
side of all state interference, or “until things are settled down.”
He declared he would be willing to pay $1,000,000 per year
to the federal government for such a franchise. His state-
ments were frank, brutal and in one instance false.
It is now about two months since this evidence was given
and on January 30, in the commercial reports of the press
can be found the first annual report of the American Steel and
Wire trust. It is instructive. Let us study it for a few mo-
ments. On a capitalization of $90,000,000 it pays to
its 1,500 shareholders a dividend of 7 per cent on $40,000,000
preferred stock and 18.7 per cent on its $50,000,000 common
stock (all water) and this, too, after having written off $1,000,-
000 for depreciation and $200,000 for bad debts. In short,
the profits to this concern, in one year, amount, in round
numbers to $13,000,000.
Who pays this vast and unreasonable profit to this handful
of shareholders? Ask the over two hundred idle traveling
men; ask the citizens of Crawfordsville, Ind., Salem, O.,
and many other towns where steel and wire factories have
been dismantled and closed, where men are idle and unable
to make the over-due payments on their homes that are slip-
ping away from them under the demand of the ruthless mort-
gage; ask the merchants that are forced into bankruptcy for
want of trade; ask the wives and mothers in the homes who
are becoming nervous wrecks from the nightly vigils and
daily worry over the father and husband unable to get em-
ployment with which to feed the loved ones God has intrusted
to their care, for the answer as to who pays the cost not only
in dollars and cents, but in want and misery. There are no
more sorrowful tales written on the pages of fact or fiction
than those of the weary tramp of thousands of honorable men,
in every section of this country, seeking employment and noneHELEN M. COUGAR.
195
to be had; there is no surer way to destroy a self-respecting
citizenship and make serfs of men, or, what is worse, tramps,
criminals, suicides or lunatics, than to allow these trusts to
go on in their oppression and robbery of the people. These
idle men and their impoverished homes tell who pays the ex-
orbitant profits upon the largely fictitious capital of the steel
and wire trust. The consumers are also helpless victims of
this octopus. It is not true, as this man testified, that the
price of the product has been reduced to the consumer. Be-
fore this trust was in control of trade wire fencing was but
$1.50 per hundred pounds, it is now $4.50 per hundred and
another raise is just ordered by this company! Nails that were
$1.50 per keg before the trust are now $3.75 per keg, and
this one man has it in his power'to put these two things, so
necessary to every farmer and home builder, to any price he
pleases. Crowned heads have never possessed greater power
to despoil a people than these trust magnates now have over
the masses ,in the United States.
One illustration only is sufficient to show how these trusts
prey upon the welfare of agriculturists. In 1898 corn in Kan-
sas was 25 cents per bushel; it took six bushels of corn to
buy 100 lbs. of barbed wire fencing; corn is now the same
price and it takes 18 bushels to buy the same amount of fenc-
ing; before the trust went into control of trade it took six
bushels of corn to buy a keg of nails now it takes fifteen bush-
els. A broom that cost one-half bushel of corn now costs
two bushels. To this extent the agriculturists are paying
their tribute to swell the dividends of trusts. The prosper-
ity of the agriculturists gauges the prosperity of the whole
people and any system that preys on our agriculturists as
do the trusts must be changed or our farmers will soon rank
with the fallaheen of Egypt in their struggle for existence.
In the face of these damaging facts the president of this
trust has the supreme impudence to claim that his manner of
doing business is directly in the interest of wage-earners and
consumers, and he has the assurance to ask that federal
license be granted him to continue his commercial piracy.
If he is permitted to continue his freebooting no one but196
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
voting farmers and wage-earners are to blame for it, for they
have the power to stop him, and all other such freebooters
if they will.
A close study of this man’s statements and the financial
reports of the trust for one year will help solve the trust
question in the interest of the whole people and will show
us how to prohibit the unjust tribute to capital and greed,
now paid to all these two hundred trusts.
First:	Grant no patents to inventors. 0
Give the public free use of all inventions; if necessary,
pay all inventors from the national treasury for their inven-
tions. If this had been the law of the land one year ago,
the wire and nail trust would have been impossible, accord-
ing to the testimony of its president, and millions of dollars
would have been saved to the people in a single year. It
was the control of patents that enabled Mr. Gates to swal-
low up and dismantle so many factories in different parts of
the country and force hundreds of men into idleness.
Second :	Prohibit fictitious or watered stocks; compel every
dollar of capitalization to be paid, in full, into the treasury
of any concern asking for a franchise to do business.
Third:	Make stritigent laws protecting every person en-
gaged in any manufacturing enterprise in being a sharer in
its profits, according to his skill and wage and allow the
capital invested no more profits than the legal rate of inter-
est on money, in the state where it is employed. The state
should have supervision of all such concerns, the same as it
now has over banks, insurance companies and other such cor-
porations. It should also have power to prevent unreasonable
profits to any concern in the interest and for the protection
of consumers, who should have their goods as cheap as con-
sistent with safe business conduct. The same power that
dictates a legal rate of interest on money loaned should have
power to decide the legal rate of profit on capital invested
by corporations. Money should have no greater considera-
tion than manhood in our statutes.
Under such laws as I have recommended the steel and wire
trust could have paid 6 per cent on its $90,000,000—takingHELEN M. GOUGAR.
197
it for granted that none of this was water—and given to its
shareholders $5,400,000, and saved to the consumers and
wage earners about $7,000,000 in a single year. Free inven-
tions would have enabled competitors to have done business
and the monopoly in steel and wire goods been shorn of its
tentacles.
In the demand for federal license there is immense dan-
ger and no protection to the people. This scheme must be
repudiated with all the power the people can command. If
once adopted it will prove as disastrous as the ancient Egyp-
tian law licensing thugs to go forth to rob, only taking care
to divide the plunder with the ruling classes. We have the
Sherman Anti-Trust law now on our statute books; its provi-
sions are sufficient to bankrupt and destroy almost every trust
in existence in the United States, but it is nullified by an ad-
ministration in power that is the subservient creature of these
monopolies, an administration whose every member of its
cabinet is a member or notorious promoter of one or more
trusts, an administration that is the father of many laws
that make trusts possible. There must be no federal or state
license of trusts; they must be abolished.
Change the laws that create and nurse these trusts and we
will be rid of them.
Government ownership and control of railroads and means
of transportation will destroy the Standard Oil, beef, grain
elevator and bituminous coal trusts which are now oppress-
ing the whole country. This, coupled with state ownership
of all coal fields, will not. only destroy the coal trust, but it
will put an immediate stop to strikes and riots among miners,
that are now so frequent, dangerous and disturbing.
One of the leading sources of trusts is found in the so-
called high-protective tariff laws that have been enacted to
protect class interests and against which reformers have in-
veighed for a long time; any tariff or tribute laid upon con-
sumers for other than revenue for the necessary support of
the government is unconstitutional and unwise. Protective
tariff is a robber tariff building up great wealth in the hands
of the few, at the expense of the many. The McKinley, Wil-198
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
son and Dingley tariff laws have been and are the incubators
of trusts. Free trade with the world and co-operation in manu-
facturing'enterprises will work a revolution in the interest of
operatives and consumers; high tariff laws have been weighed
in the balance and found wanting in their ability to protect
either workmen or consumers, but they have fostered trusts to
the hurt of the masses. Repeal them.
The land trust is another wrong upon the people; this can
be destroyed by making occupation of land superior to own-
ership; make it impossible for the English rack-renter like
the Lord Sculleys, foreign or home syndicates and speculat-
ors, or railroad corporations to hold land away from cultiva-
tion and occupation; God created all his children land animals
and without land none can live any place except by sufferance.
Instead of spending $1,000,000 per day, as we are doing,
to shoot down, in an unjust war, a people struggling for
freedom in the islands of the Asiatic seas, that we may rob
them of their homes and steal their lands, let us spend this
amount of money in irrigating the arid plains of the west
that we may reclaim fifty million acres of land, now useless,
for the homeless millions of our own people.
The leading cause for trusts, the trust of all trusts, is the
money trust.
Ever since the civil war a handful of money conspirators
have been compassing the absolute control of the blood of
industry, trade and commerce; they well know that whoever
can control the volume of money. of a country can control
the wealth of that country; one by one this small coterie of
men, headed by the great Rothschilds, has brought the other
nations to adopt the gold standard; and they are now about
enacting the last law placing this country under the ban and
blight of the single gold standard; it matters not to them
that in every one of these countries panics, bankruptcy, pov-
erty, crime and often famine have followed in the wake of
every gold standard law. The American congress, appar-
ently composed of men bereft of reason and patriotism, through
party drunkenness, will, during the hours this anti-trust con-HELEN M. GO UGAR.
199
ference is sitting, enact this stupendous crime against the
masses into law; they will finish the conspiracy begun in 1873
by destroying silver as standard money; the moment Presi-
dent McKinley signs this criminal measure over $500,000,000
of silver, now credit money and the money of the people,
and its own redeemer, will become debtor money, to be re-
deemed in gold; it creates the endless chain of redemption
in gold and compels the masses to beg of the manipulators
of the gold market for money with which to exist; it creates
a nation of suppliants at the feet of the lords of gold such
as the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and the few who can man-
ipulate the small pinnacle of gold upon which the conspirat-
ors are trying to poise the financial world. President McKin-
ley will sign this law, notwithstanding his arraignment of the
Cleveland administration in a speech in which he said:
You are setting up the gold, the money of the rich, and you are
destroying silver, the money of the poor; you are destroying one of
our precious metals, one of our own products, destroying silver and
enhancing the price of gold. You are determined to contract the cir-
culating medium, limit the volume of money among the people, making
money scarce, therefore dear.
Not satisfied with this drastic measure to impoverish the
people, this bill retires the greenbacks, the best and most
scientific money this or any other country ever had, the money
that saved the country in the hour of civil strife, the money
that was the gatling gun of finance that enabled Abraham
Lincoln to save the union, the money that pays no interest
to bondholders, the money based upon the entire wealth of
the nation.
In addition to these criminal provisions, in order to give
the money trust unlimited control of the people, 12,800 na-
tional bankers, a class of organized men, working together
like the fingers of one hand, are given the power to issue
the currency of the country, expand it for wild speculation
or contract it to take possession of the property of the people
at will, and as if to press this crown of thorns more cruelly
on the brows of the people, the national treasurer is given200	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
absolute power to issue interest bearing bonds to any amount
he may desire!
Was there ever a more stupendous crime against the masses
than this measure that may become a law before these words
have fallen from my lips in this Anti-Trust Conference?
The moment President McKinley signs this measure and
it becomes a law he stands convicted, by his own words, of
being the most stupendous hypocrite and traitor that has
ever plotted against the welfare of the people and the stabil-
ity ef a government.
This law creates a most powerful money trust and bonds
the masses to pay tribute on interest bearing bonds to the
few lords of gold for generations to come or until the law
is repealed. It is a monumental crime against the people,
enslaving them to the money trust. Unless men were party
drunk and ignorant of the results of this law there would
be a larger army, tramping on the grass at Washington, than
the one Coxey lead, instructing their representatives not to
dare to give their votes to this measure. It is the trust of
all trusts to make money dear and manhood cheap. But what
care the promoters of this conspiracy if millions starve in
India because of the money famine brought about by them;
what cares this money trust if millions in our own country
tramp and the great middle classes disappear? “Is it not
true,” say they, “that there are always poor in every land?”
and their hearts are steeled against the misery their policy
has created.
The only thing these pirates fear is the freedom of the
people at the ballot-box. Radical wrongs require radical meas-
ures to right them. The people have blindly followed party
leaders and party spirit until they are oppressed on every
hand by commercial and industrial freebooters.
But God willing, the sovereign people will right these
wrongs and that right speedily, for in their ability and deter-
mination to do this is the power of the people to continue to
enjoy the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The people have not yet sold their manhood and womanhood
for gold; this conference is a tribute to the intelligence andHELEN M. GOUGAR.
201
power of the people to protect themselves from the dangers
that beset them. They have done it before, they will do it
again, peaceably if possible, by bloodshed if they must.
To free the country from the control of trusts there must
be elected a United States Congress and a President pledged
to enact laws that return us to the money of the constitu-
tion, both gold and silver and free coinage, both standard
money; all currency to be issued by the government without
the intervention of banks and one dollar as good as every
other dollar and always a legal tender, and enough money
to do the business of the country on a cash basis. This will
destroy the money trust.
Occupation of land superior to ownership will destroy the
land trust and give every family a home.
Government ownership of railroads and means of trans-
portation will destroy the oil, grain, meat and a whole brood
of trusts.
Government ownership of telegraphs will destroy the news
trust.
State ownership of coal fields will destroy the coal trust
and make peace and prosperity for the army of coal miners
that are now little better off than serfs.
All inventions free to the public, co-operation in all manu-
facturing enterprises with free trade with the world will break
up all manufacturing trusts.
Not another dollar of public money should be given to sub-
sidizing private enterprises and not another dollar be voted
for a civil pension list that is now so great that we may
well bend our energies to the destruction of the trust of aris-
tocratic pensioned paupers now supported by the honest toil-
ers of the country. When monopoly in money, land, trans-
portation and communication is made impossible, monopoly
in opportunity will be at an end and the trusts will be known
only as having been.
The young man whose only choice now is to be a serf, a
tramp, a criminal or a soldier can then have choice of occu-
pation and a career in life, as his father had before him, be-
fore the days of trusts and monopoly.202
ANTI-TjiUST CONFERENCE.
By adopting the initiative and referendum in all matters
pertaining to the enactment of laws we will be free from the
party-trust in legislation and the danger of bribery in legis-
lative halls. As a lover of my country and of home, I beg
the men of this nation to arise to the demands of the great
occasion confronting the people and vote, not as blind par-
tisans, but as intelligent patriots; then and not until then will
the people be relieved from the slavery of trusts and privileged
legislation and again be free and prosperous. In the words of
Ella Wheeler Wilcox:
“The time has come when men with hearts and brains
Must rise and take the misdirected reins
Of government, too long left in hands
Of tricksters and of thieves. He who stands
And sees the mighty vehicle of state
Hauled through the mire of some ignoble fate
But makes no such bold protest as he can,
Is no American.”
ADDRESS OF HON. JERRY SIMPSON OF KANSAS.
Almost every one agrees that trusts are evil, but when it
comes to remedies the doctors disagree; and in running over
the long list of eminent professors of political economy who
have given voice on this question, and studying the remedies
proposed, one is forced to admit the truth of the old adage
that “no man is wiser for his learning.”
It is one thing to denounce trusts, but quite another to point
out adequate remedies of the evils in them. In this great
problem is involved the safety of the republic and the per-
petuity of human liberty. It behooves us, therefore, to make
no mistakes in the beginning.
First of all we must know the causes of the trouble and
then devise means to remove them. I do nqt believe, as some
men do, that the combinations we call trusts, are the results
of orderly evolution in business methods. I think I canJERRY SIMPSON.
203
easily demonstrate that they have their origin and grow and
fatten upon special privileges conferred by legislative bodies;
and without these special privileges it would be impossible
for them to exist. If this be true, it would seem that the
first and most necessary step would be to repeal the laws
on which they rest, rather than enact new ones.
If toad-stools grow out of a rotten log, clearly, you must
destroy the log in order to rid yourself of the toad-stools.
What supreme folly it is to try to rid yourself of the toad-
stools while the log, their breeding place, remains.
The three underlying causes of trusts, to which all intel-
ligent opponents of them agree, are protective tariff duties,
corporate ownership of railways, and land monopoly.
Four hundred articles of common consumption, manufac-
tured under the control of trusts, are protected by an aver-
age tariff duty of sixty per cent. This makes these trusts
secure from competition, so that not in a few cases, but in all,
the amount of the tariff is a bonus to the trust lords and at
the same time gives them undisputed control of the home
market. The tariff is therefore a loaded gun placed in the
hands of the trust which enables him not only to hold up
the consumers at home, but to, by making abnormally low
prices abroad, break down competition and pave the way for
world-wide combinations.
Take for example articles of common consumption, partic-
ularly in the western states—barbed wire and wire nails. In
April, 1898, the American Steel and Wire Co., of Illinois, was
formed with $24,000,000 capital, and in a short time benevo-
lently assimilated all the smaller factories in the country.
These, taken at excessive valuations, increased the capital stock
of the company to $94,000,000, which was, however, too mod-
est a figure for the incorporators. With one stroke these
masterly freebooters of commerce added fifty millions more
water, and when the general roundup was completed, we are
informed, through its president, Mr. John Lambert, that the
general division of the plunder began. The price of wire
nails rose from January, 1899, to December, 1899, from $1.59
to $3-53 per hundred pounds, the price of barbed wire ris-204
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ing in- the same period from $2.05 to $4-13 per hundred
pounds.
During the same period this wire industry protested against
the encroachments and competition of the pauper labor of
Europe, shipped barbed wire to Germany, paying ocean and
railway freight and all other dues, and sold there for more
than a dollar less a hundred than it was selling to the Amer-
ican consumer.
Notwithstanding the millions upon millions of watered stock,
the trust dividend of seven per cent for the year, and after
paying this and all charges, there still remains available in
the treasury the tidy sum of $5,862,529. The actual earnings
of the common stock amounted in the year 1899 to 18.7 per
cent.
Naturally the enormous advance in price of barbed wire
and wire nails is causing a rapid decline in consumption, the
factories and the store houses of jobbers and retailers are
filling up with supplies. For instance, it is reported that in
the eastern states farmers are returning to the primitive rail
fences. Hence we shall hear of the wholesale discharge of
men employed by the trusts, and they being without work
and without money to buy the products of the farm, will
thus affect the farmers injuriously, and so on through the
whole gamut of industrial activity. It is therefore more than
probable that before many months elapse the parrot cry of
“overproduction" will be heard in the land, while the gaunt
wolf of poverty sits upon countless thousands of thresholds.
Let us hope that through this revival of the rail-splitting
industry brought about through the operations of the pro-
tected wire trust, that God will send us another Abraham Lin-
coln who will do for wage slavery what he did for chattel
slavery.
Although the protective tariff is .responsible for the origin
of many trusts, there are some, and among them the greatest
and most powerful, which have been developed wholly through
railway discriminations and land monopoly. The most con-
spicuous of these are so closely allied to the railway corpo-JERRY SIMPSON.	205
rations that they can be considered as members of the same
body. This applies to the coal, iron and coal-oil trusts.
Ihe railways have rendered competition impossible through,
special privileges granted to these favored shippers; and these
grants of special privileges have been extended to all the
trusts. When we consider that this has come to pass with
the railways only partially organized, what can we expect
when all the transportation companies come under one man-
agement, a consolidation which it is generally believed will
be brought about within the next decade.
It is idle to talk of government control of these railway
corporations. Time and experience have proved that all the
devices suggested for control of these gigantic powers fail
utterly to accomplish the object desired. So far, we have
not succeeded in forcing the railways to go into government
control; for it is an acknowledged fact that the railways are
dominating legislation in every state in the union; and even
in Washington the railways have been successful in controll-
ing the law-making power. All our experience, our many
costly and useless experiments in attempting to control rail-
ways, should teach us that the only remedy for the evils
which spring from them is in ownership by the people.
I now come to what in my opinion is the parent monopoly
of all. There would be little power for evil in trusts if their
foundation were not laid in land monopoly. For instance, the
president of the Wire Trust boasts that it is independent be-
cause it runs its own iron mines. The Copper Trust derives
its whole strength from ownership of copper mines. Private
ownership of coal deposits is the base of the coal trust. Were
it not for the denial of access to unused coal mines to labor
and capital, the Coal Trust would be impossible. The Lead
and Zinc Trust has grown out of the same conditions. The
great Steel Trust has made its power complete by acquiring
control of the ore deposits of the country.
And what shall we say of the Standard Oil leviathan, which
is reaching out and threatening to swallow up every industry,
which is invading every department of human activity—sugar,
coffee, iron, copper, lumber, leather, banking, railways, and206
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
even reached out toward the treasury and through it to ulti-
mate possession of the government itself, with the revenues
of the country already in its control, helping to swell its enor-
mous wealth and increase its power? How long could this
monster live if it did not have monopoly through the monop-
oly of the oil lands ? The remedies I would therefore suggest
are three in number:
First and most important:	Substitution for our present
system of taxation upon the products of labor of a tax on
land values, which would give labor immediate access to
this great storehouse of wealth, and prevent the holding of
valuable land except by those who put it to its best use.
Second:	Wipe out the protective tariff. Put all industries
on a common footing.
Third:	Make the great public highways over which must
pass the commerce of the nation, the property of the people.
Do these things and you will have taken three mighty strides
toward establishing that very much desired condition of so-
ciety based upon that great principle of “equal rights to all,
special privileges to none.”
ADDRESS OF REV. S. W. SAMPLE.
To dam the Nile with bullrushes, to' cure a revolution with
rose water, to feed a starving man with good wishes or smooth
words—these have long been recognized by all thinking peo-
ple as things impossible to achieve and useless to attempt.
Less picturesque and more ‘comprehensive statements, how-
ever, would be none the less true. In all cases of great and
radical evils, small or superficial remedies are of no avail,
only great and radical remedies are of any value. To make
special appbcation of this general statement, the trust, as at
present organized and operated, is a radical evil and requires
the application of a radical remedy.
It is first necessary, however, indelibly to impress upon
our minds the great general truth that, in the presence of
vast ills small and superficial measures not merely do littleREV. S. W. SAMPLE.
20 7
good, they do no good at all. Yea, more, they work positive
harm. If smallpox rages, do not seek to drive away the pus-
tules, nor strive to turn the smallpox into varioloid on the
one hand, any more than into black-pox on the other hand.
A little fire may be put out with a little water. Cupfuls of
water thrown upon a vast Chicago conflagration or raging
Moscow fire, however, will not put out a little of that fire.
Louis XVI tried tame and superficial measures to prevent the
French revolution of 1789, but all in vain. He made a few
concessions, practiced a few economies, yielded up a few priv-
ileges. But the immortal God laughed him to scorn. The
hour for something radical had struck.
Still more than this is true. The cupful of water thrown
upon a great fire not only puts out no portion of that fire, it
actually feeds the conflagration. The intense heat transforms
the water intended for suppression or restraint into fuel that
encourages and augments the devouring element. Likewise,
nonradical measures for the remedy of great industrial or
social wrongs actually feed the very wrongs they are intended
to restrain. They are turned by the vast powers which they
so feebly and mistakenly assail into aids and friends of those
very powers. They who with puny and unscientific methods
attack a vast and organized evil, are like a small and undis-
ciplined force attacking a large and well disciplined army.
They are captured and their provisions, arms and ammuni-
tion are turned against the very cause they hoped somewhat
to serve. One way in which this is effected is thus described
by John Morley:
A small and temporary improvement may really be the worst enemy
of a great and permanent improvement—unless the first is made on the
lines and in the direction of the second. In such a case as this—and
our legislation presents instances of this kind—the small reform, if it
he not made with reference to some large, progressive principle and
with a view to further extension of its scope, makes it all the more
difficult to return to the right line and direction when improvement is
again demanded.
The Missouri Compromise was proposed as a step toward the
settlement of the slavery question; but it simply strengthened
the arms of slavery and postponed the settlement of the ques-208
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tion. Missouri Compromises are now proposed in settlement
of this trust question, but they will settle nothing, they will
simply postpone settlement. .Study not how to adjust the peo-
ple’s chains so they will chafe the people’s limbs less and cause
fewer running sores and thus prolong the existence of in-
dustrial slavery, but study to remove the chains altogether and
let the people go free.
Most of the measures, however, proposed in the public
press as remedies to apply to the trust evil, are petty, paltry,
partial, superficial, symptomatic. Instead of cleansing the
blood of our body politic, they simply put paste on the pus-
tules. They would clip off a leaf or two from the Trust Tree,
and thus actually augment the flow of vital force into the
rest of the tree, instead of laying the ax at the root of the
tree. They are propositions to regulate, restrict, restrain by
special legislation or specialized effort in one form or another,
instead of boldly and wisely removing the radical cause or
causes of the whole outbreaking and terrific evil.
Every measure of special legislation intended to' restrict
or restrain the operations of the trust would prove to be a
magic net whose meshes would hold fast the little fishes and
let the big fish escape. Special legislation directed against
trusts might be turned against labor unions or prove effect-
ive against small and weakly trusts which were annoying or
obnoxious to the big ones; but all experience, as well as
reason, teaches us that against the big monsters themselves,
it would somehow or other fail to work. Special legislation
is in every case inimical to the general interests of the whole
people, even when it seems to do superficial and temporary
good. Save affirmations of liberty and prohibitions of ag-
gression, the best law ever enacted is “an act entitled an Act
to repeal an act.” buckle says:	“Every great reform which
has been effected has consisted not in doing something new,
but in undoing something old.”
To let the trust evil go and grow, to seek no remedy, to
wait for the formation of one giant trust of trusts, with the
idea that then the government will gobble this and adminis-
ter it in the interests of all the people, is equally as superfi-M. F. Bingham.
Jay D. Miller.
Samuel M. Jones.
Willis J. Abbott.
S. H. Greeley,REV. S. IV. SAMPLE.
209
cial as specialized attempts to restrict and restrain the trusts.
They who propose this method inform us thaf the growth of
trust shall supersede all others and public ownership of all
of natural laws. On the contrary, these results are the out-
come of special privileges conferred upon the classes and gen-
eral injustice imposed upon the masses. To await the great-
ening and unification of trusts until one great governmental
trust shall supersede all others and public ownership of all
the means of production and distribution shall supplant pri-
vate ownership, is not to organize the forces of reform but
to invite violent revolution. But this is neither desirable nor
necessary. Radical reformation is possible, even on the verge
of violent revolution, if wisdom’s voice can only get itself heard.
Reliable historians agree in affirming that Turgot could and
would have prevented the French Revolution of 1789, had
Louis XVI, instead of dismissing his one great minister in
1776, adopted the true remedies he proposed for the evils
of his time—the remedies of governmental economy and the
abolition of special privilege.
What is the radical remedy for the radical trust evil? The
abolition of private monopoly. Here is the taproot of the
whole trust growth, so far as that growth is poisonous or
cancerous. In so far as trusts are simply co-operative asso-
ciations or partnerships possessing no monopolistic powers
or special privileges, they are not harmful and need not be
dreaded. Monopoly must go. All trusts which have no taint
of monopoly in them, no smell of its fire upon their garments,
may stay. Whether monopoly shall go, is no longer an open
question. As Henry D. Lloyd says:	“The question is not
whether monopoly is to continue. The sun sets every night
on a greater majority against it. We are face to face with
the practical issue:	Is it to go through ruin or reform? Can
we forestall ruin by reform?” Our proper answer to Mr.
Lloyd’s question is:	We can. Whatever dire disaster this
nation may be driven to if social reformation be not effected
in the near future, at any rate the hour has not yet struck
for the destruction of our American civilization, nor even for
its temporarily becoming, during a revolution’s troublous210	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
time, dark as a buried Babylon. We are here to prevent that.
It is a cardinal truth that there can by rights be no private
property in special privileges. Whatsoever is monopolistic
by nature or necessity belongs by rights not even to the major-
ity, much less to the few, but to the people as a whole. It is
monopoly and not capital, which is the antagonist of labor.
Without special privilege, capital cannot deprive labor of any
of the fruits of its toil, and therefore cannot work it injury
or injustice. The Emperor Nero was accustomed to fight in
the arena with strong and trained gladiators; and in these
contests Nero always came off conqueror. What was the
secret of his victories ? His own native strength or acquired
skill? Not at all. Nero always entered these contests
clothed with impenetrable armor and armed with sword or
spear, whereas his gladiatorial antagonist entered the arena
naked and weaponless. When capital is clothed with the ar-
mor of special privilege and armed with the sword or spear
of monopolistic power, while labor is naked and weaponless,
it is small wonder that the former wins every contest. When
the two contestants enter the arena on equal terms, labor will
come off more than conqueror every time, and capital will
become its humble and obedient assistant.
When Francis E. Abbot told Wendell Phillips that Christian-
ity was a failure, the latter replied: “It has never been tried.”
When men tell us that either free competition or free co-opera-
tion has broken down, we reply that neither has yet been tried,
and that neither can be tried until private property in special
privilege is abolished. The time for this abolition has come.
Lowell says:
“When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s
aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,
And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels the soul within him
climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime
Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time.”REV. S. W. SAMPLE.
211
One full blossom has appeared on the tree of American life
in the abolition of chattel slavery. Shall not another full blos-
som soon appear in the abolition of private monopoly ?
The oldest known city charter is dated A. D. 1217, and was
granted to Middelburg, Zeeland, by Willem I, count of Hol-
land, and Joanna, Countess of Flanders. Its core is con-
tained in a single sentence: “To all Middelburgers one kind
of law is guaranteed.” It is full time that the sound heart
of that grand old city charter be embodied in our body politic,
and that to all Americans one kind of law be guaranteed.
This can only be done by the abolition of all forms of private
monopoly and special privilege. This will give us free trade,
free land, free men. It is liberty that we want, not special
legislation, either for or against anybody.
The radical forms of monopoly we must needs remove in
order to rid ourselves of the root-causes of the trust evil
■are these:	1. The law-making monopoly—removable by
direct legislation. 2. The tariff-monopoly—removable by free
trade. 3. The land-monopoly—removable by single tax. 4.
The banking-monopoly—removable by government issue of
all moneys. 5. The transportation-monopoly—removable by
public ownership of railroads and all other public highways.
6. The patent-right-monopoly—removable by allowing any one
to produce any new invention, subject to the payment of a
reasonable royalty to the inventor. 7. The corporation-monop-
oly—removable by the abrogation of that artificial and un-
justly favored person, the private corporation.
Land monopoly does not consist in the acknowledgment
of the individual’s right to occupy and use a portion of the
earth, but in the legalized denial of the equal rights of
all to the use of the earth. Since all are equally entitled to
the use of natural resources, any who obtain preferred sites
should pay the site values thereof into the public treasury;
and the dog-in-the-manger policy, which will neither use nor
let others use, should be effectually prevented, for, as Emer-
son says, “Whilst another man has no land, my title to mine,
your title to yours, is at once vitiated.” The train of human
progress seems to be stalled these days. It scarcely moves212
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
at all. It cannot reach the top of the hill of comfort, much
less the summit of the mount of transfiguration. What is
the trouble? The set-brake of monopoly holds natural re-
sources in its strong grip. Loosen the brake and the train
will surely and steadily move up the inclined plane of true
and general prosperity and progress. This can be effected
by that simple method known as the single tax, whereby all
ground rents will be turned into the public treasury and the
holding of natural resources out of use will be rendered utterly
unprofitable.
The transportation monopoly can be remedied by the public
ownership of all railroads and other highways. Since pri-
vate monopoly is necessarily an infringement upon equal indi-
vidual rights, all things which are by nature or necessity
monopolies should be owned and controlled by the public.
This is true of all highways. There is no more reason in
nature or justice for the private ownership of railroads than
for the private ownership of turnpikes or waterways. On
the other hand, there is every reason to believe that the pri-
vate ownership of public highways is one main promoter of
the iniquitous trusts, poisoner of the springs of justice and
practicer of high treason against humanity.
The private corporation itself is a form of special privilege,
a legalized violation of equal individual rights, which the state
should therefore cease to legitimatize. The trust is simply a
great big private corporation. He who hears the warning
against the trust but believes in and loves the private corpo-
ration, “hears the bell ringing but doesn’t know where the
clapper is.” It is indeed said that the private corporation
is essential to the transaction of modern business; but this is
only a statement, not an argument, and the verdict upon it
must be “not proven.” Private partnerships and public corpo-
rations possessing and conferring no special privilege, would
be equal to the task of all honest and needful business. Every
private corporation is the possessor of a special privilege. To
obtain possession of that special privilege is its raison d’etre.
Lord Coke said:	“A corporation is invisible, immortal, has
no soul, neither is it subject to the imbecilities or death of theREV. S. IV. SAMPLE.
213
natural body.” It is a common saying that a corporation has
no soul. Is it not rather true, however, that the private cor-
poration has a soul, and that its soul is injustice? It is an
artificial person which gathers masses of capital into a dead
hand, which is thereby made more powerful than a multitude
of the living hands of natural persons, and which is arbi-
trarily rendered' exempt from the operation of those great nat-
ural laws concerning life and death, which, as the Rev. Samuel
S. Harris, D. D., said years ago, “because they are natural,
are presumably salutary.” Not a few thinking men of today
recognize the unnatural powers and large perils embodied in
the private corporation, and say that the state should take
great care to control these powers and prevent the fulfillment
of these perils. It will be found, however, that the private
corporation is like the horrible man-monster, which, in Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley’s striking romance, Frankenstein artifi-
cially created—impossible to be controlled in its ravages upon
humanity, and destructive of its creator’s security and peace
until its existence was terminated.
Not all of these monopoly-forms must or can be abolished
at once. But we can and should now and here begin this
anti-slavery crusade, this new and greater abolition move-
ment. We can face right, not toward restriction, restraint
and special legislation, but toward liberty, equality and fra-
ternity.
Maarten Maartens has produced this pregnant parable:
“There was a man once—a satirist. In the natural course of
time his friends slew him, and he died. And the people came
and stood about his corpse. ‘He treated the whole round
world as his football,’ they said indignantly, ‘and kicked it.’
The dead man opened one eye. ‘But always toward the
goal,’ he said.” Are our kickings of the world-as-it-is kick-
ings of it toward the goal of the world-as-it-ought-to-be ?
Not unless we turn to justice and obey her, trust liberty and
follow her, and ever keep in sight the goal of “equal rights
to all and special privileges to none.”
Just before Rev. S. W. Sample delivered the closing speech214
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of the afternoon this telegram from Senator William E. Mason
was received and read:
Washington, D. C., Feb. 13, 1900.
M. L. Lockwood, President, Central Music Hall:
I regret that public business prevents my being with you
today.	Wm. E. Mason.
The meeting adjourned until 8 o’clock p. m.
MASS MEETING, AUDITORIUM, FEB. 13
Judge Wm. Prentiss opened the meeting with this announce-
ment :
Hon. Charles A. Towne, of Minnesota, was expected to have
been one of the speakers here this evening. He has been con-
fined to his bed by severe illness. This morning the conference
passed a resolution expressing regret at his inability to attend
the conference and extending to him their sympathy in his ill-
ness. In response we have a telegram from Mr. Towne, which
I have been requested to read. It is as follows:
Duluth, Minn., Feb. 13, 1900.
Franklin H. Wentworth,
Secretary Anti-Trust Conference, Chicago, 111.
My thankful acknowledgments to Conference for its inter-
est and good wishes. Kindly congratulate members on mag-
nificent success of meeting. The people must be made to
realize that the Trust Monopoly is wholly inconsistent with a
democratic organization of society. The question you are
discussing is the modern form of the old question of the
Sphinx to all preceding republics, and the destruction of lib-
erty has hitherto followed every attempt to answer it. We
must control the Trust or it will control us. There can be no
compromise. The Trust realized in Industry and in the Money
system will transfer the property of the many to the hands ofM. L. LOCKWOOD.
21$
the few with a certainty and celerity not dreamed of by any
scheme of organized rapacity known to the previous history
of the world; and political liberty cannot survive a permanent
stratification of society into the very rich and the very poor.
God’s blessings on your deliberations.
Chas. A. Towne.
I have now the pleasure of introducing to you as your chair-
man this evening the president of the Anti-Trust League of
America, the Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of Pennsylvania.
ADDRESS OF HON. M. L. LOCKWOOD.
What does this all mean ? The Auditorium packed from pit
to dome and men by the thousand surging in the streets below—
more, the representative men of a great nation gathered here.
What does it mean? It means a demand for the re-establish-
ment of equal rights and equal opportunities to American citi-
zenship. It means a protest against the curse of monopolies
and trusts.
Do any of you doubt what is going to happen? I don’t.
There is a power before which kingdoms and empires and
despotisms have tottered and fallen. It is the mighty power
of the people aroused, a power omnipotent, a power that comes
sometimes, as in the French revolution, like an earthquake’s
startling shock, rocking the earth to her center. Do you not
think that there is power sufficient to rock the wrong of
monopoly from our midst? I do.
I have a contempt for that man who says that there is no
hope, that the American people are tied hand and foot, that
henceforth money must be the master and man the slave, that
henceforth the people must be chained as serfs to the trium-
phant chariot wheels of this monopolistic trust power. Ah,
my friends, liberty and equal rights will triumph against the
despotism of corporate power, just as liberty and equal rights
once triumphed against the despotism of King George. The
patriotic awakening of the American masses will win the bat-
tle; and men and not money shall be the master.2l6
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Thirty years ago the railway corporations of this govern-
ment adopted a policy of secret rebates and drawbacks to the
largest shippers. That policy in spite of the government, in
violation of law, continues to be the policy today. Chairman
Knapp, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, testified be-
fore the Industrial Commission on the 5th day of last Oc-
tober and he swore that in spite of the penalties of the Inter-
state Commerce law, that railway discrimination was univer-
sal—and that they were almost invariably in favor of the larg-
est shippers and against the smaller shippers.
Thirty years of railway discrimination have enabled a few
men to monopolize nearly all of the developed resources of
this great land.
Now mark—railway discrimination has fastened an anthra-
cite coal monopoly upon us.
Railway discrimination is fastening a bituminous coal com-
bine monopoly upon us.
Railway discrimination has fastened the Big Four Beef Com-
bine monopoly upon us.
Railway discrimination has fastened the grain elevator com-
bine monopoly upon us.
Railway discrimination has fastened the sugar trust monop-
oly upon us.
Railway discrimination has fastened the Standard Oil trust
monopoly upon us.
Railway discrimination has created and maintained almost
every commercial monopoly that curses the American people
today.
Thirty years of railway discrimination have destroyed the
equal rights of the people and crushed that bold spirit which
was once the characteristic of our commercial classes.
Crushed it into cowardly subserviency so that today the old,
proud, honored commercial houses of your own city—with
three honored exceptions—do not dare to give even a ten
dollar note toward the battle of their own deliverance.
Aye, so arrogant has this trust power become that it assumes
to itself the right to dictate to the commercial classes how
they shall buy and how they shall sell. Ave, more, so arro-M. L. LOCKWOOD.
217
gant has the trust power become that it assumes to itself the
right to dictate to the American workman, the American cit-
izen, how he shall vote—and threaten him with the blacklist,
and starvation for wife and children if he dares to assert his
manhood and refuses to obey this master.
Don’t you hear the murmurs in the air? Did you hear the
echoes of dynamite from Shoshone county, 1 daho, from Cleve-
land, Ohio, and from Brooklyn, N. Y. ? What does -it mean ?
It means an American protest against white slavery. A slav-
ery the worst the world has ever known, a slavery with the
cruel greed of corporate capital holding the lash, a slavery
without a human heart or conscience to soften its galling
chains, a slavery with starvation at one end or cringing, cower-
ing subserviency at the other.
My friends, do you know what is going to happen? This
thing will stop. For the people have learned that the power
of eleven billions of railway capital, combined with the capi-
tal of the trusts and monopolies with their corps of corrupt-
ing lobbyist-s and paid politicians in every legislative hall,
both state and national, with their power to discriminate, with
their power to bankrupt this man and build up that man, with
their power to crush or reward, with their power to create
monopoly that absorbs the products of labor, the people have
learned, to their sorrow, that this power is a dangerous power.
Aye, the people have learned by thirteen years of a test of
the Interstate Commerce Law that government control with-
out government ownership is a failure. That this great rail-
way conspiracy defies the government and not only controls
itself, but; that it controls the government also—that it dictates
the appointment of attorney-generals and supreme court judges.
I will tell you'what is going to happen. The people are
going to take these railways away from these corporations.
Yes, by the power of eminent domain take them and pay for
them just what they are truly worth, take them and run them
under a department of government just as the post office is
now run, and by this move the people will save one hundred
and fifty millions annually, in the reduction of the rate of
interest alone at which the government can place this rail-2l8
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
road debt, cheaper than it is now placed under corporate
ownership.
My friends, this railroad debt today is practically a gov-
ernment debt. The people have to pay it all. The people pay
the interest and dividends on all this corporate debt. These
corporations get no money except what they take from the
people in freight and transportation charges and the railway
companies claim the right to charge the common people all
that their commodities will bear, all of the profits, a taxing
power greater than that ever exercised by the despots of
Egypt. Under government ownership the people are only
changing the managers of the highways—for these railways
are the people’s highways. And one of the greatest jurists
that ever lived has said, that “A public highway cannot be
private property.”
Here is a proposition that I desire to present to you and
then I am through. It is this:
That the reduced rate of interest which the people will save
on this railroad debt by government ownership will pay for
the entire railway system of the United States in less than
fifty years. The average rate of interest today on the rail-
road bonded indebtedness in the United States is five per
cent. The government can place the entire railroad debt at
from 2| to 3 per cent, and the 2 per cent annual interest saved
will pay for the entire railway system of the United States
in less than fifty years.
Yes, we not only save in interest enough in fifty years to
pay for the entire railway system and own it ourselves, but
we take at once the corrupt and corrupting influences of this
railway capital away and out of our political life. And that
alone is ten thousand times more important to the future of
our country than all the money consideration And we do
something more which is ten thousand times more important
than that, and that is, the re-establishing of equal rights of
the people over the highways of our country. And then these
brigands who stand upon the highways of commerce today and
rob the producers and consumers of meats of more than twenty
millions of dollars annually; the producers and consumers ofGEN. F. S. MONNETT.
219
breadstuffs of more than one hundred millions of dollars an-
nually; the producers and consumers of oil of upward of fifty
millions of dollars annually; the producers and consumers of
coal of upward of a hundred millions of dollars annually, will
lose their occupation; aye, and they will be climbing over one
another trying to get out of the country before they can be
indicted and sent to the penitentiary as a punishment for their
crime.
When these brigands are corraled or expelled, then honest
men can go to market upon even terms with every other man
—and then monopoly will wither away. Then the old spirit
of independence will return, take the place of this subserv-
ient spirit which has become so conspicuous a feature among
our commercial classes today.
Ah, my friends, the old revolutionary spirit is not dead.
It sleepeth. It awaketh. In the hamlet, at the forge and
upon the farm the forces are gathering. Make no mistake
as to its meaning. It means that the mighty power of the
American people with their ballots will wipe from the statutes
of our country all special privileges, and that henceforth, as of
old, equal rights shall reign supreme.
Here and there and yonder, upon the horizon of the republic
heroes and leaders are gathering for the conflict that is before
us, men who know their duty and, knowing, dare to do it.
From the state of Ohio comes a man, who as attorney-general
dared to stand for the people against a corporate power that
dominates and controls the political bosses. He lost the renom-
ination for attorney general, but he has won the love and ad-
miration of the American people.
I have the pleasure of introducing to you that man, Attor-
ney-General Monnett of the state of Ohio.
ADDRESS OF GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
My work for the last four years as an official of the State
of Ohio presents but one phase of the trust question. The
time allotted to a speaker on an occasion like this scarcely220
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
permits an intelligent discussion of even this one phase of
trusts.
And by way of prelude, I wish to emphasize the fact that
speakers, writers and officials are frequently not fairly rep-
resented by those whose business it is to do so.
I do not believe I am a pessimist. I know I have never
lost a fortune by trusts, combinations or corporations to em-
bitter me, for the very simple reason I never had one. The
few suggestions that I have to offer tonight are not even new.
I want to say at the outstart that I recognise, that there are
state, national, continental and perhaps international enter-
prises to be carried forward that require combinations of capi-
tal, and the union of skill and labor. I recognize that com-
binations of capital and combinations of labor have accom-
plished results that individual efforts or even the ordinary part-
nership could never have undertaken. Partnerships succeeded
individuals. Joint associations and joint stock companies suc-
ceeded partnerships. Partnerships had their inconveniences,
their limitations, their interruptions, their mortalities, and their
dissolutions frequently, to the great detriment of the invest-
ments in such entities, as well as the serious loss to the sur-
vivors.
The physical endurance, the mental scope and the length
of life of the ordinary business man was not commensurate
with the burdens of the business of the nineteenth century.
Therefore we have examined the functions given to nations
and under the general title of a corporation, we have built a
new creature, to which we have given the attributes of omni-
presence, omniscence and immortality.
When the Almighty performed his seven days work and
created man in His own image and pronounced His work
good, according to our modern conceptions, He fell far short,
and we have in the 19th century a creature of the eighth day,
a creature with an all-seeing eye that works night and day,
Sundays and week days, in the caverns of the earth and upon
the high seas. It is immortal, it never has a funeral, it leaves
no widow or husband, nor is it subject to the laws of divorce
or alimony. This new creature of the eighth dav creationGEN. F. S. MONNETT.
221
with all these attributes of a divinity, has accomplished some
of the wonders of the age. Its beneficiaries have written its
biography in hopeful lines, but not as yet its obituary.
•His honor, J. Sterling Morton, ex-secretary of the depart-
ment of agriculture, a man of wide observation and entitled
to great credit, told us at the Chicago convention that there
need be no apprehension and treated lightly what we called
“The present agonizing solicitude which seems to have per-
meated the politicians of all parties as to the possible despot-
isms and outrageous monopolies which combinations of large
capital may bring about.” He says that there are no trusts
in the United States, as trusts in their obnoxious sense are
defined, but that they are simply large corporations. Calling
attention to the state of Nebraska and comparing it under its
present economic conditions with that of forty-five years ago,
he seems to give all the credit of the wonderful change that
has taken place to the combination of capital and the operation
of corporations.
He argues, with some show of reason, that inventive genius
and combination of capital have removed “the man with the
hoe.” That the village blacksmith stands before a trip ham-
mer run by steam. That Nebraska produces three hundred
million bushels of corn; an amount the man with the hoe could
never have furnished. He gives corporations the credit of
having produced corn planters and cultivators, of taking the
hoe out of the man’s hands and placing the lever of a machine
under his control, thus making it possible for the beasts of
burden and the lower order of creation and machinery to re-
lieve the peasant and permit him to become a man. More
mouths are thereby fed at less price than ever before. He
compares the corporate growth and the combination of capi-
tal to that advance of intelligence in the economic world which
has been shown, in the last two decades, by the inventive
genius in the mechanics. These reasoners are wont to account
for the injury to the individual by reason of combination of
capital in the same way that the man with the hoe has been
superseded by the man with the planter. Advancement and
improvement in the industrial world are always marked by222
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
wrecks and ruins of individuals. We must look for the com-
pensation in the increased advantages which may be given
to others who take their places.
In his optimistic views he gives to combination of capital
all the glory and the credit of the accomplishment of the 19th
century. I want to unite with him and all others of his
way of thinking in seconding and backing every legitimate
development that will ameliorate the condition and soften the
hand and lighten the burden of that large producing class
throughout the west, that has to bear the burden and heat
of the day for the bankers, lawyers, ministers and the pro-
fessional men. The advocates of trusts and corporations claim
credit for having reduced interest on mortgage and bonds from
12 per cent to 4 per cent. With equal pride we point to the
development of the transportation department; the cost of
carrying a hundred pounds of freight by ox teams in the
west from Nebraska City to Denver varied from five dollars
to twelve dollars, while freight between the same points today
is handled at fifty cents per hundred, being a reduction of
ninety to ninety-five per cent in cost to the shipper and a cor-
responding loss to the local ox driver. A seat in a coach from
Nebraska to Salt Lake City was $300.00; today by rail it
costs but $30.00. Men who formerly worked in the mud and
rain, clothed often in rags, now ride in warm and lighted
coaches clad in uniform, and receive wages that make their
families contented and comfortable. The stable boy is trans-
formed into the engine wiper and the mechanic; the livery
stable owner on the frontier becomes the railroad magnate
of the great terminals, and we point with pride to this evo-
lution. The man with the reins in his hands is transformed
into an engineer with a throttle in his grasp. The laborer
with his shovel and his pick works the crane of a steam dredge.
All have more leisure, more bodily comfort; and a labor that
intellectually develops them, an opportunity for more leisure
and moral culture.
He must be blind indeed who does not see in all this the
triumph of mind over matter, the beneficent effects on the in-
dividual, and the contrast between our condition and that ofGEN. F. S. MON NETT.
223
the lion-inventive, non-progressive Chinese or Hindu, and I
cannot but caution many of the unfortunate who have been
goaded to retaliation and stung almost to despair, by man's
inhumanity to man, to be not like the enraged beast, and turn
upon friend and foe alike. As to any position I have ever taken
on the stump, in the legal forum, or with my pen, I challenge
anyone to take issue or point out wherein the policy we have
adopted in Ohio is other than a righteous one, and a fitting
course to pursue, namely, the proper investigation, punish-
ment and even death of these potent and omniscient creatures
whenever they have forfeited their right to live. When they
cease to furnish these benisons and blessings for which they are
created and produce misery, want, degradation and depravity,
instead of the ripe fruits that the State has a right to expect
from their growth it is then time for her to interfere.
It is, therefore, the purpose of my discussion tonight, in a
brief way, to trace the relationship that exists between the
sovereign state and these corporate creatures, point out some
of their abuses and usurpations, indicating the method of con-
trol or punishment—not to advocate the division of property
nor to demand equality of fortunes, but to insist upon the con-
stitutional and God-given right of equality of opportunities,
and the insisting upon the wealthy bearing the burdens of
government and taxation equally with the poor struggling
and weaker individuals in the community.
The tracing of these fundamental questions and associating
the nation’s building with its constitutional founding, is neither
a racy nor a sensational method of discussing this most im-
portant and all-absorbing question of the hour. It is within
two years now of a century since Ohio, neither the oldest nor
the youngest of States, discussed those questions in November,
1802, before signing her constitutional charter at Chillicothe.
We were the children of a New England, and of a New
Holland, and had coursing through our veins the blood of their
blood, and felt the thrill of their enterprise in that far-off
forest land that has performed the miracle of a century in the
development of her natural resources.224
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
For the purpose of this discussion you may draw the analogy
between your State and mine. In that solemn assembly of the
best minds and strongest hearts, and the most fearless spirits,
filled with brotherly love, we ordained and established a Bill
of Rights and a charter of human liberties, which we said was
necessary to establish justice, promote the common welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our
posterity, and to form ourselves into a free and independent
sovereignty.
Not only that, but we knocked at the door for admission
into that sisterhood of States which a quarter of a century
before had bound themselves together for equally high and im-
portant functions of government, namely, to establish justice,
insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity. Words pregnant with mean-
ing, terms selected with caution, stars that studded the fir-
mament of our new national existence.
It was the recoil from the tryanny of the Duke of Alva in the
Netherlands; it was the resentment of the slavery and of the
sycophancy that had grown up under Louis XIV; it was the
protest against taxation without representation, and inequality
of taxation under King George; it was the fleeing from entail-
ment of private property; it was the opening of the door of the
star-chamber; it was the communism of democracy that we
established in this government to promote the common welfare,
the welfare of all alike, and not the special welfare of prince
or potentate; it was to establish justice and to tear down the
injustice of favoritism; it was to secure to ourselves in lieu of
class rule and class domination the blessings of a common
liberty, that you and your ancestors, and I and my ancestors,
forsook all the opportunities that royalty afforded, abandoned
all the prizes offered to conquerors and generals by the mother
countries, and shared the common fate of the humblest in our
respective States. It was for this end we established thi3 gov-
ernment which has drawn all men unto it. It seems to me it
is profitable for us to spend an hour at this time in looking into
some of these social and economic disturbances, and learnGEN. F. S. MONNETT.	225
whether or nay we are departing from the principles that to
us were so dear when our government was founded.
You call this a sovereign State. That is an appropriate
name. It is a sovereignty. As a sovereignty this audience be-
fore me forming a part thereof, represents a power supreme
and uncontrollable by every other influence within the State—
unless you have abandoned that power or permitted yourself to
be cheated out of the estate bequeathed to you.
From the very definition of sovereigiity, it is impossible that
there should be any superior. This sovereignty extends over
all the creatures of this Empire called a State. It is only when
we analyze this mysterious power of combination that we call
“government” that we are enabled to trace some of those ex-
traordinary functions and powers exercised by its creatures,
called “corporations.” The sovereign government is a corpora-
tion ; it has its charter, the constitution; it has by-laws, the
statutes, and these forty-four sovereign States or Corporations,
by combining into one greater corporation, to-wit, the Federal
or National government, and co-operating with such govern-
ment, make the Federal or National government a corporate
trust. If you are looking for an illustration or a definition of
a trust in the last analysis, the federal government, with its
Congress as a Board of Trustees, and its Executive Officers as
the corporation’s president, pictures the highest results, the
consummation of trust-forming. Under our Republican form
of government, to the extent we exercise those powers, State
and National, and retain these powers and acts within the con-
stitutional limitations, they can be used only for the common
welfare, save and except, the temporary advantage, salary, or
emoluments that we contribute to our legislative, executive and
judicial officers performing delegated duties.
If you examine closely the attributes of this sovereign State,
and the elements of a corporation created by the State, you will
find the omnipotence, the immortality that is vested in the
sovereign State, transmitted to and impressed upon the State’s
creature—a corporation.
The moment we concede that the human arm is not long
enough—that the life of the individual is too uncertain—his226
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
mind too limited and narrow to produce the best results in
operating continental transportation companies, developing
great mining industries, or in handling the common necessaries
of life, and appeal to the State for a part of its power, building
up a government within a government, so soon do we enter
upon the highway to State socialism. And the question now
seriously confronting us all is, shall we go on or return.
If the Rockefellers, the Morgans and the Havemeyers dem-
onstrate that the man with the hoe, with the shovel and the pick,
and the man with the sickle and the cradle, through corpora-
tions and the aggregation of corporations, can be supplanted
by a higher and a better civilization, and this can only be
accomplished by governmental creatures, by corporations exer-
cising the functions of government, by corporations with their
powers of immortality, with their omnipresence, then the
economist tells us that it is also a part of government to limit
and control such board of directors exercising these funda-
mental functions as to the amount of tax they may levy and
assess upon us. Is that not just?
I call upon you for an answer. Or, lest you do not grasp
this idea clearly, let me repeat it. If these aggregations of
capital, so necessary to carry on a continental enterprise, cannot
successfully be operated by a private individual, and such
private individual has repeatedly admitted that he must have a
corporate franchise to perform these great feats in the com-
mercial world, it means that he must accept a grant from the
government of some of its powers or functions, by a corporate
charter, before he will undertake to perform these duties.
I am not here to denounce this grant of a part of the
sovereignty to a body of 5 or 15 men, and to vest in them a part
of this governmental power that we have reserved unto our-
selves, any more than I would be here protesting against the
United States government delegating to you customhouse
officials the franchise or right to collect imposts, or revenues,
at the port of New York. Neither do I object to a Rockefeller
or a Morgan exercising the right of eminent domain as a mem-
ber of a board of directors of a corporation, with the power
to take private property for his pipe line or for his railwayGEN. F. S. MONNETT.
227
company, after having so received the power from a State
or government, any more than I would be here to protest
against the federal government delegating some of its powers
and functions to an assayer, or the coiner of our dollar at the
Philadelphia mint, or, if you please, delegating some of its
functions to about 400 men to sit as Congressmen, exercising
certain governmental functions in that capacity, but I am here
to protest against the use of governmental functions so dele-
gated to a Rockefeller, a Morgan or a Vanderbilt, to carry out
public functions, and to exercise governmental rights, such as
they must and do exercise under corporate grants, for their
personal aggrandizement, and to levy tribute upon producer
and consumer, by means of this governmental function vested in
them, without stint and without limit. Whenever the individual
passes from exercising the powers of an individual into that
of a director or trustee of a corporate creature exercising pow-
ers and functions of government, obtained from government,
just so soon does his private capacity cease and his responsi-
bility to his government begin.
Every dollar that the Rockefellers or the Rodgers or the
Pratts of their six hundred millions made out of the Standard
Oil Trust, so far as the common welfare is concerned, that
have been pocketed by them to the extent that it resulted from
profits in excess of a fair return for the money actually invested
in such governmental property and while exercising such gov-
ernmental functions, especially in the transportation com-
panies, and the Buckeye Pipe Line Company, the Union Tank
Line Company and the Telegraph Company; every dollar of
the'favors obtained by rebates from railroad corporations, and
the favors they have obtained from freight discriminations
between tank car rates of freight as compared with the part
carload rates of competitors, and every dollar they have
received by favoritism shown for loading and unloading their
own commodities, every dollar they have ever saved by special
favors shown in their terminal charges, every dollar they have
received by fictitious underbilling and overweighing, as com-
pared with their competitor and victims, who were at all times
and everywhere entitled to the same rates by these corpora-228
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tions, so exercising governmental functions, I say, every such
dollar accumulated has been as wrongfully wrung from ths
pockets of the owners of the oil rock in Ohio and Pennsylvania,
as wrongfully extracted from the washerwoman’s purse-as she
fills her oil can at the corner grocery, as any dollar that a Con-
gressman, or a federal, state or county officer ever«took from
the Treasury by embezzlement, while he, in his capacity, was
exercising governmental functions simply under another name
or office.
They begged the powers of the government to run through
your property and my property with their railroads, pipe lines
and tank cars, exercising the high governmental functions of
the right of eminent domain under a contract with sovereignty
that all parties should have equal opportunities as common car-
riers, and with a further contract with sovereignty, that they
would charge no more as such common carriers, than a fair
return upon the money actually expended in tlaeir improvement,
and, yet, no sooner did they use this governmental power, to
cross our door yards and take our private property, which was,
and is, guaranteed to us forever inviolate, except when the
government requires it for public purposes, than they used it
for their own private gain and aggrandizement.
And that thing which a government created by the people
and for the people, and the government pledged to promote the
common ivelfare and establish justice, could not do and dare
not do, these creatures of government, exercising these func-
tions that the government could only exercise for certain
specified and limited purposes, at once usurp, abuse and appro-
priate such franchises to their own ends and for their private
portions. With this bayonet of the government, with this
sword of the sovereignty, stolen from its scabbard, with this
truncheon of power, with this policeman’s club, and this false
impersonation of an officer of the government, they beat, stab
and destroy all comers that interfere with their evil designs.
Their pathway is strewn on either side with financial wrecks,
while many better men have floundered on a Black Friday and
felt the noose about their financial neck, because of these
assumed and abused governmental functions; these official im-GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
229
personations and users of governmental powers which were
never designed to be loaned for any other purpose than the
“common welfare, and to establish justice”—designed as func-
tions of government that were to secure the blessings of liberty,
and not to weld the manacles around the wrists of commercial
serfs..
I wish to repeat that I do not expect to give you anything
new tonight. I would simply develop some fundamental
principles, trying to remove the mists that sometimes becloud
your minds concerning some of these qualifications, and to
shake off the spell of the lotus leaf, that some of these modern
kid-gloved professors of the new school of economics have
brought upon their disciples.
Every well regulated trial should have testimony of credit-
able witnesses; the first witness that I will .call to the stand
is Paul Morton, third vice-president of the Atchison, Topeka
& Santa Fe Railroad. He said at Chicago Trust Convention.
“The transportation of the country is a public service and a
tax upon its inhabitants. None escapes from it. It is with
many indirect and invisible, but even to a greater extent than
a protective tariff, it is always with us. This tax should be
levied with the greatest care, and should neither favor the
largest shipper nor the greatest city. The small shipper and
infant industry and the village should have every reasonable
opportunity to grow. Even though it be of great consequence
in the operation of a railroad, whether it handles one thousand
carloads of freight for one man, or for one hundred men, it is
the inherent right of the small shipper and the small village
that they should be treated with justice. Certainly, the rail-
roads can better serve one hundred customers shipping ten cars
each at tariff rates, than to serve the one thousand car men at
a cut rate. Yet there should be no injustice or unreasonable
discrimination in rates.
“Distribution is the handmaid of production, and the great-
est prosperity will come from the most perfect stability in trans-
portation charges. Rates should be so fairly adjusted as
between shippers and between localities as to work no injustice.
They ought to be so adjusted that the small shipper in the230
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
small town will have the same relative right and opportunity
that the big shipper in a metropolitan city possesses. I believe
the price of railroad charges should be as unfluctuating as the
price of postage stamps. How would a Chicago or a Kansas
City merchant feel if his New York competitors were buying
postage stamps at a lower price than he ? How would interior
merchants take it if it was generally understood that business
houses in cities located on the sea coast were obtaining lower
import duties? Would they not be indignant and resent such
a condition with all the vigor and energy that they could
muster? And yet the price of postage stamps and the import
duties of the country cut a very small figure in the commerce
of our country, when compared with its transportation.
“Permit the railroads to have equality of rate under the
supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission, or some
other similar body, and you will take a long step toward doing
away with preferential rates in favor of a select few, and this
is the one reform that all the speakers at this trust conference
arc emphatically united in saying is an evil that should be at
once stopped.”
The next witnesses I will call will be the Hon. Martin A.
Knapp of New York, Hon. Judson C. Clements of Georgia,
Hon. James D. Yeomans of Iowa, and the Hon. Charles A.
Prouty of Vermont, members of the Interstate Commerce
Commission. In their report, signed January 8, 1899, ad-
dressed to the Senate and House of Representatives, known
as their 12th annual report, these experts upon the subject of
transportation and the importance of this branch of our gov-
ernment, report as follows:
“To state that the law in its present condition cannot be
enforced is only to repeat what has already been said. Until
further and important legislation is enacted the best efforts at
regulation must be feeble and disappointing.
“This subject was fully discussed in our last annual report,
and we are unable to add anything to the presentation then
made. In that and previous reports we have not only set forth
in general terms the necessity for amending the law, but have
formulated and proposed the specific amendments whichGEN. F. S. MONNETT.
231
appear to us positively essential. With the renewal of these
recommendations no duty of the commission in this regard
remains undischarged.
“Meanwhile, the situation has become intolerable, both from
the standpoint of the public and the carriers. Tariffs are dis-
regarded, discriminations constantly occur, the price at which
transportation can be obtained is fluctuating and uncertain.
Railroad managers are distrustful of each other and shippers
all the while in doubt as to the rates secured by their com-
petitors. The volume of traffic is so unusual as to frequently
exceed the capacity of equipment, yet the contest for tonnage
seems never relaxed. Enormous sums are spent in purchasing
business and secret rates accorded far below the standard of
published charges. The general public gets little benefit from
these reductions, for concessions are mainly confined to the
heavier shippers. All this augments the advantages of large
capital and tends to the injury and often to the ruin of smaller
dealers. These are not only matters of gravest consequence
to the business welfare of the country, but they concern in no
less degree the higher interests of public morality.
“The conditions now widely prevailing cannot be better
illustrated than by reference to investigations of the commis-
sion during the last year, an account of which appears in the
following pages. These are not isolated and exceptional cases;
their counterpart may be found in many localities. The facts
thus brought to light carry their own comment, and nothing
said by us can add to their significance.
“Having just concluded the hearing at St. Paul, the com-
mission entered upon an investigation at Portland, Oregon, of
violent fluctuations in freight rates between North Pacific
coast points and points on and east of the Missouri River.
“In this inquiry the evidence taken had main reference to
practices of the railway officials. It was established by the
proof that secret rates generally prevailed at Portland and
common points, and that transportation was, in effect, sold to
the lowest bidder. The lawful rates were ignored except as
they might serve as a standard in making agreements for lower
charges. A merchant about to order a large consignment of232
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
freight would make the fact known to contracting agents
of lines entering Portland, and to numerous agents of roads
that are links in through routes from the East. These agents
would bid for the shipment, and the transportation would be
secured by the lowest bidder. The rate offerings were secret,
and what any agent proposed was not disclosed to the others.
There could not be any uniformity in such rates. The shipper
could have no guaranty that rates so secured were as low as
those enjoyed by his business rivals.
“Some of the merchants conformed to the law, but in so
doing they were at a disadvantage in competing with those
who disregarded the statute; and in many instances this
disadvantage represented more than a fair profit upon the
commodities involved. Most of the merchants who admitted
that they had thus violated the law declared themselves unable
to remember who paid them the rebates, or when or upon
what shipments any illegal rate concessions had been made,
some testified that they had kept an account of the unlawful
transactions, but that when they heard of this investigation
they destroyed .their memoranda in order to defeat prosecu-
tions on account of their illegal acts. They insisted that with-
out this data they could give no specific testimony concerning
any of the transactions.
“These and other investigations made by the commission
indicate that unlawful rebates have been and are being paid
by a great number of carriers subject to the act to regulate
commerce. And there is also ground for believing that such
disbursements are frequently so adroitly covered in railway
accounts as to escape detection by the casual examiner.
“A railroad is essentially a monopoly. This is literally true
as to all local points upon its line which are reached by it alone.
It is only at competitive points—that is, at points where traffic
can be carried by two or more lines—that the railroads be-
come actual competitors. It results from this fact that as a
rule competitive points gain at the expense of non-competitive
points. Competition forces down the rate where it operates,
and either leaves the rate unaffected or induces its advance at
non-competitive points to make good the reduction at com-GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
233
petitive points. The natural result of railway competition, it
may be fairly said, is to create preferences between localities.
“The same thing is true of preferences between individuals.
One person is so located that his business must of necessity pass
over a particular line of railway; another person can avail him-
self of either one of two or more lines. Naturally, the latter
obtains the better rate. Considered a priori, therefore, we
should expect that railway competition would produce prefer-
ences and discriminations between communities and between
persons. What might to a large extent be expected has actu-
ally occurred beyond all legitimate excuse.
“We are satisfied from investigations conducted during the
past year, and referred to in another portion of this report, as
well as from information which is perfectly convincing to a
moral intent, that a large part of the business at the present
time is transacted upon illegal rates. Indeed, so general has
this rule become that in certain quarters the exaction of the
published rate is the exception. From this two things naturally
and frequently result. First, gross discriminations between in-
dividuals and gross preferences between localities; and these
discriminations and preferences are almost always in favOr of
the strong and against the weak. There is probably no one
thing today which does so much to force out the small opera-
tor, and to build up those trusts and monopolies against which
law and public opinion alike beat in vain, as discrimination in
freight rates. Second, the business of railroad transportation
is carried on to a very large extent in conceded violations of
law. Men who in every other respect are reputable citizens,
are guilty of acts, which, if the statute law of the land were
enforced, would subject them to fine or imprisonment. This
is true both of the traffic operator and the shipper. It is diffi-
cult to estimate the moral effect of such a condition of things
upon a great section of the community, and almost impossible
to believe that it can be allowed to continue without some at-
tempt at reformation.”
The next witness I call is the eminent law-writer, the Hon.
William M. Cook, of the New York Bar, author of a “Treatise
On Stock and Stockholders and General Corporation Law.”234
ANTI-TRUST conference.
“Notwithstanding this, the American railroads, for many
years, have discriminated between individuals. They have
given secret reductions, rebates, and advantages to the large
or favored shipper. The extent of these discriminations was
unsuspected until the Hepburn investigating committee in New
York, some eleven years ago, disclosed over six thousand
illegal discriminations by the New York Central Railroad
alone.
“At one time, when a legislative investigation was ordered,
there were in existence on the line of the New York Central
Railroad upward of 6,000 different contracts, varying in the
most arbitrary manner the published schedule rate for the car-
riage of local freights. *	*	* They were granted as the
caprice, the whim, or the interest of the railway freight agent
dictated at the hour.
“Under such a system as this, permeating as it did the whole
railroad traffic of America, business became utterly demor-
alized. No merchant knew what rate his competitor was ob-
taining. He merely knew that the rate was a secret reduction,
and that he also must obtain a reduction in order to meet com-
petition. Every wholesale concern had its expert manipulator
and negotiator to look after the railroad rebates and secret
rates. It was a contest in which the prize was won by the
keen and unscrupulous. Favoritism, bribery, and corruption
of railroad agents were the order of the day. As a result, the
most favored business house crushed out the competing con-
cerns. The great shipper demanded and obtained the greatest
rebates under threat of giving all his business to a competing
railroad. The railroads themselves began to be devoured by
the evil which they had created. As for the small shipper, the
legal principle that rates should be the same for all persons
became a mockery. Power, fear, and corruption were the
forces that had displaced the law. It was out of such a mael-
strom of secret discriminations as this that the Standard Oil
Company arose. That company did a shipping business of
millions of dollars annually. It gave its business to the rail-
road that had the greatest reductions, rebates, and secret
discriminations. It is no wonder that competing oil refinersGEN. F. S. MONNETT.
235
were ruined. Not only did the Standard Oil Company demand
a rebate on its own shipments, but it had the unparalleled im-
pudence to demand a rebate on shipments made by its com-
petitors.”
I call the next witness, Prof. Richard T. Ely.
“It is stated that even such delay in shipment and such an-
noyance as a railway can inflict on a business man not in favor,
is at times sufficient to cause his bankruptcy. All this involves
immense waste of economic resources. Talent in business,
accumulation of capital in various forms, and organizations
extending over a wide area, all of which ought to have been a
blessing to the laboring population and the entire country, are
annihilated. The best-known example is the Standard Oil
Company. It received, as already stated, $10,000,000 in
eighteen months in rebates. If it had done business at what
would have been cost for others, it would still have had that
enormous sum as profit. If it had transacted its business at
such terms as would have involved the loss of $5,000,000 for
others on the same amount of business, there would still have
been an equal sum for distribution among the members of the
company. It is a matter of course that its competitors were
ruined, and idle factories, old pipe lines no longer used, and
business wrecks throughout the country gave evidence of
enormous economic waste. *	*	* At the time of the in-
vestigation of the New York Hepburn Committee, it was
found that special rates were the rule, and the regular tariff
existed only for the weak and inexperienced.”
The next witness I call is Ex-Governor Larrabee, of Iowa.
“No one could engage in certain lines of business with any
prospect of success without the permission of the railroad
authorities, and this one could not obtain without incurring
the obligation of serving them in one way or another.
“Leading papers of both political parties were either owned
or subsidized by railway managers, and corporate favors were
even extended to publishers of cross-roads papers who were
disposed to criticise existing abuses. Annual passes were given
to all State and county officers, executive, legislative, and
judicial; to all prominent politicians; and, in some instances,236
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
even to township assessors and jurymen. Railroad power
made itself felt everywhere; every shipper realized it. Men of
energy and self-reliance would fail in business, while railroad
favorites accumulated a fortune in a few years. The rules
which had always controlled trade seemed to be inverted.”
Having given you the testimony of such competent wit-
nesses, called from such widely different fields of investigation,
as to railroads, which is but one form of corporate power, one
form of exercising the right of eminent domain in transporta-
tion, let me call your attention to one more corporation with
similar functions and powers. It is that of a pipe line. When
the Standard Oil Trust had grown corpulent, at least muscular
enough upon railroad freight discriminations, when it had
destroyed all competitors by rebates favorable to itself, and
living upon the exactions of its competitors, it took these un-
natural accumulations so obtained by favoritism and con-
structed pipe lines; these pipe-line companies have also vested
in them the right of eminent domain, that is, they can take
private property for public purposes under and by virtue of
the power given them in the State of Ohio. Under the State’s
charter, they are expressly made common carriers.
Oil is measured in barrels of fifty gallons each, or about five
barrels to the ton. The owner of an oil well in Ohio or Penn-
sylvania, under the principles laid down by every civilized
court in this country, would be entitled to charge a pipage or
freight rate for shipping through such pipe lines, first, Suffi-
cient to pay for the labor, which is reduced to a minimum, it
being the boast of the Standard Oil magnate, that they ship
oil from Ohio and Indiana to the seaboard without ever touch-
ing it with the human hand. Second, they are entitled as such
common carriers to a reasonable return upon the actual invest-
ment or capital employed in such pipe lines and the machinery
operating the same, for the reason that I want to emphasize
that the moment they exercise the right of eminent domain
they are no longer private capitalists, but have impressed upon
all of their acts, the limitation of governmental agencies.
What the true charges should be upon this principle, the
secrecy of this octopus prevents us accurately furnishing. WeGEN. F. S. MON NETT.
2 37
know that the average charge of freight* carried under all cir-
cumstances, over the 184,000 miles of railroad is about 17
mills per ton per mile; while the cheaper and heavier freights
have been handled as low as 3 mills per ton per mile.
It is a rational presumption to assume that shipment of oil
by pipes is far cheaper than railroads could handle the same,
else the Standard Oil Company would not have paralleled the
railroads with pipe lines and defy the lowest railroad rates in
competition.
What they could no longer exact by the way of rebates from
the Trunk Line Railroads, they saved to themselves upon their
own benefit, by building pipe lines, thereby reducing cost of
transportation to themselves, and in the meantime the rates
to competitors on the railroads increased. The nearest analogy
to the cost of pumping oil by pipe lines, is comparing the cost
and the price of pumping water by waterworks on a similarly
large scale in our larger cities, making due allowance for the
difference in specific gravity of the two liquids. While the oil
runs by gravity in this system for miles, requiring but little,
if any, pumping, the water distributed in our cities is forced up
at great heights under heavy pressure, and yet water companies
are furnishing water to manufacturers at five cents per thou-
sand gallons, transporting it 5 to 20 miles, or 200 barrels for
five cents, or 800 barrels for twenty cents; while the Standard
Oil Company in Ohio, under the sworn testimony, charges
every patron twenty cents per barrel, whether they ship it
twenty miles or one mile, short or long hauls.
If I may draw conclusions from this comparison, the Stand-
ard Oil Company, through its transportation department, while
thus exercising governmental powers and functions, instead of
transporting 800 barrels for twenty cents, the reasonable re-
muneration for like services as such common carrier, it de-
mands and charges, and exacts and extorts from the public,
800 times its proper remuneration, or 8,000 per cent from every
oil producer that ships oil less than 20 miles to their storage
tanks.
In some sections of the oil country, for years, the pipe-line
charges exacted from the owner of the oil was more than238
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
double the amount such owner received from the oil in the rock.
It would be as if the grain producer that raises his wheat
would be obliged to accept 50 cents for his wheat as a pro-
ducer, while the consumer at the warehouse, would be obliged
to pay $1.50 to the trust that removed it from the wheat field
to the bin. Or to make it still more emphatic, they have driven
down the price to the producer to the lowest competitive point
and monopolized the transportation department, and exacted
from the consumer the highest monopolistic point, and by
means of this abuse of governmental functions, have widened
the distance between the producer and the consumer to the
extent of $600,000,000.
To reduce it to figures in my own State, their returns to the
Auditor of State show that in the last four years they have
collected for oil shipped in the one State alone pipage to the
extent of more than $24,000,000. That represents the shipment
of 120,000,000 barrels of oil, upon which they paid less
than 15 cents per barrel in the rock, and for which they received
in refined oil $4.00 per barrel, including the bi-products, or a
gross sum of upward of $400,000,000.
The question is often asked, how they can maintain oil at
8, 10 and 15 cents per gallon, as against competitors, and you
have the answer, in the abuse of the governmental functions
vested in them, both in shipping the raw product through the
pipe-line, and special favors shown to them in shipping the
refined product to points of distribution through the Union
Tank Line cars.
I here give you some figures that were given before the
Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, December
23, 1899, showing you the favoritism extended to this com-
pany with its tank cars, shipping large quantities to tank sta-
tions, as against part carload lots:GEN. F. S. MONNETT.	239
Difference between C. L. & L. C. L. as proposed today. Barrel
of 5° gallons. Official Classification, No. 20.
From Cleveland, O.:		1 goo.	Diff. in favor
	C. L.	L. C. L. of C. L. Per cent.	
Adrian, Mich		.. .$0.38	$1.04	174 per cent.
Bay City, Mich		• • - .50	1.32	164 per cent.
Cedar Rapids, Mich..	... .50	1.40	180 per cent.
Chicago, 111		... .50	1.40	180 per cent.
Jackson, Mich		■ ■ ■ 44	1.22	180 per cent.
Sandusky, Oho 		. . . .22	•52	131 per cent.
Toledo, Ohio 			.88	238 per cent.
Cincinnati, Ohio 		. .. .34	1.28	276 per cent.
Dayton, Ohio		. . . .30	1.12	273 per cent.
Indianapolis, Ind. . ..	.. . .40	1.36	240 per cent.
E. St. Louis, 111		... .56	1.78	220 per cent.
Zanesville, Ohio ....	.-. . -.26	.96	269 per cent.
Akron, Ohio 		. .. .18	•34	88 per cent.
Columbus, Ohio 		. . . .25	.96	269 per cent.
New York 		. . .60	1.84	206 per cent.
Philadelphia, Pa		• • -56	1.76	214 per cent.
Baltimore, Md		• • -56	1.72	214 per cent.
Boston, Mass		. . .76	2.08	173 per cent.
Buffalo, N. Y		. . .27	.96	255 per cent.
And these figures in face of the testimony of Mr. Rock-
efeller, before the Interstate Commerce Commission, in answer
to a series of interrogatories submitted to him in his easy chair
at his fireside.
The Ohio Senate Trust Investigation furnished much more
data of a similar kind here enumerated. In that testimony, it
was proven that this aggregation of capital and monopoly
sold oil in Cleveland at 4J cents per gallon, with competition,
while on the same day it was selling at Sidney, Ohio, at 8f
cents without competition. And so, I might run the catalogue
through that with all of these governmental advantages, instead
of it being used for the benefit and the common welfare, this
model college building, Sunday school fostering and church
erecting philanthropic organization has exacted, extorted and240
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
filched from the small towns, from the helpless widow, the
washerwoman and the day-laborer, a hundred per cent more
for its commodity, and 8,000 per cent more for its transporta-
tion than in good morals and under the law it was entitled to
receive. A hundred per cent taken from the washerwoman’s
wages on Saturday night, to drop half of one per cent
in the collection box Sunday morning. Nor is this all the
proof. The Supreme Court, in the State of Ohio, in a suit
brought by the Attorney-General, charging that the twenty
constitutent companies forming the Standard Oil syndicate,
found that it was a trust, and exercising powers against the
public policy of the citizen. Over seven years ago it decreed
that such trust should be dissolved. Judge Minshall, in
answer to the boast of the Standard Oil Trust, in pointing to
what it had accomplished, said, that experience “shows that
it is not wise to trust human cupidity where it has the oppor-
tunity to aggrandize itself at the expense of others. That
monopolies have always been regarded as contrary to the spirit
and policy of the common law.” And quotes from Darcy vs.
Allein, these three propositions:
1.	“That the price of the same commodity will be raised,
for he who has the sole selling of any commodity may well
make the price as he pleases.”
2.	“The incident to a monopoly is, that after the monopoly
is granted, the commodity is not so good and merchantable as
it was before; for the patentee, having the sole trade, regards
only his private benefit and not the commonwealth.”
3.	“It tends to the impoverishment of divers artificers and
others, who, before, by the labor of their hands in their art or
trade, had maintained themselves and their families, who will
now of necessity be constrained to live in idleness and beg-
gary.”
“The third objection, though frequently overlooked, is none
the less important. A society in which a few men are the em-
ployers and the great body are merely employes or servants,
is not the most desirable in a republic; and it should be as
much the policy of their laws to multiply the numbers engaged
in independent pursuits or in the profits of production, as toBolton Hall.
Chas* E. Chadman.
C. B. Matthews.
E. R. Ridgely.
D. K. Clink.GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
241
cheapen the price to the consumer. Such policy would tend
to an equality of fortunes among its citizens, thought to be so
desirable in a republic, and lessen the amount of pauperism
and crime. It is true that in the case just cited, the monopoly
had been created by letters patent. But the objections lie not
to the manner in which the monopoly is created. The effect
on industrial liberty and the price of commodities will be the
same whether created by patent, or by an extensive combination
among those engaged in similar industries, controlled by one
management. By the invariable laws of human nature, com-
petition will be excluded and prices controlled in the interest of
those connected urith the combination or trust.”
Notwithstanding this decree of the dissolution of the trust,
the testimony of Mr. Rockefeller and others, on file in our
courts, relying upon their own theory of the dissolution, in
eight years the trusts have been unable to dissolve, and 3-7 of
the trust certificates have been nourished by dividends paid
from the remaining nineteen companies. And not to weary you
I can sum it all up by stating that the strongest indictment
against this trust is the fact that the secretary and officers
could not even swear to the answers to our petitions, filed in
the Supreme Court, wherein we charged them with abusing
the rights, franchises and privileges, and asking forfeiture of
the charter. I will give you but one sample of their affidavit:
The State of New York, )
County of New York, j ss'
Henry H. Rodgers, being duly sworn, says that he is presi-
dent of the defendant herein, a corporation, and that the aver-
ments of its foregoing answer are not verified because the ad-
mission of the truth of certain facts stated in the pleadings
might subject the defendant and its officers to a criminal or
penal prosecution, and to a forfeiture of its charter, franchises
and privileges, and for the same reason the interrogatories are
not answered.	Henry H. Rogers.
Subscribed and sworn to by the said Henry H. Rogers, be-
fore me, this 18th day of January, 1899. John Bensinger,
Notary Public for Kings Co.
Certificate filed in New York Co.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
242
This will be found in the records of the Supreme Court of
Ohio. A like affidavit of evasion was made by F. G. Borges,
president of the Solar Refining Company. A like affidavit is
made by the treasurer of the Ohio Oil Company; a like affi-
davit of evasion is made by Martin Snyder, treasurer of the
Standard Oil Company. Witnesses refused to produce books,
answer questions, because the disclosures would criminate
them.
The testimony discloses, that between the adjournments of.
taking testimony on one Thursday afternoon until the next
Monday morning, when ordered by the Supreme Court to turn
oyer the books of their corporation to the Master Commissioner
for his inspection, that twenty boxes of books and'papers were
removed and burned on the intervening Saturday night and
Sunday morning.
It was also shown by the testimony, that news columns and
space on editorial pages of upward of 100 papers, was
subsidized in the State of Ohio, by them. They stood charged
with attempt to bribe the officers of the court, and an investi-
gation was demanded. Up to date, the records called for by the
court have not been produced. The interrogatories asked by
the Master and counsel, still defiantly remain unanswered.
Depositions and testimony that was offered to be taken to ex-
pose all parties connected with the bribery have been refused by
the court. The open anarchy and defiance of the court and
its officers, is looked upon as complacently by the beneficiaries
of such anarchy as the cat on the outside the canary bird.
The question of whether Aguinaldo has insulted our flag,
eight thousand miles away, is far more important in the eyes
of some of our State and National officials, and our editorial
savants, than the fact that our sovereignty has been defied, out
courts spit upon, and our people robbed of their resources by
the millions, and our consumers compelled to submit to these
criminal exactions, that they did not dare to disclose under
judicial examination.
That I might not bring myself within contempt of court, I
will substitute the language of a member of the New York bar,
in the closing chapter of his work on “Corporation Problems.”
(Read pages 246-251, Cook on “Corporation Problems.”)GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
243
I have now called the witnesses and given you their testi-
mony. I shall give you the opinion of the court upon the
propositions that I above annunciated, and in doing this, I have
only selected a few extracts from the judicial stars of both
continents.
In a decision that is now historical, known as Munn et al.
v. The People of the State of Illinois, decided by the nine
Judges of our Supreme Court at Washington, sitting at the
geat of government, they laid down this proposition as to the
power of a sovereign state to impose restrictions and limita-
tions upon corporations exercising these public functions.
1.	“Under the limitations upon the legislative power of the
States imposed by the Constitution of the United States, the
Legislature of Illinois can fix by law the maximum of charges
for the storage of grain in warehouse, at Chicago and other
places in the State.”
2.	“When private property is devoted to a public use, it is
subject to public regulation.”
3.	“A mere common law regulation of trade or business may
be changed by statute.”
In that case in arriving at this conclusion by the learned
Judge, Chief Justice Waite, he took occasion to quote from the
legal peers of England and this country.
Sir Matthew Hale, of England, says:
“Property does become clothed with a public interest when
used in a manner to make it of public consequences, and affect
the community at large. When, therefore, one devotes his
property to a use in which the public has an interest, he, in
effect, grants to the public an interest in that use, and must
submit to be controlled by the public for the common good,
to the extent of the interest he has thus created. He may
withdraw his grant by discontinuing the use; but, so long as he
maintains the use, he must submit to the control.
“If the King or subject have a public wharf, unto which all
persons that come to that port must- come and unlade or lade
their goods as for the purpose, because they are the wharfs
only licensed by the Queen, *	*	* or because there is no
other wharf in that port, as it may fall out where a port is244
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
newly erected; in that case there cannot be taken arbitrary and
excessive duties for cranage, wharfage, pesage, etc., neither can
they be enhanced to an immoderate rate; but the duties must
be reasonable and moderate, though settled by the King’s
license or charter. For now the wharf, and crane and other
conveniences are effected with a public interest; and they cease
to be juris privati only; as if a man set out a street in new
building on his own land, it is now no longer bare private in-
terest, but is affected by a public interest.
“And the question was, whether they could charge arbitrary
rates for such storage, or must be content with a reasonable
compensation.”
Upon this point, Lord Ellenborough said:
“There is no doubt that the general principle is favored,
both in law and justice, that every man may fix what price he
pleases upon his own property, or the use of it; but if for a
particular purpose the public have a right to resort to his prem-
ises and make use of them, and he have a monopoly in them for
that purpose, if he will take the benefit of that monopoly, he
must, as an equivalent, perform the duty attached to it on rea-
sonable terms. The question then is, whether, circumstanced as
this company is, by the combination of the Warehousing Act
with the Act by which they were originally constituted, and
with the actually existing state of things in the Port of Lon-
don, whereby they alone have the warehousing of these wines,
they be not, according to the doctrine of Lord Hale, obliged to
limit themselves to a reasonable compensation for such ware-
housing. And, according to him, whenever the accident of time
casts upon a party the benefit of having a legal monopoly of
landing goods in a public port, as where he is the owner of the
only wharf authorized to receive goods which happens to' be
built in a port newly erected, he is confined to take reasonable
compensation only for the use of the wharf.
“It is enough that there exists in the place and for the com-
modity in question a virtual monopoly of the warehousing for
this purpose, on which the principle of law attaches, as laid
down by Lord Hale in the passage referred to, which includes
the good sense as well as the law of the subject.”GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
245
“The Court further says :
“Common carriers exercise a public office, and have duties
to perform in which the public is interested.
“Their business is, therefore, 'affected with a public interest,’
within the meaning of the doctrine which Lord Hale has so
forcibly stated.
“But we need not go further. Enough has already been said
to show that when private property is devoted to a public use,
it is subject to public regulation. It remains only to ascertain
whether the warehouses of these plaintiffs in error, and the
business which is carried on there, come within the operation
of this principle.
“They stand, to use again the language of their counsel, in
the very ‘gateway of commerce,’ and take toll from all who
pass. Their business most certainly tends to a common charge,
and is become a thing of public interest and use. Every bushel
of grain for its passage ‘pays a toll, which is a common charge,’
and, therefore, according to Lord Hale, every such warehouse-
man ‘ought to be under public regulation, viz.: that he *	*	*
take but reasonable toll.’ Certainly, if any business can be
clothed ‘with a public interest, and cease to be juris privati
only,’ this has been.
“It is insisted, however, that the owner of property is en-
titled to a reasonable compensation for its use, even though
it be clothed with a public interest, and that what is reasonable
is a judicial and not a legislative question.
“As has already been shown, the practice has been other-
wise. In countries where the common law prevails, it has
been customary from time immemorial for the Legislature to
declare what shall be a reasonable compensation under such
circumstances, or, perhaps more properly speaking, to fix a
maximum beyond which any charge made would be unreason-
able. The controlling fact is—the power to regulate. If that
exists, the right to establish the maximum of charge, as one of
the means of regulation, is implied. In fact, the common law
rule, which requires the charge to be reasonable, is itself, a
regulation as to price. Without it the owner could make his
rates at will, and compel the public to yield to his terms, or
forego the use.”246
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Summary.
The importance of this question, and the serious results
already observed by the economic writers and felt by the busi-
ness men, has justified me in taking your valuable time. I
have tried to point out in language stripped of technicalities
1.	What this thing is we call a corporation.
2.	The relationship between the corporation and the sov-
ereign State.
3.	The legitimate scope and benefits to be derived from the
proper exercise of such governmental functions, through and
by means of corporate charters.
4.	I have given you the possibilities of abuse on the part of
such governmental creatures.
5.	I have given you the actual testimony of reputable men
and witnesses, and extracts from courts, and findings of these
abuses, after having passed from the legitimate field of corpor-
ate existence into that of trusts and monopolies.
6.	I have quoted to you from the highest legal authorities
in England and in this country, to show that these usurpations
and abuses are against public policy; are injurious to the com'
mon man; build up unnatural fortunes at the expense of the
private citizen, and that they breed discontent and misery, and
are contrary to the spirit of our Republican Institution.
7.	By this same high authority, I have shown you that these
usurpations of governmental functions for self-aggrandize-
ment are contrary to the preamble of the Constitution. It vio-
lates the Bill of Rights, guaranteed to every citizen and sub-
ject, both in the sovereign State and in the Federal govern-
ment. I have shown you that these accumulations so obtained
are in contravention of the constitutional guaranty, and in vio-
lation of statutes and the common law.
8.	I have tried to demonstrate to you that the granting away
of governmental rights, without limitation or regulation, to
these creatures, is creating a government within a government.
That such creature is rapidly becoming more potent than its
creator, the State itself. That its officers, under the guise of
Boards of Directors, and Presidents, and Attorneys, wield aGEN. F. S: MONNETT.
24 7
greater power than the corresponding governmental agent,
sitting in the Executive chair, or in the halls of Congress, or
the Legislative Chamber. That year by year, sovereignty is
abdicating, and the usurper is mounting the throne.
9.	That the emoluments and the rewards, salaries and re-
tainers, paid by the usurper to their officers, agents and counsel-
ors, are so regal and princely, that the salary of United States
Senators would not furnish them pin money, and the tempta-
tion of the United States Senators from your State and my
State, from Michigan and Nebraska, Colorado and California,
have not always been proof against the glittering prize that the
usurper has held out to serve him in his interest, notwithstand-
ing the oath of office to sovereignty, to conduct government
for the common welfare and to protect the real government
from the abuses and impositions of the usurper.
10.	I have tried to show you that it is as impossible for a
United States Senator to serve the grantor and the grantee of
these governmental functions, as it is to serve “God and Mam-
mon.” And neither should he attempt it.
If our forefathers thought it important enough to incorpor-
ate in the Federal Constitution: “And no person holding any
office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent
of the Congress, accept any present, emolument, office, or title,
of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state
and if a United States officer or a state official could have his
judgment warped by accepting a present from a King Louis
or a Prince George, in 1787, so that he disqualified himself by
accepting the same to serve his country, what must we say in
1900 as to the qualification of a United States Senator, a Con-
gressman, or a state official, being retained by, elected for and
servant of the monopolies,. trusts and corporations? What
can you expect of a juror upon a jury that is to receive a part
of the judgment? What kind of service can you look for when
a prince foreign to the common interests of the common man
is paying ransom to his retainers, that would have made the
high-heeled Louis XIV jealous of such a ransom? These are
no mere idle statements. Call the roll Monday morning of the
United States Senators, and place opposite their names the248
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
attorney fees, and the dividends, the emoluments and rewards
that have poured into their coffers in the six years of their
service, and put a placard upon every one that answers, “aye,”
honestly, and I believe you would have a speckled Senate.
I do not want to be understood to say that these are criminal
acts on the part of public officials, but I do say that it is foreign
to the spirit of the provisions of the Federal and State Con-
stitution. It is bad ethics; it is close to the border line of
seduction; it does not always so happen, but when the Stand-
ard Oil monopoly and trust is attacked in Ohio and Nebraska,
the managers of this illegal trust can always find a little more
suitable material among public officials or in the United States
Senate, to come to their defense than on the outside.
The Remedy.
I would have spent the hour in vain if I did not point out
briefly the remedy of these abuses. It was to discover the
right solution thereof, and to solve the problems that I, in my
humble efforts in the last four years, have given some atten-
tion. It is based upon this principle. The State and Federal
Government can give or reserve as little or as much of these
government functions, to these creatures, as the sovereignty
chooses.
Second—It may give them upon whatsoever terms it may
desire.
Third—It may revoke these grants, franchises or rights,
through an officer of the crown, as in England, or through the
attorney-general of the State or United States, by a writ known
to lawyers as quo warranto. The translation of this old com-
mon law and Latinized expression, freely translated, means
that the sovereign State institutes an inquiry addressed to such
corporations, trusts or monopolies, and requires them to come
into court and show cause, reason or by what warrant they
have abused this grant of power or this right that has been
conferred upon them by the crown, or by the sovereign, or by
the State. This writ is allowed to issue usually from the high-
est court only of each sovereignty. So important is the writ
that it can be tried only before judges and not jurors in most ofGEN. F. S. MONNETT.
249
the States. It is as sacred almost as the writ of impeachment,
leveled at an individual or representative of government that
may be charged with an overt act of treason. The writ is an
invention of royalty; it was a high prerogative writ; it was the
form of action that a king in his name brought against the
usurper of a kingly function, and the penalty was at one time
even death to the individual. It was used as early as 1198 dur-
ing the reign of Richard I, and has ever since said date, both in
England and in this country, Federal and State, been preserved
in the highest forms of law known to the sovereignty; in the
States it is found in the constitutions themselves. And in look-
ing for the remedy to right this wrong in my own State, I tried
in my humble way to set the example and to carry out the
power vested in the office of attorney-genera! under this high
and important authority.
We have pending, or begun, upward of twenty-four suits
in the highest court of the State, in quo warranto, claiming
that it is the right of the crown or the State, to bring such
action against every corporation :
1.	When it has offended against a provision of an act for its
creation or renewal, or any act altering or amending such acts.
2.	When it has forfeited its privileges and franchises by
non-user.
3.	When it has committed or omitted an act which amounts
to a surrender of its corporate rights, privileges and fran-
chises.
4.	When it has misused a franchise, privilege or right con-
ferred upon it by law, or when it claims or holds by contract
or otherwise, or has exercised a franchise, privilege or right in
contravention of law.
And having charged these offending creatures, corporations,
monopolies and trusts with this usurpation, I append to the
petition or bill in equity, as some courts have called it, a series
of interrogatories or questions, addressed to the officials of
these respective corporations so brought into court, and we
have driven them to the last trench, namely, they have come
in with their hands held up in the presence and before the altar
of an avenging Nemesis, and like the victim of old, with his250
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
hands upon the horn of the altar, such men as represent your
millions upon Wall Street and build your churches and endow
your colleges, have cried “unclean, unclean,” and said we did
not dare testify, we did not dare produce our books, we did
not dare open the doors of our safes, because it would have
criminated us, and have asked the protection of the State and
Federal constitutions, that they have offended against, violated
and ravished to now protect them from an avenging justice.
The Standard Oil Company, of Ohio, has already been ousted
from the trusts, and it now stands charged with contempt of
court for having violated the court’s decree. The Buckeye
Pipe Line Company, the Ohio Oil Company, the Solar Refin-
ing Company, the Tobacco Trust, and the Salt Trust are all
standing before the court with the only defense, and the same
defense that the common felon stands in Police Court and
uses, namely:	“I dare not open my mouth or testify because
it tends to criminate me.”
And we have pending in the Ohio Legislature a Bill to
remedy that defect, exempting the agent, employe or servant
of such trust or corporation, from personally being punished,
for giving such testimony against his corporation, so that the
corporation may be punished by taking away its charter and
its life, by compelling its officers to turn State’s evidence.
Then here is your remedy for this wrong. It is vested
directly in the executive officers of the State and the Attorney-
General of the United States, and in the highest courts of said
respective sovereignties.
It needs no new government; it needs no political platform;
this evil neither requires free silver nor gold standard, double
tax or single tax. It needs men to execute the laws that we
have. It needs the courts to weigh out exact justice against
the rich, powerfid and mighty zvith the same even hand that it
should to the poor man. As I said in the opening, I neither
despair nor grow discouraged as to thfe powers of our govern-
ment, nor as to the integrity of our courts and its officers.
There may be here and there an executive officer, who,
through cowardice, ignorance or corruption, may fail to per-GEN. F. S. MON NETT.
251
form his whole duty, or there may be judges that so far forget
their oath of allegiance to duty that they will bunt for an excuse
to accept retainers or to obtain a renomination, or to see their
sons suddenly made opulent, but I have abiding faith and a
firm belief that this country has produced, and is producing
in the State and nation, Matthew Hales, Lord Ellenboroughs,
Cokes, Marshalls and Storeys, Waites, Millers and Peck-
hams, and Fullers and Harlans and other worthy men on the
bench and off, who will continue to fearlessly execute and ad-
minister the law and expel the usurpers, as fearlessly in the
year 1900 as they have in the past. And for myself, I have
taken the position only, and no other positions, that these
learned fathers and masters of legal lore have taken on these
great questions, and it is my old fogy and old-fashioned notion
that men like Coke and Marshall and Matthews and Peckham
are safer guides and surer counsel on these great governmental
and economic questions that the Rockefellers, the Pratts and
the Archibalds and Dodds and the whole progeny of college
presidents and university professors that are living off of their
endowments and ministers that are reading the holy writ from
the light that streams through the oleaginous memorials and
living on the endowment raised from these ill-gotten gains.
We need a revival of integrity among that class of pro-
fessors, college presidents and ministers and subsidized editors
as much as we need a revival of morality in the United States
Senate.
Let us have more McGlynns, Peter Cartwrights, Bishop
Simpsons to hurl their anathemas against corruptions and
criminality in high places. Honor, manhood and honesty, if
need be, before the flash of diamond and the robes of scarlet,
and the blossomed nose of corruption, prostitution and dis-
honesty.
Nothing can make a Spanish fleet invincible or a foreign foe
even dangerous, save such abuses of the common welfare of the
masses to whom we must look for the protection of our Amer-
ican liberties.
European monarchy belching forth dynamite projectiles or
hurling lyddite shells, is not as dangerous as American plu-252
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tocracy, corrupted, greedy for spoils, lobby-ridden, indifferent
to the cry and oppression of the producer, turning a deaf ear
to the toilers in the mines, ridiculing the man with the hoe
and the laborer upon the farm, indifferent to the discrimination
against our villages and inland towns.
The stars and stripes will be little better than a past senti-
ment, a colored rag, if it do not bear with it protection for the
individual, security of fortune and property to the private cit-
izen, guarding him in his humble enterprises, in the State of
Texas as well as in the State of New York.
Imperialism and imperial splendor on the smoking ruins of
Morro Castle, or the fleeing of an Aguinaldo before our arms,
may be inspiring and may be glorious, but there is also an
imperialism vested in each State that it can exercise and must
exercise over these artificial creatures, monopolies and trusts,
that is as equally important and glorious for the American
home.
You have the reserved power in the State of Illinois to pro-
tect the humble competitor in the manufactories from being
discriminated against by the trust magnate or the monopolies of
the East. You have the imperial power in this sovereignty to
determine on what terms and what charges and what profits
your gas companies, your elevated railways, your freight line
companies, your pipe line companies, can charge you, as citi-
zens, for performing services for you. Your State has re-
served unto itself the power and right at all times to keep the
stream of competition forever unclogged. You have it in your
power to penalize and criminalize every act of a public or
private corporation that subverts the inalienable rights of the
people by unlawful and unholy combinations.
You have it in your power to vest in the highest legal
tribunal of the State the right to take away the life of every
public, quasi public or private corporation that offends against
the public policy of the State, that violates any of your laws,
or abuses any of its charter rights.
It is no longer necessary to say "be it resolved,” but “be it
enacted.” Artisans, laborers, clerks, merchants and mine
owners and the small producers are growing impatient, yea,GEN. F. S. MONNETT.
2 53
almost sick at heart, in reading State and National platforms
and waiting on commissions and committees appointed from
year to year “to examine into the evils existing in the economic
world.”
An Attorney-General of your State, using the high and im-
portant writ of ouster or of quo warranto, in the highest court
of your State, and in behalf of the people in the State, can
accomplish more in the way of electrocuting monopolies and
trusts, than all the resolutions of trades unions, municipal
reform leagues, tax reform disciples, industrial commissions,
Wednesday morning clubs and long-winded investigations and
party platforms, prepared by high-salaried trust magnates—
will do in the next decade. Trusts, combines, monopolies and
criminals, tax dodgers and express robbers, are not solicitous,
so long as they can satisfy public clamor with industrial com-
missions, reform clubs and magazine articles, or so long as they
can keep a successful lobby between the people and the legis-
lative halls—so long as they can keep the executive officers
from dragging them into the presence of the court.
Allow me to repeat and impress that the State is sovereign
in the legislative halls, imperial in the executive and omnip-
otent in the judicial, if it will only exercise such powers to
protect the common man in the general welfare of the people,
and to right these wrongs and preserve unto all, equal oppor-
tunities. The weakness of our government has been that we
have not asserted this sovereignty until oppression became
overpowering.
State officials, too, often have allowed their powers to remain
dormant, until the rumbling of the masses and the red flames
of anarchy and the wan arms of starvation have threatened
our back doors in times of financial distress.
Victor Hugo says:	“You can do everything with the bay-
onet except sit upon it.” Carlisle said in one of his cynical
moods: “That we cannot fight the French with red uniforms—
there must be men inside of them.”
If others of our fellow citizens have endured sun and rain
and decimating fevers, and enervating malaria, have suffered
yvounds and death under tropical sun, for love of country, for254
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
a down-trodden and a foreign people, is it asking too much
of State officials to stand firm, remain sacred to their trust, lift
up the ensign of a true Democracy, “in order to establish
justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity?”
The applause given General Monnett’s words demonstrated
that the sentiment and sympathy of the audience were decid-
edly Anti-Trust.
In introducing George Fred Williams, of Massachusetts,
Chairman Lockwood said:
Out toward the sunrise, out where old ocean beats upon a
rock-bound coast; out where the cradle of our liberty was
rocked, surrounded by the graves of Warren and Paul Revere
and Adams and a whole host of Revolutionary heroes; under
the shadows and amid the surroundings of Concord and Lex-
ington and Bunker Hill, there grew up a man who has the
courage of the fathers, a man who will surrender no principle,
a man who has “no jewels in the ark of his covenant to trade
for votes.”
That man I now have the honor and pleasure of introducing
to you, George Fred Williams, of Massachusetts.
ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
If, as we hope, this convention has opened the rallying and
recruiting of the anti-monopoly forces in our Republic, we
may as well realize at the outset that our army is to be trained
for political action. Nor are our forces to be armed with the
broom and the mop for cleaning, or even with the ax for
destruction, but with the constructive instruments which may
build up a new structure upon Democratic foundations. By
votes, and through the medium of the statute book, we are to
accomplish our results. We must create an anti-monopoly
party which must strike at the very roots of our existing meth-
ods. The truth is, that the spirit of commercialism, the impulseGEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
255
of greed, the demands of privilege have in the last century
insidiously undermined our economic and political institutions.
The methods of violence in the process of wealth distribution
have been displaced by those of subtlety and ingenuity, because
we have permitted our laws and their enforcement to enable
the greedy power to oppress the weak without a show of force.
Our legislatures, our executives, our courts have been brought
under the subtle dominion of forces no less oppressive and dis-
rupting than those which in former centuries have gathered
unearned wealth and unjust privilege at the point of the spear,
the sword and the bayonet. The right of property rather than
the right of man has become the supreme concern of civiliza-
tion. It is because classic political economy and the capital-
istic school admit of no solidarity of humanity, except what
they create and tolerate, that the doctrines of private property
and private organization must be searched relentlessly, and
they must be called to their accountability for the present con-
dition of human rights and opportunities.
We do not admit that the right to the pursuit of happiness
in our Republic has become a mere by-product of capitalism.
God did not create a school of political economy to prove out
of his laws that he is more relentless than fate, and that no ray
of his mercy penetrates the darkness of poverty, disease and
crime. God made man, not property, in his image, and ours
is the religious task of asserting humanity against wealth,
even though the tables of the money-changers must be over-
thrown in the temple of humanity.
We fail to realize that our Republic has surrendered most
of the safeguards which even mediaeval development secured to
man. In land the right of commons has largely lapsed into
uselessness. Even in ancient times monarchies have preserved
mining rights to the government, which we have surrendered
absolutely to private control. It was a revolution which in
England prevailed against the dead hand, the title in mortmain.
We have proceeded with apparent deliberation to create a cor-
poration which never dies, and is a self-perpetuating, endless,
soulless and irresponsible thing, which we cannot now remove
except by reversing the civilization which produced it. ThisANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
25b
creature of the law has undone many of the most sacred right!
which human blood and suffering have wrested from privilege.
In centuries, the highways have been for all men, even from
the day of the Indian trail, but our greatest avenues of com-
munication are now delivered over to private hands, and even
the sea may soon become the servant of private carriers. We
have harnessed invention with the mail of monopoly; we sub-
ject the products of toil to the play of destructive speculation;
for the gain of the few we levy our taxes, and this convention
is called because at last there seems to be tolerated under our
legal system a complete organization of trade and commerce in
monopolistic form. Yet there are laws as old as Elizabeth
against the monopolization of industry and the resulting con-
trol of production and consumption. They are not now, as
then, effective because the courts can no longer enforce the law.
There are several forms of monopoly which we may well dif-
ferentiate before attempting to prescribe a remedy. First and
foremost comes the land, which under private ownership may"
and must serve to exploit humanity unless the rights of the
people be guarded by wise laws. The agricultural and min-
eral lands are now well occupied. In our great cities the major
part of those who live without toil are supported by the private
ownership of land, which gains, without a single duty per-
formed toward God or man, added value through the sole
instrumentality of increasing population, improvements and
facilities of transportation. Our tax laws are yet absolutely
unadjusted to the appropriation for public purposes of any part
of that value to which the tax paying public is evidently, enti-
tled. If the providence of God has intended that any man
shall appropriate a portion of the wealth of nature without
work, and through the contributions of his fellow-men, then
this system is right, otherwise it is wrong.
But the system of land monopoly extends far beyond the
mere appropriation of wealth by the individual, and reaches
out into the domain of production and distribution. When oil
is discovered monopolistic interests take it to themselves. They
reach out to gather in other oil producing lands, or by con-
trolling the avenues of communication make subject to them-GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
257
selves all the lands upon which nature has bestowed this form
of bounty. The great steel and iron interests of our land are
gathering up the ore-beds, and have the power to use them or
to keep them in disuse. Copper syndicates are reaching out for
all valuable properties. The coal lands are now well absorbed.
The grazing lands will naturally fall to those who monopolize
the live stock products. The forests will fall to the lumber
trust; tobacco land to the tobacco monopoly. Wherever there
is a tolerable limit to available territory the land will pass to
those who control the trade in its products. It is notable that
in most cases those who own the ore-beds govern the means
of transportation. It seems apparent without argument, that
industrial competition under these conditions must be a mere
dream of the past, for the wealth of man is the product of the
earth, and if the earth belong not to mankind, mankind shall
not enjoy its bounty.
When the products of the soil have been wrought by the
hand of man they must be carried to those who consume them.
Here private ownership has again taken possession and de-
mands its toll of all the products of human toil. We should not
err by ignoring the fact that the transportation monopoly is
essentially a monopoly of the land because of the practical lim-
itation upon roadbeds and terminal facilities. It is nowhere
denied that all of the common carriers of the United States
today base their tolls upon the single principle of what the
traffic will bear. In other words, they exact from the produc-
ing and consuming population every dollar which they can
contribute without passing the margin of toleration.
When there is opened up to the mind of man any discovery
which may lessen his labor or increase his happiness, the law
for a term of seventeen years gives to him the undemocratic
privilege of withholding that discovery from human use, or
giving it to the people at his own price. But even worse, our
patent system has so enmeshed the inventor that capital is gen-
erally enabled to force the sale of an invention for a pittance,
and then erect upon the invention a controlling monopoly which
has rio legal limit, and through long and exclusive possession
may defy competition far beyond the life of a patent.258
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The telegraph and the telephone, the sole instruments of
rapid communication of intelligence in our Republic, are today
used for the exploitation of our citizens without practical
competition, or any other rule of contribution than the limits
of public endurance. The instruments of production, the tools,
machinery and plants of our manufactures, have been central-
ized to the point where the corporate owner has to deal, not
with individual workers, but with communities of labor. Cap-
ital has been enabled to control the lives and happiness of mil-
lions of our industrial class, to make the price of labor, and
practically to limit the field of aspiration and energy of its
servants according to its discretion. It has been enabled to
obtain possession of our national laws, to exclude foreign com-
petition, excusing its demands for privilege by the claim that
internal competition would prevent unreasonable exactions
from our citizens. But at last our whole industrial system
seems with a single impulse to have abandoned domestic com-
petition, and to have rushed into monopolistic form. If the
plea for the exclusion of foreign competition was ever good it
is apparent that competition is now, or soon will be, at an end,
and that private decision will determine, so far as nature will
allow, what tribute the public shall pay to this form of
monopoly.
Finally, and almost at the present moment, our government
has been forced to abandon to private manipulation, and indeed
to monopolistic control, the mighty fabric of credits and money
by which not only the products of human industry, but the
property of mankind must all be measured. Even the despots
of the past have clung religiously and defended to the last, the
sovereign power of controlling the money system of their
dominions, but this Republic, which is supposed to be the
flower of human development, the most faithful custodian of
human rights, has given over to private corporations the power
to control the issue of money, to limit or expand the credits of
trade. With these powers go the unlimited control of specula-
tion, of business opportunity, and also the po.wer to attack any
property, or class of property, to wreck any industry or class
of industries, and by foreclosing upon the owners appropriateGEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
259
the wealth of the people wherever their greed may prompt. It
is the banks which are now to say whether we shall have pros-
perity or adversity, which may let loose or dam the life cur-
rents of our trade, which will hold the solvency of every busi-
ness man in the hollows of their hands. Already the signs of
combination among the banks are sufficient to demonstrate that
soon, very soon, a few mighty banks, if indeed more than one,
will sway the business of this country with an absolutism
which no oriental despot has surpassed. And it is not unin-
structive to notice in this connection that the banking domina-
tion is now sought by the very men who are rapidly absorbing
the other great properties of the Republic. We see the names
of the same men in the lists of those who combine railroads,
organize gas and street railway syndicates, own the mines and
the oil wells, and run the banks and the treasury of the United
States. Like a bunch of angle worms, we cannot find where
one begins or the other leaves off. In the terrible process of
monopolization realization accompanies prophecy and the wild
dreams of the night become solid facts at dawn.
Capped with the control of credit and money these men will
soon become the masters of the liberty of every individual. A
few captains of industry will regulate the lives of the industrial
workers, will own the legislatures, control the bench, direct
our executives, command our armies, and the Republic will be
but a name.
It may have seemed superfluous, and perhaps presumptuous,
to describe the onward march of monopoly, when every man
here has an equal knowledge and realization of the awful truth,
but it is of extreme importance that in our discussion we should
differentiate the forms and sources of monopoly in order, not
only that we may realize the wide scope of our work, but that
our attack may be directed at the weakest point, and that we
may undertake our work with a plan of warfare rather than by
desultory and aimless skirmish. It is imperative that we should
throw aside mere palliatives and poultices, and reach the dis-
eased organ in our body politic.
History has already demonstrated that regulation of monop-
oly is either a farce or a tragedy. When the offender against26o
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the law laughs in the faces of the judges, defies the injunction
of the law, and secures the appointment of the prosecutors,
regulation is surrender. When the enemy we attack by law
likewise controls the legislatures which make the laws one
truth becomes apparent beyond cavil, and that is, that we must
wrest our Republican institutions in all three branches from
corporate control.
Our whole problem is to take the government of this Repub-
lic from the monopolistic forces and restore it to the hands of
the peddle who are the victims of the present disorder. First
and foremost in our work is the necessity of bringing to the
problems which confront us the highest political power and
wisdom which a Republican form of government can secure.
Be not deceived, the masses are ready for the conflict. They
have only lost faith in the political parties because they have
been so often deceived. They have been tossed from one party
to the other only to find that they are still bound to a chariot.
It is absolutely imperative that we should direct ourselves
forthwith to the obtaining of political ascendency. If both
the great political parties be false, or prove false, a new one
must be formed. If one of the parties be hopelessly delivered
over to the service of monopoly, if it be dependent upon the
enemy for its campaign funds, its control of voting, its selection
of policies, then it is the veriest crime for any_man here to take
part in our deliberations with the purpose of maintaining the
ascendency of that party. If there be one of the great political
parties which gives promise or hope of co-operation, which has
sympathy for humanity, and which is free from monopolistic
dictation, it is a clear duty to encourage and stimulate a high
purpose in this party, to enter its councils and strengthen its
purposes.
I believe there is such a party now in the field; that this
party has cleansed and purged itself for the very contest which
we propose; that it has demonstrated its ability to withstand
the terrible engines of power which capitalism can direct upon
its foes; that it has proved its capacity to rally millions of the
people against our enemy; that it has thrown out from the lead-
ership the tools of monopoly; that it does not sell its principlesGEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.	261
or the rights of the people for the contributions of those who
extort from the people. The party of which I speak is the
party of Jefferson and Jackson, who, with Lincoln, are the
idols of the people, because they spent their lives in resisting the
encroachment of property upon the rights of man. They have
allied themselves with freedom, and have not feared the scoffs
or cruelty of the people’s enemies. This great party has set
itself against the great monopoly, the greatest trust of all, the
money trust, and has attacked it fearlessly, and almost success-
fully. If this party deemed the money monopoly to be the
greatest of all it was because Jefferson taught that a bank of
issue is more dangerous to liberty than a standing army, and
because Jackson cast his political fortune into a single contest
against private control of the sovereign money-issuing power.
We cannot succeed without accepting the will of the people,
and if the people have determined that the money monopoly
shall be the first object of attack, we shall do poor service to
our cause if we insist at the critical moment that some other
form of monopoly be substituted for that which the people
have selected to oppose.
If this convention shall propose to swerve 6,500,000 of voters
from their conviction that the sovereign power of money issue
shall first be restored to the government it but leads the way to
defeat. But there is a course open which may be adopted
today. We may set in motion other forces against monopoly,
begin our work of enlistment and bring up our chosen policy to
a dignity which shall finally command the support of the peo-
ple. We must have votes, and we must command votes before
we can succeed.
First and foremost it is imperative that those who mean
what we mean, no matter whether they think exactly as we
think, shall obtain the reins of power. We are gathered here
as volunteers, but there is an organization, the mightiest in the
world, which we can, by judicious action, bring to our sup-
port. That organization is the government of the United
States. It combines the wisdom and intellect of the country
as does no other organization, not even that of monopoly. Get
the servants of the government devoted to our cause and sue-262
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
cess must come. Give us a President who means to do our
work, who will gather the wisest of the land to head the
various executive departments, who can ascertain facts, mold
policies and execute plans. In all the departments of justice
give as prosecutors men who mean to enforce the law. Give
us judges appointed, not from the ranks of monopoly, but de-
voted to the service of the people. Give us a legislature which
means to do our work, and will make laws to be enforced.
Give us all these, and the people will rise up again in hopeful
expectation. The forces of monopoly will be reduced to a
pitiable minority, and we shall enter upon a chapter of reform
and reorganization which all the powers of wealth cannot
shake and which will stand at the judgment seat of the Repub-
lic’s God erect and unashamed.
It is not true that monopoly is the legitimate development
of our economy. It is created and permitted by law. Private
abuses are not economic tendencies, and by law we may abolish
them without resort to any suprema lex to save the Republic
from the deadly embrace of illegitimate economic giants.
But it may be permitted to suggest that we shall not pass
upon our subject with false economic premises. Let us not
operate upon the skin disease by flaying ourselves. Let us not
mistake symptoms for the disease and strike at results rather
than causes. In our protest against monopoly we are at once
confronted with the proposition that the saving of cost is
economic gain, and that consolidation being retrenchment of
expense and a saving of human effort is a help to humanity.
Not too lightly and recklessly must we deny this proposition.
Unless we are to assert that toil must be maintained for its own
sake, that work must be furnished in order to make men work,
we must admit that economy in human effort is a gain to man-
kind. All machinery as it lessens human labor is in the course
of true economic development. There is enormous waste in
the process of distribution, when hundreds of tradesmen
traverse the same territory, which one-fourth or one-twentieth
of the number could cover with better accommodation to the
public under proper organization. Unless all labor-saving
devices are a curse we must add economies in organization toGEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
263
the list of blessings. It is the lowering of the cost of produc-
tion, distribution and consumption, which brings the bounty
of nature to the perfect service of man. Our problem does
not lie in the reduction, but the increase of nature’s bounty.
It lies in the just distribution of the product and giving to each
man that portion of the product which belongs to him. We
cannot abolish the single telegraph system, the single telephone
system, the single express company, nor any other organiza-
tion which adds to the comfort and convenience of mankind
and lessens the labor of the many.
Do not mistake, the question is not whether we are adding
to the comfort and happiness of man by reducing his toil, but
the supreme question is, who is getting the God-given incre-
ment of wealth arising from invention, education and organ-
ization. Of monopoly as at present constituted, we ask, not
have you saved, but who has the savings; not if any one is
getting it, but is he getting it rightfully; not if any one has it,
but whether the man who has it has earned it. We are, then,
dealing with a problem simply of the distribution of wealth; we
are challenging the right of monopoly to create savings, to
reduce the laboring opportunities of mankind, and then to
absorb to itself all of the gain.
We are ready to admit that monopoly makes gains, but we
challenge the right of monopoly to pour all these gains into its
own coffers. When 50,000 traveling salesmen are discharged,
and 50,000 railroad agents lose their employment, we will not
deny that these men are not necessary to perfect industrial
organization, but insist that the railroads and the trusts, in
throwing these men upon the streets, have caused a grievous
economic and political loss, while they give back nothing to the
community of all the mighty gains which capital has thus taken.
We know that the industrial trust is merely a process for
absorbing the economic gain of human organization and
human genius. The overcapitalization of the trusts and rail-
roads is merely an unrighteous method of absorbing this gain
under the form of law. If this gain goes only to strengthen
the hand of capital it is not only no gain to the community,
but a grievous, terrible and cruel economic loss. If we cannot264
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
find some method by which the gain of mankind in the process
of the years may be turned to the service of the masses who
produce the wealth, we may as well slink away ashamed, de-
feated and despised. We see and know that the gap between
the poor and the rich is ever widening, that the properties of
. the land are passing every year into fewer and fewer hands,
and our laws are made to help and not to retard this process.
Regulation has been and must be a failure. If we allow monop-
oly to be more powerful than the law it will defy the law. If
mighty fortunes continue to be piled up the limits of humafn
endurance will be reached. Why not begin to apply justice
now, and systematize our* efforts to reverse the process which
is making for the enslavement of the many, and the erection of
an aristocracy of wealth in our Republic ? Let our cry be to
monopoly, “Hands off our economic gain; hands off our polit-
ical institutions.” We will make the laws, and if by cor-
ruption or intimidation you shall interfere, the jail will yawn
for you as eagerly as it now opens to the helpless and unfor-
tunate poor. We can have laws in this Republic which wealth
will obey, and though it obtain command of our.armed forces,
yet we do not fear.
We need not impeach the sincerity of those who hope by
regulation to reach the organizations which are now deflecting
the wealth into the hands of the few. The difficulty is that
there is a hopeless and absolute antagonism between public in-
terests and private profit under the present system, and any
regulation which is drastic, or even effective, in this direction
will be contested by the corporations as bitterly as any radical
remedy which we may propose. The necessity for public relief
is coincident with the necessity for the defense of private priv-
ileges against public demands. Attempts at regulation will be
attended by further corrupting influences brought to bear upon
legislatures, executives and courts. Private ownership of pub-
lic utilities, by its very nature, puts the dollar into politics, and
we invite the anarchy of bribery and intimidation by contin-
uing public functions in private hands.
Objection is made to the policy of public ownership, that it
is a great leap into an unsounded depth, that we should pro-GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
265
cecd by degrees, and that the efficacy of our scheme should first
be tested by operations in the smaller field of municipal control.
The answer to this is that the experience so far gained in the
public exercise of public functions shows almost uniform suc-
cess, while the system of regulation has been an unqualified
failure at every point, and public ownership, so far as it has
been practiced, has been built upon the utter failure of legal
regulation. If our problem is merely to cut down as far as
possible the exactions of monopoly, then we may try puttering
with palliatives, and continue to appeal to the reason or mercy
of those who now have the practical power of taxing the peo-
ple, B.ut if we are to strike directly for possession of the
economic gain of improved organization, we must challenge
the whole system of private ownership of public functions. If
it be true that capital now possesses the whole machinery of
civilization, there is but one remedy at hand, viz., to begin the
process of furnishing capital to the masses of men. Under the
limitations of a Democratic system the government seems to
be the only organization through which collection and distri-
bution of the economic gain may be realized. In the case of
land monopoly this collection may be accomplished through
the instrumentality of taxation, because with land the economic
rent may be accurately valued and collected, but with respect to
the active utilities, such as transportation and supply of com-
forts and necessities, while collection is possible, distribution
can be in no wise made to the persons who have overcon-
tributed. In such case, if we may employ a paradox, the dis-
tribution can only be fairly made by failure to collect. In
other words, by reduction of rates to those employing the util-
ities, such a method is not feasible under private ownership,
which demands the greatest possible return to the private cap-
ital employed. If private capital is rejected the government
seems to be the only capitalist to which the citizen can resort
to preserve the economic gain. The substitution of public for
private capitalization would destroy nothing, would bring no
economic loss, would only take from private hands the heavy
profits which the public now pays as tribute to private capital.
Thus only can monopoly be utilized for the public service. We266
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ought, in beginning our work, to construct a broad platform
upon which all the anti-monopoly forces may stand. Certain
functional remedies may be suggested at the outset which are
immediately within the reach of the law-makers under the
present system.
If monopoly is entrenched behind the tariff laws these laws
may be amended to give the public the benefit of fair com-
petition where it is now excluded. We can at once amend our
patent laws within the lines of the constitution and existing
methods. We may give patentees the protection of the gov-
ernment in the exclusive use of their rights, provided they
submit the fixing of reasonable royalties to the courts, and
even if it be deemed wise and fair, limit the total amount to be
collected under the patent system. In this wise a new discov-
ery would be thrown open to use and improvement by the
whole people, and the inventor would be protected against
capitalistic exploitation through the co-operation of the gov-
ernment in collecting from his customers.
With respect to the so-called remedy of publicity in the
accounts and transactions of monopolies, it must be said that
such a plan is at best superficial and practically ineffective.
What does it avail that the Standard Oil Company admits the
payment of dividends of 33 per cent in 1898; and if we also
know that this sum represents more than the entire value of the
plant of the monopoly paid by the public to the owners each
year? We are no further ahead in obtaining justice by know-
ing how much is wrongfully wrested from the people. We
have provision in the State of Massachusetts for filing of
accounts by many quasi-public corporations, but these accounts
are juggled and confused so that the change from secrecy to
publicity has hardly created a ripple upon the surface. It is
idle to waste time in perfecting our knowledge, already suffi-
cient to show the terrible draft of capital upon our national
wealth.
In approaching the question of public ownership, we are at
once confronted by a popular prejudice against what is known
as socialism. Let us not be deflected from our purpose by
phrases, or through misunderstandings. When Lord Salis-GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
267
bury was informed that a certain measure of public ownership
was socialistic he answered, “No matter what you call it, it is
business." There are many today who are inclined toward
public ownership of public utilities who fear the extension of
public functions into the field of private enterprise. This is
borrowing trouble. We shall certainly begin with the public
ownership of public utilities. If that ownership proves ben-
eficial to the people its extension will be based in the future
upon experience, and no longer be a theoretical question. Nor
can the line of demarkation be distinctly drawn between private
and public utilities, as human development creates new condi-
tions. The grain elevator was at first a local consideration, but
a system of grain elevators has been found to affect the whole
grain producing and consuming population, and thus affect the
whole public. So, if gas and water may be distributed by a
municipality, it is not a far thought to conceive a community
engaged in the distribution of other utilities, which may include
food, coal and other prime necessities of life.
But we propose to begin in an orderly way, not by attempting
to upset civilization with a blow, but to direct it aright. The
question for our consideration now is where to begin. Will
anyone who believes in the principle answer why we should
not begin everywhere and at once ? Shall this convention begin
its proceedings by excluding the single taxer because he assails
the monopoly of land; the socialist because he expects
eventually to control the instruments of production; the tariff
reformer who believes in striking down the barriers to compe-
tition ; the Democrat who demands the exclusive public control
of the money system of the land; the advocate of public owner-
ship of facilities for transportation and communication; the
would-be reformer of the patent system; or, indeed, any man
who sees the evils which we deprecate, and who is willing to
join in the fair study of a remedy? There is no reason why
<ve should not include all classes of reformers, and indeed
co-operate wherever an attack is made. If we are to begin
with seisms and jealousies and do not open our arms to all
lovers of mankind, we shall merely degenerate into a faction
and utterly fail. The individualist gaust be made to realize268
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
that individualism becomes a farce if all the avenues of private
effort are garrisoned by the agents of monopoly.
It is entirely possible to subdivide our organization so as to
recognize in it all the branches of reform which friends of our
cause may suggest. We may then discuss fully and intelli-
gently their relative merits, and cause our researches to be
extended wherever our membership may demand. By this
co-operative method among the schools of reform we may
make our forces homogeneous, both in the economic and polit-
ical field. But the fact that all reformers are to be recognized
does not preclude the discussion here of some reasonable point
of departure for our immediate efforts. The money monopoly
is already assailed by a great political party, which has com-
manded the votes of nearly one-half of our people. This con-
test cannot be avoided or ignored by the Anti-Monopoly
League, but, on the contrary, it would seem to be the part of
wisdom that we should attach ourselves to the forces which
have already opened the warfare in which we are to engage.
There seems to be, however, a logical tendency to our move-
ment which we should recognize and accelerate. If we find
our own government in the hands of corrupting forces it is our
first duty to strike at those who are principally engaged in this
business. It cannot be denied by those of experience in pol-
itics that the lobbyists and agents of monopoly who are most
active in the political field derive their power and support from
the transportation system of the land. It is not denied that
the great railroad systems of the country have their own rep-
resentatives in the Senate of the United States. Indeed, it is
a common thing to hear that such and such a Senator is the
Senator of such and such a railroad. State legislatures'are
notoriously manipulated by certain railroad companies, and
in many states the political contest is merely a battle between
contending railroads. It needs little acquaintance with the
politics of the State of Kentucky to point out that a single
railroad company is responsible for a large share of the anarchy
and bloodshed which has distinguished the recent politics of
the State of Kentucky. Public ownership of the. railroad sys-
tem should be made a battle cry.GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
269
It is a waste of time to demonstrate that the greatest cor-
rupting forces in our national politics today are the railroad
systems of the land, ably seconded by the exploiters of street
railways, gas companies and other private agents of public sup-
ply. If then we are to attempt the rescue of our own govern-
ment from corrupting influence we must select the railroad first
for our attack. To the private ownership of a railroad system
is due the building up of other monopolies through the method
of railway discrimination. The Standard Oil Company, the
beef trust, and others too numerous to mention, have been
notoriously the spawn of railroad favoritism, and it is impos-
sible to see how any other attack upon monopoly can avail until
the avenues of interchange have been swept clear, and all ship-
pers shall stand upon an equal footing. To legislate against
discrimination is farcical. In the State of Massachusetts we
have long had laws against railroad discrimination, but they
have been pitiably ineffective. The same is true of the laws
under which the National Interstate Commission has attempted
to suppress this wrong. The process of railroad discrimina-
tion may be made so subtle as to defy even the most carefully
constructed law, and favoritism must be accepted as a necessary
feature of private administration.
No man can say to whjit extent the so-called industrial trust
is the creature of this same abuse. It remains yet to be dem-
onstrated that a trade combination can long exist without arti-
ficial props. Careful analysis would seem to show that the
industrial trust, if deprived of the artificial advantages of the
law, is the least to be feared of all the monopolies which we
encounter. The increasing population and business may
enable a railroad to continually water its stock and pay divi-
dends upon ever increasing capitalization; the owners of min-
eral deposits may dominate in the manufacture of their min-
eral products pflrely by virtue of a territorial monopoly, but,
it is yet to be demonstrated that a purely business organization
can by mere force of organization exclude competition. If it
attempts to absorb unreasonable profit by overcapitalization
new capital coming in upon a legitimate basis would seem to
have, if protected by law, a deadly effect upon organization2 "JO
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
based upon fictitious valuations. It is hard tc say how a trust
with a capital double the value of its assets can contend in the
field of profit with new capital which can at a given price
realize twice the rate of income which the trust enjoys. It is
not at all certain that, if the favors of the law in transportation
and taxation be removed, the industrial trust will not disappear,
unless it keep itself fully within the lines of reason and nature
in its dealings with the public.
In trade the factor of demand is as powerful as that of pro-
duction, and the consuming capacity pf the people must in
the end be’ a dominating element; but given a discriminating
rate for the carriage of its product, and any man of ordinary
intelligence can distance all competitors, and must in the end
develop all the phases of monopolistic control. When-we strike
therefore at railroad discrimination, tariff laws and the exclu-
sive ownership of the productive land, we may have some con-
fidence that the so-called industrial trust will trouble us no
more.
In directing our attention to the public ownership of the
transportation system of the land we have the added authority
of experience. In other countries the public ownership of rail-
roads has become the rule and not the exception. Of foreign
railroads 60 per cent are owned by the public, and of fifty-one
States forty-one have public railways. Twenty-one have only
public railways, and but nine have private railways only. We
hear no rumors of railways in politics, of discriminations, or
serious charges of bad administration where public ownership
prevails. The argument that a Republic cannot manage its
railways is to admit that it is inferior to monarchies in public
administration.
It is true that the cost of public ownership will be immense,
but it would have been less twenty years ago; it will be vastly
more twenty years hence. Therefore, there is* reason for haste
rather than delay. The vast fortunes made in railroads have
not arisen from single manipulations, but are the result of suc-
cessive waterings, reorganizations and consolidations. Every
time there is a lease or purchase of one road by another, cap-GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS.
271
ital has been increased and the public burden thereby made
heavier.
It is not necessary that we should here determine by what
method or through what process the ultimate assumption of the
railroad by the public shall be accomplished. We may be able
to begin by fixing the rates through the government, by extend-
ing the hand of the government into the management of the
roads, procuring government representation for public protec-
tion, and we may indeed, in the fixing of the rates, bring down
public contribution to a basis of legitimate value and capitaliza-
tion. We may thus pave the way for government assumption,
at a reasonable valuation, when the machinery shall have been
prepared. It is not impossible that by gradual extension of the
postal system we may come into the possession of all the rail-
road properties. There is but a difference in quantity between
an ounce and a carload, and when the power of Congress is
extended over the railroads, which are all post roads, there are
infinite possibilities in the line of the postal department. With-
out belittling, then, other great reforms, and especially those
which belong essentially to the State, such as the tax laws and
the character of ownership and possession of the land, we
may look forward in our work to the development and exten-
sion of public ownership and control as a certain part of our
present and future duties.
But it must be admitted that to secure public approval of
our plans, and the necessary laws for their realization, it is
first and foremost essential that; the public will shall have free
expression. If the railroads own our legislatures, and secure
an interpretation of the laws, they can thwart the demands of
the people for the public ownership of public utilities.
It is not necessary further to dwell upon the helplessness of
our people in the hands of their own legislative representa-
tives, and the time has come when laws should not be forced
upon the people which do not represent, but misrepresent its
will. The purest Democracy finds its expression in the direct
vote of the people, and we may, if we will, make laws at the
polls which false legislatures cannot thwart, and which, indeed,
judges will not dare to disobey. We must invite, then, to our272
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
support, that large body of men who are insisting that our
legislative system does not represent, and that we should at
once bring under direct.popular control the law-making power
of the people.
With these two reforms it seems to me that we may advance
beyond the lines which have already been established by the
existing political parties, and if we may go hand in hand with
the great organization now struggling*for the people’s rights,
and bring that party to success, we may realize our hopes
sooner than the most sanguine dares expect.. When once the
people have felt their power, and have realized that there are
men in the land who can be trusted with their interests, reform,
under their organization may sweep like a tidal wave over our
land.
It is not true that the masses of our people share the spirit
of commercialism which seems to have been blunting and
degrading our morals. A great majority of our people realize
that the present system is brutalizing and corrupting us. They
see the awful clouds of war rising again over the civilized
world, threatening degradation and death. The war in the
Philippines is not the ripening of the morality of the fathers;
it is the sign of decadence. The corruption of our legislatures
is not an improvement upon the last century. It points to the
failure of our institutions. He seems old-fashioned who
preaches the morality of a century past, and even religion
drifts and falls in the wake of commercialism. Our multi-
millionaires constitute an aristocracy which can make war or
peace, create panics or prosperity, order legislation and con-
trol courts. It was easier for Demosthenes to defy Philip, or
Cicero to drive out Cataline, than for any persuasion or protest
to reach these corrupting and undemocratic forces.
The war of emancipation has begun in earnest, and all the
talent is not on one side. The evils are all faced by schools
which understand them. The land monopoly has against it the
powerful and brainy single taxer; the mor.oply of transpor-
tation is creating a vast contingent of voters who demand pub-
lic ownership; the Socialists are attacking the private indus-Dr. Abner L. Davis.	John F. Shafroth.
George Fred Williams.
Alfred Sample.	A. M. Todd.SAMUEL M. JONES.
273
trial system, and a great political party has already demanded
that money, the measure of all properties, shall be controlled
only by the people. We are not standing still, though we be
heavily burdened for the march. Let us collect these forces
together, unite them in purpose, and then study for united
action. Already our people are aroused to the dangers which
menace our Republic. We know that capital controls the bat-
talions, but even they cannot prevail against the mighty forces
of public opinion. To-Utris opinion, -and—to the Providence
of-pufelic opinion. To this opinion, and to the Providence which
watches over our Republic, we appeal, and we shall not fail.
In appropriate words Chairman Lockwood then introduced
Mayor Jones, of Toledo.
ADDRESS OF HON. SAMUEL M. JONES.
I think the spirit that inspired this conference is a high and
holy one, and patriotic in the best sense. I am sure that it is
one form of expression of the faith the people have in one
another, and, in the last analysis, the only patriotism that we
have at all worth the name is that which is found in the faith
the people have in themselves. The work that the conference
has undertaken to do may not, in all probability will not, be
accomplished according to the plan of the projectors, any
more than the work undertaken by the early anti-slavery agi-
tators was accomplished in the way that they planned; and
I believe that history will reveal the fact that it would have
been more correct to have called this meeting the Great
National or Universal Trust Conference than the Anti-Trust
Conference.
I do not believe that we really desire to abolish the trust
idea, and, if we do, I am certain that it will never be done.
The trust idea is an economic development, strictly in line
with the evolutionary progress that has marked the history
of the race, and can no more be stopped by man-made laws
or rules or even armies than can the movement of the planets
in their courses be stopped by such forces. And in reality no
thoughtful man would, if he could, deprive society of the bene-274
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
fit that has been made available by this development. For
many years our statute books, municipal, state and national,
have been cumbered and burdened with laws professedly against
the trust evil, either in its incipient or acute stage; but with
this, as with many other so-called evils, we are attempting
to deal with the effect rather than with the cause. The trust
is only another form of a labor saving machine, and the outcry
that we hear against the trust is only an echo of the outcry
heard half a century ago and less against new inventions and
mechanical improvements that did the work of human hands.
It is helpful too to note that precisely the same argument was
raised against the introduction of labor-saving machinery that
is now the main argument against the trust: “Machines were
going to deprive workingmen of an opportunity to earn a liv-
ing.” “Everybody was going to be thrown out of employ-
ment,” and we were to witness the strange spectacle of a world
in which the machines would do all of the work and every-
body would be out of a job—quite a dreadful condition, I am
sure. It is singular that this old argument should be dragged
out and made to do duty in the closing year of the nineteenth
century, as if work itself was the thing that the world is in
need of, when, as a matter of fact, everybody knows that no
man is crying for more work; what the.world needs is the
result of work, the fruit of toil. The slaves down South
before the war had work; they had a steady job; but the
lovers of liberty among them and among others who were
more free, were not content to reflect that the blacks were
provided with mere work. They knew intuitively that a!
human being is entitled to live under such conditions that
he may enjoy the fruit of his toil. This was the promise of
the divine decree, “In the sweat of thy fate shalt thou eat
bread,” and the rebellion against the labor saving machine
arises from the violations of this law that under the existing
order men were not only deprived of an opportunity to work
but were deprived of the fruit of the toil of their hands, while
others eat bread who “toil not, neither do they spin.”
In the light of reason I believe that it will be seen that
we are not “anti-truet”; that it would be as rational to saySAMUEL M. JONES.
275
anti-sewing machine or anti-mowing machine, anti-selfbinder,
anti-steam, or anti-electricity, and the opposition to the eco-
nomic idea that makes the trust a power will prove as abortive
as did the anti-machine organizations of thirty and forty years
ago.
The distress that is thrown upon the country apparently by
reason of the enormous development of trusts within the last
three years is exactly the same kind of distress as the people
experienced when, by the introduction of labor saving machin-
ery, the work that had been done by hands was done by the
machine, and the workers were indifferently left by their fel-
low men, who had appropriated the machine, to walk the streets
in idleness and starve. We all now understand that the cure
was not to be found in burning grain elevators, destroying
pipe lines and labor saving machinery generally, and that folly
was very soon given up. And to urge today that the evils
from which we suffer can be eradicated by destroying the
trusts through restrictive or retroactive legislation is to renew
in another guise the cry that was raised by the dock workers
in Buffalo, when in their desperation they paraded the streets,
yelling, “Burn the elevators! Burn the elevators!”
The evil does not lie in the trusts or in the men who compose
the trusts; we must dig deeper to find it. It is in the founda-
tion stone upon which our social and political structure is thus
far built. Its name is individualism, and its sign manual is
individual success. This is the Moloch before whom we have
prostrated ourselves as a people. Gold not only has been, but
is, our god, and the ability to acquire it has been the measure
by which we have tried every man’s claim to any sort of merit.
The hope of private profit is the motor that this morning
started the wheels of industry and has kept them moving;
and as the opportunities for an individual initiative are becom-
ing narrower year by year through the development of spe-
cialized means of production and distribution, it is only nat-
ural that men who have had no other ideal, who have asked
no other question save the one great interrogatory that rules
the commercial world, “What is there in it for me?” should
try to make themselves secure in that place or relation to276
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE
society that afforded the largest promise of profit. As a
result, we have the gradual development that has changed our
methods of carrying on an industry from the individualistic
method, when everything was done by hand, to first, partner-
ship of two or more, then the corporation, then the combina-
tion of corporations or the trust, owning, controlling and man-
aging under one head enormous branches of the commerce
and industry of the world. All the saving that has been
effected by this development has been made possible by the
elimination of useless toil. This saving is a social product;
it is not the result of individual effort; being a social product,
it belongs to society, and the crime of which the trust owners
and makers are guilty is the crime of appropriating property
of others to their own use in order to accomplish individual
success.
The outcry against the trust is a healthy sign. The real
patriotism, love for one another, which is the only force that
can be relied upon to correct the evil that I have referred to, is
not as yet developed to any very great extent in us. Our
grievance against the trust is mainly founded upon the fact
that we ourselves are on the outside. This is proven by the
fact that whenever the opposition of an individual is of suffi-
cient importance to be taken cognizance of by the trust, it is
usually silenced by the exercise of a little business legerdemain
that takes the disturber under the sheltering wing of the trust.
We have not yet come to see that it is an immorality, pure
and simple, a denial of the fundamental fact of life and a
blasphemy of Almighty God for a man to prostitute the ener-
gies of a lifetime to the mere business of money getting, a
traffic that can only succeed when a man lends his superior
ability to making use of his weaker fellow men as mere instru-
ments to be ground into profit for his selfish gratification.
We hear much of this anti-trust sentiment. All sorts of
promises are made in political platforms that if you will give
our party the power, they will be quickly annihilated. But
how much real anti-trust sentiment is there in this Anti-Trust
Conference ? A good deal, no doubt. But let us quietly ask
ourselves, each one apply the question to his individual con-SAMUEL M. JONES.
277
science, “Would I refuse to take an interest in a profit-paying
trust on the patriotic grounds that it is a moral wrong to com-
bine my efforts with those of other men for the purpose of
making profit out of my fellows?”
The root of the evil tree, of which the trust is the fruit, wc
find, then, is in the idea of private profit-getting, and our real
grievance against the trust, or the people composing it, will
be found in the fact that they have been more successful than
the rest of us in putting themselves into a position for private
profit-getting, that is, in making all the rest pay private profit
to them; and is not this the very essence of “business sagac-
ity?” Is not the art of knowing how to seize and hold a
strategic business position in the world—how to capture a
franchise, a government contract, a valuable patent, or to
monopolize an industry—the “one thing needful” that the busi-
ness spirit of the age aspires to? I think that most of us
are honest enough to admit that it is. Whenever one of our
friends succeeds in doing one of these things, is it not the
commonest sort of thing for us to shower him with congratu-
lations? Do we not point to the performance of a Leiter,
who succeeds in forming a wheat trust to such an extent that
he can raise the price of bread on millions of God’s poor, as a
“Napoleonic achievement?” Are not our Rockefellers,
Armours, Carnegies, Wanamakers, Astors, Vanderbilts, and
our rich men generally, singled out for special distinction
as the “kings of commerce,” the “princes and captains of indus-
try,” and are not their achievements made the subject of lauda-
tory commendation by press and pulpit and college teachers?
And, indeed, this is as it should be and will be while the ideals—
no, the idols (we are almost without ideals)—of today domi-
nate our life.
As a matter of fact, the worst possible charge that we can
lay at the door of the trust or of any of them today is to say
that they have succeeded in doing the very thing we are all
trying to do. They have captured a strategic point where
they can make a city, state or the world pay tribute to them ;
. they have attained the ideal toward which the most of our
education, our training and our longings are directed. In278
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
my mind there is no hope for improvement in social and polit-
ical conditions except as it shall come from an awakened social
conscience that will enlighten our intellect so that we may see
man as a social being, as a part of the human whole, not as
the “whole thing;” and society as an organism, not as a heap
of separate grains of sand, the highest mission of each being
individual salvation.
Our complaint against the trust must be founded upon some-
thing more substantial than the doctrine of rights. The
lesson of duty must be learned by each individual soul. The
individual will yet learn that “each part to the service of the
whole” is the ideal that is yet to be wrought out to develop
that harmony among the peoples of the earth which Jesus
called the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is my belief that the
mission of the people of these states is to lead the nations of
the earth into a conception of government that will mean, not
the arbitrary ruling of the whole people by the few under the
guise of governing them, but the helpful association of the
whole in harmonious relation for the-good of all.
Emerson tells us that “the form of government which pre-
vails is the expression of what cultivation exists in the popu-
lation which permits it,” and again that “any laws but those
which men make for themselves are laughable.” If the first
proposition is true, our government is just about as good and
as bad as the people deserve; and if the last is true, then it
is useless to make laws against the trust until we individually
are willing to give up the idea of our right to make private
profit out of our fellow men, and substitute in its place our
duty to devote our lives and resources to the common good.
Our course is forward, not backward. We shall not tear
down the great department stores and go back to fifty or
one hundred small ones, with as many owners, to take its
place; we shall not destroy the labor saving machines in order
to impose the burdens of useless toil upon humanity. We
are coming to see that a social product should be socially
owned. We shall understand that men are brothers and must
live brotherly. No other course is possible. The trust prin-
ciple instead of being destroyed must be utilized, instead ofSAMUEL M. JONES.
279
being a privately owned curse it must be made a publicly owned
blessing. As the inevitable result of competition is monopoly
so the legitimate product of the competitive system is the trust.
The men who own the trusts believe in brotherhood for those
composing the trust. The trust as it stands today is the great
American Brotherhood, Limited ; we must amend the title
by.striking off the last word. At present, I own no stock in
any trust, but I propose to devote the energies of the remain-
ing years of my lifetime to the education of the people in the
art of nationalizing and owning the trusts. Then I shall be
a stockholder with all the rest.
The competitive system having broken down, the business
world stood face to face with certain failure, and the trust
is the legitimate evolutionary development that has provided
the means whereby a few can save themselves; these few are
no more immoral, no more disreputable, no more heartless
than the rest of us. They are all people, just people, that is
all, and in gettting into the trust, in finding a way of escape
for themselves from impending destruction of the competitive
system of industry, they prove their right to a high place in
the estimation of those who still cling to the notion that the
purpose of life is to seek individual success. And the question
that now confronts us is:	How shall a state combine the
preservation of democratic equality with the enormous increase
of wealth which the improved methods of production and dis-
tribution employed by the trust have made possible? There
is, but one answer to this question. The wealth that is socially
produced must be equally shared by all. It is a common
product, and must be made the common wealth; in short, we
must abandon forever the old methods that have failed, the
old idea of individualism, and apply the methods of the trust
to the municipality, the state and the nation as our only method
of demonstrating our belief in the fundamental principle upon
which our government is founded.
Relief from the political and social evils that afflict us is
not to come from an appeal to passion, prejudice or party.
It must come from a nobler source, a more lofty impulse.
Our only hope of relief is in an appeal to the patriotism of28o
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
the people. The loftiest and holiest emotions of the heart
will be stirred.into action by the evolutionary processes now
going on before our eyes. Men are daily becoming more and
more tired of the insane and suicidal warfare now going on in
the name of business. The weariness with this strifeful life
was expressed by one of the sweetest of our poets who died
too soon—Sidney Lanier—when in his wondrous “Symphony”
he said:
“O, Trade! O, Trade! would thou wert dead!
The time needs heart—’tis tired of head!
*******
Yea, what avail the endless tale
Of gain by cunning and plus by sale?
Look up the land, look down the land,
The poor, the poor, the poor, they stand
Wedged by the pressing of trade’s hand
Against an inward opening door
That pressure tightens evermore:
They sigh a monstrous, foul-air sigh
For the outside leagues of liberty,
Where Art, sweet lark, translates the sky
Into a heavenly melody.”
Every man of us who is honest with himself knows that
our present system is outgrown; it is purposeless, planless
and hopeless. Relief is not to come from retroactive meas-
ures. The antidote for monopoly is liberty. We must extend
to the whole of the people the liberty of the ownership of the
monopolies now controlled by the private few. We must
.demonstrate our love for one another 6y committing to the
care of the people these valuable heritages that have been
wrongfully made the source of private wealth. The principle
applied to the affairs of the postoffice must be extended—will
be extended as the social conscience is awakened and the intel-
lect enlightened—to the railroads, telephones, telegraphs, and
to every sort of public utility essential to the well-being of
the common life of the whole people. Profit-getting from
these sources is as immoral in the sight of God as highway
robbery.
The barrier that now stands like a stone wall of protection
around private monopolies is the spirit of hatred that governs
our partisan politics. There is no hope of progress whileSAMUEL M. JONES.
281*
partisan politics rule us. Blind creeds and kings and political
parties have had their day. The way of escape from these
evils is plain and simple. The first step is Direct Nomination
of all candidates for public office by free petition of the people,
at once eliminating the evils of the caucus, primary and dele-
gate convention, by which the government is as absolutely
under the control of bosses as if it were owned by them—
which it is to a very great extent. Direct Nomination will
lead to Direct Legislation. The people will select their own
candidates and make their own laws, and thus our laws, instead
of being the product of corrupt bargain and sale, will repre-
sent exactly the moral status and patriotism of the people.
When our machinery of government is so perfected that the
people can thus freely give expression to the loftiest concep-
tions of patriotism and morality that we have, we shall have
nothing more to hope for from mere machinery. With the
Initiative and Referendum available to our people, they can
at any time give expression to the highest and best that is
in them; and as water will rise as high as its source, so our
laws will then represent the love of the people for one another,
and government instead of being an instrument of oppression
for impoverishing the people will be transformed to its real
mission, that of uniting them together in love, the only force
that finally rules in human affairs even today. With partisan
politics, and the devil of hatred and revenge upon which that
system exists, eliminated from our system; with Direct Legis-
lation through the Initiative and Referendum introduced into
it, the hand of progress will have been moved forward upon
the dial of time, and we shall see the beginning of the day
when business will be friendship and government will be love.
The audience joined in singing “America.”
In introducing John S. Crosby Mr. Lockwood said:
It gives me pleasure to say to you that we have with us here
tonight a man who upon economic questions is one of the best
and foremost thinkers of the age.
I now have the honor and pleasure of introducing to you
Col. John S. Crosby, of New York City.282
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ADDRESS OP COL. JOHN SHERWIN CROSBY.
If the so-called trusts are wrong it must be because they
wrong somebody. Injury to the public welfare is but the
aggregate of wrongs done to and suffered by a greater or
less number of the individuals composing the public. So long
as no individual is wronged society can suffer no wrong, and
social wrongs are to be righted only by the prevention of wrong
to any individual. An individual cannot be wronged except
by being deprived of or restricted in the exercise or enjoy-
ment of some individual right. Individual, human or natural
rights signify merely those relations which man by the very
nature of his being sustains to his natural environment, and
upon whose unimpaired integrity he depends for the complete
development and enjoyment of that being. These natural
rights are common to all men, equal and inalienable; they are
inherent in every human being, and cannot be transferred by
or taken away from any man, although he may be to a greater
or less extent deprived of their enjoyment and thereby wronged.
The unimpaired enjoyment of all these natural relations or
rights by all men would constitute universal freedom, a con-
dition depending upon universal justice, 01 the absence of
any and all acts, private or public, interfering in any way with
the individual enjoyment of those rights.
• To secure these rights governments are instituted, their sole
and only legitimate purpose being to maintain justice within
their respective jurisdictions. There can be no other just
warrant for the establishment or maintenance of civil power
nor any just warrant for using that power for any other pur-
pose whatever. Any attempt on the part of government to
promote any other end than that of simple justice, no matter
how well intended, must of necessity result in a disturbance
of and interference with those natural conditions and rela-
tions whose unimpaired integrity constitutes the very rights
to be secured by government, and is moreover an exercise of its
power beyond right, which constitutes tyranny. There are
and can be no rights but such as are natural. Governments
can neither abrogate them nor create artificial rights, and allCOL. JOHN SHERWIN CROSBY.	283
so-called rights not founded in nature are in reality wrongs,
interferences with some one or more natural rights.
If the trusts, then, or rather the individuals making use of
combinations, so-called, are injuring the public, it is because
they are depriving a greater or less number of individuals
of some part of the full enjoyment of one or more natural
rights, and they may do this in violation of the law of the
land, in which case the government is at fault in not prevent-
ing such violation, or it may be done pursuant to such law, in
which case the government is again at fault for maintaining the
law. While it is doubtless true that these giant combinations are
more successful than less powerful persons whether natural
or artificial in attempts to evade the law, it is no less true
that the evils resulting from their illegal practices are infinitesi-
mal when compared with those resulting from legalized and
generally practiced methods of industrial activity. It has
been truly said of the trusts that they are but a logical outcome
of business methods, and it is no less true that those methods
must be investigated if we would solve the trust problem.
That which mainly distinguishes the trust from other busi-
ness ventures is the vast and unprecedented aggregation and
unification under one control, of industrial enterprises here-
tofore conducted by different managements in competition with
each other. Competition in the particular industry having
been thereby virtually eliminated, the trust is enabled to fix
and exact such price as it will for its products. The prevail-
ing impression that the trusts do exact or that they have the
power to exact an abnormal price for commodities has doubt-
less had great influence in promoting their investigation, but
it should be remembered that an abnormal price, whether too
high or too low, is but a symptom of interference somewhere
or somehow with conditions upon which normal, natural or
just price depends. Those conditions obtain only when and
where every man is equally free to embrace every natural
opportunity for the production of wealth; free to extract from
the earth and to appropriate materials, mineral, vegetable or
animal; free to grow vegetable or animal products; free to
fashion or manufacture raw material into forms serviceable284
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
to man and to transport them wherever he will; free to
exchange the products of his industry with any and all persons
agreeing to the exchange in a market where every other man
is as free as himself and no one enjoys any privilege or any
advantage other than that of natural personal ability; and.
also free to unite and co-operate with any and all persons
desiring to so unite in a common effort to produce wealth.
Just price is but the natural result of such freedom of indus-
trial activity, and cannot obtain or even be ascertained except
that freedom prevail. Prices may be so high as to tell us
we are being robbed or so low as to warn us that somebody
else has been robbed, and yet the only way to maintain just
prices is to restore conditions upon which they depend, not
by repressive, inquisitorial or regulative legislation, but by
the repeal of all laws not necessary to the maintenance of jus-
tice, all laws intended to promote industry rather than to pre-
vent injustice, all laws creating privilege or resulting in artifi-
cial advantage and disadvantage; in short, all laws subversive
of natural law and human rights. It is from such laws and
legalized customs, from governmental wrongs, that industrial
wrongs arise, from legalized business methods pursued by
trusts, by smaller corporations and by natural persons alike.
All persons doing business are more or less participes criminis.
Of these governmental wrongs, legalized interferences with
conditions and relations natural and necessary to individual
freedom and industrial prosperity, let us notice first one that
is primary, fundamental and all-embracing, namely, the unnat-
ural, inequitable, unjust and most injurious, and yet the legal-
ized system and method of occupying and using natural oppor-
tunities for the production of wealth. Land, some occupancy
and use of which must be made by every individual and in the
prosecution of every branch of industry, whether it be that
of agriculture, of mining, of manufacturing, or of commerce,
is treated as the exclusive property of certain privileged per-
sons who are by the government enabled to exact from others
having the same natural relation and right to that land a
premium or price for any opportunity to produce wealth, a
penalty for even presuming to live. By virtue of this privi-COL. JOHN SHERWIN CROSBY.	285
lege the trusts in common with other landlords exclude would-
be competitors from natural opportunities to produce wealth,
a privilege without which many and probably most of the
trusts would be unable to maintain their respective monopolies.
But it matters little to the landless millions whether they be
excluded by a trust, by a combination of landlords, or by many
independent landlords, by absentee landlords, or by landlords
living just across the street. This is an evil of which the
trust is merely a symptom, an evil which no restriction or
regulation of the trusts can eradicate, an evil which so long
as it shall continue will not cease to cause industrial hardship
and panics, nor to threaten and endanger the government which
is responsible for its existence.
Another serious interference with natural opportunities for
producing wealth results from prevailing methods or want
of method in raising public revenues. A tariff, tax or license
incident to the prosecution of any industry necessitates the
investment of so much additional capital, and places the par-
ticular business beyond the pecuniary ability of many persons
who would otherwise naturally enter the field of successful
competition. The trust makes use of this artificial advantage
in common with other business concerns, and repression of
the trusts would not restore just conditions in this regard.
A protective tariff is doubly injurious in that it not only
restricts domestic competition but also prohibits foreign. The
alleged ground upon which government presumes to prohibit
or restrict the importation of desirable industrial products
from abroad would, if tenable, warrant the exclusion of the
sun’s light and heat, since it would increase our need of coal,
petroleum, gas and electricity, stimulate many branches of
domestic industry and greatly promote the demand for labor
and capital. The sailing of a wealth-laden ship into New
York harbor is no less natural than the rising of the sun, and
government has no more right to. interfere with one than the
other. Some of the trusts take advantage of the protective
tariff, but their abolition would not right the wrongs of
so-called protection.286
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Patent monopoly is another legalized interference with nat-
ural opportunities to produce wealth. So-called patent rights,
which are rather patent wrongs, are privileges granted by gov-
ernment under the paradoxical notion that it can promote the
general welfare by interfering with those natural conditions
and relations upon whose undisturbed permanence that welfare
depends. If inventors are to be rewarded by government let
it be at the common expense of all the people, and not to the
destruction of free competition among them. The trust profits
by patent monopolies, but so would their holders even if there
were no trusts.
It has been seen that so far as noticed the wrongs done
by the trusts are by no means peculiar to those combinations
but are rather legalized interferences with natural rights, ordi-
nary methods of industrial activity generally pursued by all
persons, whether natural or artificial. It remains, however,
to inquire by what means the trusts are enabled to unite under
one management so vast aggregations of capital and indus-
trial opportunity as to exclude all other persons, natural or
artificial, from successful competition in the acquirement of
wealth, whether by just methods or through privileges and
artificial advantages arising from unjust land, tax and patent
laws.
It is evident that their superior size and power are due
chiefly to phenomenally successful combination. It is no less
clear that men have a natural right to combine and co-operate
for the prosecution of any industrial enterprise. It is but
the exercise of freedom. Whatever any man may himself
justly do he may no less justly induce other men to help him
do if they will, and it is nobody’s business but theirs upon
what terms they co-operate. Two men by combining their
efforts and capital may produce more than twice as much as
either was able to alone produce, and the product will' be
theirs because the result of their labor and capital. The same
is true of any number of men who may so combine. Such
natural combinations, however, will never become so great
or powerful as to preclude the formation and successful com-
petition of as many others as the public welfare—that is, theCOL. JOHN SHERWIN CROSBY.
28 7
aggregate individual welfare—may demand. Nature has
hedged them about with wise limitations both as to the number
of individuals that will combine and as to the time they will
act together. Man’s lack of confidence in the ability, judg-
ment and integrity of his fellows will always render a multi-
plicity of partners in a business enterprise the exception rather
than the rule, while sickness, death and the ordinary vicissi-
tudes of life ever tend to terminate such natural associations.
The trusts, however, are combinations of a far different
origin and character. Their method of organization is but
another instance of the abuse of civil power, and of govern-
mental interference with the individual enjoyment of natural
rights. By the grant of corporate existence, which is but a
loan of civil power, individuals desiring to co-operate for
industrial purposes are relieved of nature’s wise limitations
to their power of combination and ceasing to do business
as natural persons, appear upon the industrial arena as an
artificial person relieved of the infirmities of prudence, con-
science and death, and wielding greater power than natural
persons, however numerous, could ever acquire or control.
The use of this privileged power is, however, not confined to
the trusts. It is but the customary method of industrial organ-
ization. The trust is simply making use of it to drive smaller
corporations from the competitive field from which they have
already excluded natural persons by use of the same method.
Even if it were possible to prevent the formation of so-called
trusts and at the same time leave the smaller corporations in
control of industrial affairs as they have been for a quarter of
a century, to do so would be but scant justice to the great and
ever-increasing mass of natural persons who are by these arti-
ficial persons, the unnatural creations of government, excluded
from natural opportunities to compete in the production of
wealth. The cut-throat competition of which so much com-
plaint is made is competition among unnatural persons and
therefore itself unnatural. Restore natural conditions and
competition will for the first time in history appear to be what
it naturally is, the healthful action of the natural industrial and
social order.288
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Excuse for the grant of corporate power has been attempted
on the assumption that unaided private enterprise and capital
are inadequate to the accomplishment of undertakings of great
risk and magnitude. But if any undertaking is necessary to
the maintenance of justice, necessary to secure to any or all
men the peaceful enjoyment of natural rights, and yet exceeds
the compass of unaided private ability, then it is clearly a
proper function of government, which has no right to shirk
the responsibility of its performance, nor any right to farm
it out to natural persons-to be exercised by them for their
own aggrandizement, and much less to create an artificial per-
son to perform a service justly devolving upon the govern-
ment. It is to this unwarranted surrender of its public-serving
power that much of the monopolistic power of trusts and other
corporations is due. If railroad companies were indeed the
rightful owners of the enterprises they control, it would be
nobody’s business what rates they might make for anybody
else. Their discriminations and rebates are wrong simply
because railroad service is in its nature public and not private.
The primary* and real wrong consists in placing it in private
hands. In so doing the government is guilty of a double
wrong; first, in surrendering a public function and permitting
it to be exercised for purposes of private emolument, and sec- „
ondly, in creating the artificial person known as a private cor-
poration.
For the formation of industrial or purely private corpora-
tions there is no excuse to be offered. They are privileges,
pure and simple, and the evils resulting from them are second
only to those arising from land monopoly. When Andrew
Jackson was told that they would develop the country he
assented to the statement on condition that the verb be pro-
nounced his way, saying he had no doubt they would devil up
the country. Government has no proper concern with indus-
try further than to secure equal enjoyment of natural oppor-
tunities to the industrious. Labor and capital are alike natural
and will thrive best under natural laws. Those intended to
provide opportunities for labor or investments for capital
always interfere with somebody’s natural opportunity to useTOM L. JOHNSON.
289
labor or capital. It is wrong for government to use its power
for any purpose that would not in the first instance and of
itself warrant compulsory establishment of government—
wrong not only because of the necessarily resulting interfer-
ence with natural conditions and opportunities for making a
living, but also because of the tyranny of compelling men to
contribute to the support of power to be used for purposes not
warranting compulsion.
The trust has gathered into one quiver all the arrows of
privilege. The only remedy for its evils is for government
to mind its own business and leave the individual to mind
his. There is no right way of doing wrong.
In presenting Tom L. Johnson, of' Ohio, Chairman Lock-
wood spoke as follows:
One of the ablest, purest and bravest men which this country
has ever produced, a man who expected to speak to you from
this platform this evening, Hon. Charles A. Towne, lies pros-
trate upon a bed of sickness at his home in Minnesota and is
unable to be with us here tonight.
But in the great battle for right, adversity never closes one
door to her champions but God opens another for the defender
of her cause. And I am glad to say to you that we have with
us here tonight to battle for the people’s rights against the
power of monopoly and trusts a man who is one of the best
rough-and-tumble fighters for the holy cause of human liberty
of any man in America today—Tom L. Johnson, of Ohio.
ADDRESS OF HON. TOM L. JOHNSON.
What is the meaning of the Anti-Trust movement? What
is the real ground of the dissatisfaction manifesting itself in
so many ways as opposition to trusts? Is it not possible to
analyze the complaint and locate definitely and express con-
cisely what is really meant? Is it not possible to propose
adequate remedies?
The evils of trusts are real. But those who complain of
them seldom define their grievances clearly, and still less often290
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
perceive the efficient causes which are at work. The result
is that great confusion of thought is manifested, and a bewil-
dering variety of conflicting and chimerical remedies are pro-
posed.
One of the most prevalent notions is that combination is
in itself an evil, or that it necessarily results in evil. It is
said that combinations of men and aggregations of capital, if
not absolutely prohibited by law, ought to be regulated and
restricted, and more specifically it is said that the law allows
too much freedom for corporate combinations. Others again
say that competition is at fault, and they would have the law
interfere and by regulation and restriction force men to act
as it is conceived they ought to act.
With all this I have no sympathy. It is plain to my mind
that competition is the natural order among free men, and that
immense benefits to the whole community result therefrom.
Not the least of the benefits is the fact that competition under
proper conditions results in combinations of individuals and
aggregations of their capital and their abilities. In this way
enterprises can be undertaken which otherwise would be
impracticable, waste is prevented, functions are specialized,
information necessary for the highest business development is
obtained, every advance in knowledge becomes available and
opportunities are furnished for the various kinds of natural
ability.
We have no right to say that competition, or combination
and aggregation are in themselves evil or that they necessarily
produce evils, so long as we have had no experience of a social
organization where it is possible to have competition and com-
bination and aggregation free and unrestricted. Our laws
now, by restrictions and by direct grants, give some men
advantages which others do not enjoy, and this has always
heretofore been the case in every country and in every kind
of civilization that has existed. In my view, the evils,
of which there is such loud complaint, are due to the restric-
tions created and the special privileges granted by law, and
the true remedy for the evils will be found in removing the
restrictions and in abolishing the special privileges.TOM L. JOHNSON.
291
A slight consideration of certain very obvious facts is all
that is necessary to show to the mind of any reasonable man
that existing evils are not caused by the right of men to com-
bine either as individuals or as corporations, but that they
do spring from some other causes. How is it possible for any
unfair advantage to be gained by the mere right to organize
corporations under a general corporation law authorizing three
or more men to become a corporation and carry on business
in that capacity? A company owning and operating a line
of canal boats or steamships, no matter how extensive, could
not fix arbitrary and excessive rates, or otherwise control
transportation, so long as the same number of other men,
merely by executing and filing a paper and by aggregating
their capital, could compete with them. On the other hand,
a company which by law possesses some privileges which other
men cannot get, is in a position largely to fix rates and exercise
a great control over transportation. It is the special privilege
given by law which confers the advantage on one of denying
the competition of others, and which produces the evil of
excessive or discriminating rates. This evil would exist in
quite as great a degree if the privilege were conferred upon a
partnership or upon a single man, and it must be plain to
everybody that the right of incorporation or the right of com-
bination and aggregation has nothing to do with the evil.
Just to the extent that the law imposes restrictions on some
men and not on others; just to the extent that the law grants
special privileges to some which others cannot have, will the
public suffer from the evils of trusts.
Everybody who has had an opportunity to observe the form-
ation of a syndicate for the promotion of a new enterprise
knows very well the great influence which the consideration
of special advantages has. You have to show the amount
of capital invested, and needed for further investment. You
have to show the earning power, both by what has been done
in the past and by what may reasonably be expected. But this
is not enough. Unless you can show some special advantage
which the organization which you seek to form will have over
other organizations that may be formed in the same way, you292
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
will find very great difficulty in making the combination. And,
on the other hand, the more certain and clear you can make
it appear that there will be special advantages, the more easily
and quickly will the combination be formed. If we change
the laws so that it will be impossible for some men to acquire
these kinds of advantages over others, we shall have removed
all, or substantially all, of the evils of trusts that are now
complained of.
What are the restrictions and the special privileges against
which commerce and industry now struggle so vigorously?
There are many of them, but substantially all may, I think,
be grouped, in the inverse order of importance, in the following
five classes:
Patent Monopolies,
Municipal Monopolies,
Transportation Monopolies,
Taxation Monopolies,
Land Monopolies.	‘
The policy of encouraging and rewarding inventors by the
grant of monopolies, openly avowed in the Constitution of the
United States, is the last distinct survival of a policy which
once had a very much wider application, and which, in every
other case, has been abandoned because it was recognized to
be unsound. At one time it was common enough to reward
public service of almost any kind by the grant of a trade
monopoly. Soldiers in war were tempted by the prospect
of such a grant and often got it as the result of a victory.
Statesmen were tempted and were often rewarded in the same
way for services to the state, or services to their party. Now
this is universally recognized to be an error.
The patent monopolies are supported by the argument that
they encourage inventions and development of the useful arts.
I do not believe that they really have this effect. On the
contrary, they cut off from us the opportunity to take imme-
diate advantage of the world’s inventions; they exert upon
many men an influence as baneful as the most corrupt lottery,
by tempting them from regular work and useful occupations;TOM L. JOHNSON.
293
and they interfere with what, in my judgment, is the natural
development of invention. Useful inventions come naturally,
and almost inevitably, as the next necessary step in industrial
evolution. Most of them are never patented, or attempted
to be patented. The patents that are granted interfere with
the natural development.
The simple remedy is to repeal the patent laws, which would
at once limit this particular form of governmental favor to
not more than seventeen years, being the life of the longest
existing patent.
If inventors must be rewarded, would it not be better to
pay them a bounty than to continue a system productive of
so much evil? We could measure accuratelv in dollars at least
the cost of the folly.
Consider next municipal monopolies. They consist of rights
and special privileges in the public streets and highways which,
in the nature of the case, cannot be possessed by -all the people,
and can only be enjoyed by a few. A constant struggle goes
on to obtain such privileges, with the result of wrecking and
retarding for a long time necessary public improvements.
Rival claimants not strong enough to obtain what they want,
often succeed in checkmating each other at the expense of
denying to the public needed advantages. Only a very slight
observation of, and reflection upon, the needs of people crowded
together in a city, as to facility of moving about, as to com-
munication, as to supply of water, as to supply of artificial
light, is needed to satisfy any candid man that such businesses
are in their nature monopolistic. In other words, they can
be best carried on, with the best results to the public, under
a single management and with a single consistent policy.
Where competition prevails in such businesses, almost invari-
ably the public service is inefficient and defective. Wherever
there is unity, the condition of things is much better. My
proposition on this subject is to enlarge the functions of munic-
ipalities so that the means of transportation, and communica-
tion, and the supply of water and light, shall be furnished by
public authority and not by private enterprise, and extend this
principle to its logical result of taking under public adminis-294
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tration all businesses which require the grant of any special
right or privilege. We have already started on this road,
and made considerable progress. In many cities the water
supply is a public business; in some cities gas and electric
light are manufactured and furnished by public authority; in
many cities of Europe and Australia street railroads are owned
and operated by the public. Why not go on in this direction
till there shall be no more private property in special grants
or franchises, and till all business requiring such grants shall
be carried on by the municipalities ? Under present conditions
the adoption of this policy would require the taking over by
the public only of the water, gas, electric light and power sup-
ply, the telephone and street railroads. The evils which a
great many people fear as likely tp arise from enlarging the
scope of the functions of municipalities, are trivial in com-
parison with the evils which are inseparable from the present
system. As long as the great rewards which these monopolies
offer to private enterprise are possible, your industries will
be hampered, your politics will be corrupted by bribery and
fraud, and your people will have to pay unnecessarily high
prices for these kinds of service, and they will be subjected
to daily and hourly inconvenience and vexation, owing to the
poor quality of the service. I would not advocate any dis-
regard of existing rights, or any confiscation of existing prop-
erty. It would be no violation of existing rights for cities
to erect their own plants and to compete for the business, as
they could readily and successfully do with the present private
owners. It would be no violation of existing rights for cities
to use their tax powers so as to compel the present private
owners to bear the same proportion of public burdens, accord-
ing to the value of their property, including franchises, which
owners of other kinds of private property have to bear. It
would be no violation of existing rights, where the power has
not been bartered away, for the cities or the states to regulate
fares and rates of compensation so as to make them yield only
a fair return on the actual investment made, rather than upon
a fictitious capitalization, based mainly upon franchises or
special privilege values. In short, municipalities ought notTOM L. JOHNSON.
295
to hesitate to do what private persons in business do as a
matter of course. They should respect the grants which they
have made according to their true limits, but, doing this, they
should take advantage of every right that is left to themselves
to get rid of the present system and substitute therefor a
regime of public ownership and operation.
The third class of trusts growing out of governmental favor
relates to transportation, chief of which is the railroad. While
there are other important forms independent of the railroad
and also forms that are the direct outgrowth of railroad favor,
such as special freight lines, sleeping car companies, express
companies and telegraph companies, yet I shall, for the sake
of clearness, restrict myself to railroads alone, being confident
that the principles that apply to them will apply to all classes
or subdivisions of this form of governmental favor.
The original idea behind the railroad was entirely different
from the idea attaching to it in common thought today, and
to the departure from this original idea I shall trace the evils
now complained of. It was at first simply the idea of pro-
viding a roadway or passageway—a highway—for vehicles
moved by steam, just as there were then roads or highways
for vehicles moved by horses. It did not provide for exclu-
sive use, but for general use, subject to a charge or toll, just
as charges were made on some horse roads. But seeing the
advantage of exclusive use, the companies building these steam
highways, by means of heavy or discriminating tolls or by
other methods, prevented general use, stopped competition, and
made themselves the sole users. Thus rail or steam roads in
the United States, instead of becoming what they were intended
to be as the term applied to them, “public highways,” indicates,
became private highways.
And what has been the tendency of these private highways ?
Sixty years ago railroad building began in the United States,
each road separately organized, with its own officers and its
distinct interests. But separate interests melted into common
interests, and many small companies formed into single large
companies, and one set of officers effected economies that grew
out of concentration of management and combination of effort.296
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
This centralizing movement has within the past decade pro-
ceeded so fast that now substantially the whole railroad busi-
ness of the United States is under the control of a score of
men. The multitude of little roads has given place to com-
binations, which in turn must soon—very soon—give way
practically to one system controlled by one man. This is a
natural process. Concentration means greater economy in
operation and greater public facility, and must occur wherever
railroad development is given free play under present condi-
tions, whether under private ownership as we have here in
this country, or under public ownership as we see in continental
Europe and Australia.
But let us anticipate the end of this present and perfectly
natural tendency. We must see the appearance of the one
directing mind, the kingpin, the dictator, the supreme mon-
arch in the railroad world. If present railroad princes are
giants among magnates, this man will be a Titan, a Gulliver
among Liliputians. Indeed, compare in your mind’s eye the
powers of such a man with the powers of the President of
the United States. Who would command more men? Who
receive the larger revenues? Who have the larger pay-rolls?
Who have greater control of the pockets of the people? In
short, whose favors would be the more courted? One might
distribute honors by the appointment of foreign ministers,
judges, etc., at small pay, but who would appoint most men
at $50,000 salaries? Which then would have the dominant
power—the man representing the people, or the man repre-
senting privilege; the one voted for by men, or the one voted
for by shares of stock? Can Inter-State Commerce Commis-
sions prevent it? Why, railroad owners themselves cannot
prevent it, for it is in the natural order under present condi-
tions. If government control failed before railroads were
consolidated, what can it do after consolidation is perfected?
If discriminating rates have worked such evils on trade in
the past, what must be their effect in the future? If railroads
have hitherto controlled legislation, what will they do when
all their power is vested in one man?TOM L. JOHNSON.
297
We see the evil of this form of government favor. What
is the remedy? Socialism, which has for its aim the destruc-
tion of competition and would put all production and distri-
bution in the hands of government, would seek the cure in
government ownership and operation. The philosophy of the
natural order, which would promote competition and place as
little power as possible in the hands of the government, would
seek the remedy in throwing the steam highways open to gen-
eral use. No wonder that socialists point to railroad centrali-
zation under present conditions as the greatest standing indict-
ment of competition, a colossal example of its utter failure,
and say that competition having broken down, the only alter-
native of present railroadism is governmental ownership and
operation. Among all grades of socialists, from the emi-
nently respectable ones who see in foreign competition the
evils they would prevent by a protective tariff, down to the
much-abused trade unionists whose central motive is to pre-
vent competition of other laborers, the core thought is that
competition is the over-mastering evil; while we of the natural
order recognize that these evils flow from a denial of com-
petition and demand 'simply the abolition of governmental
favor as the source of the evil. They condemn the natural
order of competition; and we condemn privilege, a law-made
advantage.
Is not the simple, easy, practicable remedy to be found in
going back to the original conception underlying the rail-
road—to make a really “public” highway for private trans-
portation companies or individuals to use? In making the
highway public property, should we not destroy the essence
of present monopoly power in the railroad, the power to exclude
competition? With the states owning the roadbeds and the
cities owning the terminals, and no favor shown to any trans-
portation company, but free play being given to competition,
would not the public get the maximum of service at the mini-
mum of cost? What harm then could come from discrim-
inating rates to shippers where any number of transportation
companies were competing over the same highway for traffic ?
Would not this establishment of the conditions of freedom to298
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
individual enterprise do more than the most severe state or
interstate regulations in fixing rates? Indeed, this is the only
plan which ./ill establish competition from all points to all
points. It would mean just plain freedom! And what could
be better for all men and for all legitimate and normal busi-
nesses than freedom ?
This is not a proposal for an artificial condition. It is in per-
fect harmony with the natural order, and in absolute accord
with the rule of public practice on almost every other kind of
public highway that we have now or have hitherto had. The
underlying principle is today and has been to make the path-
way a publicly owned and controlled way, open to all on equal
terms, whether absolutely free or subject to toll. And the
end to strive for in the railroad problem is to open such road-
ways to as equal use by all who desire to use them as exists
on public country roads or streets, on rivers, canals, lakes and
the very ocean. And just as there are police regulations for
the use of the streets, and sheriff regulations for the use of
the country roads, and other regulations pertaining to the
navigation and condition of vessels on the rivers, canals or
other bodies of water open to public use, so on steam high-
ways there would be necessary regulations, as, for instance,
in the dispatching and signaling of trains. But the fixing of
rates could be safely left to individual competition, as on the
other highways.
What should be the steps in making the change from private
ownership of steam highways to public ownership? Exactly
the same methods apply here as have already been suggested
for the acquisition of municipal monopolies. The tax power
should be used rigorously so as to put railroad property on a
level with other taxable property. The power to fix rates
should be used so as to reduce profits to a fair return on the
actual investment of capital, excluding fictitious capitalizations
based on franchise or special privilege value. This would
leave all the value that of right does and ought to belong to
the railroad companies. Then attempts should be made to
buy all their property, exclusive of rolling stock, which latter
they would, however, be free to use in a competitive businessTOM L. JOHNSON.
299
with others over the then public highway, which they had
hitherto treated as their exclusive and private highway. An
alternative plan would be for the government to build steam
highways and open them to general competition.
This but returns to the original conception of the railway,
and indeed to almost every other form of highway, such as
country roads, streets, turnpikes, canals, rivers, lakes and the
ocean, in which the public owns the way and on which to
private enterprise is left the business of transportation, subject
of course to control and direction by public officials, differing
as they do in each form of highway. Just as under govern-
mental regulations, government inspectors license pilots and
engineers on our water highways, so under governmental regu-
lations, government train dispatchers would license conductors
and engineers.
And just as toll bridges are giving way to free bridges,
and toll gates disappearing from turnpikes and canals, so in
pursuit of economy, the minimizing of the numbers of govern-
ment officials and the removals of temptations to fraud, should
the steam highways be open to use without charge, the expense
of maintenance being made a public burden, as is the tendency
to treat all other public highways.
It may seem that all governmental favors have been embraced
by the three classes of monopoly that we have now considered.
But there is another class, which, though not so clearly seen,
is more far-reaching, more disastrous in its effects upon the
general community; namely, that class of monopolies growing
out of conditions created by the local, state and national tax
systems. This form of governmental favor is not only the
chief source of advantages enjoyed by'corporations, but has®
as well conferred monopolistic powers upon vast numbers of
individuals and combinations of individuals.
At the outset it will be admitted that any taxes of what-
ever kind are unjust that fall unequally—heavily on some and
lightly on others; and I shall endeavor to show that all pres-
ent taxes of whatever kind do fall unequally, whether from the
nature of the taxes themselves or from the manner in which
they are laid or are shifted from some to others; or from all300
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
these reasons. And because I believe this, I can draw no other
deduction than that our whole present system of taxation, from
its nature or administration, tends to produce governmental
favors, is to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of oth-
ers. I shall not attempt to make any close examination of con-
ditions or any exhaustive argument based upon this, but must
content myself, with presenting a few suggestive illustrations.
Consider first the tariff taxes. So much has been said by
protectionists and free traders for and against this form of
governmental favor, that we can afford at this place to be brief;
but it is quite significant to note in the opposition to trusts the
number of protectionists who now advocate placing on the free
list all trust-made articles, which proves how little truth there
was in the claim frequently made that competition within the
tariff wall would regulate the prices charged by protected man-
ufacturers. We free traders, however, go much further than
this. We advocate the total abolition of all tariff taxes, not
only because of the advantages given by them in the absence of
foreign competition within the United States, but because as
a means of raising revenues for government support, they fall
most heavily on those least able to bear them. When the
amount that each citizen must pay for the support of govern-
ment is measured by what each consumes, it can have no other
effect than to result almost as a per capita tax. Consider how
lightly so-called luxuries are taxed compared with the staple
necessaries of the poor, and consider the proverbial differences
in the size of families, and you will see that it is well within
truth to assume that nine-tenths of tariff taxes are borne by
that nine-tenths of the people whose incomes amount to onfy a
•few hundred dollars a year.
This great inequality of burden is quietly borne by the people
because tariff taxation is indirect and cannot be plainly seen.
But if national revenue were raised by direct payment from
the citizen to the government, such inequality of burden would
not be tolerated for a moment.
State and local taxes are more direct. They are levied on
the value of the property of the citizens, and notwithstanding
poor administration, fall far more equally. They attempt toTOM L. JOHNSON.
301
measure how much each shall pay on the value of what he has,
rather than on what he needs. And yet with what very great
injustice is even such taxation distributed between owners of
the same class of property! And what advantages, in com-
merce and industry, do the inequalities give to some over
others ?
Take the instance of the tax on mortgages. Though gener-
ally the same as on real estate, very little revenue is raised from
this source. Indeed, practically the only ones who pay it are
those whose estates are tied up in court, and in these cases
it usually amounts to half of the interest. Life insurance com-
panies, savings banks and non-residents are frequently ex-
empted from this tax, and they are thereby given a monopoly
of the loan business. In the State of New York alone the
accumulations of insurance companies and savings banks
amount to considerably more than $1,000,000,000, which may
be invested in mortgages. This immense fund is under the con-
trol of a few men in close touch with each other, acting on a
common policy, and in very many specific matters acting
actually in concert. This is one of the greatest trusts that ex-
ists. Those who control the funds are practically free from
competition of individual investors in mortgages; and the
result is, as they themselves concede, that the average rate of
interest which the freedom from competition enables them to
exact is from £ to 1 per cent higher than would be the case if
mortgages were not taxable. Glaring as this illustration is of
the evils of the mortgage trust, illustrations of the same kind,
if of less degree, might be given without number from the tax
laws of the different States.
And the tax on personal property generally has been found
impossible of collection, except from the same small class who
pay on mortgages, and such as pay on stocks of goods and the
few things that are difficult to conceal.
The tax on buildings and improvements falls with much
more weight upon small and inexpensive houses and improve-
ments on small farms, the value of which the assessor can
more accurately guess at, than upon the large ones, which
he usually much under-estimates. There is, moreover, a great302
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
disparity in taxation between what is supposed to fall on land
and what on other things, and also a great difference between
the burden that one land owner bears and that which another
bears, being in no proportion to the relative values of their
lands. Probably the relatively highest tax on land falls on the
small home owner and farmer, while the most valuable city
lots and land held for speculation generally pays a much
smaller rate. But the smallest tax relative to value falls on the
great mineral and forest lands and water privileges.
Railroad taxation furnishes another glaring example of
inequality. The tax rate in the State of New York is from
2 to 2| per cent, varying with the different counties.
As we have seen, the farmers and small home owners are
the ones who are relatively valued highest. It is claimed that
the general average in valuation of real property is about 60
per cent. Yet, assuming the railroads of the State to be valued
at 60 per cent of the market value of their securities, it will be
found that they pay less than four-tenths of i per cent in taxes.
This discrimination in favor of railroad property is almost
universal in the United States. In the State of Michigan,
under what is called a specific tax on earnings, it is even greater
than in New York. The reason for this is that large interests
make the most persistent efforts to shape or dodge the pay-
ment of their fair share of taxation.
I have in the foregoing illustrations shown fruits of the
operation of separate governmental favors. I shall now offer
the manufacture of steel rails in the United States as present-
ing a case combining all forms of governmental favor. Early
in the development of this line of industry, a number of com-
panies purchased the Bessemer patents which, under the patent
monopoly, gave them the exclusive right to use that process in
the manufacture of steel behind a tariff wall that in turn gave
them an opportunity to demand an abnormally high price for
rails. Development under this line finally led to the acquisition,
not only of the mineral lands containing the best and most
conveniently located ore deposits besides the most conveniently
located coal fields from which the best quality of coke couldTOM L. JOHNSON.	303
be made, but also the acquiring of railroads and harbor facil-
ities most available for the assembling of raw materials.
So long as they possess the monopoly of the natural ad-
vantages they can, notwithstanding the expiration of patents
or even the reduction or abolition of the tariff, still control this
industry. And they will continue to possess this monopoly
of natural advantages so long as discriminating taxes allow
them to go almost free of their share of the tax burden. If
they paid on these natural advantages in proportion to the
amount paid by farmers and small home owners they would
find it unprofitable to withhold more land than they had actual
need of and would thus open up the way for competition.
Incidentally I might say that two concerns today make a
very large part of all the steel rails and steel products manu-
factured in this country, and as one of these concerns is still a
partnership, it proves that the trust evil does not attach solely
to corporations. I should also observe that the steel rail trust is
not alone in possessing more than one form of governmental
favor. There are many trusts like it, and from this lapping of
privileges arises much confusion in the public mind as to the
nature of the evil elements in trusts and how that evil can be
cured.
The foregoing hasty considerations may perhaps indicate
why it is that I have reached the conclusion that all our tax
laws, whether local, state or national, produce trade condi-
tions which are promotive of trust evils and adverse to the in-
terests of the people. Suffice it to say that I should substitute
for it a system that would exempt from taxation everything of
whatever nature except natural advantages, and on natural ad-
vantages I should place the entire burden of taxation.
My belief is that the entire revenue for the support of gov-
ernment should come from one single source, namely, the value
of land. In other words, I should raise national, state and local
revenue by means of what is known as the single tax, which
defined by Henry George in his own words, is as follows:
Single Tax: A term which has come into use since 1887 to denote
the proposal, theory, or movement which aims at the collection of
all public revenues from one single source, what in political economy
is termed ‘rent,’ the value of land itself, irrespective of the value of304
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
any improvement in or on it; or, to adopt another form of statement,
a proposal or movement which aims at the appropriation of economic
rent, the ‘unearned increment of land values,’ to public uses, by means
of taxation.
In substituting for the existing multiplicity of taxes, levied
primarily for the support of government, a single tax on nat-
ural advantages, we give a death-blow to the greatest of all
governmental favors—the real mother of the trusts—land
monopoly.
For the reason that land bears little burden it can easily be
monopolized, and that the monopoly is growing closer and
closer is shown in the fact that from a condition where the peo-
ple of the United States at the beginning of this century were
almost all land owners, not one-fifth of the bread winners today
own land. The percentage of landowners is smaller in Phil-
adelphia, “the City of Homes,” while in New York City not 6
per cent of the inhabitants own land. The showing is worse
in the British Isles, where tendencies have had a longer time
to work, 150 persons owning one-half the area of England and
thirty-five persons more than one-half the area of Ireland.
What should we do to bring about these suggested changes
which we conceive to make for the higher civilization? We
should clearly express the wrong we are trying to right and
throw our influence with the political party that tends in that
direction. Our end will not be reached at once by any sudden
change. It will come gradually, by abolishing one by one these
governmental favors and establishing the natural order.
While we have been discussing only trusts, the remedies here
suggested will solve the labor problem as well, for it is govern-
mental favors such as we have seen that force men into an
unnatural competition with each other for the opportunity to
employ themselves; whereas the opening up of nature’s store-
house to laborers will so multiply opportunities that wages
will naturally rise. For just in proportion as monopoly takes
less of the product of labor, there will be more to divide as
interest to capital and as wages to labor. The demands of priv-
ilege work against men in two ways. They create conditions in
which production is lessened, and of this smaller production,Nober Gottleib.	William N. Osgood.
Alex Del Mar.
Geo. W. Beeman.	Chas. I. Stewart.EX-GOV. JOHN P. ALTGELD.
305
they take a constantly increasing share. Do you then wonder
that we of the natural order see in the evils of trusts conditions
that in good times force willing men into idleness, in bad times
cause the strike, the lockout and the army of unemployed, and
at all times work to produce the pauper and the tramp ?
Chairman Lockwood, in introducing John P. Altgeld, ex-
Governor of Illinois, said :
Chicago is a great city; it has a great Auditorium; it has big
men and big women, mentally I mean.
There is a man within her borders whose name is a house-
hold word in the homes of the common people of this great
land. Every true lover of human liberty and equal rights
glories in his deeds and doings.
A man who as Governor of Illinois dared to stand against
the encroachments of corporate power upon the rights and lib-
erties of her people; a man who as Governor of this great com-
monwealth was big enough and broad enough and brave enough
to do justice, and to do justice in that hour in the face of the
prejudice of that day, required a courage that was sublime.
Yes, my friends, future ages looking backward will recognize
that the nineteenth century produced some great men and great,
if not greatest, among them was the man that I now have the
honor of introducing to you, John P. Altgeld, of the United
States of America.
ADDRESS OF EX-GOV. JOHN P. ALTGELD.
The progress of man is one long struggle for independence—
a struggle for freedom, a struggle to get out of the power of
other men.
No matter how well intentioned the wielder of the power
may be, the person over whom it is wielded cannot reach a
healthy development or enjoy the full measure of existence in
that condition. Lincoln expressed a fundamental truth when
he declared that no man was good enough to govern another.
The principle underlying it all is that when a man is in the
power of another he cannot reach his highest estate.
In the domain of the intellect, all systems which placed oneANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
30 6
set of men in the power of another set, were failures—absolute
freedom was necessary.
In the domain of religion absolute freedom was found to be
the only healthful condition.
In the domain of government mankind came up through all
manner of experiments in the way of limiting power and pre-
venting its use, but these systems were all failures.
Finally, it was recognized that absolute political freedom
was the only true basis for the organization of human society.
Vast indeed have been the experiments at regulating power
and preventing its abuse, but they all failed. Especially is this
true where the few rule the many, for as they do not share
the experience of the many, they do not understand them, and
are not so quick to perceive injustice. Where the majority
governs, this rule is reversed, the majority may be a tyrant,
but under it all fare alike.
In our country we have established intellectual and polit-
ical freedom. We refuse to recognize a king in either of these
domains. Every man is his own master and as to matters that
are too big for the individual, he stands on exactly the same
footing with every other man. Two forces only are recog-
nized—the individual and the collective force. But while we
have abolished kings and established independence in the three
fields that formerly limited man’s activities and swallowed up
his life—we now find that we have kings in new fields—we
have private monopolies that have more to do in determining
happiness and misery than did the kings of yore. These new
kings have arbitrary power in determining industrial, financial
and social status and they are spurred on in a constant effort
to lower that status because they are supposed to personally
profit by every step.
Manifestly there could be no more objectionable power than
a power that controls the bread we eat, the clothes we wear
and the roof we lie down under at night. It is clear that our
intellectual religious and political freedom will avail us little if
we are to have industrial and financial slavery.
We find that in many fields competition has entirely failed
and ceased to exist, Whether in the long run this is for theEX-GOV. JOHN P- ALTGELD.
3° 7
better or the worse we need not now inquire. In the whole
domain of public utilities, such as supplying water, gas, electric
light, street railway service, etc., there is no longer competition,
but monopoly in the hands of a few individuals.
In all of these cases if the people got the benefit of the monop-
oly it would be a blessing because the monopoly can cheapen
production and improve the service. But so long as the monop-
oly is in the hands of a few individuals, the public is absolutely
in their power.
The web and the woof of modern society is transportation.
Communities are no longer independent as they once were,
but are all interdependent. Yet transportation, which is both
food, raiment and shelter, is controlled not by the public, whose
life depends on it, but is controlled by private monopoly, a
monopoly that has the public absolutely in its power, and as
yet there has been no exception to the rule that when men have,
power they use it.
Not only is the public in the power of the transportation
companies, but these companies practice discriminations where-
by they build up a few mighty interests and destroy the smaller
shipper.
Substantially every manufactured article that is of prime
necessity to our people is controlled by a trust which can
arbitrarily fix prices.
The method of forming a trust is simple. All or nearly
all of the establishments engaged in manufacturing the same
line of goods are placed under one management. This man-
agement then has a monopoly of supplying the market and can
raise prices at pleasure. Even if it lowered prices, it is evident
that the principle is bad, for the public ought not to be in
the power of any set of men.
The first step is to discharge all traveling men and all the
bright high-salaried men who are. necessary in a competitive
business, but are not needed by a monopoly. This effects a
saving in the cost of production, and were it to stop here it
might be said that it was in harmony with the spirit of the age,
and the discharged men must seek new fields, but under this
system there are no new fields, and the young man who for-30S
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
merly could look forward with hope now finds nearly all ave-
nues of advancement closed to him. The men controlling the
trust simply do what men always have done, that is, exercise
their power. They arbitrarily mark up the price of goods at
pleasure, and the public is helpless. The statistics show that
almost every manufactured article used by the American peo-
ple has during the last two years been arbitrarily marked up
from 20 to upward of ioo per cent. This is the natural result
of monopoly. You ask, have not wages advanced in the same
proportion? Unfortunately not. In the great majority of the
industrial establishments of America there has been no advance
in wages—more men are employed, but the wages have not
been advanced. A small number of establishments have ad-
vanced wages io per cent, a smaller number 15 per cent, and
only a few 20 per cent, while they advance the price of their
goods about 100 per cent, so that as a rule, out of every $10
raise in the price of goods, the trust got $9, where the labor got
$1. Yet the cost of living has been increased for the labor from
one-third to one-half.
It is claimed that nearly one-half of our people are directly
or indirectly connected with agriculture, and must sell this
product in the open competitive markets of the world while
they with all others are now forced to pay monopolistic prices
for all they buy and for carrying charges. It is manifest that
this must exhaust them and lower their social status, and as
they sink all interests dependent upon them must also go down,
while on the other hand there will be built up a few mighty
fortunes. At present blood is being sucked from every pore of
American industry, and is congested in the fever poisoned
veins of monopoly.
The people who do the country’s work, who build our cities,
operate our railroads, till our farms and run our machines—the
people who make the land fit to live in—are being devoured, and
we are enthroning a few men who have no religion but greed,
no garb but mammon and no flag but the dollar mark. But
haven’t we now the greatest prosperity ever known? Among
the trusts, yes; among the stock gamblers, yes; among those
who eat the bread of other men’s toil, yes; but among the peo-EX-GOV. JOHN P. ALTGELD.
309
pie who are doing the country's work, I say, emphatically, no.
The present prosperity is like the malaria in the south—it ex-
ists in the next county, but never where we are.
While the municipal monopolies, the transportation monop-
olies and the industrial monopolies have their hands directly
in the pockets of the people, the great financial trusts stand
back of the others and devour the substance of the nation.
Curiously enough, while the financial manipulators in all
countries and in all times insist that the government can do
nothing by legislation, they are forever getting legislation, for-
ever debauching and controlling government for the purpose of
shaping financial policies.
They have succeeded in our country in getting the govern-
ment to surrender one of its important functions of sovereignty,
namely that of issuing money or issuing that which shall pass
current as money. This great function so vital to the welfare
of a people should be vested only in the whole people, but here
it has been turned over to the manipulators.
If there were no other objections to trusts and monopolies
than those I have named, it is clear that we must rise up and
destroy them or be devoured. But the evils we have com-
plained of are among the least. The collateral evils are worse
than the direct ones.
First, they do not bear their share of the public burdens.
Let me cite a few out of hundreds of examples. The following
corporations have their home office in Chicago and pay no taxes
on their capital stock. As they have but little tangible prop-
erty listed by the assessor, they practically escape taxation:
Worth
Capital. in Market.
Chicago City Railway (South Side) .$12,000,000 $30,000,000
Chicago Edison Company................. 5,000,000	8,000,000
Chicago Telephone Company.............. 5,000,000	10,000,000
North Chicago Street Railway.........	7,920,000	17,300,000
Peoples’ Gas Light & Coke Co.........	4,000,000	4,000,000
Pullman Palace Car Company........... 36,000,000	65,000,000
West Chicago Street Railway Co.... 13,189,000	14,000,000.iJu	AN l l-TKUST CONFERENCE.
The combined stock of these seven companies is worth in
the market about $150,000,000. They should have been as-
sessed by the State Board of Equalization, but were not. They
are not assessed one cent. They pay taxes on only an insig-
nificant amount of tangible property. Every man who has
looked into these matters knows that this condition is due to
bribery.
Second—They insist on controlling the preacher in the pul-
pit, the editor in the sanctum and the professor in the lecture
room. They cow independence and destroy free thought and
free speech. They suppress the truth and cultivate falsehood,
and with a vulgar swagger they seek to dominate all business
and social affairs.
Third—Looked at from the standpoint of good government
we see that the sneak thief uses sleight-of-hand, the burglar uses
a jimmy, the highwayman uses a pistol and the corporation uses
a bribe. The methods differ, but the principle is the same, and
if the evidence taken before numerous tribunals, the verdicts
of numerous juries and the decisions of numerous courts are
to be credited, there is one mighty trust in this country which
in a long career of law-breaking has not only used all of the
above mentioned methods of crime, but has resorted to the
anarchistic weapon of dynamite.
Fourth—The systems and the practices which the corpora-
tions have brought in vogue destroys the families of the men
who profit by them, and thus society in the end suffers from
the destruction of a portion of its members.
The world has finally noticed that dollars that are tainted
with injustice, dollars that are tainted with fraud, dollars that
are tainted with moral leprosy and dollars that are tainted
with blood all rot down and destroy not only the men, but the
families that have them. The declaration by Jehovah that the
sins of the parent shall be visited on the child was not a mere
figure of speech, but an epigrammatical statement of a great
natural law.
Nobody ever saw a prosperous sneak thief or highway rob-
ber. If there were no court to restrain him he would still rot
down. The corporation manager, by reason of being moreEX-GOV. JOHN P. ALT GELD.
3*1
brainy, may last longer, but the same immutable law overtakes
him and his family. The poison of the tainted dollar gets into
the blood and produces first the flush of fever, and then rots
down the family that has it. This is noticeably true of the
great fortunes in our country and in our city today.
Nearly all of the abuses we complain of today can be traced
to special privileges. The gas companies, street railway com-
panies, transportation companies, trust companies of various
kinds—all have special privileges. They have charters author-
izing them to perform some function which puts the public in
their power, while -if the public had performed this function
itself it would have remained independent.
Government cannot delegate any of its powers to private
individuals without giving these private individuals an ad-
vantage over other citizens.
A corporation is a creature of law and possesses some func-
tions that belong to government, and should not be delegated.
It possesses the element of perpetuity, which man hath not, and,
besides special rights and privileges it has the capacity to con-
centrate power which the citizen has not.
Therefore, the corporation ordinarily is more powerful than
the citizen, and in some cases becomes even more powerful
than the government. Manifestly the principle is wrong.
At first it seemed that if the privilege of forming a corpora-
tion was open to all it did no injustice. But this is a mistake;
only men with capital can combine in this way—therefore, it
gives them an advantage which others cannot avail themselves
of, and just in the proportion that power is concentrated by
means of a corporation do the men who control it have an
advantage over other citizens, and just in that proportion are
the other citizens in its power.
We are told on all sides that we must have legislation; that
the government must a<^t.
Some say, “Let the State act.” Others say, “The federal
government must act.” Still others say, “Lee both act.” With
charming impartiality the trusts play one against the other.
When the Federal government is invoked they cry, “This is a
State matter.” Strange as it may seem they then insist onANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE,
312
State’s rights. But when a State does act, then they find some
convenient Federal judge who holds the act unconstitutional.
This is the uniform history. Nearly every State in the Union
has acted, but all State efforts have been futile.
As .in all great crises, no single solution can be offered in
advance. Experience and new developments must dictate the
successive steps. But if the determination is there, all obstacles
will be overcome. Our forefathers could not tell in advance
that they would fight at Bunker Hill or Yorktown. They
knew they would have much tribulation; but having determined
on their independence they established it. We will have tribu-
lation, but if we once determine to have industrial freedom,
we will establish it. What we need is the earnestness of 1776,
1861 and 1896.
There is no question but what the tariff is the mother of
some of the trusts; it builds a wall around the country and
keeps foreign goods out. This makes it possible for the home
manufacturers of any articles to put all their establishments
under one management, and thus have the people at their
mercy. Break down that wall; let foreign goods come in, and
the trusts will have to reduce their prices so as to compete for
business. In all such cases it is manifest that the abolition of
the tariff would give relief.
Charles A. Prouty, a member of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, in an article published in the current number of
Annals of the American Acadamy of Political and Social
Science, says:
Freight rate discriminations are the most potent' factors in the
establishment and continuance of great combinations of capital at
the present time. It may be doubted if a single one of those monopolies
which have fastened themselves upon the country in recent years
could have done so in the face of absolute equality in the freight rate.
He then points out the untruthfulness of the declaration
made by the Standard Oil magnates that they get no discrim-
inating rate. He explains the subterfuge they resort to and
then he adds: “I desire to emphasize the fact that such dis-
criminations do exist, and that they absolutely shut out the
small shippers.”EX-GOV. JOHN P. ALTGELD.
313
You remember that the Interstate Commerce Commission
was created about fourteen years ago by Congress for the ex-
press purpose of regulating freight rates, protecting shippers,
and especially to prevent unjust discrimination on the part of
the railroads.
But the railroads would not submit to the rulings of the
commission. They got the Federal courts to interfere. They
got first one Federal judge to pull a tooth out of this law, and
then another Federal judge to pull another tooth out of it until
finally they have made the commission impotent. Generally
the railroads got their friends appointed on the commission,
and were able to control it, and whenever they could not control
it, they got a convenient court to neutralize its action. The
commission has indeed collected many volumes of evidence,
showing discrimination and violation of the law, but it could
give no relief.
And now, after the commission has drawn its salary all these
years, comes Mr. Prouty and practically tells the world that the
commission is a failure, that the efforts to prevent discrim-
ination on the part of the railroads have been abortive and that
these discriminations are now creating and fostering trusts and
crushing out the little shippers. This is the result of the at-
tempt at regulation by the general government, and in this
connection we may add that almost every state in the union
has attempted by means of commissions, and in other ways, to
regulate railroads, to prevent unjust charges and unjust dis-
criminations, and the result in these cases has been the same
as in the case of the national commission.
Every time a state commission attempted to do anything,
some Federal judge held its acts to be unconstitutional. Twenty
years ago regulation was the popular remedy. It has been
tried and has proven an utter failure. Generally the railroads
control the commission, and where they cannot do that they
simply ignore it.
We are slowly discovering that the principle is wrong, that
in government, as in nature, the greater force will control the
smaller force, but doesn’t a commission represent the govern-
ment, and is not the government greater than all corporations ?3M
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Well, not when the corporations control the government, and so
long as man is selfish, so long as personal advantage silences
conscience, and shapes conduct, just so long will the corpora-
tions control the government.
The mistake lies in permitting a force to be created that is
powerful enough to control the government, and the remedy
must aim, not at regulating, but at wiping out this force.
For centuries the world has tried to regulate and control
kings, but the result is unsatisfactory; and it is found that the
only correct principle is absolute freedom.
We are slowly discovering the fact that to have kings in
finance, in industry or in transportation, and then attempt to
regulate these kings is a failure.
Recently some prominent educators, who dare not frighten
away prospective donations, have discussed trusts, and recog-
nizing their great evil, have offered a remedy. And what is the
remedy? A higher ethical standard. Let the trust be good,
or let the king serve the Lord, and long live the king. But the
world tried that for thousands of years and always with the
same result. This remedy must fail, because monopoly by
private individuals cheapens manhood and lowers ethics.
Monopoly is the mother of corruption; independence builds
character. The correct principle is to have no king. What,
then, should we have? Just two forces, individual effort and
collective effort. Let there be no intervening force too strong
for the individual and responsible to nobody while it exercises
special privileges that place the citizen in its power.
What about enterprises that are too great for the individual ?
Let the collective body perform them. Then each individual
will get the benefit of a monopoly, instead of being the victim
of a monopoly.
How about the corporations already in existence? Repeal
the laws under which they were organized. By degrees their
charters will expire, and if any are oppressive monopolies con-
demn them. Let the public take them and pay for them. They
are entitled to the protection of the law, while they exist, and
the public which allowed them to be chartered and built up,
must make compensation when it takes them.EX-GOV. JOHN P. ALTGELD.
315
- Fifty years from now the statesmen and the students will be
astonished at the idea that the American people gave to some
private individuals charters which, in the end, placed the people
in the power of the men who held the charters. Now, let us
return to the railroads. Their unjust discriminations build up
and foster trusts. Regulation has been tried and failed. Then
what is to be done? Are the American people helpless? Let
us see. The government now carries the letters of the small
shippers on exactly the same terms that it carries the letters of
the big shippers, but here the parallel ends. Now, if it would
carry his goods on exactly the same terms that the big ship-
per gets his carried on, then the little shipper could again do
business, and these trusts that are now sustained by railroad
discrimination would go out of business. Of course, concen-
trated capital would still have many advantages, but these
would be partly offset by the personal attention to details which
the small dealer can give his affairs. Most of the governments
of the world own and operate the railroads. They don’t go
through the expensive farce of trying to regulate them. As a
result, the people get their railroad service for about one-half
what we have to pay. All are treated alike; one interest is not
built up at the expense of others.
The idea of government ownership of railroads is not new.
It is already old. It is not radical, but is following the most
conservative people in the world. If we were to adopt govern-
ment ownership it would not only wipe out a lot of trusts and
give small dealers a chance, but we would wipe out powerful
lobbies and corrupt machines, and our people would get back
their government. It would restore republican institutions.
“But,” says a good man, “are you not afraid of the patron-
age? Could you ever unseat an administration if the govern-
ment controlled all the railroads ?” Well, let us see. Do you
believe it possible for the government to coerce its men any
more than the corporations coerced their men in 1896? Why,
the government employes in the mail and other service were
comparatively free, while the corporation employes were
treated in the most infamous manner. If a government official
attempted to practice brutal coercion he could be prosecuted,3io
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
and not only sent to jail, but dismissed from the service. But
when a corporation official does this, you are helpless.
Again, the corporations now contribute millions of dollars
to carry elections, and then get it back with a thousand per cent
profit from the government in the form of special privileges,
contracts and other advantages; whereas, if the government
owned the monopolies it could not spend a dollar for this pur-
pose. But if the government took the railways it would be
obliged to adopt some such merit system as now prevails in the
postal mail service. Business necessity would compel this, and
the railroads would not be such powerful political machines as
they are now.
But have not the trusts furnished the capital that has devel-
oped our country? Just the opposite; the county has furnished
them with capital. As a rule they have given the country noth-
ing. The men who control the trusts today are, as a rule, sim-
ply manipulators. They have simply taken what other people
have created. They have built up nothing and created nothing.
Jay Gould did not build railroads; he stole them. J. Pierpont
Morgan did not build railroads; he simply helped to bring
about financial conditions which enabled him to buy other peo-
ple’s property at 30 cents on the dollar.
The great industrial establishments of today were not built
up by the trusts. The trust simply gobbled them. The men
who run our country today are not captains of industry; they
are simply manipulators.
Analyzed still more clearly we find that capital did not give
us our industrial establishments in the first place. It was labor
that did if. The greatest shops in the land started as little con-
cerns, and the owner relied on the workmen to furnish the
means for a gradual enlargement. The busy hive inside did it.
But let us assume that the trusts have given us our civiliza-’
tion. It does not follow that we must keep them. Institutions
are made for man, and not man for the institutions; and insti-
tutions must change to meet the new needs of man. Even if a
king was once desirable, as soon as man reached a point requir-
ing complete freedom the king had to go.JOHN J. LENTZ.
317
We have reached a point where man’s progress requires a
broader freedom, and the industrial transportation and finan-
cial kings must go.
Is there, then, hope ? My friends, the insolence, the swag-
ger and the tyranny of the trusts augur their speedy downfall.
Louis XIV, in his pride and in his arrogance said: “The
State; I am the State!” At that time the men and the women
who were doing the work of the kingdom were eating grass in
the field; their degradation was indescribable; while at court a
royal splendor concealed extravagance and debauchery.
But the grave of the king had scarcely grown green when the
men who were doing the kingdom’s work rose in their might
and said to a successor of the proud king, “Nay, sire, we are
the State.” They pulled down the ensigns of royalty, and the
world saw the head of a king roll from the block.
Today the trust stands in every public place of America and
not only sucks the blood of toil, but insolently lays its polluted
hands on everything in church or state that is either vital or
sacred to our people. But ere long the men and the women
who are doing the work of the land will rise up and say : “Nay,
sire, we are still the State.”
ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN J. LENTZ.
I shall not impose upon you for more than ten minutes, as it
would be presumptuous at this late hour for me to undertake
to add anything to what has been said here tonight. I might
only disturb your thoughts and take away from you the privi-
lege of carrying home a sufficiency of philosophy and political
economy to keep you busy for weeks.
You are well aware, however, that there is no end to the cat-
alogue of trusts. I am somewhat surprised after hearing
from all these distinguished gentlemen that no one of them has
seen fit to mention the trust of all the trusts—the trust of in-
formation—the telegraph and the telephone. You talk about
universal education! I say to you, that in this age when Sen-
ator Hoar, for instance, could introduce a resolution on a greatANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
318
public question, and when five papers out of six in the capital
city of Ohio could suppress and conceal from their readers this
resolution, it is high time that the people be awakened to the im-
portance of some system and some method of getting the facts
to the voters of this great republic. [Applause.] When the
amateur Senator from Indiana introduced his resolution it
was published in all six of the papers. [Laughter.] But when
Senator Hoar, who for more than forty years, with all the lights
of history and learning of Massachusetts about him, who stood
arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder with Abraham Lincoln;
who is probably as wise in statecraft as any man in the United
States, spoke on the highest question before the people—the
question of imperialism, the question of our international rela-
tions—five papers out of six concealed what he said, and a mere
sophomore statesman walks into the Senate with a declamation
prepared for him, and that is given to all the world!
Talk about universal education! It would be far better if
you would close your schools and colleges, and let the men and
women and the boys and girls sink back again where they
would sign their names with a mark, than to have them edu-
cated by the subsidized press of today on public questions.
We are becoming a government of commissions, but the great-
est commission is the commission of the Press Association,
which decides what is good for you to hear and what is evil
for you to hear. [Applause.]
Do you know that if you had the same system of carrying
news over the wires by the use of electricity that Tom Johnson
has used in street railways in the cities, you could send a mes-
sage of fifty words from Chicago to Indianapolis, or from Chi-
cago to Boston, or Boston to San Francisco, for 10 cents, just
as you pay a nickel on the street railway ? Why not have your
telegraph message, going fifty miles or five miles or 3,000 miles
for 10 cents. The government could give you that and you
could exchange messages of friendship, you could carry on
your business, you could carry on your social communications,
you could have what Benjamin Franklin must have dreamed
of; you could have all of the power and influence of this en-
lightened age at your finger tips if you would use the postalJOHN J. LENTZ.
319
telegraph and postal telephone. You need swifter means of
communication, and after you have got your telephone and
your telegraph under your fingers then you will be ready for
the initiative and referendum; but so long as you are being
fooled by the press, five-sixths of which is giving you a false-
hood instead of the truth, or which is concealing from you
the daily events, it will be better not to have the initiative and
referendum, because you will have no more means of righting
the wrong than the poor animal in the cage that is always bit-
ing the wrong end of the stick which you are poking at it, be-
cause it doesn’t know enough to bite the hand that holds the
stick. It is easy enough to say you can educate the people
on public questions, but the people first must have a monopoly
of information.
But, my friends, I said I would not ask you to stay at this
late hour—[Cries of “Go on.’’]
You know “where there’s a will there’s a way.” If you want
to get a man to talk, keep on saying “Go on.” I want to say to
you, however-, that where there is a will there is a way for the
people to get rid of the thing you call trust. I know it took our
friend Mr. Jones a long while to find out there was a trust,
and it may take us a long while to. find out how to rid ourselves
of it; but I want to say to you now, that while you talk here
about railway monopoly, while you talk about this and that
monopoly, the government at Washington is preparing at this
very hour to increase its standing army. Probably the bill
will not be brought in, but there will come in a bill for a mam-
moth appropriation. Two or three years ago we appropriated
about $23,000,000 to $25,000,000 for the standing army, but
you will find a bill coming from the military committee room,
of which I am a member, within a few days, that will ask, in
round figures for $125,000,000 for army purposes, $100,000,000
more than you have been in the habit of paying. You cannot
defeat it, because the trust ridden, boss ridden majority in the
House, with the President and his patronage stick over them—
a wand more powerful than ever held in the hand of king or
despot—will force them to vote for this bill, no matter what the
minority may say in opposition to it. You are in the very jaws320
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of a large standing army. In fact, these public meetings on a
number of different public questions have temporarily, I think,
deterred the army reorganization bill, and it will probably be
laid away until after the November elections. But if
the people stand by the party of monopoly that bill will come
out, and next winter, as sure as two and two are four, you will
have a Congress and Senate—and if, I say, the policy of the
President is pursued—it will saddle upon the necks of the
people a standing army of 100,000. That is the policy, and we
are not the first Republic that has saddled upon itself its own
burdens. I want you to understand, my friends, that before
you get rid of the government that we have got now at Wash-
ington it will require every one of you to become a campaigner,
every one of you to educate the people. [Applause.] Or else
you will have a monopoly something like that which England
is trying to exercise now at the point of the bayonet and the
sword—appropriating, not simply what you produce by taking
it from you in the shape of taxes, but absolutely appropriating
the whole country together with the people themselves; as they
are undertaking with the Boers in the South African republic.
Why go on with this policy educating your people falsely,
telling them a part of the truth and concealing the rest ? It is the
very worst kind of an education that a man can have, and I
want you to awaken yourselves to the necessity of the govern-
mental ownership of the postal telegraph and telephone, so that
in every postoffice—whether in the most remote school dis-
trict or township in the United States, you can reach a relative
or business man, and within an hour transact any
amount of business. Why should it take three or four days
to communicate on a business proposition between Chicago and
New York, when you could do it all in a forenoon or do it all
in an afternoon? Why not close these transactions at once?
Why not avail ourselves of God’s sunlight as it comes to us in
the shape of electricity ? It is simply a matter of ignorance of
detail, and sooner or later, unless we monopolize for the ben-
efit of the whole people the avenue and the instrumentality of
information, you will never rid yourselves of the trusts concern-JOHN J. LENTZ.	321
ing which the gentlemen have spoken so ably and so eloquently
tonight. [Applause.]
Mr. Depew, at the Republican national meeting in
Washington a few weeks ago, said that they could express
their next platform in two words, which would be simply the
words “Gold and Glory.” There never was a king from
the days of the beginning of man down to the present that has
not been in the business of using “Gold and Glory” as his cap-
ital in trade. It is the property, it is the fortune of despots—
“Gold and Glory.” Think of a platform of that kind!
No, my friends, the Republican party turned Mr. Monnett
out of an office because he would have been useful to the
people—Monnett, Frank Monnett, of Ohio, in the Repub-
lican convention last summer, with 813 votes, couldn’t get one
of them for Governor of the State; and in the Republican
convention of 813 votes I think succeeded in getting
28 for Attorney-General. And yet he was the best equipped
man in the United States to be Attorney-General of the State
of Ohio.
There is an old French saying something like this: “Show
me with whom he goes and I, will tell you what he is.” Show
me now whom the Republican party is going with and I will tell
you what it is. This is a non-partisan meeting, you understand.
I don’t want you to forget that. [Laughter.] But Mr. Monnett
is here as a non-partisan now and I am talking about Monnett,
and I want you to do a little bit of arithmetic for me. If
Mr. Monnett, after being a good and faithful public servant
for four years, fighting one trust, could not get one vote out of
813 votes in a Republican convention, how many would he
have received had he fought all the trusts ? Served the people
four years, fought one trust, and out of 813 votes he got 28
votes to go on as Attorney-General of the State! Flow many
more years would he have to serve them to get 407 votes for
Attorney-General ?
Our friend Jones is telling the truth when he says that polit-
ical parties are in the hands of a political trust. What trust?
The same trust against which these gentlemen are complaining,
the money trust. One trust in New York City gave to one322
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
national campaign committee $6o,ooo, and to the other party
$50,000—gave the Republicans $60,000 and the Democrats
$50,000. That trust was saying, “Oh, good Lord; Oh, good
devil.” I don’t know which was Lord or devil in its mind, but
it did not know into which hands it was going to fall. I want
to say to you that every dollar that that trust so contributed to
the two parties was a criminal fund, and they knew it. It was
the purchase price of the cheap political hirelings ready to do
the bidding of that trust, no matter which one happened to go
into power at Washington. If you in the State of Illinois
want to begin, if we in the State of Ohio become intelligent
enough, or in the State of Indiana or Iowa, to put upon our
statute books a law which will make it a crime to solicit or con-
tribute campaign funds, which will make it an absolute crime
for a dollar to be spent by any individual for an office, or by the
friends of any individual who is seeking an office, you will
begin at the bottom and you will begin where Solomon taught
us that the love of money is the root of all evil.
You say this is visionary. Is it visionary? Don’t you pay
your judge on the bench? Don’t you pay your court? Don’t
you pay your jury in most of the States? Why isn’t this a part
of the system of free government? Why shouldn’t the State
pay all the expenses of the election? It now pays for the
judges in Ohio, pays for the clerks, pays for the printing of
the ballots, it pays for the voting booth. What more is there
needed for an honest man to cast his vote. Why should not
the State out of its treasury pay, and each county
by the county commissioners, pay a reasonable sum
for the printing of literature on the part of either party,
and immediately make it a crime for any individual to con-
tribute a dollar. Then your City Council and your Board of
Aldermen would not be owned by your municipal trusts; then
your State Legislature would not be owned by your State trust;
then your National Legislature would be under no obligations
to your national trusts. And when you begin at this infernal
almighty dollar, the love of which is the root of all evil; when
you eliminate the privilege of spending a dollar for any pur-
pose by a private individual seeking office, you will removeBANK CURRENCY RESOLUTIONS.	323
one of the greatest sources of crime in American politics today.
This is not visionary.
I have talked longer than I ought to, longer than I intended.
[Cries of “Go on.”] No, I shall not go on, but I want to fin-
ish Mr. Depew’s idea of “Gold and Glory,” and then I will
say good night. I want to write the political platform of
the party that thinks the platform in America should be “Gold
and Glory,” and make it another set of “G. & G.’s” and instead
of “Gold and Glory,” put in that platform “Greed
and Gluttony.” If you want any more G’s in your platform, I
would add another one—remembering that the Standard Oil
bank recently put a pipe line into the United States treasury,
and when you have a secretary of the treasury helping them
in the night to lay that line, I would add a third “G” to that
party platform, and I would say, “Greed, Gluttony and Grease,”
the platform of the party of Hanna and the trusts. [Applause
and laughter.]
MORNING SESSION, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14.
At 10 o’clock a. m. Chairman Monett called the convention
to order. The programme was preceded with two songs by
Professor A. E. Hatch, of Shannon City, Iowa, known as “the
blind parson.”
Judge W. B. Fleming, of Kentucky, presented the following
preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted
by a rising vote :
RESOLUTIONS OPPOSING BANK HONOPOLY OF
THE CURRENCY.
Whereas, There has been passed by the House of Repre-
sentatives a bill known as the Currency Bill, which bill is now
pending in the Senate of the United States; and,
Whereas, By said bill and by the Senate amendments, it is
proposed by law to extend further special and exclusive priv-
ileges to favored classes; and,324
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Whereas, Said bill and amendments, if enacted into law,
would:
(1)	Relegate to the National Banks the governmental right
to issue currency.
(2)	Bestow an immense bonus upon the bondholders.
(3)	Give a bounty of at least five hundred millions of dollars
to the National Banks.
(4)	Demonetize silver dollars and all government paper
dollars.
(5)	Make all debts heretofore contracted, and hereafter to
be contracted, payable in gold.
(6)	Place it in the power of the money-holding and money-
lending class to contract the currency at will and to possess
themselves of the property of the people at pleasure.
(7)	And, in short, enthrone the Money Oligarchy, establish
a universal Bank Trust, enslave the people and destroy the
Republic, to the end that Free Government shall perish from
the earth; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That this Conference hereby utters its most solemn
protest against this most infamous measure; and be it,
Further Resolved, That the Chairman of this Conference
be, and he is hereby, instructed to appoint a committee of seven
or more members to prepare a protest and memorial against said
Money Monopoly, and who shall be requested to go to the
capital of the nation for the purpose of presenting this protest
to both Houses of Congress and to the President of the United
States; and,
Be it Further Resolved, That we warn the people of the
United States against this new menace to their liberty and call
upon them everywhere to meet together at their court houses,
in their school houses and other public places, and there thunder
their protest against the most audacious, dangerous and op-
pressive law ever presented to a legislative body by a set of
conspirators, who, in reckless disregard of the public welfare,
would defy the will of the people.PROF. JOHN R. COMMONS.
325
Upon motion of Mrs. Helen M. Gougar the secretary was
directed to telegraph the action taken, together with a copy of
the foregoing resolutions to the Congress of the United States,
which was done.
The committee appointed to bear to Congress the protest of
the convention against the passage of the Trust Currency Bill,
is as follows:
THE WASHINGTON COMMITTEE.
• Committee appointed to go to Washington to present resolu-
tion on currency bill: W. B. Fleming, Hon. William Sulzer,
Hon. George Fred Williams, Hrs. Helen M. Gougar, Hon.
E. R. Ridgeley, Willis J. Abbot, T. Carl Spelling, Judge Will-
iams Prentiss, Gen. J. B. Weaver, J. R. Sovereign, W. H:
Harvey, J. B. Romans, J. W. Wilson, Hon. John J. Lentz, Col.
M. C. Wetmore, Hon. C. A. Towne.
PATRONAGE OF NON=TRUST PRODUCTS.
RESOLUTION OFFERED BY H. B. MARTIN.
The following resolution was offered by H. B. Martin:
“Resolved, That the members of the Anti-Trust Leagues
shall give practical effect to their antagonism to trusts by
giving preference in their patronage to non-trust products,
as far as possible.”
The resolution was adopted after some discussion.
The Chairman then introduced Prof. John R. Commons, of
the Bureau of Economic Research, New York City, as the first
speaker of the session.
ADDRESS OF PROF. JOHN R. COMMONS.
There are two ways of suppressing trusts. One is to sup-
press the effects. The other is to suppress the causes. The
trust itself is an effect of deep seated causes, and we cannot
suppress it while the causes remain.326
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Suppose Congress was to pass a law prohibiting a trust from
doing an interstate business. Hitherto such a law could be en-
forced because it applied only to contracts between two or more
corporations. Now, that stage is passed, and all trusts are
bona fide corporations, as much so as any corporation organized
in fifty years. We might repeal the corporation laws, but that
is hardly to be considered. Consequently, the only way to pro-
hibit trusts is to suppress some corporations and not to sup-
press others, because by the word “trust” we now mean a
manufacturing or mining corporation which is a monopoly.
Now, it is impossible to suppress a monopoly corporation as
long as men are permitted to organize corporations at all, or
are permitted to buy or sell property. There is no definition
of a monopoly in manufactures that will hold in court. You
can define a patent as a monopoly, or a corporation holding the
right of eminent domain as a monopoly, and it will hold in
court because a patent controls ioo per cent of the product, and
an eminent domain franchise is a definite legal privilege. But
no manufacturing corporation controls as much as ioo per
cent of the product in its line. Even the Standard Oil controls
only 85 per cent. An arbitrary line must be drawn somewhere.
Suppose it to be placed at 75 per cent. As soon as a corporation
reaches that point it will split into dummies, each controlling
less than the legal limit. Or it will consign its goods to middle-
men. To suppress trusts while their causes remain will only
make jobs for smart lawyers to find evasions, and they will be
found.
It will also force the trusts into politics. A federal com-
mission, with power to declare that one corporation is a monop-
oly and another is not, will compel the corporations to control
that commission. The National Government will be reduced
to the position of many city governments, which are controlled
by the gas and street-car companies through the bosses of both
political parties. Congress will become a board of aldermen,
and a national boss will run each party.
If, instead of attacking the trusts directly in their effects we
attack the causes, there will be no evasion and no corruption".
The first cause is the bank monopoly. In New York City thePROF. ■JOHN R. COMMONS.
327
banks and trust companies have practically formed a trust,
through consolidations, interchange of directors, and intimida-
tion of the smaller. The Standard Oil Company is the organ-
izer and backer of this combine. Through railroad discrimina-
tions it ruined its competitors in oil. Through bank discrimi-
nations it is swallowing the other trusts. Credit is the very
breath of life for modern business. The bank monopoly dwarfs
every other monopoly because sooner or later it can depress
their stocks and force them to sell. Having gotten the bank
monopoly, every other corporation is eager to have a Standard
Oil man on its board of directors. He has more influence than
the entire board, for he controls their credit and the credit of
their competitors. The greatest railroad in the world welcomes
a Standard Oil director to its board. The Tobacco Trust with
a Standard Oil director recently forced an independent tobacco
manufacturer to sell because he could not get credit from the
banks. There is no remedy for this threatening monopoly
except federal control of the volume of money under a board
of directors representing all commercial and business interests.
Such natural control would substitute government money for
bank money and would render the present use of government
deposits harmless. It would make it impossible for the great
trusts to deny credit to competitors who are creditable.
The second cause is freight discriminations. Formerly these
were secret. Now that the trusts have become powerful, and
some of them have directors and stockholders in the railways,
they are coming out in the open and are framing railway tariffs
which openly discriminate. In 1874 there were twenty-four
articles in the Trunk Line classification in which the carload
rate was less per 100 lbs than the part-carload rate. After the
interstate commerce law was enacted this was raised to 900
articles. The differences on the 900 were 15 per cent to 40 per
cent. Beginning January, 1900, the part-carload rates have
again been raised, and the carload rates 4eft as they were, so
that now the small shipper pays 66 2-3 per cent more than the
large shipper, where formerly he paid 15 per cent to 40 per cent
more. In certain shipments of petroleum the difference is as
high as 280 per cent.328
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The discriminations against the small shipper were declared
unreasonable in 1890 by the Interstate Commerce Commission,
and the roads were ordered to reduce them. But the roads
never obeyed, and now they have gone still further in dis-
obedience. Uniform freight rates are as necessary as uniform
postage rates. Rockefeller gets no rebates on postage stamps.
If he had to send his oil by mail there would be less charity
but more oil. Freight rates should also be more nearly equal-
ized for distances. The long-haul rate is a discrimination
against the remote producer just as the less-than-car-load rate
is a discrimination against the small producer. The manu-
facturer of silver trinkets sells his goods by catalogue as cheaply
in California as in New England. Why should not all manu-
facturers be placed on this level? The trust then could not
coop up a small competitor in a limited area and sandbag him
by putting prices below cost in that area, while making monop-
oly profits over the rest of the country. The small competitor
could sell anywhere nearly as well as the trust, and the trust
would sandbag itself if it had to lower prices everywhere.
Uniform freight rates would reach the same result that Prof.
Clark of Columbia University aims at when he asks for a law
compelling trusts to sell their goods at the same price to all
purchasers in all sections of the country, but it would avoid the
petty interference and the impracticability of his proposition.
Besides freight discriminations the strongest monopolies
are found in the mines and quarries where the raw material
is limited in quantity. If anthracite coal mining were as free
as wheat raising there could be no monopoly. It would be
nearly as free if the great mine owners were prohibited from
holding mining lands idle. If they had to pay a royalty of
fifty cents per ton on the probable output of coal in their idle
land, as well as fifty cents per ton on the actual output from
their productive land, they would keep only as much land as
they could operate. .They would then be compelled to keep
down prices in order to keep out competitors instead of keeping
land idle in order to keep them out.
Lastly, trusts fatten only in countries with A protective
tariff. They always sell cheaper to foreigners than at home.WILLIAM N. OSGOOD.
329
J f they are a blessing they should begin at home. A lower
tariff on trust goods, with protection on industries fiot yet
developed, will prevent this kind of extortion.
The only direct legislation necessary to control trusts is fac-
tory legislation and that which fixes a minimum wage for
employes and protects employes from blacklisting and intimi-
dation. Otherwise the remedies for trusts which strike at their
causes and not at their effects are free credit, free railroads,
free land and free commerce. “Free” does not mean gratui-
tous. It means free to all on equal terms. It means equal
opportunity.
The Chairman now introduced William N. Osgood, of
Massachusetts, as the next speaker.
ADDRESS OF WILLIAM N. OSGOOD.
In the scriptures we read, “Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth,” and also, “But the meek shall inherit
the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
peace.”
If these words contain a great truth, economic as well as
divine, it does indeed seem strange that after the lapse of cen-
turies of preaching so little apparent progress has been made
in the realization of that truth. Yet a moment’s reflection will
explain the reason for this. In this age of organizations it is
especially true that mere words or precepts accomplish little,
unless followed by united action.
Individually, the meek, submissive, industrious and much
suffering members of society are in fact weak, but when they
combine in large numbers, as they ultimately must, into a vast
organization or army, actuated by the single purpose of secur-
ing the greatest good for the greatest number, and determined
to extend natural opportunities to all producing and law-
abiding citizens to enjoy complete liberty and happiness, and
to delight themselves in the abundance of peace, they will
practically demonstrate the truth above referred to.
It is manifest that the time is at hand when laborers and330
ANTI-TRUST conference.
capitalists of moderate means must form a political alliance to
comb^ a common enemy. They have begun to think together
and must act together. They lack only co-operation to produce
a political and social revolution. I mean, of course, a peaceful
and rational revolution. Unless a common organization of
some character is formed by these two factors of production,
a violent and sanguinary social disturbance is in store for us
or those who shall follow not far behind us.
In the past the political strength of the American citizen
has been a source of weakness. He has been too proud and
too conscious of his presumed liberty, and has labored under
the fond delusion that he was a king, because he possessed the
sovereignty with a few millions of other citizens. This notion
has made him as a unit in society weak and powerless. By
reason of his self-reliance and fancied independence he has
isolated himself and has become the easy prey of his organized
enemies. While he slumbered, complacently dreaming of his
security, his rights have been stolen from him. No wonder,
then, that he is beginning to be convinced that the only way
to regain those rights is to oppose the powerful combinations
of his foes, with combinations of still greater magnitude and
power composed of the people' themselves.
There are indeed two classes of citizens who favor the
trusts—the promoters, for obvious reasons, and socialists, for
reasons not obvious. The socialists imagine that the trusts
are doing their work. If that is true, may Heaven prevent
them from doing it! '' Xbe socialists say that trusts are a
natural evolution of modern industrial conditions, and are a
living demonstration of the practicability of socialism. It is
unquestionably true that trusts are the result of modern com-
mercial methods. That, however, proves nothing, unless those
methods are right. Trusts are strictly unnatural and artificial
creations. They are made by law, not nature. They are the
evolution of the evils, and not the possible benefits, of corpora-
tions.
If trusts are permitted to continue, will co-operation on a
grand scale, as claimed by socialists, be the result? Certainly
not. Co-operation means a community of profits for theWILLIAM N. OSGOOD.
331
employer and the employe.-'1 Trusts do not favor this. There-
fore, socialists ought to be the most violent enemies of trusts.
Trusts tend to weaken, not to strengthen, the employed.
They tend to divide our citizens into two permanent classes,
and but two classes—the employers, the trusts themselves, and
the employes—or, in other words, into unfeeling masters and
hopeless serfs. Can civilization be said to be advancing, or
the public welfare subserved, when men are perpetually
branded as belonging to a degraded class, from which neither
they nor their children and their children’s children have any
possible hope of graduating? Degraded in education, and
without ennobling aspirations, they would subserviently vote
as their masters dictated or lose their occupations. If black-
listed, where would they secure new employment?
What chance would any employe of a trust representing the
combined millions of any particular business have of ever
becoming an employer? What chance has a capitalist of a
half a million dollars against a trust of $100,000,000? What
will happen after a complete consolidation of all businesses
into trusts, and all the people shall have been divided into two
permanent classes, with hostile interests? Is it safe for our
plutocratic friends to gamble that the American people can
become so degraded and servile as to entirely forget the Decla-
ration of Independence and the underlying principles of our
institutions? The time will come when all dependent upon'
trusts will pause and unitedly reflect upon their wrongs. Then
the meek will become potent and demand the earth and the
fullness thereof as their rightful inheritance. They will forci-
bly, if need be, reclaim what they will consider theirs by
natural right and.the gift of Providence.
I do not believe that even socialists desire to witness the
terrible bloodshed and enormous destruction of property that
might follow.
The people could not then peaceably obtain possession of
trusts. They would not have the means. They would not even
have the moral courage to attempt it. The socialists them-
selves would have to join with others in the community and
forcibly overthrow the trusts.332
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Trusts artificially monopolize business and determine prices.
They destroy normal competition and the action of the funda-
mental principles of business. They decrease the opportunities
of gaining a livelihood, reduce' file purchasing power of wages
and the standard of living, throw armies of employes of all
grades out of employment, drive men out of business into
the already crowded ranks of the employed and blight the hope
o^. youth.
Trusts, even if they economize in the production of com-
modities for the benefit of a privileged few, do so at the
expense of the liberties of the many. This assuredly is not
national economy. It is national extravagance and waste.
Trusts limit production and the employment of both labor
and capital. Unlimited production and the unlimited employ-
ment Qf labor and capital are natural conditions of human
activity.
We no longer face a labor problem, but a people’s problem.
Divided, the people are weak. United, they would be irresisti-
ble. One of two things is in store for us—destruction of the
trusts or destruction of liberty. Which will it be? Your
sons and daughters are anxiously awaiting the response.
In order to control trusts, therefore, the first thing that is
absolutely necessary is a comprehensive national organization,
composed of members from all classes in industrial, social and
even religious circles who are injured by the trusts. Nothing
can possibly be done without such an organization. For one,
I believe that the purposes of such an organization should be so
formulated as to invite the religious enthusiasm of those in
the country who believe in practical Christianity, and that
deeds are infinitely more important than preaching. If the
Sermon on the Mount does not contain good political doctrine
it becomes a mere rhapsody of words, a mere contribution to
literature.
: The second essential is to ascertain a line of action for such
an organization based upon a proper platform of principles and
proposed remedies.
Trusts cannot be destroyed by the application of a panacea
or single remedy. They are the results of a complication ofWILLIAM N. OSGOOD.	333
I
social and industrial evils, and the remedies demanded are in
like manner many and complicated.
There is comparatively little difficulty for a state so inclined
to prevent the organization and operation of trusts within
its own borders. (The evils of trusts are not confined within
the limits of the particular states incorporating them, but are
spread over all the states.^ There must, therefore, be an effect-
ive national remedy. It would seem that Congress has ample
constitutional power under the clause in the Constitution to
regulate commerce between the states, to enact adequate legis-
lation to limit the injurious effects of trusts beyond the bound-
aries of the states of their incorporation.
If Congress cannot do this under judicial interpretation,
then the Constitution itself might be amended so as to permit
the national government to levy a heavy direct tax upon all
corporations of excessive capitalization and engaged in in-
terstate commerce. This would certainly be an effective rem-
edy.
The proposed organization for conducting the crusade
against trusts should, as I said above, be national. It should
be incorporated and, like a fraternal insurance company, should
issue charters for the establishment of local branches every-
where. It should be non-secret and all its purposes should be
open and above board. No admission fee should be charged.
It-s expenses should be borne by voluntary contributions. It
should be, above all, a political and a non-partisan organization,
composed of patriotic and sympathetic members, ambitious
not to become leaders of the people, but their servants in the
best sense of that term. This organization should actively
engage in practical politics, indorse and strenuously work for
the election of candidates pledged to the principles of the
organization against trusts.
Among other things, it should labor for the better state
control of the means of transporting persons, the carrying of
commodities, the transmission of intelligence, the furnishing
of light, water, etc. In other words, for better public control
of public utilities, or those divisions of human activity which
are natural monopolies and which always were and are original334
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
functions of the state and which ought never to be delegated
to private management.
The land values or franchises of natural monopolies now
owned by private corporations or quasi-public corporations
should be taxed. The franchises of these monopolies in reality
consist of land or easements in land which escape taxation
because deemed intangible. Yet they are sufficiently tangible
to form a basis of bonds of enormous value eagerly purchased
by conservative investors. Private individuals are accorded
no such privilege of bonding their interests in land. They
cannot for business purposes borrow even the face value of
their property, while the quasi-public corporations can in real-
ity borrow double the face value of their property by selling
both stock and bonds and obtaining the use of the people’s
money in their business. The effect of conferring by law these
unequal advantages upon public monopolies is to defraud and
enslave our citizens.
Direct legislation is a weapon which should be employed by
the proposed organization in its battle against trusts, especially
for the purpose of locally controlling the operation's of quasi-
public corporations.
All tariff laws which enable trusts to sell their products more
cheaply in foreign countries than in our own country should
be repealed.
The proposed organization would be obliged to advocate
local state legislation as well as national legislation against
trusts when necessary.
Not the least important plank of such an organization
should be the establishment of a free public forum in every
town and city of considerable size in the country. A necessary
condition precedent to action in our crusade against trusts
is an aroused public opinion in our favor. I can conceive of
no surer way of doing this and being independent of the press
than by encouraging public discussion of public questions
in a public place, owned by the community and free to its
users.
In fine, the great end and purpose is to undo what the trusts
are doing—that is, artificially centralizing industry. The prob-WILLIAM N. OSGOOD.
335
lem in a word is to decentralize and delocalize private, not
public, business.yJPublic business and public monopolies should
be centralized as much as possible in the state or general gov-
ernment?') Private monopolies, on the other hand, should be
decentralized and destroyed, and the normal conditions of
trade restored. Under natural conditions of competition the
people would not have to organize themselves for self-protec-
tion, but under the present artificial conditions it becomes
absolutely necessary for them to form a sort of a trust of their
own to prevent the further advance of opposing forces.
The only requirement for membership in the proposed organ-
ization should be a pledge to favor at all times measures in the
true interests of the people and to assist in the election to
public office of avowed enemies of trusts and kindred evils.
The expenses of maintaining such an association would not be
large and some method of raising the required funds should be
devised which would disarm any criticism of an intention on
the part of anyone to secure any profit or pecuniary advantage.
All officers both in the parent association and in the local
branches should serve gratuitously, and be easily deposed from
office in the event of violating any of the principles of the
association. In addition it might be deemed advisable to
demand the resignation of any officer who should become at
any time a candidate for public office, to the end that the inter-
nal management of the organization, as far as possible, should
be retained in the hands of those who have no immediate per-
sonal ends to serve.
To confer an appropriate name upon this new organization
in behalf of the people is no slight task. The name should
be such as to appeal to the patriotic and fraternal instincts
of the common people. It might be called the Army of Liberty,
the Liberty Trust, the People’s Trust, the Order of the People,
or the Order of Liberty, and perhaps the Anti-Trust League.
A better name than any of these may suggest itself to you.
An association similar to the one I have endeavored to out-
line could be formed and within a short time enjoy a very
large membership. The people are ready to join a movement
against trusts.336
ANTI-TR
CONFERENCE.
This army of t^s people would indeed be composed of diverse
elements of the community, and would be a vast and stupend-
ous working body, ever prepared to battle in behalf of human
rights. It might assume a permanent character, and in future
years deal with other great questions in the interests of the
public. It should be sufficiently broad and liberal in its pur-
poses to allow its member's to be of any blood or creed, be they
laborers or capitalists. In fact, the members might hold a
great variety of political opinions, and belong to many different
economic schools. No harm would result from that as long
as all were honestly and sincerely intent on learning and apply-
ing the truth. Only the enemies of the public welfare, the
friends and promoters of the trusts, would be ineligible to
membership.
The reason why I have spoken as I have is because I under-
stand that this Conference is primarily convened for the pur-
pose of discussing and devising remedies to thwart the threat-
ened destruction of our liberties by these modern inventions
called trusts.
For one, I fervently hope that some concerted plan of politi-
cal action may be agreed upon by us, and that in consequence
new life and new energy may be imparted to all true lovers of
liberty in the land, and that when we depart for our homes
we may carry with us the inspirations of this Conference to
incite us to grand achievements in behalf of human rights.
The next speaker was Prof. Edward W. Bemis, of the
Bureau of Economic Research, of New York.
ADDRESS OP PROF. EDWARD W. BEMIS.
From the lists given in the Review of Reviews in June, 1899,
and in the United States Investor, December 30, it appears
that there are at least 610 existing industrial organizations rec-
ognized as trusts, with a nominal capitalization of nearly
$9>755»000>°00- Assuming that the bonds and preferred stock
represent actual investment and that the common stock has a
market value of one-third of its par value, and much of it sells
at par and above, the market value of these trusts and securi-W. A. Spalding.
E. J. Dean.
James R. Sovereign.
D. A. Petre.
John Ideson.Missing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageMissing PageOpposite Page
Missing in Printir
and Binding
Best Image
AvailableRev. C. H. Rogers.	John R. Commons.
Andrew E. Lee.
H. A. Jerauld.	Q. A. Smith.GENERAL WEAVER.
369
[Hisses.] The gentleman himself is in the position of the
lady who protested too much. I say to you, Mr. Chairman,
that every honest and unprejudiced delegate in this hall, every
newspaper reporter here, and every man in this nation who
has his eyes focused here can see without being told the hand
of the politician. [Hisses. Cries of “No, no.” A delegate:
I protest, Mr. Chairman, he is color blind. Another delegate:
■He is too pure for this crowd. Cries of “Sit down, sit down.”
“Order, order.”]
Chairman Monnett: The gentleman from Iowa rises to
a point of order.
Delegate from Iowa:	I want the privilege of asking a
question. The dictionary says a politician is one who under-
stands the science of government. Do you mean that kind of
a politician? [Great applause.]
The chair recognized General Weaver on a question of
privilege.
General Weaver :	I want every member of this confer-
ence now to be perfectly quiet. I make that request, as a dele-
gate myself, until Mr. Parker has made his speech. If he
does not talk right, we all understand that. We ought not
to interrupt him in any way. Let us hear him talk.
Mr. Parker, of Kentucky:	It may be, Mr. Chairman,
being a member of a political party that is in a great minority
in this country, and I am sorry to say because of the efforts
of some gentlemen like my friend from Kansas the minority
is getting greater all the time, that I allowed my zeal to get
away with my judgment. [Voice:	That is right.] Perhaps
I ought not to say what I think. [Laughter.] Now,
Mr. Chairman, the protest is made here that nothing
of a partisan character had been injected into this convention,
and yet the first night we met here we heard a long speech, long,
going a great deal over the limit, which was wound up with a
hurrah, in the interest of a certain political party. [Applause.]
Now, Mr. Chairman, I am sincere in my view. [Voice: “That
is right.”] I believe in the government ownership of railroads,
I believe in the government ownership of the telegraph, I be-370
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
lieve in direct legislation. Yes, I believe in government owner-
ship and operation of all those monopolies that oppress the
people—[Applause]—and I want to say more, I do not believe
in coming to Chicago and resoluting and then going home and
voting for a political party that is opposed to the things that I
advocate. [Applause.]
Mr. Chairman, I come today from a State in which this
political party which received this great ovation at the conclu-
sion of one or two speeches along these reform lines, dominates
politics and is against this move of ours, and I saw less than
two years ago the man who now occupies the Governor’s chair
of that State—[Voice: “Which one?”]—I saw him stand
before the people of Texas and hold up his right arm and say
that he would rather have that right arm severed from his body
than to see government ownership of railroads in this country.
Delegate:	Who was that?
Mr. Parker: Ex-Governor Sayers of the State of Texas.
And I want to say to you that I come from another State, my
home State, where I see a legislature overwhelmingly controlled
by that party which is to get the benefit of all this agitation
as I see it. A legislature overwhelmingly controlled by that
party and in which a bill for direct legislation was smothered
and prevented from passing, and election laws enacted that aim
a vital blow at the rights of every citizen of the State.
Judge Fleming: What I want to state to the gentleman is
that the statement he last made—namely, that Governor Sayers
of Texas, a Democrat, and the legislature of Kentucky, a
Democratic legislature, have both opposed this platform—does
not prove that this is not what we have asserted it is, a non-
partisan body. [Applause.]
Mr. Parker : I will answer the gentleman by saying that I
do not think that the remarks are at all applicable to the situa-
tion. The point that I am driving at, in my mind and Judge
Fleming’s as a fellow-Kentuckian, is this, that I do not want
any kind of a movement to bind me to a political party that
will rob any American citizen of his right to vote as he pleases,
to have that vote counted as it was cast, and to impose uponJO A. PARKER.	371
him a political voting-machine controlled by a corrupt body
of politicians. [Applause.]
Mr. Chairman, a stream cannot rise higher than its source,
and if you try to get your reform measures through a political
party which has its source in corruption and infamy, you are
going to make a failure of it. It has got to be. [Applause.]
Now, I may be indiscreet in saying these things. It may be
that because I am a reformer, it may be that because I am one
of the boys in the trenches and I have never rubbed up against
the Congressional velvet like the silver-tongued gentleman from
Kansas—^[Laughter and applause. Delegate: “I hope the gen-
tleman from Kentucky is not envious.”]—that I don’t under-
stand the little easy way of evading the plain, blunt questions
like these politicians do.
It may be that in speaking the sentiments of my heart I am
too plain and blunt, but I want to say to you, gentlemen, that
when I raise my voice in protest against any movement, evert
as high as this great reform movement when it is under the
domination of these great political parties, I am willing to run
the risk of censure, if I do it. We heard the statement here
the other night that if the Republican administration were an
honest administration, and if it would execute the laws of
this nation, that it would break up the trusts under the law
passed in 1890, but that eloquent gentleman who had pleaded
for Tammany Hall while he was arraigning the Republican
administration for its infamy didn’t tell you that a Democratic
administration served under the same law and did not do any
more than it did. [Applause.]
I want to say another word in conclusion. It may be that I
have put myself, through my enthusiasm, in an attitude here
to be criticised, but I hope I will be forgiven for that, but I
want to say to you gentlemen that if you think you are leading
the people you are very much mistaken. [Applause.] The
people of this country are ahead of you. I want to say to you
gentlemen that down in the heart of the great plain people of
this country, whether they be nominally Democrats or nominally
Republicans, there is one great demand in this strife. It is not
for a scheme that will put them in the Democratic party. It is3/2
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
not for a scheme that will put them in the Republican party.
It is not for a trust scheme to educate them on questions that
they have already made up their minds on, but I tell you what
it is. It is for a man on horseback, it is for a brave man, it is
for a politician who is brave enough and man enough to throw
off all party ties and all party colors and stand for the mass of
the people. We are ready to reunite all the people of this
country. I say it as a Populist, and I say it, that every Populist
in this land is ready to reunite in an honest, sincere, independent
movement of the people. There are thousands of honest Re-
publicans ready for that, and you are never going to win
unless you get the Republican vote on these lines.
We are ready to reunite, and when you get a brave man who
will raise up a new flag and let us say, “We are a unit for the
people,” and get rid of this blind fealty to these fossilized
parties, we will let the Democratic and the Republican parties
go to the devil. Then you are ready to hear a responsive cry
go up from every hamlet in this land.
Now, if I have injured the feelings of any gentleman in
this hall by making that declaration, I humbly apologize for it,
but I hope when the time comes that these gentlemen who don’t
want to be called politicians will be brave enough, will be men
enough, to vote for my resolution and say to the world that “We
are men first before we are politicians,” and if anyparty in this
land has not got bravery enough and honesty enough to put
in its platform the things we want, we will be brave enough
and honest enough not to sell our energies, sell our lives and
help that party to win.
Judge William Prentiss :	We are not here to advocate
the cause of any political party. We are not here to denounce
any political party. We are here to provide ways and means
to crush if we can the monster that rides over all political
parties. We are not here to condemn Tammany Hall or to
defend her. We are above all halls and parties. We are
here only for one purpose, and that is to fight the trusts. We
are not here preparing to pledge ourselves in any way or to
vote anything. The right to vote belongs to each individual.
I deny the right of any man or any set of men to say how IGENERAL WEAVER.
373
shall vote. [Applause.] I deny the right of any conference
or of any convention to say how I shall vote. That is my
individual privilege, and I am responsible only to my God and
my country. [Applause.] The gentleman from Kentucky
talks about individuals and individual rights, and yet his reso-
lution would pledge every man in this body not to do a certain
particular thing whether they wanted to or not—[laughter] —
would take away the right that each individual has. If this
convention or this conference has the right to condemn or say
they won’t vote for a certain political party, it has the right to
pledge everybody to say they will vote for a certain political
party.
Now, another thing. What we want to do is to go directly
to the people. That is what we want. Not through parties,
not through the newspaper, because we cannot get into the
newspapers. The purpose we have, I know it is the purpose of
my heart, and I believe it is the purpose of the overwhelming
majority of this conference, is to go directly to the people. Let
the people themselves get together and in their leisure talk
about this question of the trusts, where and how they can meet
the monster, make up their minds what is the right thing, and
if they do not then see a political party in existence that is
able and willing to cope with this question they can form a
new party if they want to. Whenever we start out to make a
new political party we start out to please the trusts. That is
what they want. They want the people to divide up into politi-
cal parties, and the more they can get the better for them.
What we want is for the people to study this question of
trusts for themselves, investigate for themselves, agree among
themselves, but act together as one man for the purpose, and
this monster will soon be destroyed. Whenever you divide up
into political parties and make more of them, unless they come
directly from the people you are injuring the very cause you
are seeking to promote. I thank you.
General Weaver : I do not wish to enter into any general
discussion of the merits of the parties that are before the
people. I am sorry that the matter has been mooted here at
all, but I do want to go right to the point suggested by Mr.374
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Parker’s resolution and back up those remarks, hurl them
back, that this convention is in the hands of a lot of politicians-;
“of the politicians,” he, says. Now, I want to show you that
there has been nothing of that kind in the conduct of this
convention. Mr. Lockwood selected the members of the Com-
mittee on Resolutions by and with the advice of such men as
he could get. Mr. Parker himself is a member of that Com-
mittee on Resolutions.
Mr. Parker: Not I.
General Weaver:	I know that Mr. Park, who was the
chairman of your middle-of-the-road party, is a member, and I
know that he attended the sessions of the committee, too, and I
know that Mr. Donnelly, who is a candidate in your party,
tentatively at least, was also a member.
Mr. Ignatius Donnelly : I beg leave to correct you. I
was not a candidate in any party. I was nominated by a frac-
tion of the party and I tendered them back their nomination.
General Weaver: I want to insist, Mr. Chairman, that I
am not mentioning this in criticism of Mr. Donnelly. It is
plain to Mr. Donnelly that I am only showing that he and Mr.
Park are National committeemen and members of the Commit-
tee on Resolutions, and that they attended the sessions of the
committee, and that they were perfectly satisfied with the plat-
form, and now I call upon Mr. Park and Mr. Donnelly whether
they ever witnessed any deliberations of any committee that
gave greater evidence of a desire to get together and do the
right thing for the American people. Now, Mr. Donnelly will
not deny that, neither will Mr. Park, and for a gentleman who
is a National organizer, at least an organizer under Mr. Park,
who is a member of this committee, to get up before this confer-
ence and say that upon reaching the convention he found it to
be in the hands of the politicians, when two of his most trusted
friends and prominent representatives of his political movement
were on the Committee on Resolutions and had as much to say
or the opportunity to say as much as any other members on the
resolution, and not only that, but they voted for the adoptionHELEN M. GOUGAR.
375
of that report of the Committee on Resolutions [Applause],
and now they come in here at the eleventh hour to undertake
to disturb the concluded counsels of this conference by injecting
the most radical partisan resolution that could possibly be intro-
duced into the conference itself. Now, Mr. Park, I will answer
your question, or try to. What was your question ?
Mr. Milton Park : I simply want to say that I have not
been put on that committee except on the nomination of some
member of this party.
General Weaver: Weren’t you put on the committee be-
fore there had been a session of this body?
Mr. Park: No, sir, I was not.
General Weaver: I will disclose one secret here as to how
the gentleman from Minnesota came to be upon the commit-
tee. He would doubtless have been selected, anyhow, but I
personally went, as Mr. Lockwood will avouch, and asked Mr.
Lockwood that Mr. Ignatius Donnelly be made a member of
the Committee on Resolutions, and I did it because we wanted
all phases and shades of political opinion to be represented on
that Committee on Resolutions, and there has been perfect
fairness, so far as I know, and I believe I know about as much
of what has been done in the management of this convention as
any gentleman here, and I say here in the presence of this con-
vention that I have never seen a more complete resignation of
every individual opinion and desire to the common welfare
than I have seen in the management of this conference.
[Great Applause.]
Mrs. Helen Gougar, of Indiana: Being a citizen without a
vote, I am necessarily without a political party, so I take the
privilege of making this motion. Inasmuch as the gentleman
from Kentucky has evidently accomplished his purpose to get
his words reported over the wires of this country, inasmuch
as in his estimation he is the only thoroughly honest outspoken
member of this convention, I move that we return him a vote
of thanks for his honorable presence and proceed to the reg-
ular business of the convention. [Applause.]376
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Judge Gannon : I was very much surprised when the gen-
tleman from Kentucky took the floor to attack the convention,
and as a citizen of Chicago I protest against the appellation
given to some of the delegates here at least, and that is that they
are cowards and afraid to express their opinion. I repudiate
it for myself personally, and I do not think that the gentleman
stands in a position to condemn anybody because of his polit-
ical preferences. I agree with him, insofar as that both polit-
ical parties up to a certain time had not done their best for the
interests of the people, both those who preceded 1892 and those
who followed 1892, but then a convention met in this same
city of Chicago that spoke as no convention ever spoke before
in behalf of the rights of men, when the gentlemen of the mid-
dle-of-the-road party bolted it and helped Hanna and the rest
of them who were the foes of the liberties of the American
people.
Mrs. Gougar has very well said that the gentleman imagines
himself the be-all and the end-all of this convention, reminding
me very much of the Irish soldier in the regiment who never
knew how to change feet, and when his captain said to him,
“There you go, Mulcahy, I would know you among a thou-
sand.” He says, “Your honor, they are all of the wrong step
but me.” [Laughter and applause.]
I was very much surprised both by the violence of the matter
and the manner of the gentleman in support of his resolution,
after the declaration had been read and laid on the table until
the resolutions had been presented. The whole house called
for the question, the substance of his matter passed, and then he
got up as if some great injury had been committed upon him.
Now, he comes from a State of brave men and beautiful wom-
en and good whisky [Applause], and judging by his remarks
today it would lend some color to the reason why certain
human targets are made down in that region with such fre-
quency and accuracy. He was here for a fight. I hope he is
satisfied. [Laughter.] All of us in Chicago are not averse to
a little shindy, and particularly any of them that happen to
be of my nationality. [Laughter.] With the greatest respect
for the gentleman from Kentucky, we desire to say that thereMAYOR JONES.
3 77
are gentlemen in this hall, Judge Prentiss and Captain Black
and others, who have made as many sacrifices for the people in
a social and a business way as ever were made by any member
of the Populist party, whether they come from Kentucky or
any other part of the country.
Gentlemen, I agree with what has been said so well by Gen-
eral Weaver, that this has been a remarkable convention, and
I would not dare to intrude my humble voice upon it except
that as a member of the convention I felt the indignity at-
tempted to be placed upon me by alluding to me as a coward
and as one afraid to express his convictions. I acquit the gen-
tleman of being a coward. [Voice:	“You don’t look like
one.”] No, sir, and I don’t act like one. No, and let us go
forward, and if perchance some other man than the man he
thinks we have in our own mind shall get the nomination and
shall work for all of these principles that he says he will work
for so heartily, we will support him with a heart and a will,
but I cannot sit down without saying that with all Mr. Parker’s
reading and all his knowledge of men he will travel a great
distance and live a great many years before he will meet with
the splendid manhood and glorious citizenship of William J.
Bryan.
Mr. S. M. Jones, of Toledo: Gentlemen, I feel very much
more at home in this convention just now than I have at any
time since I came. I believe in all of you more emphatically
than I ever did, because I know that notwithstanding your
protestations that you are a Democrat or you are a Populist
or you are a Republican or anything of the kind, you are just
people the same as I am, and I think that the most of you just
pass that Democratic and Republican business up when you
think the interests of the people will better be served by being
a man than by being a politician. [Applause.] If you don’t do it
openly you do it on the side, as was done in my city last fall
in a non-partisan campaign where we did not have any com-
mittee or any organization, where we did not have five
men of the office-holding classes, that were non-partisan.
Well, they were coming to me and saying:	“Old fellow, of378
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
course I am with you, but I have got to keep still,” and the city
Was carried non-partisan by 2,270. So, I think you are all non-
partisan, and I hope you will not pass any resolution to the
effect that this conference is non-partisan, but each fellow will
be true himself to the best that is in him [Applause], and adopt
the other resolutions as they stand as being the best that could
be gotten.
And now, then, I want to say a word about the real root of
the matter, the anti-trust trouble that is in us. I want to say in
all candor, and laboring under no excitement or fear of any of
the consequences, that any one of us who is in the business
(now let us get right down to fundamental principles), any
one of us who is in the business of getting private profit, is in
just exactly the same kind of a business as the Carnegie trust
was in that robbed the people of $21,000,000 last year. That is
the social arithmetic of our fellow men that makes 2 and 2
make 4 all of the time, and when we are ready to surrender
the business of getting private profits and using men as instru-
ments to make private profits, I think we can begin to talk
anti-trust.
Talking about corrupt politicians, they are no more corrupt
than the rest of us. The politician uses the government because
it is the most convenient tool he can use to make money out of,
and so the noblest and best thing we can do here—I am glad
this is an educational and not a narrow party movement, a
new party would give you the same result. With the old
machine how could you expect any other? Of course, the
strong man will land on top, I do not care what you label him,
and as far as I am concerned I have little respect for the little
red cards that you hold up here as bearing the evidence of your
servitude that you belong to somebody or somebody owns you.
[Applause.] Nobody owns me, and I don’t want to govern a
soul on this planet, and God knows I don’t want any one to
govern me. I think we are born to be free, and so I am happy
to leave this convention with the memory that this is an edu-
cational movement, and that this is a movement and a conven-
tion of patriots and not partisans, men who love their fellow
men and who are ready to sink themselves for the good of all.CONSTITUTION ADOPTED.
379
Delegate : May I ask you a question, Mr. Jones ? You spoke
about not caring anything for the red labels or card» carried
by the delegates to this convention. I would like my good
friend, Mr. Jones, to answer this question. Would it not be
easy for the monopolies of this city to pack this house and rob
the delegates of this convention of the fruits of their labor, if
we were not labeled to show to the world who we are when we
come into this convention ?
Mr. S. M. Jones, of Toledo: No, sir, I don’t care if they
labeled you with gatling guns you would not change your con-
victions any. [Applause.] There is no hope, my friends, so
long as we are ruled by a machine that is deliberately con-
structed for a sweating-out process. The government will be
run and operated and laws will be made and the government
will be run, for cash, as it has been, and this is the hopeful
sign of this convention, that it is an educational movement. I
am with you in that and everything.
Chairman Monnett : You are in favor of this resolution ?
Mr. S. M. Jones, of Toledo: Yes, sir, and I am with every-
thing that is for the education of our people, for our only hope,
my friends, is in the grand road of education, and I do not
want for myself nor ask for myself anything that I am not
doing my utmost to secure for you and everybody else. I want
no privilege from this convention, and for all this I say it is a
hopeful sign for this convention that this resolution indicates
that we are moving from the narrow conception of the divine
right of a party to govern the people.
Mr. Sample, of Minnesota:	The Committee on National
Organization have meditated, reflected, considered and dis-
cussed now for several days. They have brought a plan of
organization here, against which by the very divergence of the
discussion from that plan of organization it is manifest that
there is no objection of weight. It would seem that we should
do something. I move, sir, the previous question.
The motion for the previous question was seconded and
carried, and the report of the Committee on National Organi-
zation was adopted.38°
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Mr. Parker, of Kentucky: The question I wish to ask is, if
my resolution is not now in order.
Chairman Monnett :	In connection with your request I
stated that you could have ten minutes from the platform and
that I would recognize you as one of the speakers. I consid-
ered that resolution as offered not germane.
Mr. Parker, of Kentucky: There was a vote taken on that
resolution. I had called for a division. My point of order is,
that when a matter goes before a sovereign body of this kind
and goes so far that it goes to a vote and a division is urged, I
say, Mr. Chairman, that it cannot be ruled out of order.
ELECTION OF NATIONAL OFFICERS.
Chairman Monnett:	The next matter of business is the
election of officers under this resolution which you have just
adopted. What is the pleasure of the convention as to the
nominations. The committee has recommended the Hon. M.
L. Lockwood for president of the national organization. By
the adoption of this you have so recommended, but I think the
chair understands that he is not elected. It amounts to a nom-
ination.
Delegate: As a member of that committee, having a full
knowledge of the workings of the organization, it affords me
great pleasure to nominate the Hon. M. L. Lockwood, of Penn-
sylvania, for president. Mr. Lockwood was unanimously
elected as the president of the National Association.
Delegate : I rise to nominate Franklin H. Wentworth, of
Chicago, as national secretary.
Delegate : I rise to a point of order. The report recom-
mended certain officers, and you have adopted that report.
Now, if you are not satisfied with that, you ought to move to
reconsider the motion.
Chairman Monnett: If I am not mistaken, the commit-
tee’s recommendation is equivalent to a nomination. Then Mr,
Martin would also be a nominee.NATIONAL OFFICERS ELECTED.
38i
Franklin H. Wentworth, of Chicago, was thereupon elected
secretary of the National Association, and his election was
made unanimous.
C. T. Bride was nominated for treasurer and unanimously
elected.
W. B. Fleming, sole nominee for financial secretary, was
also unanimously elected.
Chairman Monnett: You are now to nominate a vice-
president from each state and the territories and District of
Columbia, and also three national executive committeemen.
As the secretary calls the roll of the States alphabetically, please
respond as to whom you have selected for your nominee.
After call of the roll the following were named by their
respective delegations:
VICE-PRESIDENTS AND COMMiTTEEHEN.
List of vice-presidents and committeemen nominated at the
National Anti-Trust Conference:
District of Columbia—Vice-president, H. B. Martin. Com-
mitteemen, A. M. Lawson, C. W. Slater and H. J. Schulties.
Alabama—Vice-president, E. Quincy Norton, Daphne. Na-
tional committeemen:	J. Bellangee, Fairhope; E. Demer,
Mobile; J. W. Ettel, Mobile.
Arizona—Vice-president, Colonel Lee Crandall, Globe.
Arkansas—Vice-president, E. W. Rector, Hot Springs.
National committeemen : J. O. A. Bush, Prescott; J. M. Coker,
Yellville; J. R. Sovereign, Sulphur Springs.
Colorado—Vice-president, David M. Campbell, Denver.
National committeemen: Thomas M. Patterson, Denver; I. D.
Chamberlain, Pueblo; J. H. Painter, Holyoke.
Florida—Vice-president, Hon. Wilkinson Call, Jacksonville.
Georgia—Vice-president, James Barrett, Augusta.
Illinois—Vice-president, F. H. Monroe, Chicago. National
committeemen :	Judge Alfred Sample, Bloomington; George
S. Bowen, Elgin; J. W. Wilson, Chicago; Hiram B. Loomis,
Chicago.
Indiana—Vice-president, George H. Koons, Muncie. Na-382
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tional committeemen:	Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, Lafayette; R.
A. Kaufman, Huntington; Charles E. Bryant, Attica; Hon.
Flavius J. Van Vorhis, Lafayette.
Iowa—Vice-president, J. B. Romans, Dennison. National
committeemen: Gen. J. B. Weaver, Colfax; A. P. McGuirk,
Davenport; Capt. J. A. Lyons, Guthrie Center.
Kansas—Vice-President, Hon. Jerry Simpson, Medicine
Lodge. National committeemen : Frank A. Peltret, Wichita ;
Hon. E. R. Ridgely.
Kentucky—Vice-president, W. B. Fleming.
Louisiana—Vice-president, Judge John Clegg, New Orleans.
Michigan—Vice-president, F. F. Ingram, Detroit. National
committeemen : A. M. Todd, Kalamazoo; J. W. Ewing, Grand
Ledge; Q. A. Smith, Lansing. Honorary member, Mrs. Mar-
tha E. Root, Bay City.
Minnesota—Vice-president, Hon. Charles A. Towne, Duluth.
National committeemen: P. M. Ringdal, St. Paul; Rev. S. W.
Sample, Minneapolis; Dr. Cora Smith-Eaton, Minneapolis.
Missouri—Vice-president, Hon. Richard Dalton, Saverton.
National committeemen:	A. B. Duncan, St. Joseph; S. H.
Leech, Silex; Col. M. C. Wetmore, St. Louis; Dr. E. J. Brown,
Kansas City.
New Jersey—Vice-president, Gen. William Brendle, Glou-
cester.
New York—Vice-president, C. B. Matthews, Buffalo. Na-
tional committeemen: John A. Wilbur, New York City; Pat-
rick Hendrick, Lima; E. J. Duggan, Albany; Col. John S.
Crosby, New York City.
North Dakota—Vice-president, Tom Beard, Lakota. National
committeemen:	Dr. Bently, Bismarck; T. J. Eager, James-
town ; H. F. Miller, Fargo; C. F. Merry, Dickinson.
Oklahoma Territory—Vice-president, Judge Robert A. Neff,
Newkirk. National committeemen:	Dr. Delos Walker, Ok-
lahoma City ; Virgil Hobbs, Kingfisher, Jesse Dunn, Alva.
Ohio—Vice-president, Hon. Frank S. Monnett, Co-
lumbus. National committeemen:	Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow,
Cincinnati; Thomas C. Kelley, Findlay; J. B. Vining, Cleve-
land; Gen. A. J. Warner, Marietta; Tom L. Johnson, Cleve-
land.NATIONAL OFFICERS ELECTED.
383
Pennsylvania—Vice-president, Marvin Gates Sperry, Phil-
adelphia. National committeemen :	J. J. Dean, Newcastle ;
Dr. C. F. Taylor, Philadelphia.
South Dakota—Vice-president, Hon. A. E. Lee, Vermillion.
National committeemen:	Edmund Smith, Rapid City; E. S.
Johnson, Armour; J. J. Conway, Orient.
Virginia—Vice-president, A. A. Lipscomb, P. O. Washing-
ton, D. C.
State of Washington — Vice-president, James Hamilton
Lewis, Seattle. National committeeman, F. R. Marvin, Day-
ton.
West Virginia—Vice-president, O. D. Hill, Kendalia.
Wisconsin—Vice-president, Robert Schilling, Milwaukee.
Mr. Dowdell, of Minnesota:	I move that the chair be
empowered to appoint a committee on publication of an official
organ and on propaganda, to work with the weekly news-
papers of the far West, so as to aid all men of brains to think
and speak for themselves in furtherance of this movement.
The motion was carried.
Chairman Monnett :	Mr. Lockwood will appoint the com-
mittee later.
Mrs. Sarah A. Bromwell, delegate from the Thirteenth
Ward, Chicago:	I desire to move that a vote of thanks be
tendered to the ladies for their work in organizing the local
Anti-Trust Leagues, and also to the officers of those leagues,
and especially to Mrs. Dean, chairman of the Ladies’ Recep-
tion Committee, for her services and labors.
The motion was unanimously carried.
Adjourned till 8 o’clock.
EVENING SESSION, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14.
At 8 p. m. the conference reassembled for its last session.
Chairman Monnett : i now hav-e the pleasure of introduc-
ing to you the president of the national organization, the Hon.
M. L. Lockwood, who will preside.
Chairman Lockwood:	In adopting the plan of organiza-
tion provided by the constitution and by-laws of the Ameri-
can Anti-Trust League, you have all assumed an obligation3§4
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
to perform a duty. Things don't come by chance.. God
helps them that help themselves, and if we would bring back
to ourselves those rights and liberties bequeathed to us by our
fathers we must go back into our different States, counties and
townships, and organize the people into companies and regi-
ments and battalions, discipline and organize them so as to be
able to meet the veterans and regulars under the control of
the avarice and greed of corporate capital. Now, then, this
system of organization is most simple. Any man or woman
in the United States can organize an American Anti-Trust
League. They don’t have to wait for authority from any-
body. Call four or' more of your friends together and or-
ganize a league. Go at it on economic principles. Don’t
hire a hall. Call them into your home and there organ-
ize a league, for I say to you that the nearer you
can get this combat to the hearthstones of the people, the
greater strength it will have.
Now, then, five or more leagues, county leagues or town-
ship leagues, or voting-precinct leagues can organize a county
league and elect a president and a vice-president and a secretary
and a treasurer, and then around that county organization
you can create a force that will go out into every township of
that county, and every voting precinct of that county, and
every village or borough of that county, and when there is a
certain number of counties organized, then you can organize
a State league and elect a State president and a State vice-
president and a secretary and a treasurer, and thereby create
a State organization to strengthen the work until the men and
women in every county will be organized in self-defense for
the maintenance of our free institutions.
Now, there is one thought that I want to present to you, and
that is this. Every one of you write to your friends in the
other townships and counties, if you can’t afford to go and
see them. A 2-cent stamp you know will carry a letter to
anybody. Urge your friends to organize leagues. Explain to
them how simple it is.
Now, I say to you this, that you don’t know, if you are in
earnest, what word uttered by you or what letter written byE. B. JENNINGS.
385
}rou will stir in some breast impulses of joining in this work,
and you don’t know when you will stir in some earnest man’s
or woman’s breast the thought that they owe a duty to their
country in connection with this work. You don’t know but
that you may stir some man who will come forth as a great
leader of men, some man who, like Cromwell, will have the
brain and heart and courage to lead this people out of the
wilderness and to chop off the head of the king of monopoly.
[Applause.]
I now desire to introduce to you Mr. E. B. Jennings, of
New York, who will address you.
ADDRESS OF E. B. JENNINGS.
This trust question concerns every man, woman and child in
America, and my remarks are addressed to the women of
America as well as to the men.
It was along in i860 that Colonel Drake struck oil in Penn-
sylvania. No sooner had his well made known its precious
flow than all the rush and excitement of the California gold
fever were again enacted. Derricks rose by thousands, seeming-
ly as by magic. Wells were bored all over the country. Refiner-
ies started up near the wells as Oil City, near railroad cen-
ters as Buffalo, near seaports as New York.
There was plenty for all. The means of refining were
known, and even poor men building small works could add to
the business, year by year increase their capital and become
successful business men. The business was one of the most
attractive in the world. There was a free market, free com-
petition. Everything seemed prosperous.
But now a strange thing happened. Wherever men moved
to discover oil fields, dig wells, or build refineries, to trade oil,
a blight fell upon them. This was along in 1867. Then came
the strange spectacle of dismantling and abandoning refineries
by the §core. There was a panic among the people. The busi-
ness supported a population of 60,000 people, using a capital
of $200,000,000. The people now saw the ripe fruit of all this386
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
wonderful development being mysteriously snatched away from
them. More than once the public alarm became riot. In 1872
it brought Pennsylvania to the verge of civil war.
In the midst of all this havoc and disorder, however, one
little group of some half dozen men were rising to wealth
and power, who are now the marvel of the business world. We
may call the combination the “Secret Rebaters.” To them
belongs the dubious honor of having discovered and put to
work the most tremendous instrument for making fortunes at
other people’s expense ever made use of. The idea was grand
in its simplicity. Its results have been amazing. A rebate is
simple, being only a certain sum paid back out of the price
agreed on. The Standard Oil Combine have gained their mil-
lions mainly by means of the secret rebate, and not by great
ability in legitimate business.
At the beginning they refined but very little oil, though I
believe they have never refined anything else. Their secret
agreement with the five trunk lines in the oil regions was to this
effect—the railways were to double all freights on oil. For
instance, suppose they had charged a dollar a barrel to New
York, they would make it $2. At the end of each month the
railways were to pay back as secret rebate to the combine all
this increase of one dollar a barrel. The railways wei;e to give
to the combine one dollar out of every two paid by anyone else.
By this infamous scheme the combination had all honest
competitors by the throat. They had simply to choke the life
out of them. The result is that today their capital is $97,000,-
000, quoted at over 450, making its market value over $400,-
000,000. Their clear profits are about $40,000,000 a year,
mostly going to nine trustees.
Among the wonderful developments of this wonderful cen-
tury must certainly be put the art of highway robbery.
Committees of Congress, of legislatures, civil and criminal
courts all over the country, have been in action because of
them for thirty years.
By means of the secret rebate they ruined most of the inde-
pendent concerns in the oil business. Their next step was to
buy up at half price whatever firms survived.E. B. JENNINGS.
387
Then was formed the trust—all the strong firms to combine,
to put their stock “in trust” under management of trustees;
all others to be ousted.
In 1883 they brought such trouble and confusion to Penn-
sylvania that the Hon. Franklin B. Gowen was roused to resist
them. As a lawyer and railroad man Mr. Gowen was as well
known in Pennsylvania as Chauncey M. Depew in New York
(possibly better). While he lived he was proud to be recog-
nized as the chief defender in the courts of those whom the
Standard Oil Trust sought to crush. In his speech before the
Pennsylvania legislature in 1883 he said, speaking of their
deeds in the oil regions: “If such a state of facts had been
permitted by any government in Europe for six months, the
crown and scepter of its ruler would have been ground to the
dust. I, for one, will submit to it no longer. You may say
it is unwise for me to attack this wrong, but I have attacked it
before, and I will again. If I could only shake off the other
burdens that rest on my shoulders I would feel it my duty to
preach resistance to this great wrong as Peter the Hermit
preached the Crusade. I would go into every part of this
commonwealth and endeavor by the plain recital of the facts
to rouse up such a feeling and such a power as would make
itself heard and felt and by the fair, open and honest enforce-
ment of the law, right the wrong and teach the guilty authors
of this infamous tyranny “that truth remembered long—that
once their slumbering passions roused the peaceful are the
strong.”
In 1887 they were found guilty of conspiracy in causing the
explosion of an independent oil refinery iu Buffalo. This was
their most indiscreet attempt. They generally crush out com-
petitors more quietly.
According to Henry Lloyd, there seems little doubt that in
1876 Henry B. Payne was elected United States senator mainly
by the Standard Oil Trust. It is freely asserted today that
the trusts all have representatives of some kind in Congress
and in legislatures throughout the land. The recent scandals
about the Sugar Trust in connection with the United States
Senate will be recalled by all.388
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
It has a most singular effect on the memory to be an oil
trustee, and when one can be induced to appear before an
investigating committee the condition of helpless imbecility to
which he is instantly reduced is most remarkable.
When the secretary was asked the proper name of the com-
bination he replied, “I do not know.” ‘‘Do you understand
the practical work of refining oil ?”
“I do not, I have not been inside an oil refinery for ten years.”
“Well, 2 mills a ton a mile for zoo miles would be a dollar
a ton ?”
“I am not able to demonstrate that proposition.”
“You have some arithmetical knowledge?”
“I cannot' answer that question.”
“Well, you own the pipe line to New York?”
“Yes.”
“What does it cost you to do business on that line?”
“I do not know anything about it.”
Another trustee was asked:
“What is your business, and where do you reside?”
“I decline to answer any question until I can consult with
counsel.”
Another was asked:
“What is the capital stock?”
“I do not know.”
“How much has the capital stock been increased iately?”
“I do not know.”
“Where are the meetings of the Standard Oil Company
held?”
“I do not know.”
“How many directors are there?”
“I do not know.”
“Do they own any pipe lines?”
“I do not know.”
The president was asked:
“What quantity of oil was exported by the different con-
cerns with whom you were connected from the port of New
York in 1881 ?”
“I do not know.”E. B. JENNINGS.
389
“How much oil was refined by such concerns in 1881?”
“I do not know how much was refined.”
“Did the concern with whom you were so connected pur-
chase over 8,000,000 barrels of crude petroleum in 1881 ?”
“I am unable to state.”
He was asked to give the name of one refinery running in
1883, not owned or substantially controlled by his trust.
“I decline to answer.”
He was asked if he would say that the total profits of his
trust for 1887 were not as much as $20,000,000.
“I haven’t the least knowledge on that subject.”
“Does the trust keep books?” the president was asked by
Congress.
“No, we have no system of book-keeping.” On further
pressure, though, he said:	“The treasurer had a record to
know what money comes in.”
“You have never seen those books?”
“I do not think I have.”
“Has any member of the nine trustees ever seen those
books ?”
“I do not think they have.”
“The properties included in your trust are distributed all
over the United States, are they not ?”
“Oh, no, not all over the United States. They are dis-
tributed—”
“Are they not distributed and are they not sufficiently
numerous to meet the requirements of your business from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the gulf to the northern
boundary?”
“Well, not yet.”
Anyone reading of this exhibition of helpless imbecility is
struck dumb with pure amazement. “We don’t know anything.
We don’t remember anything. We keep no books. We are
carrying on the most enormous business in the world. We
have 60,000 people in our employ. But things just seem to
come our way. The oil flows just where our president wants
it to.” And so they pipe their lays and so they lay their pipes.
But that has been their method throughout. Secrecy; no39°
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
personal responsibility. They walk among us bland and smil-
ing, not to say oily, while the railways pour into their treasury
millions of dollars every year and all honest companies are
ruined. The railways are our modern highways, and the trus-
tees our modern highwaymen—even to the masks.
They take no personal risks—they answer no questions—
perhaps by so doing they might incriminate themselves.
Here is an interesting point about this sworn testimony:
Either the president knows about the business of Standard
Oil or he does not. If he does, then he stands convicted as a
perjurer by his own words. If he does not then he stands
before his stockholders as a fool. If any president of a rail-
way company should make such a disgusting exhibition of him-
self the stockholders would demand that he instantly resign.
On January n, 1900, the press of the country contained a
letter from the president of the Standard Oil trust, in defense
of his trust. That letter is a remarkable composition. It seems
to be faultless as regards its grammar and rhetoric, and I pre-
sume it is very convincing to some stockholders who still be-
lieve in their president.
In regard to that letter, it might be allowable to put in a
few questions to the president of the Standard Oil Company,
as follows:
What connection, if any, did you have with the burning of
Mr. Matthew's refinery in Buffalo, commonly known as the
Buffalo explosion case?
What connection, if any did you have with the freezing out
of sixty-three independent oil refineries in Pittsburg in 1870,
and with then putting up the price of oil to 32c a gallon, as
alleged by Moses Sweetser?
What connection, if any, did you have with the persecution of
two American citizens, Moses Sweetser, of New York, and
George Rice of Marietta, Ohio?
Was the following letter of Mrs. Backus, a widow lady of
Cleveland, addressed to you ?
January, 1878.
Sir—It is impossible for me to tell you how astonished I am
at the course you have pursued with me. Were it not for theE. B. JENNINGS.
38T
knowledge I have that there is a God in Heaven, and that you
will be compelled to give an account of all the deeds done here,
and there in the presence of my husband will have to confess
whether you wronged him or not—were it not for this knowl-
edge, I could not endure it for a moment, the fact that a man,
possessed of the millions that you are, will permit to be taken
from a widow, a business that had been the lifework and pride
of herself and husband.
One of your own number admits that it is a great moral
wrong; but says as long as you can cover your points legally,
you think you are all right.
I have tried by my life and example with those I come in
contact with in a business way, to persuade them to a higher
life. There is no place where one has such opportunities to
work for good or evil as in a business life. But I was told the
other day that it was enough to drive honest men away from
the Church of God when professing Christians do as you have
done by me.
It should make the blood of any American citizen boil in his
veins to think that Americans allow any citizen to plunder
widows and orphans in this dastardly manner. This was in
1878.
In the year 1900 Standard Oil Company, according to the
New York World, Journal and Verdict, practically owns this
country, and a good deal of Europe, Asia and Africa. Yet this
is the Democracy whose people fought and conquered under
Washington! The free people for whom the blood of Lincoln
was shed! The Grand Army of the Republic, which marched
to victory under Grant! We are all carried around in the vest
pocket of a dastardly hypocrite in a Fifth Avenue palace!
The president of the Standard Oil Company is king of Amer-
ica, not in name, but in fact. He has no title, but his power is
absolute and unquestioned.
As our king we have allowed him to do certain deeds any
one of which would have plunged us instantly into war with
any nation on this globe, if done by that nation.
For instance, he has caused to be shot in cold blood certain
American citizens in the Coeur D’Alene mines.392
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
For instance, he has caused to be deposited in the National
City Bank of New York, over $200,000,000 of the people’s
money. Our government has approved of this simply for the
honor of the thing, getting no other return whatever. This
money is then loaned by the king to Wall Street at the rate of
25 per cent a year or more.
He has caused citizens like George Rice to be persecuted in
their business by every conceivable species of villainy. In any
country in the world (except America) Mr. Rice would have
the protection of America as long as he carried on an honest
business in an honest way.
That protection the king has denied to an American citizen.
On these three counts the king stands indicted before the
people as a murderer, a robber and a Standard Oil magnate.
I don’t know which is the worst.
But he is the king.
We are the people.
But let him beware. Let him consider these facts calmly.
Let him not get excited and lose his head.
Should the people of America become wrathful and simply
look at him in anger he would be shattered as by a stroke of
lightning.
Should the people of America but lift a finger in anger
against the nine trustees they would be crushed like an eggshell.
Should the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic—old
and scarred by battle as they are, should they but take the field
against the entire Standard Oil trust with all its millions, it
would be wiped out of existence like some vile reptile.
Why, the American people stand today before the world un-
conquered and unconquerable. In the days of ’76 they defeated
England, then the greatest power on earth.
In the war of the Rebellion, they abolished slavery, the
mightiest institution in our land. The mind loses itself in
contemplation of the mighty deeds remaining to be done by our
free people working in unity. A people whose trust is in each
Note.—The facts in above speech are given on authority of H. D.
Lloyd in “Wealth Against Commonwealth,” also on authority of New
York World, Journal, and Verdict.FIVE-MINUTE SPEECHES.	393
other here. A people whose trust and faith both here and here-
after are in the eternal God.
Chairman Lockwood : I understood this morning that a
rule was adopted that all speeches should be limited to ten min-
utes. Do you desire this rule to be still in force? [Cries of
“Yes, yes.”] The rule will be enforced. Before the speaking
begins I will name Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, R. E. Dowdell,
Rev. W. D. P. Bliss, Capt. W. P. Black and T. L. Cruice as the
Committee on Propaganda provided for at the afternoon ses-
sion.
Judge Robert Neff, of Oklahoma:	Only one Southern
State has been given a chance in this convention. I now move
that these gentlemen who have reduced their speeches and their
oratorical essays to manuscript give them in charge of the com-
mittee.
The motion prevailed.
Delegate: I move that the delegates of this convention be
now called by States, and if any delegates have anything to
say let them appoint some one of their delegates to make a five-
minute speech and let that go around.
Chairman Lockwood: The gentleman from Alabama has
the floor, and after that we will take up the other proposition.
Mr. E. Quincy Norton, of Alabama:	This conference
has been so generous with me, giving me three full days of
time in which to work for the cause we all have at heart, that
I do not want to take any more time in merely speaking
upon this platform. It has been my pleasure since I have
been here to have been working almost day and night upon
some of the committees, and whenever I can get on com-
mittees and do something it suits me much better than to
talk. I can talk when I get back to Alabama. There will be
plenty of opportunity, and I want to give all of these State
organizers now fair warning that I am going to try and set you
a lively pace, and if you beat me in organizing leagues in your
State you have got to hustle to do it.394
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
In my State are 5,000 square miles of coal lands owned and
controlled by less than nine people, and yet half of the time
there are thousands of people out of employment who would
gladly dig coal out of the bowels of the earth. One man who
owned a little plot of land and the coal cropped up close to the
soil, at a time when there was a strike, went to work mining
coal for himself and delivering it in a wheelbarrow and the
company sent their agent and told him he must not do it, and he
laughed at the idea, and he said: “I cannot compete with you,
and it is my coal, anyway.” They admitted that fact, but they
said: “If you undertake to supply our friends and neighbors
with coal, when the mines start up again you need not apply for
a job,” and the man knew that his job in the mine was worth
more to him than the little coal he could deliver, so he quit
mining coal, although it was on his own ground.
I can go on for an hour and give you instances of where
labor is being oppressed in our own State. But why do that?
Why take the time? It is just the same in Alabama as it is
anywhere else. It seemed to me as I was coming over the road
from my home, every revolution of the wheels as they struck
the break in the rails said to me: “There are men and women
out of employment who would gladly work. There are men
and women and children suffering for the actual necessities of
life. Be quick; be quick.” Almost every mile that we came
over was vacant land, until we approached the cities, and yet
that land is held out of use by these monopolizers.
Now, it is my intention on returning home to make it my
business to organize leagues of Anti-Trust, and I hope before
another meeting of the National League to report that Ala-
bama has as many leagues in proportion to population as any
other State in the Union. [Great applause.]
Chairman Lockwood : Do you renew your motion ?
Delegate : My motion is that the States be called in alpha-
betical order. The motion was put and carried.
Delegate from Colorado:	I am one of the delegates that
came to this convention without the desire to make a speech,JOHN Z. WHITE.
395
and I don’t propose to make a speech now, but I want to kick
a little about some things that have been said from the stage
here in the way of complimenting the ladies. Now, that is a
little out of date, and it is old time for a man that lives in Colo-
rado, and I don’t believe the ladies ought to put up with it.
I believe the time for complimenting the ladies has gone by.
In Colorado they give them the right to vote, and if the ladies
are not treated better in the other parts of the United States
they should come to Colorado. We elect them as county,
and state officials. We have heard these great National ques-
tions ably discussed. I have listened and listened attentively,
and I have learned something, and I will say that seven
years ago these same men, these same ideas that are
moving Mr. Lockwood and the gentleman from Kentucky
and from New York, those ideas have been moving the same
way in the minds of the people of the State of Colorado, and
seven years ago we discussed the railroad problem and the land
question in the little houses of Western Nebraska and Kansas
and in the shanties of miners in the Rocky Mountains, and as
has been said here today, “The people are ahead of you.’’ You,
gentlemen, are of the people, and reform begins at the bottom
and they are reaching up. I don’t know why that is, but it is
true, and these ideas that have been discussed so ably by
learned men today here are ideas that originated from below.
I think God probably has something to do with the
Universe, and that people who are oppressed and feel and
think and look for the truth get what they are looking for, and
I believe that if we go home and look for the truth and try
to do our duty, that the way will be opened up and we will
get what we are looking for. [Applause.] I thank you all.
Chairman Lockwood: The State of Illinois.
John Z. White, of Illinois: I was invited to make an ad-
dress to this convention, Mr. Chairman, and agreed to accept
the invitation, and I have a speech to make. My opinion is a
very fine one, but the trouble was that the gentleman from
Ohio, a gentleman who makes up with to and fro whatever
he may lack in the up and down, made my speech for me. It396
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
is, therefore, absolutely unnecessary for me to deliver it, so as a
man seeks to gratify his desire for being heard with the least
possible exertion, the easiest way I can make my speech is by
keeping quiet. I thank you all very much for your kind invi-
tation.
Chairman Lockwood: Indiana.
Delegate, from Indiana:	Indiana does not desire to make
any further remarks. Well, let the remarks made by Mrs.
Gougar yesterday stand for what we have to say.
Dr. Garrett Droppers, of South Dakota: The little speech
which I had prepared for this evening takes the same course
that other speeches will take and be printed, and, therefore,
I will try and shorten this five minutes by a little anecdote.
There were some Americans abroad on one occasion on a
4th of July who wished to celebrate a holiday, and in the course
of things they came to the toasts. Now you may all know this
story but it is apropos of trusts, and one man said: “I wish to
toast our country, the United States, bounded on the north by
Canada, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the
Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.” Now,
our country just now happens to be synonymous with trusts,
so this is the application of the story. The next man said:
“You must not only bound our country by its actual boundaries
but you must look into its ‘manifest destiny.’ I toast our coun-
try bounded on the north by the North Pole, on the south by
the South Pole, on the east by the rising sun, and on the west
by the setting sun.” And then the third man got up and said:
“If you are talking about ‘manifest destiny,’ that seems to me
altogether too narrow. I will toast our country on the north
by the aurora borealis, and on the south by the precession of
the equinoxes, on the east by chaos, and on the west by the day
of judgment.”
Now, so far as trusts are concerned, that “manifest destiny”
has been about fulfilled, and we are bounded by these limitless
boundaries on all sides, and now all sorts of suggestions have
been offered. I think they are correct. Privilege has been
stated as at the bottom of the trusts. I want to say that IJERRY SIMPSON.
397
think we could put it in another way, when we say that we
should substitute for irresponsible government responsible
government, and that is still another way of saying the same
thing. We all understand what a responsible government is,
but we do not understand what to do with irresponsible govern-
ment, and I find—I have been abroad a great many years—
and I find on returning to America that I am a victim of
irresponsible government, and I don’t know where I am, and
when we can substitute for the trust government of today
a responsible government, a government responsible to the
people, and administered by the people, why then we will get
rid of trusts.
Chairman Lockwood :	Does the State of Kansas desire
to use its five minutes ?
Mr. Jerry Simpson, of Kansas: I have already, during the
session of this convention, had four opportunities to deliver
a speech. Kansas don’t want to create a monopoly here in
Chicago by taking up your time, and so I will not, I hope,
occupy more than half the time allotted to me. I merely
wanted to say a word; that is, that my experience with this
convention has been a most delightful experience. I am glad
now that I came. I have been very much impressed with what
Wendell Phillips once said, one of the greatest of the best
men this country ever produced. [Applause.] He said that
all you have to do is to launch an idea, and if it is based on
right and justice it will travel from Maine to the Pacific;
and Wendell Phillips held to this principle, that you must
put implicit reliance in all the people. Now, I believe in a
certain kind of trust. Teach of the principles upon which
this government is based; place reliance in the great masses of
the people and trust in them. If we do that, in the end they
will right all these wrongs.
Wendell Phillips further said, if you place iniquity in your
Capitol, although the granite in that structure may be as high
as the clouds, it will fall. But I hope and trust that this con-
vention, this organization and our plans of campaign are based
upon an everlasting principle of our government, and that we398
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
are going out now to teach the people what we believe to be
the right course and the right direction and the right road
out of the difficulties that we have gotten into, and I hope
when we go from this convention that these delegates will all
realize that this is our mission now.
I could not agree with that gentleman who spoke over there
tonight that we could rely altogether upon common sense,
because we have been relying on that a long time, according
to his statement, and we have not got out altogether. I don’t
believe in that statement altogether, that revolutions come
from the bottom up. They come sometimes from the top down,
and it has got to be by measures that will go home to the great
masses of the people to start this great educational work. Now,
let us remember that in doing this we must bury all differences
of party prejudice and work together, for time presses.
Already these enormous corporations are intrenched, strong-
ly entrenched, in the forces of the government. All you deem
great and powerful are arrayed against you. The press of the
country, all that claims to be eminently respectable, with the
great property owners, are arrayed against you. The great
railroad corporations and all that is deemed powerful we have
got to meet, and we can only depend upon educating the people
up to the point that they will use the weapon of the ballot
by organized effort, and so rig^it the wrongs that we com-
plain of.
Chairman Lockwood: Does the State of Kentucky desire
to use its five minutes?
Judge Fleming, of Kentucky:	Kentucky is a State
where the ladies are as beautiful as those that belong
to this conference, and as has been said, “where the
whisky is so good that it is a virtue to get drunk,” but
Kentucky is too busy just now settling a little difficulty of her
own to spare her quota to come to this conference. The only
representative present is too tired now to speak, for he has
been at this work long before this conference assembled in
this hall. I want to say, however, that the motto in Kentucky
is this: “United we stand, divided we fall.” Mr. Chairman,JERRY SIMPSON.
399
I am glad that we have a platform upon which we can all
unite, Socialists, Single-taxers, Democrats, patriotic Repub-
licans—all who love their country can stand upon our anti-
monopoly platform. [Applause.] And, Mr. Chairman, so
standing, so united, we can neither fall nor fail.
Other delgates from various States followed in short im-
promptu talks.
Delegate :	I don’t want to take any time, but I think we
ought to have included in our platform of principles a propo-
sition providing for a graduated franchise tax.
This has been overlooked. I intended, if I had not been
so slow, to have handed such a resolution to the Committee on
Resolutions. If you will go back to the Arena of February,
1896, while published by John Clark Redpath, you will find
one of the best articles on the trusts that has ever been pre-
sented, written by Judge Clark, of the Supreme Court of North
Carolina. I think that is the name, I am not sure, and he points
out the way to deal with the trusts. I wanted this to come
before the convention. You get it and read it. The power of
taxation properly exercised will destroy any evil on earth.
Now, the Supreme Court of the United States, in two
decisions, well-considered, in which all the judges joined, sus-
tain the right of Congress to pass a tax upon franchises, or a
corporation tax. You know that Congress passed a law plac-
ing a tax on National banks of one per cent on their circulating
medium. That was fought by the banks. It went to the
Supreme Court of the United States, and in both cases was
sustained by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court.
Now, I maintain, and have maintained all along, and the
Supreme Court, I say, sustains the right of Congress to levy
a tax upon corporation franchises. In order to have a trust
you have got to have a large capitalization. I maintain, and
I have talked with a great many good business men who are
connected with large capitalizations, that two million dollars
is certainly enough to conduct any private institution with,
that is, any ordinary or necessary business. Now then if you
will put- on a graduated corporation tax, and put it high
enough, no monopoly can exist, no great trust can exist in this400
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
country. Every trust has got to have a great capitalization.
They have got to run up into forty and fifty and a hundred
millions perhaps. You cannot organize them without a great
capitalization, and you can have a graduated income tax upon
corporations and franchises properly adjusted. Congress can
pass a law in thirty days that will accomplish that, and I
say this simply for the purpose of getting this in the record,
that our people may think about it. The way is pointed out
by a judge of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and you
will find it in the Arena, and that is a way to .throttle the
trusts. It is just a plain way and anybody can understand it.
Mr. Q. A. Smith, of Michigan:	What I have got to say
is something different from what you have heard. I have
talked for three years down on the tail-end of a wagon from
down in Detroit, and I think I know a little about it. I claim
fifteen minutes, and I would like to ask for the unanimous
consent for fifteen minutes.
Delegate:	We want to sample your five minutes, and
then we will decide.
Mr. Q. A. Smith, of Michigan: To my mind there is
only one way of reaching it, and that way is to introduce a
tax on land values in some place or point. It may be a
city, it may be a county or it may be a state, but there is
one thing we have got to do first. The great power of monop-
oly is in the ignorance of the masses. [Voice: Good.] The
masses are now ignorant. Ninety per cent of our population
read nothing but a daily newspaper. Every daily newspaper
that I know of in the United States is in the hands of men
today who control the trusts. The average man, the man
who works ten hours a day in our factories, his vote is just
as good as yours or mine. That man gets all his
information on economic and political questions from
the daily press. He may go to church, but he never hears
any of it there. The pastor in the church will tell you, “My
dear brother, be thankful if you have only.got a jew’s harp
on the earth. You will have a glorious golden harp up yon-
der," and that is as far as he ever gets on that point. Now,H. B. Martin.
Edward Payson.
J. A. Vera.
H. L. Chaffee.
William E. Mason.
Edwin James Brown.
J. R. Finn.JOHN IDESON.
401
there he is between the devil and the deep sea. What is he
to do? He cannot find out what is right and what is wrong,
and I claim that dftil we have a press owned by the masses
and controlled by them, and I mean a daily newspaper, a
newspaper like the Chronicle or the Free Press of Detroit, a
paper that has the news every day, coming to the hearth-
stones of every home, and as you turn over the front page
there is an editorial scorching and direct on the land ques-
tion, on socialism, anything you please, and on anything that
touches monopoly without fear or favor, then we will be able
to lift the masses up, and not until then.
And I tell you what, when we commence to destroy trusts
we must raise wages. The wages of labor are now going by
monopoly into the pockets of the capitalistic trusts. Then
we can go to the 90 per cent of the people who today are
getting an average of a dollar and a half or two dollars a
day, and show them just as certain as 2 and 2 make 4 that
we can raise their wages to $10 a day. But we can only
do this through the medium of a daily press. Now then we
are going to have such a press in Detroit about April next.
The power of the press today is the greatest power that we
have. It enhances the power of the preacher and the orator.
I just made reference to the pulpit, and I want to get the
pulpit on the side of reform, and when I get that paper started
down in Detroit and I come across some little preacher with
a small congregation, like my brother Bigelow or my brother
Semple of Minnesota, our reporter will go up to that little
preacher and on next Monday there will come out big head-
lines of that little fellow fearlessly talking to his congrega-
tion on these vital questions, and we will be silent as to
all those big $6,000 salary fellows that have all the wealth
behind them.	•
John Ideson, of New York, eighty-four years of age, then
addressed the conference as follows:
The opportunity extended to me is limited, therefore I will
confine my observations particularly to the organization of
our town, the town of Lima, Livingston County, State of402
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
New York. I wish to give the delegates of this Conference
the manner of our organization.
I wish to impress them with something to take home with
them. The town of Lima, previous to our organization, car-
ried from sixty to eighty majority for the Republicans. In
the winter and summer of 1896 we made a school house cam-
paign. Hendricks, Theo. Gordon and I canvassed all the
school houses in the town and pointed out the exact condi-
tion of the people that they were in, financially speaking, the
shrinking values of their products and the shrinking values of
their investments, and if this kind of legislation proceeded
it would eventually confiscate their ownership and home;
teaching them the difference between the gold basis and the
demonetization of silver, also explaining as explicitly as pos-
sible the effect between the gold values and 16 to 1.
We advised them particularly to bring their 'wives, their
sons and daughters because I consider that the women are
as important to the success of the farm as the farmer is him-
self, as they really are more interested in the welfare of the
next generation. This gentleman preceding me talked about
common sense. That article is pretty scarce and not much
understood, and we as farmers have been studying “horse
sense.”
The delegates before me are from all parts of the United
States. I have lived in our town fifty-seven years. The con-
dition at that time was that the price of land was about $28.00
an acre. During the war of i860, and from ’65 to '70 the
increase of the price of land ran up to .$80.00 and as
high as $120.00 an acre. Now during the price of land at
$28.00 an acre, in the exchange of ownership the mortgage
was below say on an average of $12.00 to $14.00 an acre.
The change in ownership during the ljigh price of land put
the mortgage as high as from $50.00 to $60.00 an acre. Now
the .demonetization of silver caused the shrinkage of values
and there are many of our farms today, if they were sold at
a forced sale, wouldn’t fetch the value of the incumbent.
Now, gentlemen of this convention, this is the condition of
the farmers and I am pretty well acquainted with these mat-MR. MERRY.
403
ters and make it my special business at every opportunity.
We live in probably one of the richest agricultural districts
in the United Statls. It used to be well known in the his-
tory of Gennessee valley. Now this being a correct history
of our conditions, I presume that it is a fair sample of the
condition of the farms of the United States.	.
The price of wheat in 1843-6 was from 63 to 69 cents a
bushel and today it is no more. Our taxes are two-thirds
higher than they were at that time, so any boy with a few
figures can discern the condition we are in. I am pretty
credibly informed that there are only 28 farms in the town
of Lima that are not mortgaged, and about one-third of the
farms in the town are occupied by tenants. During my resi-
dence there one man has assumed the ownership of 22 farms,
and they are rented.
This deplorable condition, which cannot be ignored, forces
the conclusion that the “American Home” is fast passing from
its rightful owner, and that in order to save it we must estab-
lish improved and radically different conditions, social and
commercial, the responsibility for which rests upon the
American voter.
Through persistent agitation In Lima we accomplished, in
1896, a majority of 217 for William Jennings Bryan.
As the farmer has no power to fix the selling price of his
product, or command the price of things he must buy, he will
soon become a tenant at the mercy of his landlord if the
grasping selfishness of the trust is not destroyed.
He can no longer proudly declare: “This is my home.”
America is the only land where title and sovereignty are in
the people. When you kill the farmer you kill the goose that
lays the golden egg.
Mr. Merry, of North Dakota:	They say I am the merriest
man in the northwest. I am with you on the trust proposi-
tion. I formed a North Dakota Tax League a few years
ago, and it costs the railroad companies now $55,000 addi-
tional tax in the last few years, and the very same thing can
be dofie in every other state and territory. Taxation I believe404
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
is the only way to get at the trusts and when you begin to
tax their stock they will let you alone.
Judge RObert Neff, of Oklahoma:	Oklahoma has taken
up so much time in this convention that I would not say any-
thing were it not for the fact that the entire Oklahoma dele-
gation requires me to speak. I am partly responsible for this
five-minute rule. Now, I am a brother-in-law in the Metho-
dist church. My wife belongs to the church, and she is
the religious end of my family, and I feel at home here to-
night. It is a sort of experience meeting. But to be serious, I
believe that as a result of this convention a tidal wave of thought
will be sent across the continent that will awake in the great
struggling masses a true realization of the frightful conditions
that confront them. At the. same time, however, I regret to say
that while my people, the citizens of Oklahoma territory, wish
you Godspeed in this effort and give you their moral sup-
port, Oklahoma being a territory has no voice in national
legislation and national laws, regardless of the fact that we
have a population of 400,000 people, with an assessed valua-
tion of $45,000,000, where a school house stands upon every
hill like a sturdy sentinel guarding the progress of intellect-
uality, where in every valley tall church spires point the
way to God, where the eyes scan perpetual Italian skies, where
we have more handsome women, more brave men, where we
raise more wheat, corn, cotton and cattle than any like
area on earth, we are denied the constitutional right of self-
government. The railroad corporations dictate the appoint-
ment of our judiciary and territorial officials, and a great
railroad official of Chicago is the party who appoints the
supreme judges in Oklahoma. Now, we feel the pressure of
corporate rule. We are denied statehood only and solely
through corporations. If the corporations believed for a single
minute that they could dictate the election of our two sen-
ators to the congress of the United States, as they do the
judges of Oklahoma, with all our vast population and bright
prospects, the doors would be thrown open and we would
be admitted into the sisterhood of the nation, but they realize
that that being an agricultural country, that when we do getLEO I. RICHARDSON.
405
statehood we will send to the United States Senate two men
who will represent the people and have their interests
at heart, and not be dictated to by the corporations of this
country. That is the reason we are in that position.
You people cannot realize what a predicament we are in.
We have begged and petitioned and pleaded to Congress, but
somehow or other the power of the corporations has been too
strong for us. Now, mind you, we have four times the popu-
lation and wealth ever heretofore required of any territory
that has ever been admitted into statehood, but we are denied
these rights and simply kept out by the power of the corpo-
rations.
Mrs. 'Helen Gougar :	On behalf of the voteless women
of the country I extend sympathy to Oklahoma for its fail-
ure to have self government.
Judge Neff:	I will say that we came within three votes
of having voting women in Oklahoma.
The secretary here read an encouraging telegram from an
ardent sympathizer of the cause in West Virginia:
Charleston, W. Va., Feb. 14, ’00.
To the National Anti-Trust Conference, Music Hall, Chicago, III.:
A universal union of reform forces will bring victory.
May the spirit of ’76 direct your deliberations. The repub-
lic of Washington will still live.	O. D. Hill,
Kendalia P. O., Kanawha co., W. Va.
LEO. J. RICHARDSON.
We have met here to add a little nourishment to the tree of
liberty, to write a new declaration of independence, to seek
redress for the wrongs being done a great people, to stay the
mailed hand of capitalism, and aristocratic greed. We know
all about the poverty, the heart aches, the tears, the misery,ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
406
the sufferings of the poor. We know that we are no longer
a nation of home owners, that we have become a nation of
tenants; we know that America is being Europeanized, that
the same power that reduced Italy to a nation of boot blacks
and organ grinders, Spain to a nation of bull fighters and
Ireland to exile, is doing its deadly work here under the
Stars and Stripes.
We have ceased breeding patriots, our statesmen have for-
gotten how to be humane, our politicians have long forgotten
. the art of being honest. The same can be said of any other
of the large cities of the Union and all of this is but the re-
flex of the economic conditions. How is it that the few con-
trol the many? How is it that they who hold the sword and
the purse make the laws to their own liking and enforce
them? The answer is easy, it is in two words, intelligence,
organization. There is no sin but ignorance. Wealth and
greed know neither party nor religion; they are always to-
gether for self interest, and until the great mass of the peo- ’
pie can be brought to a realization of their power through
the ballot, the buyers of a seat in the United States Senate,
the bribers of legislators, the corruptions of law and order will
go on and on, like Tennyson’s brook.
We are face to face with facts, not theories. Everything
is for sale, from a man’s conscience to a woman’s virtue;
from the Supreme Court of the United States to the last
judge appointed in the Territory of Oklahoma, there is not
one that would not swear the north star out of the sky of
truth for an opportunity to touch the fringe of a millionaire’s
gown.
Trusts are wealth’s conspiracy against the right to live,
breeders of crime and misery, anarchy and revolution; and
yet they are no worse than we (the people) allow them to
be. The wealth proflucers have blindly worshiped parties
and party leaders until forty million wage slaves are on the
brink of despair. We are told by Archbishop Ireland, of
St. Paul, that there are 60,000 prostitutes in New York city
alone, and 90,000 girls are supporting families in that city.
As to there being any relief in either of the old partiesCORA L. V. RICHMOND.
40 7
there is none and can be none until the people organize a
mobile force, rise above the corruption of partyism and cast
their ballots for the party and candidate that will execute
their will.
I hope to see the day that we will elect men to office whose
hearts beat in sympathy with the oppressed, with the down-
trodden, with the despised, with men who despair, and women
who weep, men who have a thought for the poor woman in
a lonely room, cheerless and fireless, striving to keep starva-
tion from herself and child.
Votes', not talk, will settle this question.
President Lockwood introduced in well chosen words Mrs.
Cora L. V. Richmond, of Chicago, who made the concluding
address.
MRS. CORA L. V. RICHMOND.
To these strong men, farmers and mechanics, who are the
bone and sinew—aye! and the brains too—of our country,
you must look for bearing forward the purposes of this league
in its great work of the emancipation of the people from the
coils of monopolies and trusts. Theirs must be the work of
organizing the country districts, and the smaller towns and
villages; and to them, the great rank and file of the American
people, you mtist look for the final success of this cause.
The thought that your present speaker would present
is the ethics of this Conference, its great moral mean-
ing and purpose. It must be the result of the growth of the
people or it is nothing. It is an axiom of science that a
stream cannot rise higher than its source, and no anti-trust
or anti-monopoly sentiment or organization can prevail that
is not founded upon the individual growth of the people against
special or personal advantages. Whoever would bear forward
this work aright must be quite sure that he would not take
advantage of his neighbor or any human being in any business
transaction; would not buy under value and sell over value;
would not, in fact, get “something for nothing.” The spirit4o8
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of commerce must be changed. When the great Lycurgus
abolished gold by law and caused the people to pledge them-
selves not to restore its usage, and expatriated himself that
they might be true to their pledge, he still did not succeed in
eradicating the evil of gold;_i. e., the love of personal power.
Selfishness is the secret, and until that is eradicated, whatever
represents selfish power through avarice will be controlled by
human beings until they rise above it.
In the valuable paper of the learned Professor Bemis he
said:	“There are very few of us who are ready to declare
against competition; most of us believe in properly restricted
competition.”
I may differ with many who are here, but I believe
that competition is the parent of trusts. Society should
be industrially organized to strengthen and protect its
weakest members. If I have better eyes than my neighbor I
should help him to see, if I can think better I should help him
to think. The giant is not justified in using his natural strength
against his fellow-men. I congratulate this Conference that
the zeal of a few of the very able delegates did not result in
the forming of a new party. Reform ceases, ideas become
crystallized when a party is formed. Besides, when you enter
the domain of political partnership you must meet all existing
parties on their lowest level. That is why this League is
greater than any party.
During some of the sessions of this Conference, when the
most gifted men were speaking, one endowed with the vision
of the spirit might have seen Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln,
and a host of arisen patriots and lovers of humanity, brooding
over the deliberations of this body.
Dr. Barrows said at the parliament of religions that he
believed the thought of the Columbian Exposition and of a
parliament of religions of all nations was an inspiration.
Is it not true that the beginning _ of every great move-
ment is an inspiration? Is it not all truth, some of
social and political, founded by inspired teachers, some of
whom suffer martyrdom, but are, nevertheless (and because
of their martyrdom), the leaders of the people.CORA L. V. RICHMOND.
409
This movement to be successful must be inspired, not only
by those on earth today, but by the great “cloud of witnesses
who encompass us around about” and impel mankind to higher
deeds of excellence.
I was proud of the remarks of the one woman who
stood on this platform. Women will aid this work, as
they have all other needed reforms—anti-slavery, temperance,
and now anti-monopoly. Our religious reformers, men and
women, have well nigh abolished religious monopolies—the
kingdom of heaven for the few, and—the other place for the
many.
When we, as women and ethical teachers, have helped
you to abolish all the ills that you (men) have created
or consented to; when there shall not be one religion for the
rich and another for the poor, one standard of right for the
laborer and another for the “gentleman,” may we not hope,
not that women may go into politics or down to Congress or
the White House, but that politics will come up to woman,
and you will then aid us in abolishing the usage of one moral
law for men and another for women, and in abolishing the
masculine monopoly of the state by erasing the word male from
the constitution of the United States, and giving all citizens
the rights and privileges granted heretofore to only one-half
the human race?
The following interesting telegram from the home of trusts
was received and read by the secretary:
Headquarters, Gleichmann's Hall. 1
110 Sherman Avenue.	J
Jersey City, N. J., Febfltary 14, 1900.
William Prentiss, Anti-Trust League, Central Music Hall, Chicago, III.
The Anti-Trust Club of Jersey City wishes the best success
of the Anti-Conference. Please send report of proceedings.
J. H. Miller, President.
The conference then adjourned.4io
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
PAPERS CONTRIBUTED.
Among many other timely and instructive papers contributed
were the following:
SAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY,
Member of the Chicago Board of Trade.
It is the purpose of this address to offer a few statements
concerning one of the worst enemies the wealth producers of
this commonwealth have ever encountered, namely:
The Chicago Railroad and Public Warehouse Grain Monopoly.
To set forth the details of its operating methods, by which
nearly forty millions of our people are annually robbed of hun-
dreds of millions of dollars, is impossible in this address, and
would necessitate a recitation of crime, regarding which few
are familiar, and concerning which, for various reasons, still
fewer dare to speak.
A prominent modern writer offers the following statements
which carry with them so much self-evident truth as to demand
recognition:
The science of government has for its object the determination of
the relations of the State to the individual. What rights shall the
individual resign? What duties shall the State perform?
Whenever a nation is in distress from causes within itself, as is now
the condition of this country, the cause must be looked for in some
disturbance of the proper relation of the State to the individual. The
State has either usurped the rights of the individual oT fails to perform
a duty to him, or the individual has usurped or legally exercises the
rights of the State.
This truth ledls us directly to the cause of the Nation’s industrial
trouble. The State has given to the individuals the power and right to
perform public duties which belong to it, which it could not safely
transfer. State right has been usurped under the forms of law by the
individual.
There has been a marriage between the individual and the State, and
this illegitimate and incestuous alliance, to use the quaint words of John
Bunyan, “Has begat many bad brats.”
The power of the American Railroad, which has finally
assumed a dictation and arrogance unequaled in civilization,
can silence where others fail; but when silence means robbery,SAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY.
411
it is a virtue to cry out, and the sunrise of a new century may
yet see the producers of this country a unit for self-protection.
It is not the purpose of this discourse to discuss, admit or
deny the right or justice of private individuals or corporations
to combine issues to legally, and in the interests of public policy
conduct their business for more profit by such combination;
but to declare that when public officials or corporations, licensed
by the people for a certain specific purpose, violate the sacred
duties for which they were incorporated, and by which viola-
tion enslave the labor of a continent, it is time mankind
assumes its God-given right‘to liberty and equity in commer-
cial and social life and insists upon an enforcement of such
measures as shall effect radical changes.
It is impossible to intelligently present the methods of opera-
tion of the Chicago Grain Combination in a few columns, but
references are here made to important features of it, with exist-
ing results, in the hope that some reader may profit by a knowl-
edge of them.
The Chicago Public Warehouse Combination is made up of
English, New York and Chicago capital, and is supported by
the western railroads entering Chicago, and will in a measure
illustrate the operation of others.
The objects of this alliance are:
1.	To act as agents of railroad interests to draw grain to
Chicago, thus preventing its diversion to any intermediate
junction point tp some other line which might cut short the
full freight for the longest possible haul on the original road.
2.	To mix, manipulate, sort and manufacture untold quan-
tities of inferior grades of grain into those improved grades
which will apply on contract under the rules of the Board of
Trade and sell them for future delivery. This grain is so
manufactured as to barely pass inspection into such improved
grades, the object being to make them as undesirable as possi-
ble to the purchaser, in order to force its continuance in the
elevators, to accumulate storage charges, rather than seek ship-
ment and consumption.
To block the natural flow of commerce and hoard millions
vipon millions of bushels at market centers to depress prices;412
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
for being carriers of grain for storage pending the time of
future delivery for which the products are sold, it is evident
that the lower they can get the values of the crops the less
the insurance, interest and other charges necessary to hold
them, consequently the larger the profits. It might be stated
also that the storage charges always remain the same, not depre-
ciating in proportion to any decline in the value of the product.
This system of hoarding grain and selling for future delivery
most seriously tends to drive away and discourage investors
and buyers who are the farmers’ best allies. It forces' them
to liquidate or to sell out to the manipulators when securities
are exhausted by depression in the markets. The warehouse
men then proceed to repeat the same game on a new set of
buyers who are under the impression that grain is a “good
purchase,” thus perpetuating an endless chain of forced “liqui-
dations,” and an army of bankrupted speculators. This stor-
age load also encourages professional bear raiders and bucket-
shops whose success is made possible to a large extent by the
operations of the combination. These three gigantic interests,
elevator and railroad monopoly, bucket-shops and bear raiders,
thrive on low prices. Farmers, merchants, laborers and all
others suffer.
Touching upon this feature of the subject the following is
quoted from the pen of a merchant, a resident of Wisconsin:
But even these dishonest practices have been but minor evils com-
pared with the methods of that “brainy” elevator combine, who have
accumulated a stock of over 20,000,000 of a hybrid grade of so-called
contract wheat in their houses, when less than 5,000,000 would have
been their stock under normal conditions. This interest uses its large
storage capacity for mixing purposes. They make, and when it suits
their purpose to depress values, deliver on contracts what is inspected
as No. I Northern spring wheat. It consists of about 40 per cent of the
real article, No. 1 Northern ; about 30 per cent of No. 2 soft Nebraska
spring, and about 30 per cent No. 2 and No. 3 hard Kansas winter wheat.
This mixture is run through cleaning machinery and delivered out as
pure No. I Northern spring wheat. Why should we pass laws to pre-
vent the sale of oleomargarine and butterine as pure butter and still
permit such a gigantic swindle as this to exist? By accumulating this
immense stock of adulterated wheat and keeping control of it in their
own hands, this elevator interest has been enabled to dictate prices not
only for the producers of this country, but practically for the markets
of the world. The system so long in vogue of trading in distant
futures, and_ settling trades through a clearing house, has given theSAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY.
413
market entirely into the hands of this elevator interest, and they seldom
make deliveries on contracts when they know the wheat is actually
wanted, and' will be taken away from them, but only to weak speculative
holders, who they know will sell it out immediately returning it back
to their own hands.
It is this system that made temporarily a 4G cent carrying charge
from the December delivery to May, which frightened holders had to
pay, not only on the amount of wheat in store, but on millions of
“wind” wheat besides. It is this system which is ruining the legitimate
receiving merchants, which has taken out of business entirely the old
exporting interest that was formerly so largely represented in Chicago,
and- has taken millions of dollars annually out of the hands of our
producers, correspondingly affecting all legitimate mercantile interests.
It is a gigantic evil that should be suppressed at once, either by suitable
and well informed legislation, or by an immediate and radical change
in the methods of trading of all grain exchanges. Compel actual
delivery on all contracts. Inspect all mixed grain as mixed grain, and
do not allow it in the contract grade for speculative purposes. This
would forever remove the power of this elevator interest to scour the
country for different kinds of wheat, pile it up in their Chicago houses,
turn it out by the millions and use it for a club to depress prices, and
make exorbitant carrying charges to put in their pockets, not only at
the expense of the speculator, but of the entire farming and business
community.
3. To kill natural competition. It is quite generally believed
that 75 to 95 per cent of the grain now handled through these
public warehouses sooner or later becomes the property of
the warehousemen. Being thus allied with the railroad inter-
ests, as explained previously, they are shown special favor in
the matter of elevator facilities, in many cases without charge,
and while the original intention of the state law was that of
simply a custodian of the grain of the public, they now tran-
scend that duty, and compete with the public as merchandizers
of the crops,. The public pays full storage rates, probably the
most excessive in the world, and the warehousemen none.
It would be just as reasonable for the Chicago & Great West-
ern Railroad to enter the grain trade and make its own rates
of freight, to itself, as a grain merchant, as against the people
who pay tariff rates. Or, to illustrate further, suppose the
Collector of the Port of New York should engage in the tea,
coffee, or silk business, and pay no duty on his imports, but
charge all other handlers of these goods full duty. And not
only this, but should take upon himself the right to mix, sort
and manipulate in trade the silks, teas and coffees of the public.414
ANTI-TRUST CONPERENCE.
How lo»g would competition with him exist, and especially
when favored with a free custom house, and special privileges
from common carriers when he shipped the goods?
Inquiry will prove that competition for the crops is already
nearly extinct, and that the trust at no distant day will set its
own price, not only for the grain sent to market, but force a
value on that much larger volume which remains unsold on the
farm.
Two things must be done—Educate and organize the masses.
Tell the farmers what forces are at work to make their prod-
ucts sell under cost of production, and force them to mortgage
their farms. Inform manufacturers why there is no demand
for their goods, with millions of producers struggling for a
mere subsistence. Enlighten laborers as to the causes of their
discharge in “dull times.” Let farmers and laborers learn
that their battles are the same, and that wheat in the ’60s and
’50s, corn under 30c, and oats around 20c in Chicago, with
ruinous rates of freight to be paid out of these figures, present
a condition important to all—a disease known as “under-con-
sumption.”
The underlying primary cause of depression in prices is a
public official acting as a private grain dealer in a public ware-
house with the permission and co-operation of railroad com-
panies.
Many of the causes of “hard times” in recent years arise
from this alliance, and to sever it and demand a change that
will rectify the evils will necessitate a public sentiment as
strongly organized, influential and determined as the combina-
tion.
It should not be overlooked that public grain warehouse-
men are servants of the people, licensed by the state, created
by the virtue of the necessities of commerce, who, while author-
ized by law to act as custodians only, usurp their duties from
a monopoly, and year by year kill the interests of producers
who create them.
When it is clearly understood that they are the greatest fac-
tors in the pits at the market centers, shaping values of crops
annually of 3,500,000,000 of bushels, worth from one to twoSAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY.
415
billion dollars, our farmers and laborers should open their eyes
for light; and especially so when the motto of the combina-
tion is, “The lower the prices the larger our profits.’’ Who
guards the farmer’s interests in the market where to a large
extent values are made ?
In 1896 in a civil suit before the Circuit Court Judge Tuley
decided that a public warehouseman could not deal in grain.
The trial before this eminent jurist was a most thorough
investigation of the legal rights of public servants in the form
of monopoly to crush the very life blood out of American
producers.
These men found they had no standing before an honest
court, but emerging from a generally conceded boodle legis-
lature, to which they fled for protection, they now carry the
flag of triumph, and, as it were, plant it on the very house-tops
as a souvenir of their victory and the traitors who sold out
to them.
The warehousing of grain is only an incident in its transit
from producer to consumer. Its natural and healthy function
is in accepting for storage the overflow of the season of freest
movement that the channel of commerce may not be clogged
or obstructed, and safely caring for the same while waiting
demand.
Recognizing the importance and the necessity of these ware-
houses, where the merchant and the farmer could deposit
their grain, the constitutional convention of 1870 in its wisdom
created these public institutions by the adoption of Article 13
of the constitution, following which, in response to the instruc-
tions of the constitution, the Legislature of 1871 enacted our
present railroad and warehouse law.
For almost twenty years this law was respected by the ele-
vator owners; Chicago maintained her position as the “greatest
grain market in the world.” Thousands of buyers and sellers
were brought together_ each day and a broad open market
was the result. Competition of buyers sustained prices and
the influence was felt the world over. For years Chicago
presented the best market for the West to send her grain to,
owing to the competition of buyers. But between 1887 and416
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
1890 this new force began to be felt. The inter-state commerce
law had gone into effect, and before the close of 1890 nearly
every railroad terminating in Chicago had some favored
elevator system under its protection, the proprietors of which
were given such profitable concessions as to enable them to
control the grain business on that particular line of railroad.
The alliance between railroads and elevators has resulted
in reaching out after millions of bushels of grain not naturally
tributary to the Chicago market, and when gathered there,
preventing it, by such tricks of trade as only the initiated are
familiar with, from ever getting away again as long as storage
can be collected on it. So that in Chicago the accumulation
and storage of grain has come to be the chief end and aim of
potential and dominating forces.
This policy has resulted in such congestion of grain there
as to depress prices to the lowest point in history. For it is
not the Chicago stock alone that that market has to carry.
The very volume of Chicago stocks invites dealers in every
market in the world to make sales there against holdings else-
where, which they would not dare to do but for abnormal
accumulations brought and held there by unnatural means.
Cargoes of wheat bought on European account in Australia,
India, Russia and Argentina, as well as stocks at all other
points of accumulation, are sold against in Chicago, so that
this market feels the weight of the world’s surplus. This
condition is only made possible by the enormous and unnatural
hoard brought and retained there to satisfy the avarice of half
a dozen corporations, the largest of which is owned in London.
By the rankest and most brazen manipulation they seek to
control the price and movement of our commodities and force
every buyer and every seller to their terms. Two years ago
Judge Tuley fearlessly set forth his views on the rights of
public warehousemen as grain dealers, as the following extracts
will prove:
“The great weight of the evidence is to the effect that the warehouse-
men of Chicago did not commence to so deal in grain to any general
extent until about the year 1885, but the practice has grown so rapidly
that now for two or three years last past they are the principal buyers
and sellers on the Chicago market and upon the Chicago Board ofDr. John Stolze.
C. J. Buell.
William Sulzer.
Eugene V. Brewster.
John Aubrey Jones.SAMUEL-HALLETT GREELEY.
417
Trade. That by reason of the advantages they possess, and by reason
of certain changes in the grain trade they have practically driven out
of business the class of men who were before engaged in buying and
shipping grain on the Chicago market. And it is admitted that they
have dealt in grain to the extent that they now own at least three-
quarters of all the grain stored in the public warehouses of the city of
Chicago, and it also appears by the evidence that they are fast monopo-
lizing the business of dealing in grain in the Chicago market.
“The defendant is created and licensed to carry on the specific busi-
ness of a public Warehouse, and to use its property for that purpose.
Being licensed for one purpose, created by the Constitution and the
law for a specific business, is it not opposed to public policy that this
defendant should carry on in competition with the general public another
and different business in which its interests must necessarily be brought
into conflict with its duties in exercising this ‘sort of public office?’
“It is, however, contended that the warehouseman gets the grain be-
cause he pays more for it than other bidders, that the Constitution of
the State requires the law passed in pursuance thereof to be construed
‘in the interests of the producer,’ therefore it is to the interest of the
producer that the warehouse be allowed to enter into the grain business.
“No monopoly in grain dealing can operate in the long run to the
interest of the producer. There is no truer maxim in the-economics
than that ‘competition is the life of trade.’ The warehouseman may
be able to pay more than outside shippers and buyers until he has been
driven out of the market. When he has succeeded in so doing (and
the evidence shows that that time has nearly arrived), and he has no
practical competition, then the producer must suffer. The law should
not be so construed as to give the warehouseman the right to use his
privilege, his public business as a warehouseman, to crush out competi-
tion against himself as a dealer in grain.
“It is also contended that every man has a right to trade in grain.
This may be true as to every individual, but if he is exercising a kind
of public employment and is licensed to carry on a business impressed
with a public use, with certain duties and privileges by reason of such
license, the question is, 'Is it, or not, against public policy that he be
permitted to use such public employment, such public business and
such privileges to aid him in carrying on in competition with the public
another and different business, and in such a way as to create in himself
a virtual monopoly of such latter business?’ It appears to the court
that there can be but one answer to the question, and that in the
affirmative.”
President Stickney, of the Chicago & Great Western Rail-
road, touches upon this subject in the following words taken
from his book on the “Railway Problem
This unrestricted power to discriminate in the matter of rates lodged
in the hands of one man, the manager of say 5,000 miles of railway,
should never be lodged in the hands of any human being. Under such
conditions what business is safe? The average business man feels
strong enough to cope with his competitors, on equal terms, but there is
a power he cannot compete with and he cannot avoid. This power, like418
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
a government, has authority to make tariffs and enforce their collection.
It claims a right which no civilized government claims, and no sover-
eign has dared to exercise for centuries, of rebating a portion of its
tariff and thus discriminate between its subjects in the collection of its
revenues. It is safe to say that if the Congress of the United States
should enact a law, which established on any commodity one import
duty for the city of New York and a different duty for other cities, br
one duty for one firm and another duty for another firm, no matter
how slight the difference, the people would resort to arms, if need be,
rather than submit.
They claim to be public benefactors, in that they bring
grain in large amounts to Chicago that would otherwise go
elsewhere. This is said to furnish more employment to bank-
ing capital and keep up the rate of interest and to give business
to railroads and insurance companies. But we know that
half a dozen firms and corporations have a monopoly on the
business. They cannot force grain there that is not naturally
tributary, except on cut rates of freight, denied the general
public and forbidden by law. If our contention is sustained
each railroad will have a host of competing patrons instead
of one; bankers will have a thousand active accounts instead
of the small group of large borrowers who are now able to
combine and dictate rates, while the short rate card of insur-
ance offices will again come into use. But the real question
is not whether it may add to the traffic of railroads, or increase
the profits of banking or insurance capital, but whether it is
right for public custodians of grain to be at the same time’
dealers in grain, and enabled to select arid set aside for their
own purposes the best of what may come under their charge.
No objection is made to all grain goirig to Chicago that can
be legitimately brought there, but it is against public policy and
is not the legitimate function of a public warehouseman, oper-
ating under a license from the state, to be so engaged. It
is the dual capacity that we object to, and that is prohibited
by law. In the spring of 1895 the quality of millions of bush-
els of grain stored in public warehouses was aspersed by inter-
ested speculators. The Board of Trade, through the officers,
sought to have such an investigation made as would refute the
slander against grain stored in public warehouses and restore
the confidence of buyers and holders of the property.SAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY.
419
But every elevator proprietor in Chicago joined in refusing
permission to a committee of experts to make that necessary
and wholesome examination. They knew the grain was above
the average in quality and condition, but were willing to have
it suspected in order to increase the carrying charge. The
present monopoly is against everybody and everything but
themselves.
A system that permits the proprietors of public elevators,
directly or indirectly, to deal in the property of which they
are custodians, is essentially immoral. The temptation to
reserve for themselves the best of the grain is one to which
the law never contemplated that they should be subjected to.
Indeed, the principal motive of the warehouse law was to
prevent their ownership or control of grain in the public
warehouses. Yet it is notorious that during the past few years
the proprietors of the elevators have had for sale and sold
millions of bushels of grain from public elevators by sample at
a large premium, not one cent of which in equity belonged to
them. The grain bought by elevator proprietors is promptly
sold by them for some future delivery, so they become the
custodians of other people’s property, which, however, the
public can only get on payment of such premium as the urgency
of the demand may enable the elevators to exact. It is an
unwelcome task to criticise the methods of any class of busi-
ness men, but this is an occasion for plain speech and honest,
earnest effort to restore the grain trade its vanishing glory
and traditions. The elevator monopoly is a blight on legiti-
mate business. The old time open competition of thousands
has been superseded by new conditions under which each rail-
road terminating in Chicago is practically controlled by a
single buyer. Special rates are made to favored individuals
who have the further advantage of elevator control, so that
rates charged to the public are rebated to themselves, thus
enabling them to outbid or undersell all competitors. The
charge of fc per bushel for the first term of storage is retained
only as a protection to the elevator managers against com-
petition of legitimate dealers in grain. It is a charge that
the public cannot avoid, but which is ignored by them in their420
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
own transactions, thus forcing everyone to sell or buy of
them. The fact that this charge is not bona fide but only a
foil to competition proves that it is unjust and should be abol-
ished. The charge of Jc per bushel for the transfer of grain
from cars to vessels, a distance of perhaps ioo feet, is greater
than the average rate of freight (by water) during the year
1895 from Chicago to Buffalo. The same grain is trans-
ferred on track by railroads from western to eastern cars for
nothing.
These conditions already described in reference to the Chi-
cago market are scarcely more important than the condition
in the Northwest. A system has long been in operation there
by which owners, of large lines of elevators combine with each
other in the establishment of prices to the farmers, and not
only secure grain on margins of from 2 to lie per bushel,
but exact from them a most excessive dockage which is some-
thing fearful when understood.
As a matter of self-protection the farmers of the National
Grain Growers’ Association, as well as other organizations,
have finally sought relief in the construction of their own local
elevators, and if reports are correct, about 250 of this char-
acter are now in operation. And it is stated from good au-
thority that the entire wheat crop of the Northwest has been
advanced from 2 to 3c per bushel at local stations on account
of this attitude of the producers.
Not only is a general movement contemplated to escape
from the clutches of these monopolies by establishing local
elevators, but the farmers are considering the construction
of terminal warehouses in Duluth, Minneapolis, Chicago and
other points, the charges in which will probably be about one-
half of those now existing in Chicago. Some of the railroad
companies noticing the general tendency of producers to pro-
tect themselves are already beginning to offer assistance to
the plan.
An endless amount of positive and circumstantial evidence
obtained throughout the country suggests that either directly
or indirectly the railroads or their officials are merchandizers
of grain engaged in buying, selling and shipping it over theirSAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY.
421
own lines, and that the difference between the cost price where
it is raised, and the selling price where it is marketed, less the
compensation to the “stand-in” or “trustie,” the company’s
agent, is the freight to the railroad. If it is true that rail-
road competition has assumed such proportions that business
must be secured, even if one man shall conduct it, or perhaps
the railroad itself, wherein lies the safety of the people in
commercial life?
And if special privileges from common carriers result in
a monopoly, which becomes the most important factor in kill-
ing competition, for the crops, and depressing their values,
wherein lies the safety of the American farmer?
Hon. Martin A. Knapp, who as one of the members of
the U. S. Interstate Commerce Commission, and later as
chairman of that body, has devoted years to the study of rail-
way discrimination and its causes and results, has expressed
some of his conclusions in the following words:
The ultimate effect of preferential rates is to concentrate the com-
merce of the country in a few hands. The favored shipper, who is
usually the large shipper, is furnished with a weapon against which
skill, energy and experience are alike unavailing. When the natural
advantages of capital are augmented by exemption from charges com-
monly imposed it becomes powerful enough to force all rivals from the
field. If we could unearth the secrets of those modern trusts whose
surprising exploits excite such wide apprehension, we should find an
explanation of their menacing growth in the systematic methods by
which they have evaded the burdens of transportation. The reduced
charges which they have obtained, sometimes by favoritism and oftener
by force, account in a great measure for the colossal gains which they
have accumulated. This is the sleight of hand by which the marvel has
been produced, the key to the riddle which has amazed and alarmed the
nation. If these combinations were deprived of their special and
exclusive rates, there is little doubt that they would be shorn of their
greatest strength and lose their dangerous supremacy. Indeed, I think
it scarcely too much to say that no alliance of capital, no aggregation
of productive forces, would prove of_ real or at least of permanent
disadvantage if rigidly subjected to just and impartial charges for
public transportation.
The time is coming, if indeed it is not now here, when
law no longer protects honest merchants, but shields dishon-
est ones in the failure of its execution. When law fails to
protect those who are willing to honor it, and when a rail-*422
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
road president can whisper the word that gives monopoly in
oil, beef, coal or grain, to a single criminal, we may well be
fearful of the safety of our institutions.
The public warehouse monopoly was born in a railroad office.
Railroads are the “mother of trusts,” special rates of freight
the food that prolongs their existence. Without this food
all others in the commercial world might as well notify the
undertaker and endeavor to save enough for a decent burial.
I, for one, have no fears for the success of all enterprises,
of a commercial nature, when our merchants can depend upon
the same and equal terms in the matters of transportation.
When freight rates are as stable as postage stamps monopoly
will then receive the first blow. Many believe railroad pool-
ing will largely relieve the present discontent. When the peo-
ple own their own transportation lines, together with the nec-
essary accessories, to transportation, and insist that they are
properly managed, then only will the monopoly question be
largely solved.
The grain growers of America want an open market for
their crops. That it does not exist is true. The reason is
because the railroads refuse to permit it by killing competi-
tion and various other means. Why should a railroad hold
the power to say to one man, “You succeed,” and to thou
sands, “You fail”?
The various discriminations practiced by the railroads, as
between individuals and localities, the diversified and ingen-
ious methods employed in manufacturng and publishing mis-
leading tariffs, the delays in making them known to the gen-
eral public, the ruin and devastation they have produced, the
absolute uncertainty in commercial operations, the insecurity
of future contract, are all no doubt prominent in the merchan-
dizing of other commo'dities, and are by no means confined
to grain. Neither is the ability of railroads to defy law,
intimidate, bribe, or blacklist confined to handlers of the prod-
ucts of the soil. Indeed so general are the complaints of rail-
road despotism that protection of our people in all branches
ox business “must needs seem terrible.”SAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY.
423
For millions of people to know that absolute equality in
matters of transportation is the very foundation stone of the
equality of opportunity among people of industry, and at
the same time realize that a sercet rebate of freight acts as
a margin of profit to a single competitor, in the merchandizing
of commodities, and when a knowledge exists that a pub-
lished tariff simply serves as a guide as to how much secret
concession is necessary to successfully stifle competition, and
create a monopoly, it seems almost criminal neglect, if indeed
it is not aiding and abetting a crime, for enlightened citizens
to longer remain silent.
There is necessarily involved in this- problem a moral as
well as a commercial phase, and if we cannot be thoughtful
of ourselves, we may at least consider our children.
I fearlessly make the assertion, drawn from many years of
careful observation and experience, that the day is fast ap-
proaching when it will be impossible for a young man even
with “brains and capital,” to be a financially successful grain
merchant and an honest man. His illegal competition will
either force him to retire or seek the chamber of the railway
monarch and receive his favor. If he accepts the latter each
jewel on the fingers of his bride is in every feature of its
possession a product of larceny extorted fsom a thousand
heartaches.
If the reports of this investigation of the sub-committee
on transportation in the Industrial Commission recently held
in Chicago, are correct, it was admitted, as charged, that
five men met daily to arrange a maximum price to be paid
for grain in different sections of this great western country.
To justify the existence of such a practice, was the noble
sentiment “to protect Chicago as a grain market,” and “for
the best interests of the American producer.”
A paradox, not without its amusing feature, to those ac-
quainted with the combination.
After a full and minute investigation of the subject a prom
inent author has concluded that the following great ends may
be attained under the proposed system of railway nationaliza-
tion:424
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
1.	The just security of the capital invested upon the basis of its
commercial worth. Precarious railway securities will become things of
the past.
2.	Uniformity and equality of freight rates among shippers; the
elimination of quasi natural discrimination as well as willful.
3.	A one-half cent passenger rate, per mile, for the entire country.
4.	An eight-hour day for all railway workers; and the consequent
employment of 165,000 of the unemployed to fill this one-fifth reduction
in time.
5.	The greater development of the natural resources, agricultural and
otherwise, of the country by a sensible application of the capital now
invested in “parallels,” etc.
6.	A juster distribution of railway mileage throughout the different
States; the grossest inequality is the necessary effect of the present
system.
7.	The establishment of a system of Postal Express, which it seems
might be conducted in this way at half the present cost to the public.
8.	The gradual inauguration of a system of accident insurance for
passengers, employes and others, etc.
9.	The emancipation of public men from the evil influences of rail-
way politics; together with the attainment of free elections.
I did not presume at the outset to enlighten you
on the general subject of transportation, but only hoped
to bring to your notice one of the many calamities resulting
from the private ownership and management of public prop-
erty, with which in detail, you would not be familiar.
I trust, however, that enough has been said to re-enlist your
sympathy and efforts on behalf of the tillers of American soil.
If you scan briefly the pages of our national history and
recall “taxation without representation,” “imprisonment of
American seamen,” “protection of commerce,” “human slav-
ery,” and "the despotism of monopoly,” we may find a few
parallels which suggest that there are “signs in the times”
in which we live.
The autocracy of the American railway furnishes an issue
as great as any -for which our forefathers considered it nec-
essary to fight, but let us hope that the wisdom of modern
high ideals will solve this problem on the lines of a true Chris-
tian civilization.REV. W. D. P. BLISS.
425
REV. W. D. P. BLISS,
President Social Reform Union.
We meet today in the presence of a graver crisis, of a
more impending danger than ever yet has threatened the
perpetuity of American institutions.
Not when Washington under the elm at Cambridge took
command of the American armies of the Revolution; not
when the arrogance of the slave power and the commercialism
of the North deluged our fair land with the horrors of civil
war and fraternal strife; not at any other crisis that has
occurred in the history of our land, has there arisen a monster
more fateful, a danger more insidious, a problem more full
of public menace and of private wrong, than the evil against
which we are met today to organize. At this very moment
English capital rules more land and sways more power in the
United States than was ever fought for by King George’s
troops. At this very moment the railroad power, the money
monster, and the industrial trust, own more subjects and con-
trol more people than ever toiled under the Southern lash.
King George’s ministry threatened all with taxation without
representation; our modern trusts buy our representatives and
give us legislation for the rich, and taxation for the poor.
The slave owner at the worst aimed at lordship over a servile,
ignorant class; the industrial trust is gaining the lordship
of the whole American people.
This is no class question, and no class struggle. The foe is
in our midst; it is in Washington and in San Francisco.
It is on Wall street and among the wheat fields of Dakota.
The present war of the United States is not in the Philippine
islands, but in Chicago; it is not in Manila, but around and
within, your shop, your office, and your"home. The war in
the Philippine islands is but an incident. The trusts which
are today conquering and enfeebling and impoverishing the
American people are sighing for new worlds to conquer, and
for new markets to exploit. Debt is the white man’s burden,
and they would place this burden on other necks without tak-
ing it from our own. The trusts today are sending our426
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
boys to practice in Manila, that later they may be able to
shoot the better in Chicago and New York.
Eight billion dollars; such is the asserted capitalization of
our principal trusts. Of this perhaps some $5,000,000,000
is water; yet this it is that enables the Standard Oil monop-
oly to get dividends of 80 per cent; and other trusts to suck
the very lifeblood of American labor.
Yet this is not a labor movement. The anti-trust convention
is, and should be, the rising of the whole American people.
We should confuse it with no lesser issue, nor narrow it to
a smaller question. The evil of the trust comes home to
every one. It says to labor, “Thou art my serfto the
teacher, “Teach my economy;’' to the preacher, “Preach my
doctrine.” Are these not the facts? What is it but the
power of money that today buys the ignorant voter, controls
the public press, sways the court decision, drives the profes-
sor from his chair, stills the tongue of the preacher within
the church, paralyzes even manhood? English monarchy and
chattel slavery threatened the outer man; industrial tyranny
threatens today soul and mind and body.
But we are not met here to moan. We are met to resolve,
to organize and to act. In the presence of such a crisis strong
men will act; and wise men will act together. What should
we do, and what is the way of relief ?
There is but one way; the only way of safety is the path
of the public trust. Mere negative laws, mere negative action,
will not answer. Anti-trust law but toys with the wind, and
misleads us with dangerous reaction. Combination has the
future. Where competition is, sooner or later, combination
will develop. The only question is, What kind of a combina-
tion we shall have:# The combination of the few or the com-
bination of the many? Public ownership is the only antidote
for private combination.
For this, in a sense, the trusts are but preparers of the
way. The trust is a corporation of corporations; it is cor-
poration that aims to be a monopoly. But so does every cor-
poration. So does the trades union, and so the Episcopal Mis-
sionary Board. The trust is simply a successful trades union,REV. W. D. P. BLISS.	427
a successful missionary board. For the trust has a mission,
and a more useful one than many missionary boards. Its
mission is to end competition, i. e., since competition is the
life of hell, to save people from hell. The trusts are show-
ing us how to organize, forcing the question upon us, and
teaching us the way.
Yet we are not of those who say, “Let the trust go on;
let the trusts swallow up all business, and then we1—-the peo-
ple—will swallow up the trusts.” The danger is, that in that
extreme day, the people may be in no condition to swallow
up the trusts, being themselves swallowed up by them—lib-
erty already perished, manhood already gone. No, now is
the time to act. Now is the time to strike; now is the time
to organize; now, before it be too late.
And it must be through politics. Let us utter no uncertain
sound; let us have no confused issue. It is not a question
of the poor against the rich, of the West against the East,
of one class against another. It is a question of manhood
against money; of the whole American people against the
tyrant few. Let there be no division. Let there be no falter-
ing. Let us unite or perish.
Yet though we use party, let us not put trust in party.
Party men can be swayed; party men can be bought; the
only safety is in an eternal principle and an educated con-
science. In the truth shall be our power. Let us educate,
agitate, organize. It is ideas that money fears. It is ideas
that will win. Even though we be defeated for the moment,
on the morrow we shall conquer. Truth can never lose. To
adapt the words of America’s greatest poet:
Wait a little, shall we not wait;
Pierrepont Morgan is not Fate,
Czar McKinley is not Time,
There’s one with swifter feet than crime.
Party congresses settle naught;
There’s is dickering, who’s is thought?
Hanna is shrewd, but, spite of change,
Gutenberg’s gun has the longest range.
Spin, spin, Monopoly, spin;
Middle-men twist, and class party men sever.
Ignorance may join hands with Sin,
But only Truth shall stand forever.4-S
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
WARREN WORTH BAILEY.
Concentration in itself is not a bad thing. It is bad only
when it involves something besides mere concentration. A
thousand men working together can do more than a thousand
times as much as one man working alone. It is only when
men work together in large numbers that the enormous ad-
vantages of a division of labor are possible. And in like
manner the concentration of capital is in the direction of econ-
omy. It is possible enormously to increase the efficiency of
capital by massing it, as in a mighty steamship or in a vast
factory or a great mill. It must be borne in mind that monejj
is not capital. Capital is wealth used in the production of
more wealth; and money is not wealth; it is merely the rep-
resentative of wealth; a tool employed for the facilitation of
exchange. The small open boat used in carrying goods is
capital, but the small open boat is a less efficient means of
transportation than a great steamship; and it is an advantage
to the world when a hundred owners of small open boats go
together and build a mighty leviathan of the deep into which
thousands of tons of freight may be packed and safely carried
across the multitudinous seas with hardly a greater expendi-
ture of labor than was required in the hazardous ventures of
the sloop and the schooner. The harm. is therefore not in
this massing of capital in noble ships and great factories and
vast mills. It must be looked for elsewhere. And we shall
find it, perhaps, in the special privileges with which certain
aggregations of capital have surrounded and buttressed them-
selves. These special privileges appear in many forms, but
they all possess a common character; they involve the use oij
a private taxing power; and whether they wield this in the
shape of a tariff enabling them to avoid competition and sell
their products at an arbitrary figure, as in the case of the
steel trust, or whether they wield it in the shape of royalties
exacted for the use of natural opportunities, as in the case
of the hard coal trust, which is also shielded to an extent
by tariff laws, the effect is the same. They are enabled to
command service without rendering service; they fix prices
at what traffic will bear; their extortion is limited only byWARREN WORTH BAILEY.
429
the ability of the people to sustain it. There may be pre-
tenses of cheapening commodities, as in the case of oil; but
commodities controlled by monopoly are cheapened in price
only by their debasement in quality. Coal oil is cheaper per
gallon, it is true; but it is also true that it is lower in stand-
ard; its illuminating power has been decreased. And the
same is true throughout the whole list of trust articles. If
prices have been nominally lowered they have been relatively
increased by the act of adulteration or debasement. The trust
always takes everything it can get.
It should be observed that trusts do not attempt to corner
the north wind. They seek to get control of things that are
limited in quantity; and so every really effective trust in the
long run must be one that in some form is a landlord. Take
the paper trust, with whose operations and whose extortions
I am somewhat familiar as a bleeding victim. This trust is
protected from foreign competition by a tariff on manufac-
tured paper and by a tariff on wood pulp, which is the raw
material of paper. But the paper trust would soon go to the
wall were it dependent solely upon the tariff. The tariff cer-
tainly aids it in victimizing the publishers; it has enabled the
trust to increase prices by 33 1-3 per cent, with a threat of an
increase of more than 100 per cent before the year is out. Yet,
if the tariff were its only bulwark its career would be as
short-lived and as disastrous as that of the famous oat meal
trust proved to be. It will be remembered that when the oat
meal trust put up the price of its commodity, a hundred, or pos-
sibly a thousand mills, in all parts of the country, awoke to the
fact that they could grind oats as easily as wheat and corn;
and just at the moment the trust was flushing with its success
the independent manufacturers flooded the market with their
product and the trust went to the wall. Its disaster taught
other trust managers a lesson which they were not slow to
learn; and now every trust which can hope to be more than
temporarily effective as a taxing power is in control of some-
thing more than tools and machinery. Thus the paper trust
has gained control of the sources of supply; it owns practically
all the spruce timber in the United States; and in addition it43°	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
has secured control of all the available water power. It is thus
able to dominate the market. Independent mills cannot get
either the wood or the water power, and they are thus
utterly unable to enter into an effective competition. Yet,
if they were permitted to import spruce logs from Canada,
where spruce abounds, they could give the trust most serious
trouble. But there is a heavy tariff duty on spruce logs; and
now the trust has gone across the border and procured from
the Canadian government a law prohibiting the export of
spruce logs.
The steel trust finds its strength in the ownership of ore
beds. The same is true of the copper trust. The hard coal
trust is obviously a child of landlordism, fed and nursed by a
tariff on soft coal. The lead trust, the beef trust, the Standard
Oil trust, the sugar trust, and above all, the railroad trust, in
the final analysis are all founded upon the monopoly of certain
limited natural opportunities. It is true that some trusts which
own no natural opportunities flourish and would continue to
flourish even were the tariff which protects them from foreign
competition repealed. But it will be found that in every such
case the. trust in question is a collateral or dependent of some
trust which does control certain natural opportunities. The
beef trust is largely the offshoot of the railways; it has
flourished on the discriminating freight rates which it has been
able to command; and this trust has not only been able by its
relations with the railways to extort tribute from the con-
sumers of meat, but it has been able also to depress the prices of
stock upon the hoof.
It were supreme folly to attempt to destroy the trust in so
far as it marks a tendency to concentration. As was said be-
fore, there is no necessary harm in concentration. The evil
grows out of concentration—plus monopoly. And it has been
asserted that no monopoly can long exist without some special
grant of privilege. There are patent monopolies, but these
can exist only for a limited period; and no one has ever yet
invented anything so good that someone couldn’t invent some-
thing better. Wireless telegraphy is coming along to destroy
the tremendous monopoly held by the Western Union and theWARREN-WORTH BAILEY.
431
Bell Telephone Company. The tariff will enable its benefi-
ciaries to rob the people up to the point where they invite in-
ternal competition; and this in turn invites combination. But
suppose that every concern in the whole country engaged in the
production of a certain commodity were to enter into a com-
bination, which would throttle competition and enable the pro-
ducers of this commodity to sell it up to the full limit, what
would hinder others from setting up in the same business?
The combination would speedily break of its own weight un-
less it were the possessor -of some valuable natural monopoly.
It has been proposed to deal with trusts by restrictive meas-
ures. These would be as abortive as the interstate commerce
laws have been in controlling the railways. The railways have
always controlled the Interstate Commerce Commission, and
the laws have simply served the turn of the railways. The
proposition to license trusts is too grotesque to be seriously
considered, but if we were to license trusts, as we do saloons,
the trusts would go into politics then for sure, just as the
saloons have done. The Sherman Anti-Trust Law has been
as unavailing as it was probably intended to be by the able
statesman who sought to fool, and did fool, the people with it.
And if a thousand other laws of restrictive character were
piled upon the statute books the result would not be different.
The trusts would continue business just the same. The sug-
gestion of State control is not less futile. There' is hardly
a State in the Union today that is not in the actual or poten-
tial control of the allied monopolies of the country. For it
must be borne in mind that all these trusts stand together.
They do not make the mistake of dividing their strength or the
votes they control. Can you name one that was not on the
winning side four years ago? They let farmers and working-
men make the blunder of breaking up into three or four or
a dozen futile parties. It is true that whenever any party be-
comes formidable the trusts take the precaution of getting
their agents into it and seizing its machinery. Let us consider
for a moment what privilege really means. There is nothing
in itself in wearing a crown. Any one could plait himself a
crown of straw or of thorns if he pleased, and he might wear432
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
it without offense; he might even build a triple one of gold
and have it set full of diamonds and precious stones; yet would
it be but a bauble, a toy, the vanity of a fool, were that all.
It is when there is something behind the crown, some power,
some authority, some privilege, which it typifies. Thus a king
with a hundred crowns and without a kingdom were as device-
less and as puny a monarch as that one who in a padded cell
plaits his crown of straw and wields a broken reed for a
scepter over the fantastic hosts trooping through his disordered
mind. But let there be power, let privilege be vested, let
authority be grasped and its exercise conceded, then, whether
the man so clothed shall wear a crown and wield a scepter or
not; whether he call himself a king or merely a “captain of
industry,” the effect upon those who must come when he says
come, must go when he says go, must render tribute when he
demands it, must bow to his authority and acknowledge his
privilege when he asserts them, is the same. And while we
have no crowns in America and no titles of nobility, we still
have a priviliged class whose power over the lives and the
destinies of the rest is as absolute and as imperious as ever
that imposed by prince or czar. Your Andrew Carnegie is a
“triumphant Democrat,” yet no monarch who ever bestrode a
throne held sway more dominantly or wielded his imperial
functions with a harder hand. For the essence of kingship is
the taxing power. The Stuarts realized that in their bitter
fight with the parliament; and monarchy became a figure-head
when that power was resumed by the people.
Then surely here is the root of this matter. If we have
principalities and powers in this free government; if there be
barons and dukes and princes; if there be under lords and
over lords; if there be those that take who have the power and
those that keep who can, what is the plain solution of the
problem? Is it not to unhorse privilege by destroying its tax-
ing power? Let the kings and potentates continue if they
please to wear their crowns; let them flaunt their robes of state
and their insignia of royalty if that shall tickle their vanity;
but let the people whom they have been taxing refuse to vote
further supplies. Let the people keep what belongs to themRev. Holmes Slade.
Rev. S. W. Sample.
E. Quincy Norton.
John Sherwin Crosby.
M. R. Leverson.W. B. FLEMING.
433
and let the kings and the princes keep what is theirs. But what
is it that belongs to the people? Is it not the product of their
labor and all the product? If the kings and the princes have
produced anything, then surely that is theirs. The people
will not claim it. The people claim only what their labor has
produced. And when our American royalty" presents its de-
mand for tribute, let the answer be refusal. And let this refusal
be made effective, not by idle protests and by vain restrictive
concessions—for every restriction is but a concession—but by
the repeal of all laws which vest the taxing power in private
hands. There is no other way. The trust which has no taxing
power is a good trust. Every one which possesses the taxing
power is a bad one. And this is the distinguishing mark.
Look into the nature of the trust. If it have the power of
levying a tax, then it is bad and irredeemably bad. If it is
not endowed by law with this special privilege, then it is
harmless if not beneficent.
W. B. FLEMING.
Our fathers lived in a period when the dors of opportunity
were open to all, and when each might by industry achieve
independence. We are confronted with a condition in which
stupendous aggregations of capital own or control for the most
part the means of production as well as the tools of the distri-
bution of wealth. The era of small production, which was
the era of individualism, was the hand-craft stage. With the
advent of machinery that stage has passed into the stage of
great factories in which the master workmen are few and the
wage laborers are many. Along with machinery appeared the
capitalist. The idea of the capitalistic class is to grow rich
not by their own earnings but out of the earnings of the wage
laborers and through monopolistic profit. As capital increased,
the power of the capitalistic class grew. Not only has the
revolution of the machine worked the revolution of labor from
the condition of master workmen to that of wage slaves but
the power of capital has revolutionized the distribution of
wealth and the government itself until ours is no longer a gov-434
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ernment for, by and of the people, but of, for and by the
Syndicate agd Trusts.
The association of capital in the form of partnerships merged
into joint-stock companies, and the joint-stock company merged
into corporations, and these corporations have now merged into
corporate monopolies, known as Trusts.
These unnatural corporations control the caucus, coerce the
voters, own the city press, dictate political action, and overawe
the legislative, executive and even judicial branches of govern-
ment.
What chance has the individual in business or in politics in
competition with such vast aggregations of capital as these?
CAPITALIZED AT
The Standard Oil Co........$100,000,000
The Rubber Goods Co......... 50,000,000
The American Woolen Co...... 50,000,000
The National Biscuit Co..... 55,000,000
The Celluloid Trust......... 55,000,000
The American Hide & Leather Co.	90,000,000
The Soap Trust............. 100,000,000
The Western Union Telegraph Co.	100,000,000
The Coal Trust............. 100,000,000
The U. S. Leather Co....... 125,000,000
The Flour Trust............ 150,000,000
The Copper Trust........... 400,000,000
And the two hundred other combinations capitalized at over
eight billions of dollars with their Captains of Industry in abso-
lute mastership of nearly every field of business activity.
The trust corporations own the machinery, the coal-fields,
the mines, the highways, the public utilities, the credits, the
currency and the government itself.
Such consolidation of wealth and concentration of power
in the hands of the few is inconsistent with the happiness of
the people and with the perpetuity of free institutions.
If the masses are to be saved from a vassalage worse than
that of the feudal ages, if the republic is to live, measures mustW. B. FLEMING.
435
be devised, and that speedily, to scatter the present abnormal
accumulation of wealth and to reverse the machinery by which
the unparalleled congestion of wealth in the hands of the few,
which so signally characterizes the times in which we live, is
made possible.
The first may be done by proper laws of inheritance and by
a graduated income-tax.
In order best to determine what measures should be adopted
to prevent the noxious accumulation of riches in the hands of
the few we should inquire into the causes which produce the
evil.
It is only necessary to glance at the business in which the
multi-millionaires are engaged to find the sources from which
their riches spring.
The modern Croesuses of wealth may be divided into three
classes:
(1)	The tariff barons.
(2)	The railroad magnates,
(3)	And the money kings.
If these have obtained their wealth or been aided in the
obtqption thereof by the intervention of government, the gov-
ernment cannot too soon be taken out of that business.
It cannot be denied that each of the over-rich classes are
clothed with special privileges based on public franchises.
The tariff laws for years have been framed for the purposes
of protection rather than for revenue. This gives a special
privilege to the manufacturing class.
To the owners of railroads has been delegated the govern-
mental function of owning and controlling the §jeat highways
of the country, with power to levy tribute at will upon the
trade and commerce of the country, and to bestow favors when
and where and to whom they will.
To the money-lending class have been granted special priv-
ileges since the beginning of the Civil War. Proof of this is to
be found in the law which provided that the bondholder should
be paid in coin while the soldiers and their widows and
orphans were to be paid in paper money, dishonored by the
government itself; in the ex post facto act which changed the43^
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
terms of contract made with the bondholders without consid:
eration afte^|he delivery of the bonds by providing for payment
in coin in lieu of the lawful money called for by the contract;
in the act establishing the national hanks, bestowing upon them
the exclusive right to issue paper currency; in the act of 1873
and 1874, demonetizing silver and shutting the mints to the
coinage of that metal for the sole purpose of enhancing the
value of money; in the act of 1893, repealing the purchasing
clause of the Sherman Bill, intended to make money dearer by-
making money scarcer; and by various acts of executive usur-
pation and favoritism, redeeming treasury notes in gold, and
in the unnecessary, if not unlawful, issue of bonds.
These grants of exclusive privilege to the privileged classes
have resulted in the congestion of wealth in the hands of the
few with a rapidity and to an extent hitherto unknown in the
history of the world.
In 1890 the wealth of four thousand millionaires aggregated
twelve billions of dollars; today one hundred men own or con-
trol more than twice that sum, and less than 1 percent own
more than one-half of the total wealth of the whole country-.
Thus possessed of fabulous riches, the lords of wealth £ave
audaciously proceeded to establish monopoly in nearly all. the
fields of industry; to destroy freedom of thought and expres-
sion in the pulpit, and in our schools and colleges; to control
the avenues of public information; to dictate the policy of the
public press and to seize the reins of government in all its
branches, municipal, county, state and federal.
Not content with this, the forces of Organized Greed are
demanding tlje passage of a currency bill, now pending in
Congress, intended to establish a Continental Bank Trust, and
thus tighten the clutch of the multi-millionaires on the throat
of the country and make effectual their purpose to draw to
themselves all wealth and to utterly enslave the people.
To their question: “What are you going to do about it?”
my answer is this:
“It is to monopolistic profit you owe your ability to man-
ipulate prices, crush rivals, to exploit the masses, to degrade
labor and to pile up riches; and as monopolistic profit is mad$W. B. FLEMING.	437
possible by legal enactments, we intend to repeal these legal
enactments.
“As special privilege is the basis of the wrongs done to sod-
ety by you, we will abolish special privilege. If you say you
have the right to associate, and by co-operation to economize
the methods of production and distribution, I answer, that you
have no right to create monopoly either by law or by con-
spiracy.
“If you point to the labor unions,, and say you have the
same right to combine they have, I answer, labor unions are
organized for defensive purposes, and you for offensive, and
that to the right of voluntary association you add special
privileges sanctioned by law, and this the labor unions have not
done, and you have no right to complain if we put you on the
same plane with the labor unions.”
The point of our objection to trusts is not the principle of
co-operation, not even that the great industries are being con-
ducted as a unit. What we complain of is, that the trust sys-
tem is unified to practice extortion and discrimination and to
control labor, and that the basis of this wicked power is statu-
tory law, and we insist that no government should permit,
much less legalize the crime of monopoly.
What the people must learn is that social inequality and
social misery come from inequality of privilege rather than
from inequality of political rights and that the wrongs from
which we suffer have their origin largely in legalized monopoly.
There is no longer any trouble in producing wealth. That
problem is solved. Nature has supplied natural resources in
generous abundance. The magic wand of invention has re-
enforced the hands of labor until labor if employed can produce
in three months as much as all the people need in a year.
The difficulty is not in the matter of production, but in
that of the distribution of wealth. Those who produce do not
have. They who do not produce anything have everything.
This monstrous condition arises chiefly out of the fact that
the privileged class have monopolized the tools of distribu-
tion of wealth, which are transportation and money.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
438
We have given away to the railroads millions of acres of
public lands, the right of eminent domain and public franchises
by which the railroad magnates can hold up commerce and the
traveling public on the people’s highways and exact tribute at
will.
We have legislated to the money kings special privileges by
our coinage and national bank acts, special privileges whereby
the money-lenders have been able not only to exact tribute of
the borrower but to control the prices of almost every product
of industry.
So long as the railroads and national bank oligarchies, armed
with the power to rob, are entrenched behind law, there will—
there can be—no relief. So long as these wrongs are legalized,
the foundations upon which equal rights rest, will be under-
mined.
So long as these things continue, the Kings of Money and
Captains of Industry will continue to “rise above all law and
defy all judicial control.”
In pointing out the cause of the Trust evil, we have sug-
gested the remedy:
The first step is for the people to resume those governmental
functions which have been farmed out to the privileged classes.
The issuing of mtmey is a governmental, not a banking func-
tion. Let the banks get out of the governmental business.
The management and control of the highways is a function
of government. Let the government assert and exercise this
attribute of sovereignty.
The thing to do is to strike first and hardest at the bottom
monopolies of the public necessities, and especially the private
monopoly of transportation and money.
Why should there not be public ownership of natural
monopolies ?
Why should the government not assume power over the
public highways, making discrimination and extortion im-
possible, to the end that every citizen may stand equal with
every other citizen in the right to travel and to send goods over
the people’s highway?W. B. FLEMING.
439
Why not assert its right of ownership and operation of state
and municipal franchises, and so take away and out of our
political life the exploiters who debauch the elections and the
legislative assemblies? Why not use these public utilities as
does the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and the city of Manchester,
England, for the benefit of all the people?
Why not abolish the money monopoly?
Money is the great instrument of civilization, because it is
the great tool in the production and distribution of wealth.
Being of universal demand, its power is imperative, so that
they who control the money will ultimately control all endeavor
and own all wealth. To grant a monopoly to any class in this
thing which is of primary and universal importance is a moral
wrong. To do it in a republic is redhanded treason to the
people. Any and all attempts on the part of any citizen to
usurp the public function of issuing money ought to be made
a capital offense..
I know that money is power, and that this power is today
in the hands of a few men, and that it is enthroned in the gov-
ernment. I, therefore, realize that the task of breaking the
power of monopoly is a formidable undertaking. This, how-
ever, must not deter us from undertaking it. It must only
make us the more determined and the more valiant in the war-
fare. To a brave, patriotic and united people, all things are
possible, and with the ballot in our hands wre may yet achieve
victory without bloodshed.
The mission of this conference is to begin this work by
pointing out the remedy and by summoning the people to
action.
The body politic is diseased. Everybody understands that.
We should first diagnose the disease, and then administer
remedies as heroic as the disease is radical. Having ascertained
the cause of the Trust evil, let us try and find the remedy which
will remove the cause, rather than prescribe for the effects of
the disease.
Having pointed out the remedy, our next duty should be to
formulate a plan of permanent organization by which we may440
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
secure that united action on the part of the people which only
can prove effective.
In my humble judgment, this is a case of Now or Never.
If the people cannot be aroused to action on the trust issue
they are doomed.
The message which should go out from this patriotic body,
which has met neither to give npr to receive offices, but to
provide for the public welfare, should be a call to arms. The
cry to be raised is: “The country is in danger.” Summon all
who are yet free to one supreme effort. Let that effort be an
organized effort. Gather the people into Anti-Trust Leagues
in every section, in every precinct. Rally them under the Anti-
Monopoly banner.
Let these organized hosts write on their banners such words
as these: “Monopoly must and shall be destroyed.” “Equal
rights to all, special privileges to none.”
Let every delegate go back home fired with the resolution
to kindle revolt against monopolistic power; to relight the torch
of liberty on every hill-top and in every vale, until the oppo-
nents of Trusts shall be marshaled by the millions. Then will
the Trust tyrants tremble. At the command of the unterrified
hosts the usurpers will abdicate the throne and the shackles
will fall from every limb. The republic will live and we will
stand erect, disenthralled, redeemed, glorious in the light of
liberty. But do your duty, brethren, and generations yet un-
born “will rise up to call you blessed.”
God bless this conference. God save the country.
CHAS. E. CHADMAN.
During the campaign in Ohio last fall I heard Senator Hanna
make a speech in which he said there were good and bad trusts.
This oracular division of trusts was not understood by the
people until Col. Bryan ventured the explanation that “good
trusts,” according to Hanna, were those who contributed liber-
ally to the Republican campaign fund, and “bad trusts” those
who would not contribute. From the standpoint of the prac-
tical politician, there is considerable in this sort of a division.CHAS. E. CHADMAN.
441
Last September, from the 13th to the 16th, there was held in
this hall a “Conference on Trusts,” under the auspices of the
Civic Federation.
That conference was made up of trained thinkers, of experts
in their respective lines. There were present delegates who
ardently desired to counteract the evil of trusts, but for every
one of these there were two or more whose express purpose
was to throw water upon any fire that might be kindled, to con-
sume the barriers protecting the trust. The corporation coun-
sel, with his wit and subtlety, the professor from the endowed
college, with his cut and dry precepts, the banker, the diplomat,
the legislator, the office-holder and the office-seeker, as well as
the professional politician, were here in force. From the
hundreds of pages of talks they gave, I doubt if a single
straightforward utterance, an honest expression of conviction,
or a definite policy can be gleaned. Their arguments were
pointless, their logic filled with “ifs” and “buts,” and with the
exception of the few earnest speeches made, there was nothing
said by those delegates that intimated a desire, much less an
attempt on their part to do anything to check the devastating
career of the trust.
The sentiment of Lyman Abbott, that it was light and not
heat that was wanted, was made the watchword of that confer-
ence.
It is my conviction that there can be no light where there
is not some heat. In the annals of history, I see no light of
genius for patriotism that has flashed out to illumine the way
of civilization, or dispel the oppressive clouds of ignorance,
bigotry and tyranny save those accompanied by the fierce burn-
ing heat of human minds and hearts on fire to protect and
defend their happiness and homes and redress the wrongs im-
posed upon their fellow men. On the Fourth of July, 1776,
what would have been the result if the body of patriots, as-
sembled at Philadelphia, had resolved to debate the question,
“whether mankind is fitted for self-government,” and Burke
Cochran, with his smooth flow of language, and Prof. Gunton,
with his principles of economy founded upon “doctored” facts,
had been there to take the negative ? But, Mr. Chairman, that442
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
body knew that the time for debate was past, and the moment
for action had come. They were willing to risk something.
They knew that a single heroic step forward would redound
to their everlasting benefit. So they resolved that there were
certain unalienable rights to which all mankind were equally
entitled; and, further, that governments are instituted to secure
these rights, “deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed" ; and, more daring yet, “that whenever any form
of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of the people to alter or abolish it.” That was a patriotic
Declaration. And I ask the Rev. Lyman Abbott if it was not
the heat from the brave hearts then throbbing passionately for
right and justice, that enabled the greatest of Americans to
have light and wisdom to pen those everlasting truths?
I am one, Mr. Chairman, who believes that there are a few
principles which need no debate; that there are elements of
right and justice which are fundamental and immortal, and
which need but be stated to be admitted. I believe in pre-
serving inviolate these principles of right, of government, of
civilization.
I believe the time has come when we must distinguish be-
tween fundamental truths and developed errors.
In politics and industry, as well as in religion, we may be
called to decide whether we shall stand by the Golden Rule and
the Ten Commandments, or forget these in fruitless and bitter
discussions of dogmas and creeds.
The present conference, unlike its predecessor, should decide
upon a definite policy, and adopt a platform of principles, so
clear, so fundamental, that every right-minded citizen will en-
dorse them at the polls.
I have chosen my subject in the hope that a review of basic
principles may be of benefit in forming a practical policy of
dealing with the abuses which have developed in our industrial
system. For the Trust question, as stated by Prof. Adams,
“is at bottom one of social theories and social ideas,” and I
think we shall find that it reaches to the bed-rock foundation of
Democracy and self-government.
As a lawyer and student of American jurisprudence, it hasCHAS. E. CHADMAN.
443
been my chief study for the past five years to trace the origin
and development of laws for the protection of rights, and this
I have done not with a view to twist these principles into pre-
cepts for the protection of capital at all hazards, but simply to
arrange them in logical order for the convenience and advant-
age of students of law.
Law is the garnered wisdom of ages. It is the groundwork
of all human organizations. It means method, science, reason,
and order, as opposed to confusion, anarchy, chaos, “state of
nature.” Or more technically, it is the body of rules pre-
scribed by the supreme power in a state, prescribing what is
r and forbidding what is wrong.
w is said to pre-suppose government, but government itself
is law. Macaulay states that government exists for the pur-
pose of keeping the peace, and to compel us to settle our dis-
putes by arbitration instead of by blows, and, further, to compel
us to supply our wants by industry instead of supplying them
by rapine. Prof. Smith, in his “Science of Law,” says: “The
principal end of government is to act as judge or umpire in the
controversies which arise between men as to their mutual claims
and demands upon each other.”
Law is founded in reason, and developed by expediency and
necessity.
“Government is found necessary to the existence of society,
and society is equally necessary to the existence of man,” while
law, in its protection of rights, makes both government and
society endurable.
In a state of nature each man had to fight his own battles
and redress his own wrongs; in “society this right is trans-
ferred from individuals to the sovereign power, whereby men
are prevented from being judges in their own causes.” (IV.
Bl. Com. 8.) Hence, government, through law, should do for
the individual what the individual, if he had every capacity,
could do for himself.
A right is that which a man is entitled to by the best judg-
ment of his fellow men, as indicated by the general and funda-
mental laws of the land. Rights are the individual’s portion444	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of the benefits of society. Technically, a legal right is defined
to be “one man’s capacity of influencing the acts of another by
means, not of his own strength, but of the opinion or force of
society.” (Holland’s Jurisprudence, p. 71.)
The progress of government, of society, of civilization, is
but a history of the development of law, and the expansion of
the rights of the individual.
Beginning with the monopoly of government, of religion,
of education, as well as of industry, we have advanced by pro-
tecting the individual from arbitrary power through charters,
bills, declarations, and constitutions, limiting monopoly, until
today we claim to have a fair measure of political, civil and
religious liberty.
The journey is too long, and too well known for us to restate
the steps from Magna Charter to the Declaration of. Inde-
pendence; from the burning of men at the stake in order to
preserve religious monopoly to the abolition of sectarian in-
struction from the common schools; from feudalism, primo-
geniture and entails, to the present more equitable laws respect-
ing the tenure and descent of lands. Each advance was char-
acterized by the curtailment of monopoly and class privilege.
The early aspirations for political rights took the form of
makeshift restrictions upon the arbitrary power of the few.
How did the few get this power? Sir Henry Maine, in his
“Ancient History,” says, “The founders of a part of our
modern European aristocracy are known to have been origin-
ally peasants, who fortified their houses during the deadly
village struggle, and then used their advantages.'’ Delicately
put explanation, but reasonably plain even to us who live in the
days of Standard Oil!
In 1776, a more drastic restriction of arbitrary power in gov-
ernment was declared for, and the rights of the individual to
life, liberty and happiness were announced to be unalienable,
and their protection the prime object of government. The
Declaration was followed by the Constitution, framing a form
of government then deemed best fitted to protect these funda-
mental rights, and, further, “to promote the general welfare,
and to secure the blessings of libertv" to all. This was radicalCHAS. E. CHADMAN.	445
action, but it was founded on experience and self-evident
• truths.
In industrial matters the laws which have been developed
are purely regulative and restrictive in character. They are
aptly characterized by Col. Bryan- as rings for the noses of
the hogs whose greed would destroy the institutions which
protect them.
By the common law of England, which was borrowed into
our own laws, all contracts for the purpose of creating corners
in the market, or to control the prices of articles of commerce,
or the common necessaries of life, as salt, fuel, breadstuffs,
and the like, are uniformly held to be against public policy
and void. Such contracts cannot be enforced; and being void,
are not a valid consideration for a promise or agreement from
others.*
In Ohio Salt Co. v. Guthrie (35 Ohio St. 666), decided in
188c, the Supreme Court of Ohio, in the absence of a statute
covering the question, held that an association of salt manu-
facturers, formed to sell and transport salt, under articles of
agreement that all salt manufactured by the members became
the property of the company, whose committee was to fix the
price and grade thereof, the members being prohibited from
selling any salt save by retail at their factories, and at prices
fixed by the company, was operating under an agreement in
restraint of trade, and declared the same void as against public
policy. Mcllvaine, C. J., said in this case, “Public policy, un-
questionably favors competition in trade, to the end that its
commodities may be afforded the consumer as cheaply as
possible, and is opposed to monopolies, which tend to advance
market prices, to the injury of the general public. *	*	*
The clear tendency of such an agreement is to establish a
monopoly, and to destroy competition in trade, and for that
♦Central Ohio Salt Co. v. Guthrie, 35 Ohio St. 166; Morris Run Coal
Co. v. Barclay Coal Co., 68 Pa. St. 174; Arnold v. Pittson Coal Co., 68
N. Y. 558; Sampson v. Shaw, 101 Mass. 145; Wright v. Crabbs, 78 Ind.
487; Craft v. McConoughty, 79 111. 346.446
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
reason, on grounds of public policy, courts will not aid in its
enforcement.”
In a well known case, Trist v. Child (21 Wall. 441), where
the rule of public policy was held to forbid the making of a
contract for the employment of a lobby agent, Mr. Justice
Swayne of the Supreme Court of the United States used the
following pertinent language:
The foundation of a republic is the virtue of its citizens. They are at
once sovereigns and subjects. As the foundation is undermined, the
structure is weakened. When it is destroyed, the structure must fall.
Such is the voice of universal history. * * *
If any one of the great corporations of the country were to hire ad-
venturers, who make market of themselves in this way, to procure the
passage of a general law with a view to the promotion of their private in-
terests, the moral sense of every right-minded man would instinctively
denounce the employer and employed as steeped in corruption, and the
employment as infamous.
If the instances were numerous, open, and tolerated, they would be
regarded as measuring the decay of the public morals and the degen-
eracy of the times. No prophetic spirit would be needed to foretell the
consequences near at hand.
The common law has been reinforced in a number of states,
by statutes declaring illegal combinations known as trusts. In
Ohio, such a statute was passed in 1898; it defines a trust as a
“combination of capital, skill or acts by two or more persons,
firms, partnerships, corporations or associations of persons,
or of any two or more of them, for either, any or all of the fol-
lowing purposes:
1.	To create or carry out restrictions in trade or commerce.
2.	To limit or reduce the production, or increase or reduce
the price of merchandise or any commodity.
3.	To prevent competition in manufacturing, making trans-
portation, sale or purchase of merchandise, produce or any
commodity.
4.	To fix at any standard or figure, whereby its price to the
public or consumer shall be in any manner controlled or estab-
lished, any article or commodity of merchandise, produce or
commerce intended for sale, barter, use or consumption in this
state.
5.	To make, enter into or carry out any contract or agree-
ment to effect any of the purposes mentioned above.CHAS. E. CHADMAN.
447
The statute authorizes the Attorney General to bring quo
warranto proceedings for forfeiture of the charters of offend-
ing corporations, whether foreign or domestic; declares such
combination to be conspiracies against trade, and punishes any
person taking part in same by a fine of from $50 to $5,000;
allows the character of the trust to be proven by its general
reputation; makes firms or corporations entering the combina-
tion subject to a penalty of from $50 to $5,000; declares such a
contract to be absolutely void and unenforceable; makes it
unlawful to own trust certificates or to enter such a combina-
tion, and stipulates that the members of the trust shall be
liable to a civil action by any individual injured in his business
by the combination.*
This law has lately been declared constitutional by the Ohio
Supreme Court, in deciding a demurrer to one of the cases
started by Mr. Monnett while he was Attorney General.
We thus see that the common law, public policy, and the
statute law unite in declaring void and illegal any combination
or trust which seeks to control or monopolize commerce or
trade, and this though no actual injury be done, because of the
inevitable and necessary tendency of such combination to evil—
to corrupt and arbitrary methods.
I have not attempted to discuss the question of the power
of the Federal courts to control trade conspiracies or trusts,
as my time is too short. They have undoubted authority to
enforce the common law respecting illegal combinations in
cases properly before them, and their power under Congres-
sional legislation is plenary for the control of trusts whose
operations come under the head of interstate commerce.
It might be argued that the laws already in force, and which
have the sanction of a thousand years of judicial interpretation,
are sufficient to cope with trade combinations or trusts, and
that all this conference need do is to look up the law and go
home. This argument is best answered by a reference to
actual facts and conditions. In the face of the common and
*Rev. Stat. Ohio, Secs. 4427-1 to 4427-12; 93 vol. L. 143-146.448
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
statute law the trusts multiply and daily grow more threaten-
ing and arbitrary. It is important for us to consider then,
first, why is this so, and, second, what new expedients must
be adopted to secure industrial liberty.
I.
In Ohio, the question why the laws are not enforced against
the trust is a plain one. Mr. Monnett, while in office, went to
work to enforce the laws. Then it developed that to enforce
the trust law meant to offend the powers that be; that these
trade conspiracies had political and social backing; that they
had the sympathy and assistance of the press and of the more
powerful religious and educational institutions. Mr. Monnett
persevered; he was exceptionally brave; a half-million dollar
bribe could not turn him from his purpose to oust from the
State the greatest law-breaker and the vilest monopoly that
ever existed on God’s footstool. Election time came, and Mr.
Monnett, who could have been re-elected by an overwhelming
vote, and who was the only logical candidate for Governor,
through the application of the party lash, at the dictation of
the trust, received but a single vote for renomination to the
office he had filled only too well! Our experience in Ohio has
been, and will be, the experience of other states.
Th trust protects itself in two ways, openly, and secretly.
Openly it claims to be a public benefactor; to be based upon
fundamental principles of economy, and to be exercising
legally the right to contract and hold property. Secretly, it
subsidises the press, the schools and the churches; it con-
tributes to the campaign fund; it hires the professional lobby-
ist; it bribes legislatures, and when necessary employs the
assassin!
It is clearly the corrupt methods practiced by these gigantic
corporations and monopolies that cause our political ma-
chinery to work so badly. And, to my mind, it is this tendency
to corrupt the public morals that brands the trust as the worst
enemy of civilization.
Though we may deprecate the fact that the trust has proven
itself greater than the law, and decry the fact that thoughCHAS. K. CMADMAN.
449
declared illegal and classed with the robber by a long line of
precedents and statutes, it still flourishes, and its members,
instead of being given a place in the felon’s cell, which many of
us believe they richly deserve, occupy the places of honor and
distinction among us, and from force of habit we raise our
hats and huzza as they whirl past us in their sumptuous car-
riages or private cars. May not this palpable failure of the
law be as much the result of a mistaken policy in dealing with
the trust as it is the fault of justice? May there not be some
economic law freighted with blessings for the human race
which is forcing itself upon us, and which we, in our blindness,
or mistaken views, are unable to properly utilize ? May not the
'demand for the destruction of combination and the return to
the competition of the past be as great a breach of economic
law as the arbitrary use of power by the commercial barons is
of the laws of civilization?
Marie' Antoinette, in the full consciousness of possessing
arbitrary power, exclaimed, “Rulers should pay no more atten-
tion to the clamors of the people than the moon to the baying of
dogs,” but she lived to learn, in the words of Judge Walter
Clarke, “that a monarchy with a thousand years behind it was
not as strong as the demands of a people for justice.” The
numerous trust barons of the present, intoxicated with their
success and unlimited wealth, believing themselves to be also
the chosen of God, conscious of arbitrary power, are in their
own way saying in language more forcible than elegant, “The
people be damned.”
II.
I think no sincere person can deny that the trust stands con-
victed of conspiring to secure, if not to exercise, arbitrary
~power or a monopoly in trade and commerce. I think it is
equally clear, that a monopoly or arbitrary power is something
which society cannot safely permit any individual or class of
individuals to assume. )
The law has proven unable to control the trust. What, then,
must be the action of society to preserve itself ? Mark Hanna
says there are good trusts. But we know that monopoly, equally
with monarchy, is wrong in principle. Shall we attempt toANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
45°
civilize the trust ? Does “duty” and “destiny” require this ? A
trust made up of altruistic incorporators, officers and agents,
may be the correct solution of the problem. “But what security
can the people have for the virtues of its successors”? And,
again, using the language of the eminent Judge Cooley, when
speaking of kingly power, we may say, civil liberty can only
be secure where the trust has no power to do wrong, yet all
the prerogatives to do good.
Another remedy suggested for the control of the trusts is
to offset them by powerful labor organizations. I am in favor
of labor unions, and distinguish them from trusts, because they
seek their just deserts—the right to work at a living wage,
while trusts are organized for wrong, organized to become
parasites upon the body politic, and suck alike the blood of the
producer and the consumer. Yet, I do not believe that the labor
union can cope with the trust, and, further, I do not believe
that society can afford to permit two giant combinations to en-
gage in a duel to the death of either or both of them. They
must submit their differences to the common judge—the
supreme will of the majority of the citizenry seeking the com-
mon good and the general welfare.
We cannot safely reverse the wheels of progress, or suc-
cessfully attempt to repeal natural law. Man is a social and
intelligent being. Society, co-operation, division of labor, must
be perpetuated; the invention of labor-saving machinery, and
the formation of labor-saving combinations must go on. And
the question for us is, “How shall it go on” ?
The evil of trusts is the fact that the few get the benefit
of co-operation, of invention, of the labor-saving combination.
The remedy for this evil should no more be the destruction of
combination, of invention and co-operation, than the remedy
for tyranny should be the destruction of society and govern-
ment.
The purpose of our government, national and state, is
avowedly the securing of the common good and the general
welfare. And to secure these ends the people have united—co-
operated—in the control of certain things which are deemed
suited to common control or ownership. A monopoly is pre-CHAS. E. CHADMAN.
451
vented by giving each citizen a common and equal interest
with every other citizen in the ownership and the control. A
giant combination is formed, as it were, which is not hurtful
because every one gets a portion of the saving—of the divi-
dends !
Shall this governmental—social—partnership be extended to
include commercial and trade monopolies? Shall it extend to
enable the people to manage or own collectively the sources
of wealth and the machinery for supplying their common
wants? Does the “common welfare” and “common good” re-
quire of society that it preserve to the individual the right to
apply his labor to the securing of food, clothing and shelter?
Upon these questions I have the following resolutions, which,
to me, are a sort of confession of faith, and which I submit for
the consideration of this conference:
1.	I believe in the right of every individual to life, liberty
and happiness, and that to secure and protect the individual’s
life, liberty and happiness he should be protected from arbi-
trary power in industrial matters the same as in political
matters.
2.	I believe the fundamental principles of American juris-
prudence, and the whole trend of our civilization has intimated
the great danger to society and civil liberty resulting from the
congestion of wealth, and the centering of power, whether
governmental or industrial, in the hands of the few. And,
hence, I believe:
3.	That trusts, and all forms of industrial monopoly, secur-
ing the benefit of invention and combination to the few, are
inimical to our common welfare, our common liberties and gen-
eral happiness; and that if permitted to continue they will an-
nihilate equal citizenship and overthrow representative gov-
ernment.
4.	That since all attempts to restrain combination by laws
seeking to compel competition and expensive methods of doing
business have proven futile society had best recognize the
irresistible law of progress and economy, and seek to secure
for the common good and general welfare the benefit of nature’s
law.452
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
5- That in doing so the common control should be extended
to all natural monopolies, as well as to all industries which tend
to become monopolies through the progress of invention and
combination; and that this extension of the benefits of a com-
mon government should be attended with the adoption of such
expedients as wisdom and experience dictate for the preserva-
tion of a government of, for, and by the people; among which
are, direct legislation, proportional representation, and the ex-
tension of the right of suffrage to that gentler yet nobler por-
tion of our citizenship, to whose influence and training we owe
all good things.
EDGAR CONROW.
The gigantic capitalistic combinations, known as trusts, are
but ghastly movements reared upon a decaying system of false
civilization. They are the transient tokens that terribly typify
the iniquitous system that has given them birth. They are
the concentrated essence of Selfishness, the infernal architect
who designed and brought them forth from out the deepest
depths of human iniquity.
They are the natural offspring of the competitive system
which has enthroned the beastly selfish nature of man, and
upheld it as the highest ideal which the children of men should
emulate. They are the cloud mists of darkness that are ever
prone to loom up with a seeming might at the hour just before
the dawn, but are always quickly dispersed by the first ray
of light that forebodes the coming morn.
And yet, withal, they are the finger boards that point, un-
erringly, the way out of competitive chaos into co-operative
harmony. Transmute the motive that underlies the desire
that has created the trusts and it will transform the terrible
specters that now threaten to doom the mass of humanity to
a galling slavery, into guardian preceptors that would show
erring humanity how to conserve and systematize its now
misapplied energies.
The trusts are results, not causes. They are the matured
fruits of untold ages of selfishness, greed and warfare. WeEDGAR CON ROW.
453
might as well attempt to curb the giant oaks of the forest by
merely plucking the acorns, as to curtail the terrible results
of a deep rooted system by merely destroying its matured
fruits, and allowing it to go on blossoming anew to bring forth
another crop, possibly in some more hideous form. The only
sure way to destroy a living tree is to lay the ax at the roots.
The only certain way to destroy the trusts is to exterminate,
by the roots the entire system that has produced them. This
is not so difficult as at first it might appear. What would be-
come of the Standard Oil Trust and its attributes if the United
States government were to engage in the oil business and dis-
tribute oil at cost for the benefit of the whole government or
people? Or how long could the National Banking Octopus
survive in its nefarious business if the government issued
directly a sufficient quantity of safe, scientific money and
demonetized both gold and silver ? The trust promoters almost
invariably advocate competition and declare that, “it is the life
of trade.” Of course their advocacy of it is always intended
for the benefit of others, for they carefully avoid any applica-
tion of it among themselves. How would it do to give them
a full dose of the medicine they so freely prescribe for others
with “Uncle Sam” as competitor? Can any one doubt that the
result would be a perfect cure, not only for the trusts, but also
for the entire system of selfishness that has nurtured them?
There are many who foresee what the results of such a remedy
would be, but hesitate to advocate it because they think it
would add to the already festering corruption of our govern-
ment officials; but this could easily be remedied by the applica-
tion of the principles of the initiative and referendum to our
governmental department. When we have done this, then,
and then only, can we boast of a government of, for, and by the
people.
There has never been advanced any real reason why it should
not be as much a function of government to distribute the
products of nature and labor as it is to distribute knowledge
and general information through the mail system. The right
of the people to express their highest conceptions of govern-454
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
mental wisdom in any form or function that their ideals may
suggest is unquestioned; for it is from the consent of the
governed, in a land of liberty, that all such powers are derived.
The purpose of the promoters of this conference in boldly
advocating the government ownership of railroads and other
utilities is one that appeals to the highest sense of justice in the
race, and the results of the labors of this body should be an
encomium upon all that is highest and noblest in our civiliza-
tion. It should set its seal of condemnation upon the entire
fabric of a system that has made dishonest men the rulers in
both state and trade. It should be a Mosaic movement that
would lead the children of men out of the realm of thoughtless
ignorance and darkness into the region of light and learning
where flows the milk of human kindness and the honey of true
charity with all its sweetness.
MRS. LUCINDA B. CHANDLER.
Though it is an hour of peril to our Republic it is still an
hour of hope. Our beloved Whittier said:
“The supreme hours unnoted come,
Unfelt the turning tides of doom.”
Surely this conference denotes that the tides of legalized
robbery enslaving our people and foreshadowing the destruc-
tion of our great Republic are thrilling with patriotic solicitude
and moving to earnest endeavor our long-suffering people.
Mr. Depew said'that fifty men in our land could, if they
should so determine, stop every wheel of industry, and no one
has disputed his statement. Has history ever recorded such
a mastership of the labor and manhood of a people ?
Why do the people allow the claim unrebuked that “the
employer is a benefactor”?
Is it because the encroachments of capitalism have so
smothered and crushed the spirit of liberty, in our citizens that
they are incapable of rebellion against slavery?
What is the real difference between the condition of the
laborer who maintained the lordly baron of feudal times asABNER L. DAVIS.
455
the only opportunity of access to the land from which to gain
his own subsistence, and the condition of the laborer who earns
for the owner of machinery the profits that build his fortune
as the only opportunity of access to the machine whereby to
gain his own subsistence?
At an awful cost of life we destroyed the poison that was
allowed to enter into our national organism at its birth, the
recognition of the right of property in man, and the rights of
property as superior to the rights of man—shall our Republic
be destroyed by a slavery more insidious and a mastership more
debauching to citizenship than that of chattel slavery?
A republic cannot survive except its supreme aim and vital
life is the manhood and womanhood educated, inspired and
nourished by the liberty of equal opportunity, and the justice
that secures to all workers the fruit of their labor.
ABNER L. DAVIS.
Similar industrial and economic condition that obtain at
present have always existed in a more or less modified form.
There never has been a time when selfishness did not prompt
man to take advantage of his fellow man.
As long as governments are controlled by the strong, laws
will be enacted to perpetuate that power.
Through all the ages of time history chronicles only con-
quest of man over man; not only of individuals over individu-
als, but of whole nations that have gone down and been obliter-
ated and destroyed through the competitive struggle for
supremacy.
The conditions under which the human family exist are con-
stantly changing and new methods of competition must be
resorted to in order that man may overcome his competitor.
The object to be attained however remains the same—the
subjugation of the weaker by the stronger.
In modern times the plan adopted by the strong to secure
and continue their power over the weak has been through the
power to levy and secure unjust profit from the weak.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
45<J
The present awakening of the people to the crude and unjust
economic system which has existed since history began, where-
by labor has been prevented from securing to itself the fruits
of toil, is an evidence that the moral perceptions of the people
are being quickened and that a sense of justice will in time
overcome the selfish characteristics which have guided man in
all the centuries since time began.
Precedent has been the one great barrier that has held back
the better instincts of man and prevented truth and justice
from keeping up with the evolutionary march to a higher and
nobler civilization.
The inability of man to progress and develop his moral sense
to conform with the development of other faculties is due to his
veneration of old ideals, even when useless and of no avail to
the present generation.
It is of little use to condemn and upbraid the individual
man because he lags behind in the march to a higher develop-
ment, as he is only a creature of circumstance, and the nearer
he has lived up to the ideals of the past and present the more
difficult it is for fiim to break away from the bond of precedent
and take a step toward the higher plane of freedom and
justice.
That man by nature is a predatory animal and only differs in
degree from what we are pleased to term the lower order of
animal life is evident on every hand.
The present protest against modern methods of competition
has aroused those to action who have been directly or indirectly
injured by those who have been able to combine their forces
and thereby successfully conquer the unorganized forces op-
posed to them in the competitive struggle for the control of
material things, and it has been only through similar resistance
of those whom it was sought to conquer in the past that liberty
in a modified form has been allowed to continue up to the
present time.
That we have a new form of tyranny exerted by the strong
over the weak is in conformity with the evolutionary changes
that have been constantly taking place.ABNER L. DAVIS.
45 7
The new master that has-been developed in the past centuries,
who is now almost ready to take charge over the destinies of
the people, is known as Commercialism.
This new master is nbt embodied with any of the higher
attributes of humanity. Selfish desire alone controls every
action. Profit from his brother man's toil is his incentive to
action.
Commercialism is unable to see any higher motive for exist-
ing than material gain, and every obstacle that stands in its
way is crushed, and the bruised and bleeding debris is swept
from the pathway of its victorious march.
This great force has organized itself into one cohesive body
for the purpose of gaining absolute power over humane en-
deavor.
Modern Commercialism may be readily recognized under
many different names which it has taken in order to designate
the magnitude or the character of the operation.
Copartnership, Syndicate, Joint Stock Company, Trust, are
all synonymous and intermediate terms used to distinguish
the progressive stages to Monopoly, and when monopoly once
fully developed and equipped with Capital, the munition of
Commercial warfare, which has been taken from toil in all
the past under the name of profit, who are they? Who will
deny that Commercialism in government, if unchecked may
not wield omnipotent power in the future over the people ?
Now that we have reached a condition wherein Commercial-
ism is almost ready to assume complete dictatorial power, not
only over the people of our own country but over the people
of all “the most enlightened commercial nations of the world”
—-misleading phrase—what effective protest are the people to
use in order that they may check, control, and destroy the
evil effect of organized commercialism on those who toil and
produce. We have tried representative government. For over
one hundred years representative government has enacted, in-
terpreted, and executed the laws, and what is the condition of
the people who labor and produce? What have they for this
century of toil under representative government? We answer,
industrial slavery for the masses.458
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The better and nobler extincts of men have from time to
time, under representative government, led them to make
efforts to secure freedom and justice for themselves and their
fellow man, but all their efforts up to the present time have
only resulted in modifying the most barbarous forms of op-
pression exercised by the master.
Every human endeavor for the upbuilding and the full en-
franchisement of man has been met with the discouraging
edict from the masters under representative government, that
there is no precedent for enlarging and granting full liberty
to the people; that if allowed full liberty they would not use it
with discretion.
Who are to judge? Who are to determine whether the
people shall have full liberty? Whether they shall be gov-
erned or govern themselves? We answer—the people.
If the people of this Republic are to advance in government
with the evolutionary changes that are developing man’s nobler
and higher instincts, it will be well to pause in our present
course and take new inspiration from that memorable docu-
ment bequeathed to the people of this Republic on June 7, 1776,
from which we quote the following:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that when-
ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, or to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form as to them will seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that govern-
ments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind is
more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right them by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object,
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their
right, their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new
guards for their future security.
We claim that the time has come when the rights of the
people are denied them. That the people, the governed, areABNER L. DAVIS.
459
not, under representative government, allowed the privilege of
consenting to the rules or laws under which they are governed.
That life is endangered through Commercial Greed.
That liberty is abridged.
That happiness for the masses exists only in the form,
Discontent, License and Despair.
Now, what action is to be taken in order to place the gov-
erning power into the hands of the people where it was origin-
ally designed it should rest by the promoters of the Republic?
One remedy alone presents itself, the use of which in the
hands of the people, may act as a barrier against the further
encroachment of commercial disease in government and in time
develop the means whereby the germs of this disease may be
eradicated and destroyed and a higher ideal and a humane
government be attained.
This remedy for the present political disease is, Direct Leg-
islation, by and through the people, under the system of gov-
ernment known as the Initiative and Referendum, and pro-
portional minority representation.
Under this form of government, a Democracy, in fact, may
be established, and the interest of all the people under gov-
ernment be protected.
The moral sense of the masses will be awakened, as when
once the people realize that they are to participate in govern-
ment they will interest themselves, and a higher sense of duty
they owe to themselves and posterity will take the place of
the present indifference shown toward government that at
present pervades the almost disfranchised masses. Govern-
mental control by the profit gatherer, the despoiler of labor, will
disappear under a government by the people. Monopolies that
are now operated for the enrichment of the few and the en-
slavement of the many, will pass under the control of the
people and be operated for the benefit of all under the benign
direction of a Co-operative Commonwealth.460
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
EDWARD PAYSON.
The statement is often made that the ordinary manufacturer
gets down to such low profits by competition that he roust fail
or go out of business, so the Trust and Combination is-urged as
a great remedy, and the only remedy. I wish to speak from the
standpoint of a small manufacturer (of whom there are
hundreds and thousands in this country) employing all the way
from 50 to 200 hands. I will state emphatically that these
thousands of manufacturers, representing a very large element
in the manufacturing world, have found little or no difficulty
in getting a reasonable living and paying fair wages until the
advent of the Trust, which has compelled them to pay fancy
prices for raw material and supplies of all kinds.
As to economy of production, I wish to surprise you with the
statement that a moderate concern making a few things, and
making them well, can often hold its trade, and even produce
goods lower than its great neighbor, who makes many things,
but, from the necessities of the case, cannot reduce each article
to its final and ultimate cost. This, of course, is not true in
making such things as steel rails and harvesters, which require
large and expensive plants, but few people realize that in the
vast range of manufactured goods it is the small concern often
where the “evolution” is going on which finally reaches and
benefits the consumer.
Allow me to describe a typical case showing the growth of
these enterprises and the opportunities which would still allow
them to multiply but for the hardship in the purchase of ma-
terials just mentioned: A young man with brains an,d energy,
who had graduated several years ago from a Western school,
called on me recently and stated that on leaving school he had
started the manufacture of metal articles, obtained patents
for same, but began with a capital of less than $300. In
less than six years he is running a modern shop with an in-
vestment of $58,000, employing ten or twelve tool makers
alone, wages ranging from $3.50 to $5.00 per day, besides his
other workmen, introduced hydraulic machinery for operating
his tools, and by superior business foresight and energy hadEDWARD PAY SON.
461
developed a large trade, using about 1200 tons of steel this year.
He is now facing a serious state of things, as the material he
uses has advanced from 150 to 200 per cent. Now, even allow-
ing for a large demand for steel there is no rational business
argument on which an advance of 150 per cent can be explained
or excused. The combination simply made the price and the
buyers must supply their wants or quit business.
Now, this young man was a type of American citizenship
which deserves a better reward. He was building up a nev^ in-
dustry, giving employment to scores of men, paying good
wages, and was running his business on a just and honest
plan, selling his goods in an open market, patents and all, for
the same price demanded for goods of similar purpose. He,
no doubt, is now facing the question of a loss this year at
present high prices. He was invited to join a combination, but
after attending one meeting concluded that there was too much
fraud and deception in the entire scheme and he then and
there decided to manage his business on the same principle
which had made it such a great success heretofore.
Now, the time is rapidly coming when this kind of manu-
facturer who deals directly with his men in a personal way,
using his money and talents in developing industries by new
and untried methods, is extending his trade into foreign coun-
tries, solely on the merits and superior design of his American
made goods; this is the class of men whom the trusts are appar-
ently doing everything in their power to crush out.
Now, as American citizens, we appeal to you for jus-
tice and equity in this matter, or the race of men who have
developed American manufactures to their present high
standard will become extinct with the present generation.
Hundreds of such manufacturers are hoping and praying today
for deliverance from these terrible conditions, demanding
simply that they have the right to buy their raw material in an
open market and sell in an open market.
As conclusive evidence of the high productive power of
American manufacturers, without any combination whatever,
would cite the wonderful development of our foreign trade
in hardware, metal, and house furnishing goods. This class of462
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
goods has become so firmly established in Australia, Europe
and England, that the trade papers are complaining there that
English and German designs are passing away very rapidly,
and that unless active steps are very soon taken to curb
American enterprise that both their home and foreign markets,
and prestige, will be lost forever. Even patented goods are
sold in large quantities abroad at lower prices than their home'
makers can produce the common old-fashioned articles which
have been made for centuries. It looks seriously to foreigners,
like a complete absorption of their markets in the near future,
as the American design is not only better but is offered at a
price which they cannot begin to compete with, even if the
buyer pays the freight several thousand miles.
The Smith Trade Alliance of England, which embraces im-
portant combination principles and includes a minimum wage
for the worker and a minimum selling price for the manufactur-
er, will still further depress English goods in foreign markets if
the plan is more broadly carried out, simply because it raises
the price to the consumer all around.
The “Iron Age” of New York, the leading paper on the metal
industries of this country, speaking of the Smith Trade Alli-
ance last month, adds: “Mr. Smith rather laboriously, it seems
to us, attempts to prove that the interests of the consumer are
safeguarded. We fancy, however, that the average pur-
chaser would regard such an alliance as a very effective 'hold
up.’ It has been urged too that such a compact for mutual
benefit between men and makers might prove a dangerous one
to the industry and country where the question arises of meet-
ing competition of capital and labor warring merrily in other
countries.” (I wonder why the “Iron Age” don’t recognize the
“hold-up” principle in this country, where only employers are
benefited.)
It is well to admit here that the Smith system has one ad-
vantage over the American Trust, as it ensures a stated wage
for labor, the reverse of the American idea, where the pro-
moter publicly urges that the great advantage to stockholders
in consolidation is the enormous power to depress wages;
doing so in one factory at a time. This feature, the Trades’EDWARD PAYS ON.
463
Union will realize, I am afraid, when too late to save them-
selves. By coming to the front in the present crisis, and using
their influence and votes against a trust system, they could
assist at a point where their weight would tell, and probably
turn the balances.
Right here, let me state, that the public must at once come
to the support of the anti-trust maker, or he must, perforce,
try combination. And what is combination? Only an agree-
ment with competitors on a minimum price, a harmless pro-
tection to your interests, the business man says. Ah, it is more
than this: signing a trade agreement is the entering wedge
to dangerous temptation in most insidious forms. It is the
skeleton key for unlocking the kitchen door by which the
whole house may be pilfered. True, your income may be
trebled, and you can do much more for your employes, if you
want to, and with visions of a fat bank account and discounted
bills you try to overlook that other picture of a torn and
bleeding conscience, a violation of all you hold sacred in your
obligations to both God and man. You have not only introduced
an element of “dry rot” into your business, which you have an
instinctive dread will open the door to new abuses, but you
feel as you meet the faithful workman of your shop, those
whom you trust and who have borne with you the strain of
years, the hopes and disappointments, that these are the men
you have betrayed and wronged. Yes, you have conspired
to enhance prices of your goods artificially, and thus agreed to
a principle which fetters every consumer in the land with
a heavy load; increasing the cost of living far in advance of
his ability to pay. And, right here, let me ask who pays the
enormous dividends of the trusts, and who is daily weakened
by the process ? The consumers of raw and finished products,
whether for food, wear, or shelter. In this city, alone, I am
told, there are still 600 wagon and carriage shops employing
thousands of men. They make quantities of vehicles of all
descriptions. There is an economic demand for them which is
proved by their existence today almost under the shadow of
enormous factories employing thousands of men and
equipped with the best labor-saving machinery. What now
most threatens these shops? Not strikes, not competition of464
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
big factories, not lack of business but trust prices on material,
“only this, and nothing more.” You say they too must raise
prices. You, that are making goods without combination, know
how wasted this advice is. Under natural conditions you may
advance your finished goods, iron, brass, or wood, 5 or 10 per
cent in two or three years, but the natural tendency is down,
which you must hieet with improved methods and machinery
every year. But look at these general advances in six months,
and explain them if you can. (No. 1 foundry pig iron from
$10.50 to $24.00 per ton, ingot copper from 11c to 18c per
pound, steel bars $1.60 to $3.40 per hundred pounds, hoop
irons the same, plain fence wire $1.40 to $3.38.) From these
figures it is evident that three-fourths of the extra profit goes
to the stockholders while the public quietly pays the bill and
thinks the trust is a good thing.
Now, as to a Trade Combination, let us call it a "varioloid”
trust, a mild case, but with bad symptoms, which will bear
watchful care and a skillful physician or the contagion will
spread, and you have an epidemic of the real disease in its
most violent and dangerous forms, the modern trust and the
more modern consolidation. The mild form is apt to take the
manufacturer unawares when the pulse is weak and the heart
action bad. It first produces certain strange images, the most
common mental sign being that he intends to bow to the public
as a great philanthropist; the discovery of a scheme to make
master and man rich and independent and no one will have
to pay the hills.
At this time the patient is abnormally sensitive to remarks;
flies into a passion in case you don’t see the exact point, or
stands aside in offended dignity. Later, he whistles in defiance
of your opinions, and may be seen any day counting imaginary
bonds, or with pencil or note book tabulating profits for four
or five years and planning a European trip with his family.
Certain remedies provided by the State have proved effective
for this case.
Permit me a few words from my own standpoint: We have
been manufacturing builders’ hardware here for twenty-five
years and have seen the rise of many concerns in similar lines,A. P. McGuirk.
Garrett Droppers.
H. L. Bliss.
Mrs. O. W. Dean.
Daniel L. Criuce.EDWARD PAYSON.
465
but I am strongly impressed with the fact that without re-
straint of trade, without efforts to artifically raise prices by
combination the consumers in this country are enabled to buy
goods on the very lowest possible margin of profit. This
supremacy of the average producer today in the world’s
markets has been accomplished a thousand times less by com-
bination than by the high development of American genius
and business talents just noted above.
On receiving a telegram a short time ago from one of our
competitors, asking if we would join him at a fixed discount
from list, we wired back: “Cannot accept proposition. Recent
Illinois decision severe on combinations.” It was with pride
in my own State and her action that I was able to send such
a message. It is certainly gratifying at this time to receive
support from decisions of highest courts, State and National,
defining clearly that combinations in restraint of trade of any
kind are dangerous to the public policy. Let the good work go
on. We hope and pray that as public opinion crystallizes, law
may be found in abundance.
Certainly our courts deserve strong approval for the high
stand taken in this matter and must forever redeem them from
the charge of being moved by corporation influence. Some
alarmists even claim that the Illinois decisions have been so
hostile to trust influence that we are driving away capital and
manufacturing from the State. Certainly it will be a happy
day for all true citizens when illegal combinations of any kind
are driven out of this State and other States. We seriously
question the citizenship which votes for judges and members
of the legislature to make and enforce our laws and then spend
its time in employing high priced attorneys to do everything
in their power to break down those very laws. Many of this
class of citizens today are making the loudest noise about the
rights of the people when, in fact, people’s rights are their last
consideration.
Let us cultivate a citizenship which stands for just laws,
made for the protection of society, and abide by those laws
even if it costs a few dollars for such fidelity.
Let ws emulate the example of the St. Louis manufacturer466
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
who, last fall, when the concern was absorbed by the trust,
called his 3,000 men together and after stating his views on
trusts and their danger to a free people, announced his plan
to devote time and fortune to the work of rooting them out of
the land. A noble sentiment, and from a tobacco manufacturer
too.
If time permitted would like to develop the trust idea of
credits, which seems to me a dangerous rule to lay down. I
saw the instructions of a Texas wholesale house to its travelers
about credits. They were told that in the consideration of
customers to sell to, character was to be considered firg and
capital last, simply because they felt safer with an honest man
who intended to pay his bills as against a man who might have
good capital but still was slow in paying accounts. The prin-
ciple of applying the character test first has encouraged and
built up many large concerns, and it will be a sad day for the
commercial world when it is capital and nothing else which
rules all transactions. This will drive out of the field many
energetic men who, under ordinary conditions, would build
up successful ventures.
I freely admit that where a great economic principle is at
stake which will benefit the masses of our people that we, as
manufacturers, must be willing to give up our industrial in-
dependence that a higher and better system may be obtained,
one which may secure greater economy and which will uplift
the people as a whole. I, therefore, searched long and earnestly
for such a principle which is said to underlie the present
tendency toward trusts and which is called the “evolution of
industry.” If the trust is really an evolution toward higher and
better forms of production and distribution, and which will
contribute to better opportunities to a higher intellectual and
moral system, we certainly should be ready to lay down our
tools at society’s demand, even if we sacrifice certain rights in
doing so. But, on the contrary, if we believe that the trust
system hampers invention, weakens the ability and energy of
the producer, destroys the consuming power of society, em-
bitters the wage earner more and more against capital, des-
troys confidence of the bread winner in Republican forms ofEDWARD PAY SON.
467
government, corrupts public officials, fetters church educational
institutions and reform bodies, reduces the mass of the people
to subservient tools and dependents of capital, widens the gulf
between those who have and those who have not, causes men of
means and influence to care less and less how his fellow man
gets a living for himself and family, these are the things which
cause us to halt and shudder as to what the next generation is to
bring forth; not larger plans and opportunity for farmers and
workingmen, not a system which will bring society closer and
closer, not an effort to raise us (as claimed by socialism) to
the ideal in final brotherhood, but a fearful and bitter fight for
industrial control and serfdom, which allows no quarter on the
unfortunates who are dragging more and more under the
wheels of the chariot of trade.
One thought comes out clear and strong: we may or
may not believe in the competitive system, but we do believe
as Americans in a great government of the people, by the
people, and for the people. Now, all these wars and rumors
of wars are not tending toward a future brotherhood. I con-
tend, and contend with all the power I possess that the present
struggle must be stopped, the present lawlessness, whether it
be in the ranks of capital or the ranks of labor, must be curbed.
In fact, no ideal social and economic system can ever exist
with trained armies constantly in battle array, selfishness
watching selfishness. The battle for opportunity must be
called and on new lines the conflict settled at once. (The bat-
tle of labor against trust is defensive merely and cannot serve
great ends.) Call out from this hostile array of man against
man all those working for a higher patriotism and a broader
citizenship, from labor, from capital, from institutions of learn-
ing, from the commercial world; call for a battle against trusts
at the polls, if need be, an engagement which does not recognize
truce or compromise, no further polishing of arms, no more
scouting or parley, but a sudden rush upon the very citadel of
power, State and National, which creates and confers all these
rights and privileges. Then we are sure to carry the heights,
bteak over the last obstacle, and reach a final victory for the468
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
people. When the trust once feels the power of popular
verdict, of popular disgust with their methods, of the popular
vote for annihilation, then the country will be left free to go its
way again and to work out its own salvation.
As the visitor of our navy yards sees today when he looks
upon great engines of destruction from former times, the
boarded up and labeled monsters of the naval museum, show-
ing the experimental steps of engineering, so the future his-
torian as he walks along the highway of progress and com-
merce a few years hence shall find the remains of the great
trust monster of desolation, costing fabulous sums to erect,
and which went forth and defied a nation, until the people
rose in their might and' displaced it with something better.
C. H. ROGERS.
Trust is a good name, a good word. It is the word which
explains the beautiful relation which we sustain with a friend.
It is a word which explains the relation which a loving child
holds with its parent. Yet its beauty and sacredness depends
upon the use you make of it. The word Heaven is associated
with all that is beautiful and holy, yet if you use it to describe
the orgies of the debauchee, it becomes a word of vileness.
We are thus confronted with a condition, and a word is used
to describe that condition which has prostituted it from its
sacred and holy significance. This word is applied to a
monopoly which calls upon the masses to bend low in obedi-
ence to its mandate. A monopoly which proposes to take every
advantage possible of the economic and social conditions of
community. When thus used, does it mean that these com-
binations may trust each other? This is a word which, like
many another, has been torn from its original meaning and
made to do duty in a widely different field. It is one which
like the word hell is made to signify something entirely differ-
ent from its original significance. This combination is like the
python which steadily draws its victim within its grasp, and
with as little mercy devours it. We read with horror of the
atrocity and bloodshed of the French Commune, with trembling
apprehension that under similar circumstances those ter-C. H. ROGERS.
469
rors may be repeated here. These devouring trusts do not im-
itate the dusky warriors of the plain, who ate the heart of his
vanquished foe in order that he might be more brave and
courageous. These do not imitate the ancient New Zealander,
who ate the eyes of his dead enemy that he might be able to
see farther. But do not men just as truly prey upon each other
when they appropriate the strength and wisdom of others?
Does not the cunning manipulator of stocks and bonds, by
“ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain,” appropriating
the accumulations of his less skilled and wily neighbor—is he
not following the same course of his less civilized brother, the
rapacious Sioux or merciless Zealander? They devoured the
heart and eyes of their victim; these devour the sight and
strength of old age, the prop of human helpfulness. From
thousands of hamlets today can be heard the suppressed cry
of an army of martyrs who are yearly sacrificed upon unholy
altars of pomp and idle extravagance. We are in the midst
of the terrible experience when the many are compelled to
labor for the one. There are men high in social and political
circles who ignore every principle of right and sympathy; who
study the necessities of toil, disease, and poverty, not to allevi-
ate them, but to take advantage of them to increase their own
hoarded wealth. They study these calamities of the poor and
oppressed that they may increase the already unbearable
burdens. These same persons can talk pathetically about
political economy, and weep pious tears over the inscrutable
ways of nature, and continue to shorten the chain of rights,
and still underpay their victims. Are not these helpless
captives of greed and treachery as literally devoured as the
captives of the jungle and wildwood? The working girls of
New York City get 35 cents for making the best and heaviest
overcoats; 28 cents for a spring overcoat; 6 to 10 cents a pair
for pants; 75 cents a dozen for calico wrappers, and $1.50 for a
complete suit for ladies. Cash girls get from 75 cents to $2.00
a week. With this salary they must come neatly dressed. And
with such magnificent salary they are outrageously cheated.
They are often compelled to contribute for a present to the well-
salaried foreman and bookkeeper. I recall an instance of a4/0
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
little girl in a tobacco store who received $1.50 a week, had
50 cents deducted from her wages to buy the boss a present.
Just think of it! When a girl gets $3.50 in six days, and pays
$3 for board and lodging, 30 cents for carfare, does her own
washing at night, seldom irons at all, how long will it be before
she will be looking for clothing which she must have? How
can she get it? Let the increasing army of abandoned women
answer. Do not these heartless despoilers of human strength
—-these promoters of unnameable crime, virtually feed upon the
living tissues of these living victims of their avarice and greed?
And yet these reeking stews, and abominable dens of death and
prostitution are' fostered and developed under the unholy
pressure of these so-called trusts, these despoilers of the com-
mon people. Under the reign of gold, honesty, industry,
frugality and faithfulness are being driven into obscurity, or
dying in the home of virtue. Hence, wealth is forever in-
creasing in the hands of the few, while untrammeled manhood
is dying. Carlyle said: “It is to live miserable, we know not
why; to work sore and yet gain nothing; to be heart-worn,
weary, yet isolated, unrelated, girt in with a cold, universal
heartlessness; it is to die slowly all our life long, imprisoned
in a deaf, dead infinite injustice.” The time is come to empha-
size with determined earnestness, the absolute necessity of
cultivated manhood. Emblazon the fact upon every bulletin
board that no man can enrich himself through such unholy
speculation—working upon the credulity and cupidity of others
and be a true man. No man can deal honestly in options in
wheat and corn—buying and selling what he never possessed.
No man can depreciate stocks of any sort, forcing them upon
the market at that depreciation and be honest with himself or
anyone else. No man has a right to possess himself of the
wealth of another without rendering an equivalent therefor.
No man can be honest and true to the just relations of humanity
and accumulate the fortunes that are amassed in certain quar-
ters today. It would take over 54 years to earn a million
dollars at $50 a day. It would take over 105 years to earn a
million at $26 dollars a day. No man can possess these un-
counted millions without appropriating what rightfully be-C. H. ROGERS.
4/1
longs to another, to someone else. The greatest mistake any
man can make fs the cultivation of the sentiment that his own
selfish aggrandizement is the chief end of his efforts in life.
If we would enjoy the blessings of our existence, a check miist
be put upon the unjust accumulations and evil power of ag-
gressive wealth. I cannot conceive how an honest man can
stand forth and claim as his right, legal or otherwise, that the
hard earned toil of another belongs to him. There is abroad
an eternal decree that every man shall enjoy the hard earned
fruit of his honest toil. Yet, the land groans with the cry of
the unrequited toiler. It is true the common laborer is paid,
but how? Is that a just compensation which barely holds
the life within its starved tenement? Must a man, because he
is not born under as favorable circumstances as another, for-
ever creep under the curse of a lasting degradation? A degra-
dation so dark and thankless as to make life but a dismal
charnel house of tears. The simple obedience to the law of
justice and right would adjust these inhuman conditions. The
simple payment to the laborer of wages he ought to have,
would open the door to financial and political harmony. Do
you think that these meager and starvation prices for your
produce are in accord with the law of right?
Do you believe that this cry which is going up from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the seas to the Gulf, is for
no just cause? There is an unorganized power in the land
demanding right. Many years ago a similar condition obtained
in England, until the oppressed subjects of King John arose
and demanded their Magna Charta. The oppressor is over-
riding the dearest rights of the people, and the time is
coming, and is now here when the oppressed are rising
and demanding their privilege of rights. To this end it
is proposed to organize and direct the industrial masses for
more than political purposes. It is proposed to crystal-
lize the sentiment of right, truth and justice for the benefit
of the people, of all the people. We appreciate the fact that in
the exercise of our rights and privileges it must be secured
through legislation, and legislation of the right sort must come
through education. Hence, it becomes necessary to organize.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
47-
Therefore, we call upon all who believe in securing the great-
est good for the greatest number, to rally to this common good,
urged by the common voice of the common people. In accord
with this common thought we appeal to industrial and moral
worth, not wealth, believing that to be the standard hot only
of individual but national greatness. I believe that the
prevalent method of appealing to party adherents because of
party, is misleading and pernicious. We make this appeal to
the worker to secure the full enjoyment of the wealth he
creates, and to prevent any other man from enjoying it with-
out giving an equivalent for it. We do this to enable the
laboring man, out of wealth he himself creates, to secure
leisure for mental improvement, that the man, the human, may
not die within him. I believe it just as necessary that the com-
mon laborer develop the moral, spiritual, and intellectual within
him as the lawyer, doctor or clergyman. If the man of wealth
needs recreation and social culture, so does his brother of the
spade and hammer. The laboring man is a prominent factor in
the problem of civilization and enlightenment; and when you
ignore his importance in that connection, the problem remains
unsolved.
Then, among our privileges of rights, for which we make
this appeal, there are certain specifications, which, through
education, must be inwrought into the legislation of the land.
The following are some of them:	In the name of justice and
right we demand that not another acre of this commonwealth
shall be donated to vast corporations and speculators, who use
the power thus placed in their hands to defraud. Upon the
same principle we demand that the lands now in the hands of
these unscrupulous corporations be taxed to their full value.
In this organization of the common people we shall appeal for
the abrogation of all laws which do not recognize the equal
rights and privileges of labor with capital. We feel the weight
of a great necessity for the removal of the shameful and unjust
discrimination, based upon unreasonable technicalities, in the
bestowment of even-handed justice. Instead of so-called
courts of justice the people demand a system of equitable arbi-
tration between employers and employes. The common peopleC. H. ROGERS.
473
demand a national law protecting the tender years of child-
hood in factorieiPand mines. The simple principle of justice,
of right, demands that all money shall be issued directly to the
citizen, instead of to interested partisans, who are permitted
to fatten upon the privations of the many. The common in-
terests of the people should be under the control of the people
—such as the postoffice, railroads, and telegraphs. The entire
telegraph system is virtually under the control of one man—•
what is the result? Contradictory and unreliable dispatches to
mislead the public. Such are some of the facts glaring upon
us today. A few unprincipled monopolists may now garble
the telegraphic dispatches, bull and bear the market at will,
and thus rake in the unearned millions faster than ever. Be-
cause of the danger thus lying right at our doors the people
demand that the government control these great industries for
the common interests. If the government shall consider the
paramount interests of her children, interests which are pre-
eminently her own, co-operative institutions will supersede the
Vexatious wage system. If the government shall consider
justly she will secure for both sexes equal pay for equal service.
It will arrange by wise legislation, that labor, instead of being
the unmitigated curse it now is, shall be the blessing it ought
to be. And for these reasons the interested members of society
should thoroughly organize. And for these purposes we call
upon every man and woman, irrespective of former proclivities,
to come forward and do battle for righteousness, truth and
justice. In this work of education we are opposed by the fol-
lowing potent forces. The monied monopolies who are com-
pelled to get control of the public officials to prevent the public
officials from robbing them. These monopolies rob the people
to make up for what it costs to get control of the officials. The
people are opposed by the professional politician, whose sole
business it is to manipulate majorities for personal profit. The
people are opposed by the criminal classes, who are in the
penitentiaries—or ought to be—especially those who ought
to be—who vote with their ilk, the professional politician and
the monopolist. These three classes seek to control the gov-
ernment for different purposes The monopolist desires control474
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
for the sake of franchise. The politician for the sake of the
offices. The criminal classes for the immlfliity from punish-
ment. These three classes are leaders in the opposition to the
reforms which are crying for recognition today. The monop-
olies furnish the boodle; the politician furnishes the manage-
ment; the liquor shops furnish the votes. Against the en-
croachments of such as these we must educate, educate.
GEORGE H. SHIBLEY,
Of the Bureau of Economic Research.
The evils which are flowing from private monopoly have
been ably described to this conference, therefore I shall not
touch upon that portion of the subject, except to classify these
evils. The principal ones are:
(1)	The control of the government, legislative, executive,
and judicial, by the monopolists.
(2)	Discriminatory rates and accommodations in railways,
telegraphs, etc., whereby monopolies in other fields are de-
veloped.
(3)	In each monopoly there are miserable accommodations
to the public—the aim of the monopolists is personal profit.
(4)	Excessive profits to the monopolists.
(5)	The stockholders and bondholders in the monopolies
are looted by the boards of directors, and
(6)	The wage earners in the monopolies are paid an unduly
low wage, are compelled to work an excessive number of
hours per day amid machinery and surroundings that are un-
necessarily dangerous.
These are some of the primary evils which exist because of
private monopolies. In the postoffice, a monopoly controlled
and owned by a public corporation, none of these evils are
present; on the contrary, the aim is to serve the public in the
best possible manner.
From an analysis of our subject let us turn to the Evolu-
tion of Industry.GEORGE H. SHI BLEY.
475
The intellect of man has discovered that the universe in
which we are placed is evolving—changing to higher and more
complicated forms. Part of this system is the earth, including
mankind, and that portion of his activities known as Industry.
The earth has evolved, mankind has evolved, and industry has
evolved. Industry has evolved as a result of the growing
power of mankind to discover nature’s laws, and his growing
power to co-operate. In most of the fields of industry during
the past fifty years the business organizations have increased
in size and diminished in number until in many fields there
exists but one great organization—a monopoly; while in many
other fields the number of organizations is reduced to a few.
and they are engaged in a life-and-death struggle, and soon
there will be but one great organization in each of these in-
dustries.
The lesson which the evolution of industry teaches is that
there exists a tendency to monopoly in the greater portion of
the industrial fields, and, therefore, that monopoly in those
Helds is sure to come.
And what are the principles of our jurisprudence as to
monopolies ?
The basic principles are Equality Before the Law, and the
Due Protection of the Weaker Members of Society—a protec-
tion up to the point that does not interfere with the highest
character of service to the public. It follows, therefore, that
wherever a monopoly exists, each adult should become a share-
holder therein ; in other words, each monopoly should be owned
by a corporation in which each adult holds one share of its
stock.
Such a corporation is a public one as distinguished from a
corporation in which a few individuals own the shares of stock.
This ownership of monopolies by corporations, in which each
adult owns a share of stock, is not Socialism, but as I have
demonstrated in a pamphlet, copies of which have been pre-
sented to the members of this conference, it is the opposite of
Socialism. This will clearly appear when we consider the his-
tory of public ownership of monopolies.476
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
From the principles of law and government that should
prevail in monopolies, let us turn to the history of the Cau-
casian race and ascertain if these theories of “equality before
the law,” and “due protection of the weaker members of
society,” have been applied, and, therefore, are established
principles.
A general survey of the development of the Caucasian race
shows that the public ownership of monopolies has developed
along with the growth of monopolies, but lagging behind some-
what. The monopoly of levying and collecting taxes for public
purposes, used to be farmed out; the coinage of money was in
the hands of private individuals; and the conveyance of letters
and papers was also by private enterprise. Gradually the
public corporations have taken to themselves the monopoly of
levying and collecting taxes for public purposes, the coinage
of money, and the conveyance of letters and papers,and in prac-
tically every Caucasian country but the United States the tele-
graph and telephone are owned by public corporations. And
the same is largely true as to the ownership of the highways
known as railways, and the ownership and control of water-
works and lighting plants.
Wherever these monopolies are most thoroughly owned by
public corporations, in which each adult votes a share of the
stock, there exists the purest government and the highest forms
of civilization. Stated conversely, to the extent that monopoly
is owned by private corporations the government is controlled
by the few who own the monopolies, and the lowest forms of
civilization exist, namely, the people are held as subjects of the
monopolists—boss rule exists.
This form of imperialism is of a lower order than that which
exists under a monarch, for he is interested in so protecting
his subjects as to develop the strongest possible state; whereas,
under boss rule there is no monarch, but a host of feudal
barons, each striving for his own selfish ends, and with no care
for their subjects or for the state.
The people are the subjects of the' monopolists; they con-
tribute from their daily and yearly earnings. It is a system of
private taxation known as monopoly charges.GEORGE H. SHIBLEY.
477
These barons endeavor to protect their system. They control
the economic and political teachings in the universities and col-
leges ; they own the greater part of the press; they spend
millions of dollars in the political campaigns; and they brand
as “socialist” every one who opposes private monopoly. They
try to conceal the fact that, private monopoly has for centuries
been publicly branded as more dangerous than monarchy or
other forms of imperialism. The English Bill of Rights, in the
year 1689, denounced private monopolies and prohibited them
unqualifiedly; and this principle has been steadfastly adhered
to by the Anglo-Saxon people. For example, the Constitution
of Maryland declares that “Monopolies are odious, contrary to
the spirit of a free government and the principles of commerce,
and ought not to be suffered”; and the people of Texas,
through their Constitution, say, "Monopolies are contrary to
the genius of a free government and shall never be allowed.”
Yet those of us who uphold this principle are branded by the
monopolists and their hirelings as “socialists,” and, therefore,
opposed to the principle of competition, upon which is built
the existing social order.
Private monopoly has been developed in this country until
free government has been overthrown and boss rule prevails.
In Germany, the private monopoly in railways was terminated
under Bismarck. He presented to the German Congress a bill
for their ownership by the public corporation, and pointed to
the power of the monopoly barons and the inconsistency of
continuing their existence. Lord Salisbury has fittingly de-
scribed the great monopolist magnates of this country.
Modern feudalism exists in the United States, and there is
about to occur a parallel to the change from early feudalism to
monarchical rule. Whether, in this case, the ruler shall be one
man—an emperor, or the people in their collective capacity,
time will disclose. That changes must continue, for better .or
worse, no one can dispute. The only question is as to the
direction of the change. I believe that in this country it leads
to a renaissance of rule by the people—majority rule.
This leads us to the question, “How shall this rule of the
people be brought about and boss rule be overthrown” ?ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
4,-8
The first point which we can assure ourselves of is, that
there must be a decided change from the present system of con-
trolling monopoly, for under it the existing evils have devel-
oped. I say there must be a change from the present system.
This means more than a change of political party. Put in the
White House the strongest and best man that God has yet
made, and continue the existing system of controlling monop-
oly and this man and his party would not succeed, and the next
national election would see them cast out of office. You must
change the system.
The change in the system should not be unnecessarily great.
Let it be just sufficient to cast out the evils which are flowing
from private monopolies. What are the changes in the exist-
ing system that will cast out the evils that are flowing from
private monopoly, and yet which does not go beyond the neces-
sary change ?
Immediate public ownership goes too far, for you cannot get
enough votes to carry it into execution at once and in all the
monopolies; and if you could, it would place the party boss in
control and make of each monopolized industry—the railways,
the telegraph, the anthracite coal business, the rubber, and
many other lines of business—a huge political machine. In
addition to these evils, it would cast out the experts who are at
the head of each of the monopolies. And, furthermore, it
would take the monopolies at their excessive capitalization.
To avoid these evils which would flow from immediate public
ownership, and at the same time cast out the existing evils of
private monopoly, we have but to adopt the system of Direct
Limitation of the Rate of Profit.
This is a far-reaching change from the existing system of
limiting the selling price of monopoly products and leaving the
dividend of the private monopolies to fluctuate. These fluctu-
ating dividends cause the owners of the stock to control legis-
lation, control the executive, and control the judiciary. Make
the dividend a fixed rate, as in the case with bonds, and a com-
plete change occurs; no longer can the stockholder increase his
dividends through controlling the government—legislative,
executive and judicial. Samson will be shorn of his locks.GEORGE H. SHI BLEY.
4 79
No longer will there be an incentive for the monopolists to con-
trol the government, and a new and higher plane in the evolu-
tion of the race will have been reached. The evils of monopoly
will pass away almost without a ripple, for the people will be
practically united, and ideal justice will be given the stock-
holders in the private monopolies.
That the people will be united on the policy of directly limit-
ing the rate of profit instead of leaving the dividend to fluctu-
ate, as at present, is borne out by the situation when it is ex-
amined. Not only will the incentive to control and corrupt the
government be removed, the cost to consumers of monopoly
products be greatly reduced, better accommodations to the
public be secured, discriminatory rates and accommodations in
monopolies be removed, excessive profits to monopolists be
ended, and the stockholders and bondholders in the monopolies
be protected from looting by the board of directors, but the
wage-earners of the country will be placed on an entirely differ-
ent footing. Under the existing system the capitalists have en-
deavored to protect themselves from monopolists by regulating
by law the selling price of monopoly products. This has left
the monopolists free to fight the wage earners. It has assisted
capitalists in their endeavor to keep down wages and prevent
the shortening of hours and the improvement of the wage
earners’ surroundings. But the evolution of industry has re-
sulted in a swarm of monopolies; they are granting special
privileges in each line of industry, and, as a result, trusts are
so developed that the small capitalists are “under the wheels.”
They cannot extricate themselves except by an agreement with
the wage earners, whereby these workers shall receive justice.
In other words, the small capitalists, including all employers,
must agree to a policy whereby the rate of profit in private
monopolies shall be directly limited. This fixed rate of divi-
dend in the private monopolies, guaranteed of course by law—
the consumer must pay it—leaves the question of wages, hours,
etc., in monopolies, to be determined by the consumers and the
wage earners, the same as in the case of government employes.
This means that the wages, hours of labor, and the sur-
roundings in each monopoly shall be determined by the justice480
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of the case; by Congress. And where justice is accorded the
wage earner, there is the Merit System, and the wage is so
proportioned that there is a Sick Benefit and an Old Age Pen-
sion. The Pennsylvania Railway Corporation has introduced
all these features, and the government, when it controls the
situation under the proposed system, will continue the Pennsyl-
vania plan of dealing with employes.
A more extended statement of details I have published in a
56-page pamphlet, copies of which I have presented to mem-
bers of this conference, and to the readers of the proceedings
of the conference I will glady mail a copy upon receipt of
postage, 2 cents. At this time, however, I desire to briefly
touch upon a few of the more important points not yet dis-
cussed.
Many of you are asking yourselves, “Does not the proposed
system leave to the board of directors in each monopoly too
great a power”?
I reply, that under the proposed plan the regulations by the
government shall be so extended that the boards of directors
in each monopoly can no longer control the monopoly except by
conforming to the rules laid down by the legislative depart-
ment of the government. One of these rules will be that as
to all things not regulated by rules laid down by the legislative
power, or by the commission appointed to administer the law
as to the monopolies, the board of directors will be obliged to
submit their proposed plans to the commission and receive its
assent.
This means that the board of directors in each monopoly will
in reality be an advisory board only; yet the term “advisory,”
as here used, is incorrect, for the present power of individuals
over their business affairs is limited by law. Law prohibits
certain uses of property, and it can extend the prohibitions,
and to such an extent that the consent of a court or other public
body must be obtained before a change of policy can be in-
augurated. This is simply carrying to the extreme the power
of the State to regulate the use of private property. It is thus
that we must extend the State regulation of private monopoly.GEORGE H. SI-IIBLEY.
481
Next let-us ascertain if the proposed system of direct limi-
tation of profits and the appraisement of the capital, will remove
from the monopolist all incentive to control legislation, the ex-
ecutive, and the judges.
I have pointed out that where the dividend of the corpora-
tion is a fixed sum of money and the stockholder is unable to
increase his dividend, his efforts to do so will cease. Of this
there can be no question. Let us then turn and consider the
practicability of fixing the rate of dividends in the monopoly
corporations. This involves two points, namely, the securing
of legislation which shall-fix the rate of profit, and, secondly,
the appraisement of the capital.
There is no difficulty in the people securing legislation
through representatives where the representatives have prom-
ised, explicitly to enact the law. For example, had Mr. Bryan
and a Congress been elected in 1896 pledged to bimetallism at
16 to 1, the law would have been enacted. But if the platform-
had simply declared for bimetallism and left out the ratio, then
the opponents of the people might have been able to secure such
a ratio as to make bimetallism worse for them than the gold
standard. 'So it will be with securing legislation for the direct
limitation of profit in monopolies. A platform declaring that
the guaranteed rate of profit in a monopoly shall not exceed
4 per cent or 5 per cent, will result in the passage of a law
conforming to the promise. This I have considered at some
length in the pamphlet which I have referred to.
There is, then, no question but that the people, if they desire
it, can secure through Congress, a law directly limiting the
rate of profit in monopolies to 4 or 5 per cent. The remaining
portion of the contest with the monopolists will be the appraise-
ment of the capital in the monopolies. Let us, for illustration,
take the railways.
To appraise the capital invested in the railways there should
be placed on the commission a considerable number of the
stanchest men, and the law under which they make the ap-
praisement should specify that detailed inventories be filed with
the commission and that the files be kept open to the public for,
say, three years, and subject to correction.482
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Under such a system each rod of the roadbed will be sur-
veyed and a statement as to the number of yards of earth or
rock removed, and the distance. Each bridge will be fully
described, and the amount of material stated. This will be
sworn to by experts who perform the work and placed on file
for public inspection. The correctness of the inventory can be
questioned by the several State legislatures, and by the public
generally; for example, merchants’ associations, civic federa-
tions, boards of trade, etc. The procedure will provide that
whenever a complaint is made the points in dispute shall be
passed upon by the commission, and if error or fraud is discov-
ered correction shall be made. Under such an arrangement,
coupled with such further improvements as can be suggested
when the details of the law are being worked out, there will be
secured a fair valuation of the capital invested.
Certain it is, that under the foregoing system, which calls
for the filing of detailed statements to be kept open to the public
and subject to correction for say three years, there will he a
much fairer valuation of the capital invested than will be pos-
sible under any system of valuation for immediate purchase by
the public. It follows, therefore, that the difficulty of appraise-
ment of the capital is no objection to the system of direct limi-
tation of profits.
In conclusion let us consider the method whereby the
transition of ownership of monopolies from private corpora-
tions to public ones is most likely to occur.
Take the telegraph system of the United States. How should-
questions of policy be decided? For example, how should the
question be decided as to whether this means of communica-
tion should be conducted at cost or at an expense to taxpayers ?
Surely it should be decided by the voters of the United States.
And how can this be done? Not in an election for Congress-
man or President, for in voting for these men there are numer-
ous questions at stake, and, therefore, in voting there is a
bunching of the issues, and each person says—taking everything
into consideration, I will vote with this party or with that.
This is party politics. But place before the voters a set of can-
didates for each policy, and the voter is able to act separatelyGEORGE II. SHI BLEY.
4«3
on each policy. Such a system means that the people will vote
for principle instead of party politics, and wherever there is
employed this system of separate issues for each set of candi-
dates, the power of parties vanishes—the voters weigh each
principle and attempt to decide it on its merits. This form of
representative legislation is sound today, and there is small
need for the referendum where policies are singled out and
candidates are presented for each policy.
And so the telegraph corporation will be changed from a
private one to a public corporation, and it will doubtless be in
a short time after the rate of profit to the stockholders is
directly limited. The change will come about in order to have
the board of directors elected by a direct vote of the people—•
the stockholders in the corporation.
Likewise, the railway monopoly will become a public corpo-
ration soon after the rate of profit is directly limited; and the
anthracite coal monopoly will become a public corporation; the
rubber monopoly in the United States will become a public cor-
poration ; the refining of petroleum will be by a public corpora-
tion ; the refining of sugar will be by a public corporation; the
copper monopoly will be conducted by a public corporation,
and likewise the monopoly in iron ore.
In Municipal Monopolies the same system applies. Each of
the several monopolies in each city will become a public corpo-
ration, and each board of directors will be selected by the stock-
holders in a direct manner. In each State there will be a
bureau of municipal monopolies similar to the one that exists
in England, and it will prescribe the system of bookkeeping
and accounts in order that comparison may be made of the
systems of waterworks, comparison of the gas plants, and com-
parison of the street railway corporations in each State. In
this_way there will be competition between the superintendents
in the several plants, and the less efficient will be discarded, and
it will be impossible for boards of directors to mismanage
properties for any considerable time.
In the several divisions of the railways of the United States
a similar system of comparison will be in vogue, and thereby
the competition between superintendents will be accentuated.484
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
And with the merit system throughout each division of the
railways there will be a higher and more intense form of com-
petition among the employes than at present.
Summary.
Reviewing what has been said as to the practicability of a
Direct Limitation of Profits in Monopolies, it will be observed
that it abolishes all the evils of private monopolies which we
complain of, avoids all the evils which would come from im-
mediate public ownership, and in addition it appeals to every
voter, conservative and radical. It is “state regulation” instead
of “public ownership,” and it metes out ideal justice to the
holders of stocks and bonds in monopolies, thereby squeezing
out all the water—something that cannot be done under the
plan for immediate public ownership. Furthermore, it retains
in each monopoly the specialists who have developed the busi-
ness, and keeps out boss politics with its patronage and loot.
These are the main reasons for the adoption by the reform
parties of the policy of Direct Limitation of Monopoly Profits,
It is midway between two extremes and must, sooner or later,
be adopted; there is no other way. Public ownership of raiU
ways will not prevent monopolies in raw material; for example,
rubber, anthracite coal, salt, ice, copper, iron ore, etc. Public
ownership of raw material is not suggested by this conference,
yet this source of monopoly must be controlled as well as dis-
criminations in freight rates. The only practical way to handle
these monopolies of raw material is through a legal monopoly
and direct limitation of profits. And such is the only practical
way for the immediate control of the entire railway system of
this great country. Eventually, each monopoly will be owned
by a corporation in which each citizen will hold one share of
stock, and to attain that stage there must be the intermediate
step of direct limitation of profits. This will immediately end
the control of the government by the monopolists, and then
the rest of the way to public ownership will be plain sailing.CHARLES I. STEWART.
485
CHARLES I. STEWART.
Science has revealed the continuity of natural forces and
taught us that all nature is akin. Association is the law of life,
and isolation is death. Nature is not exclusively individualistic.
A single mountain does not rise up from the plain alone. Nature
does not plant trees singly on the broad prairie. Man in the
lowest state in which we have known him has not roamed the
wilderness alone. Civilization is organized society and the
civilized man is a social animal. Isolate the most perfect
specimen of the civilized man of today and all the ages back
through barbarism to savagery will be quickly traversed. Bring
the savage under the influence of civilization, though his
progress will not be so rapid as the reversion of the civilized
man, he will yield to the influence of his surroundings, and
it will not require many generations at the most for his
savagery to be completely assimilated without detriment to
civilization.
Scientifically speaking, originality and individuality are ex-
ceedingly rare. Perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say
that no man has ever had an entirely original idea. I do not pro-
pose to digress into metaphysics, but permit me to say that sug-
gestion is a most powerful factor in all mental development, that
it constitutes a large part of the motive power of the world of
thought, that it is the foundation of the thought fabric. Associ-
ation with nature and with men is the source of suggestion, and
co-operation is the form of its expression, the instrument of
its power in the world. It is beyond the scope of my present
task to undertake to discuss in detail the principle of co-opera-
tion as a factor in civilization, or to furnish arguments to
support the general declarations which the time allotted makes
necessary. However, I trust that where argument cannot be
presented, that it may be readily supplied by the intelligent
mind. I shall assume that the general theory of evolution, as
taught by modern science, is accepted, and if there has been
biological evolution there has been, and still is, sociological
evolution; if the aim of the one was to produce a high order
of animals, man, the aim of the other is the highest possible486
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
development of organized society, yet to be attained. One is
ancient natural history, and the other is current events.
Mr. Drummond holds that even in the protoplasm the Dar-
winian struggle for existence and survival of the fittest is
only one factor, that even in the very beginning of things
there was what he terms the struggle for other life, or altruism
as a joint factor with the egoism of the first apostles of the new
science. Whatever may be the verdict of biology on this
proposition, every student of the genesis of society and the
growth of civilization, has found an increasing altruism with
every forward movement of mankind.
Guizot defines civilization as that condition of human society
manifesting intellectual development, individual advancement
and social melioration. He recognizes as the two factors and
the two constituent elements of civilization, the individual and
society. We may be a little more specific and say that no
condition of man may be called civilization unless it has gov-
ernment and industry, both of which are naturally social, rest-
ing upon association and living through co-operation. Gov-
ernment, in all of its stages of development and in its origin,
ever has been and ever must be a co-operative institution. It
grew out of the necessity for united effort to do what men could
not do as individuals. As the co-operative character of human
society has developed and extended, so has government grown
in the scope of its power and functions.
We may safely accept as an axiom of political science that
the functions of government in any given country or in any
given age are ultimately determined by industrial conditions.
Industry became co-operative, to a certain extent, simultane-
ously with the development of the crudest social organization
of the savage. Perfect individualism existed only when the
savage made his own weapons, secured his,own food and
fashioned his own rude clothing, and was subject to no power
superior to his own will. With the most primeval barter and
the earliest and rudest division of labor began the development
of co-operative industry. Government and industry have come
down the ages, not always hand in hand, but never far apart,
acting and reacting one upon the other, to the general progressCHARLES /. STEWART.	487
of the human race. In each there has been the old struggle
of the one against the many, the individual against society.
Brute force and selfishness have contended with intellect and
altruism, and the victory has frequently been to the physically
strong rather than the right. Each real victory for progress,
whether in government or industry, has been a victory for
society, an extension of the principles of co-operation that has
blazed the way for further progress. Even when the individ-
ual has appeared to triumph the ultimate victory has often
been for society. In the political sphere, government, though a
co-operative institution, for the greater part of its history
has been controlled by individuals and classes. In this struggle
between the few and society the government has frequently
fallen under the domination of one or a few, but instead of
destroying the social organization such control has served
society in the development and increased efficiency of govern-
ment. There was a time when even the European feudalism of
the middle ages was an influence for progress. It laid the
foundation for the strong monarchy by which it was succeeded,
and conditions followed more favorable for the development
of the democratic spirit now so powerful in Europe.
We have seen the beginning of the industrial age. A long
period of human history was required to prepare the social
organization, that is, the government for the transformation
of the present century. With new ideas of government came
that freedom of the human intellect without which the progress
of the present century would have been impossible. Though
the industry of hand tools and guilds was very largely co-
operative, it was not until the age of invention and machinery
that men began to see the possibilities of industrial co-opera-
tion. Indeed, there are thousands of men of intelligence who
do not yet see the power of this factor of civilization. Every
new invention, every discovery, every forward movement of the
industrial organization has made the relations of civilized men
more complex, increased the dependence of men upon one
another and exalted the importance of society.
What would our civilization be without our government or
without our wonderful industrial system? What would be-488
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
come of industry without the government, and what need of
government would we have if our industry were destroyed?
Our government is a-great co-operative institution, the greatest
business corporation in the world, not only in the number of
its stockholders, but also in the volume of its business. While
this great society is everything to us, and while it is unique in
the history of the world, nowhere else is there so much individ-
uality in citizenship; in no other organization constructed by
man has individuality been so completely unrestrained. In gov-
ernment we have, in theory at least, respected the true theory of
civilization promulgated by Guizot. We have, in our political
sphere, developed the most wonderful and most powerful social
organization in the record of the human race without the
sacrifice of the high value we put upon individuality.
While our governmental fabric is composed of one great
corporation, and a number of minor corporations of different
degrees of dignity, these different organizations are bound
together with more or less harmonious relations. Our indus-
trial system is scarcely less co-operative already than the gov-
ernment itself, but lacks its orderly arrangement. We have
the most complex division of labor, the greatest combinations
of capital, the most gigantic industries in every branch of
wealth production, and perhaps the most thoroughly co-opera-
tive system of industry the world has ever seen. The com-
bination of capital and the concentration of industrial forces,
sometimes as the result of natural industrial evolution, and
sometimes by reason of special favors of legislation, has
brought us to the problems of the trust, for the discussion of
which this convention is assembled. In the consideration of
this problem we will make a fatal mistake if we fail to recog-
nize the unalterable character of the general conditions of to-
day. In a great industrial nation, with hundreds of thousands
of miles of railroads and millions of men engaged in transporta-
tion, we must discard the political ideas of the period of the
pack mule and the wagon train. With the work of the world
done by machinery we cannot afford to grope around in the
mists of theories that were plausible in the days of hand tools
and human muscle as the only motive power of industry.CHARLES I. STEWART.
489
If we would we cannot turn back the hands on the clock of time.
We cannot change the current of human destiny. We have
no power to set at naught the immutable laws of the universe.
We may harness the waters of Niagara, but for ages yet to come
the river will continue to hurl itself over the precipice. Man
is not yet strong enough to change the current. Association
and co-operation are the source and sustaining power of our
civilization. We cannot destroy them without devastating a
world, and if we were to set such a task for ourselves we
would be as chaff in a cyclone. If it were possible to check
progress by checking the growth of co-operation it would not
be desirable. But it is not possible and we are forced to
utilize and regulate this great principle for the protection
of the public interests, and for its complete development, or
submit to its usurpation by a class at the expense of the whole
people.
Co-operation has given us our government and our industry.
It is the tree from which we gather all the fruits and flowers
of civilization, and if some of the fruit is bitter and some of
the flowers deformed the fault is not in the tree, but in the
manner in which we nourish its roots and prune its branches.
Only a madman would cut it down.
Government is a monopoly of sovereign authority. Organized
society cannot exist without supreme power, and in our Ameri-
can system the individual, though a sovereign citizen, is only a
part of the government. Society is the supreme authority,
the complete sovereignty. The control of a monopoly of polit-
ical authority is, and has always been in all periods of the
history of civilization, a function of sovereignty. We may
safely lay down the broad principle that whatever carries with
it supreme power should be subjected to the control of the
final authority in the social organization. Monopoly in any
branch of industry is supreme power. If one man or a set of
men secure absolute control of the grain production of the
world they have supreme power over the bread supply. Men
may eat bread only by paying such tribute as they may exact.
Political power, which in theory is the supreme power of the
State, has ever been based on industrial power, and private49°	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
monopoly to maintain itself must control government wherever
its interests are involved. Where monopoly exists it must
be subject to the control of the supreme power, the State, or
it will raise itself above the State, eventually becoming the
government in name as well as in fact. In my opinion, the
first step to be taken in dealing with the trust question is to lay
down the broad proposition that monopoly is supreme power,
that private control of supreme power in any branch of indus-
try is of itself as dangerous to the rights and liberties of the
people as individual control of government, that its inevitable
tendency is to prostitute the government to the service of
individuals and classes at the expense of the whole people, and
that when, through natural evolution, any industry becomes a
monopoly, the control of such monopoly should be recognized
as a function of the sovereign power. The monopoly of
authority embodied in the government is, in theory at least,-to
be exercised for the public good, and not to advance private
interests. In dealing with the trust problem we should proceed
upon the theory that the power of industrial monopoly is to be
exercised only for the advancement of the public interests.
Withdraw from all corporations the special privileges they
enjoy at the hands of the government, and then, if through
natural processes monopoly is inevitable and desirable, let the
control of such monopoly be recognized as a proper function
of the sovereign power.
THOMAS ELMER WILL.
The trust is modern industrialism at the highest point of
development it has yet reached. Its object is identical with
that of the smaller competing concern, namely, profit, the
almighty dollar. Its motto is, win by whatever methods neces-
sary. The end justifies the means.
As a winner the trust enjoys supreme advantages; vast
capital supplemented by water; high organization; power to
exercise eternal vigilance over the fields of industry and leg-
islation ; the prestige that accompanies unquestioned success
and economies impossible to competing firms. Economies inTHOMAS ELMER WILL.
491
labor it has reduced to a science; the folly of overproducing,
thus occasioning gluts and bankruptcies, it long since dis-
covered. It now seeks to “limit production” to the level of
effective demand, and therefore shuts down mills, factories,
and mines which are no longer needed—to the scandal of
those unaware of the duplications and wastes of competitive
industry and to the dire distress of laborers who thus learn
that, as industry is now organized, they are superfluous. Its
fixed principle is to monopolize the market at whatever cost,
destroy competition, and then charge what the traffic will bear;
and in obedience to this principle it treads underfoot tradi-
tions, customs, laws, judicial decisions, everything that stands
in its way as a giant crushes an ant hill.
The trust is a product of industrial evolution. As, histor-
ically, families combined into clans, clans into tribes, tribes
into states, and these again into nations, so partnerships have
merged into companies, these into corporations, and these
finally into trusts. Like the power of a Caesar or of an Ameri-
can President, the power of the trust is imperial. As such it
may be used to bless or curse society. Which may it be ex-
pected to do ?
By the old political economy we are taught that competitive
business is, and ought to be, ruled by the principle of enlight-
ened self-interest, the business man seeking only his own
private ends, but led, nevertheless, in so doing, by “the guid-
ing hand” of an over-ruling power into serving' in the most
effective manner his customers, his employes, and the public at
large. High prices, inferior goods, and shabby treatment of
customers, we are taught, repel his trade and build up the
business of his rivals; while reasonable prices, honest goods,
and courteous conduct operate in the opposite direction, thus
contributing to success. But reasonable prices, good goods and
considerate treatment are what the public want. The interests
of business men and of the general public are thus, it is
claimed, identical. The business man is therefore instructed
to attend strictly to his own private affairs and do the best he
can for himself, freeing his mind from all anxiety as to the
effects of his conduct upon the public; for in serving himself492
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
he serves the public, and in looking out most successfully for
number one he is also looking out most effectively for the
commonwealth.
Such teaching, naturally, shrewd business men have been
quick to hear and heed; for when one’s lower instincts are thus
reinforced by philosophy, the combination is, to the carnal
mind, a happy one. Observe, however, that it is in strict obedi-
ence to this teaching that the industrial evolution culminating
in the trust has worked itself out. Did not isolated individuals
unite into partnerships because they could thereby make more
money? And were not these partnerships later expanded into
companies, corporations and trusts, for identically the same
reason? Are not the trust magnates looking out for number
one in strict obedience to the dictates of classic political
economy, and has not experience taught them that they can
make more money in a trust and make it more easily than in a
simpler and smaller form of industrial organization?
And can it not be shown as easily for the trust as for the indi-
vidual that enlightened self-interest is its true policy, and that in
following this it serves most completely the public ? What the
trust, as the individual dealer wants, is the maximum of net
profits. Extortionate charges for the trust as for the individual
will reduce these. The monopolist must charge no more than the
market will bear, and this is identically what each competing
producer and dealer endeavors to charge even in the freest of
markets. True, the monopolized market will “bear” more than
the free, but for this economic fact no credit is due to the
competitor and no special blame to the monopolist. The com-
petitor and the monopolist are made of the same clay and
actuated by the same motives, and they obey identically the
same principle, namely, “Get all you can and keep all you get.
Take care of yourself and let your neighbor and the dear
public do the same.” The ethic of each is the ethic of the
swine and its fruits are a swinish society.
Again, enlightened self-interest dictates that the trust shall
be reasonable lest it forfeit confidence and incite to deeds of
legislative or mob violence. Public opinion rules even in a
trust-ridden republic. The trusts exist and operate only byTHOMAS ELMER WILL.
493
public tolerance. Despite machine politics, boss rule and mis-
representation in legislative halls the American people, if thor-
oughly aroused, could capture or bury every political party
in America, and place in the seats of power in Washington
and in every State capital a band of men who would intelli-
gently solve the trust problem or wreck the nation’s industries
in unintelligent attempts to throttle the monster. Does not
enlightened self-interest, then, dictate that the trust shall keep
within bounds lest it arouse the cyclone of popular indignation
and, like bastiles and castles and feudal dominions when once
grown thoroughly unpopular, be swept from the face of the
earth ?
Yet what is this argument but that which once served to
bolster monarchy ? Did not enlightened self-interest, the desire
peacefully to wear his crown and safely to transmit it to his
son, dictate that the king do well by his people? If he im-
poverished them by badly adjusted and excessive taxation, did
he not thus kill the goose that laid the golden egg, reduce the
royal revenues, and impoverish himself and his family? If
by wanton and disastrous wars he stripped the land of its
strong men, did he not thereby lower the physical and intellect-
ual standard of his people and lay his country open to suc-
cessful invasion? If he ruled with arrogance rather than
with mildness and wisdom, did he not by so doing provoke
insurrection and assassination? And yet, despite all the argu-
ments for the temperate use of despotic power, despots have
done every one of these foolish and suicidal things and count-
less more.
By age-long and terrible experience the race has slowly
learned that despotism tempered by “enlightened self-interest’’
will not do. The “enlightenment” is usually sadly wanting,
and the task of enlightening despots is slow, thankless and
dangerous. Political despotism has lost favor in advanced
countries and is steadily being superseded by popular gov-
ernment. Industrial despotism must surely travel the same
road. The people may hesitate for a time, rubbing their
eyes, staring at its gigantic shape as it looms up dimly through
the fog of discussion, and wondering what it is. But despotism.494
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
whether political, religious, or industrial, inevitably, sooner or
later, reveals its cloven hoof and then the time of its departure
is at hand.
That the trust is rapidly approaching this historic crisis what
student of affairs can doubt? Glance over the list of American
trusts, corporations, syndicates, and pools and note such figures
as these:
♦Present Name of Trust.	Present Capitalization.
Amalgamated Copper Co.................... $75,000,000
American Steel & Wire Co.................. 90,000,000
American Sugar Refining Co................ 73,000,000
Continental Tobacco Co.................... 97,000,000
Distilling Company of America............. 79,000,000
National Tube Company..................... 80,000,000
Standard Oil Company...................... 97,250,000
Western Union Telegraph Co............... 112,500,000
Atlantic Passenger Steamship Pool....... 100,000,000
Beef Trust............................... 100,000,000
Federal Steel Co......................... 128,000,000
U. S. Leather Company.................... 130,000,000
Anthracite Coal Trust.................... 150,000,000
and the Money Trust, soon to be lord of all.
Beside such gigantic aggregations of power a medieval
monarchy were a pigmy. The empire of Rockefeller or of
Norvin Green, the fathers of American trusts, is more magnifi-
cent and powerful by far than was the empire of Charlemagne;
yet these parent trusts are overtopped by some that have been
formed within the last decade. And the brain reels at the
thought of the coming trust of trusts, an aggregation which
shall include the entire list of the two hundred and sixty-five
or more already formed and the new ones constantly forming.
Whether such imperial power be exercised for the time being
beneficently or maleficently can make little difference, save in-
fixing the date of the coming crisis. Are any so sanguine as to
imagine that political democracy in America and industrial
New York World Almanac, 1900.THOMAS ELMER WILL.
495
despotism so terrific can long exist side by side? Lincoln
foresaw that the nation could not permanently continue half
free and half slave. Can it more easily live half republic and
half empire ? By the very process of evolution and concentra-
tion now in progress the one will inevitably devour the other.
Which shall survive?
That this conference is resolved that the republic must and
shall be preserved is evident. But how ?
Not, certainly, by the further reign of laissez faire. To let
alone such a monster as the trust were madness.
Then, say some, we must regulate and restrain it. Be not
deceived. America and other nations have attempted the
“regulation and restraint’’ of corporations. Even now there
stand upon the federal statute books those monuments of
restrictive impotency, an Interstate Commerce law and a
Sherman Anti-Trust law. Given a corporation of sufficient
size—and the greater its size the greater the need for its
regulation—and it will “regulate the regulators, restrain the
restrainers, and control the controllers.’’
Suppose, then, that we license it. High license is better
than laissez faire. It recognizes the people’s rights to dictate
to business institutions and it puts money into the people’s
purse. As a tentative expedient, a step toward something
better, a popular educational device, it may be tolerated; but
as a final and sufficient remedy it must be classed with attempts
to license bandits and liquor dealers.
And why, then, may not the trust be reached by taxation?
“The power to tax is the power to destroy.” May we not
heap upon it the burdens of taxation till we have crushed it ?
From this mode of attack there is much to be hoped. The
criticism that the trust will shift the tax upon the consumer is
groundless, for the reason that it now charges all the market
will bear. If it were able to shift the tax upon the consumer
the trust would now, before the tax is imposed, raise its prices
by the amount of the proposed tax. As above noted, the trust
seeks to charge only such a price as will yield the maximum
net income:	To exceed this figure is to hurt its trade and
reduce its dividends. There is no sounder principle in econom-496	ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ics, old or new, than this:	Within narrow limits, “A tax on a
monopoly cannot be shiftedBy availing themselves of this
fact the people may relieve themselves largely of the burden
of double, triple, and multiple taxation, may fill their treasuries
with funds with which to build up their public institutions,
take over private monopolies, and otherwise carry on their
fight with organized wealth. “Tax the Trust” should become
a battle cry in the new warfare for economic liberation.
Paraphrasing the language of Bernard Shaw, the trust should
become the grand universal milch cow from which the people
may obtain their revenues, the arsenal from which they may
draw their weapons for the mighty conflict now upon them.
Yet, strongly as I should urge the taxation of the trust to the
legal and constitutional limit, and the steady pushing outward
of that limit and the corresponding increase of trust taxation, I
would not for a moment be understood as suggesting that the
trust problem may finally be solved by taxation. Taxation,
however drastic and successful, still leaves fabulous revenues
at the disposal of the trust managers, and with these revenues
they can still buy defenders in American colleges and pulpits,
in the editorial columns of newspapers, in the pages of current
literature, in the halls of legislation and on the bench. They
can hire lawyers to frame anti-trust or trust taxation laws
containing hidden holes through which a coach and four may
be driven. They can hire or compel governors and presidents
to veto effective anti-trust legislation, or they can induce a
subservient majority of supreme judges to find such legislation
unconstitutional. In a commercial age it were hardly an
exaggeration to say that in legislation all things are possible
to the skillful lobbyist with an unlimited bank account. All
temporizing with the trust is foredoomed to failure.	We
must strike at the root of the evil. Carthage must be de-
stroyed !
But what do we mean by this? The disintegration of the
trust, the resolving of this huge aggregation into its original
elements of petty one-horse establishments, each struggling in
its weak way with one hand to keep its insignificant head above
water, and with the other to pull down its neighbor? Do we,F. D. Larrabee.	William J. Strong.
Tom Johnson.
Jo A. Parker.	Frank W. Elliott.THOMAS ELMER WILL.	497
too, propose to “smash the trust and go back to free competi-
tion ?”
God forbid! The world moves, and it moves forward. Were
it possible to go back to the day of small things, who would
sacrifice the economies and conveniences and the efficiency of
the superb system that is today represented by huge and
highly organized industry to return to the stage-coach, corner-
grocery methods of the past? Whoever would, let him rest
assured that the American spirit will never consent thus to stul-
tify itself and reverse the engine that has driven it to its present
splendid heights. The system of industrial organization on a
large scale has come to stay. Let there be no doubt on this
point. As well ask us to smash the power looms and sewing
machines and return to hand looms and needles, to abandon
the steamship for the canoe, the railway train, for the lumber
wagon and pack mule, the telegraph and telephone for the
carrier pigeon and fiery cross, the nation-wide, free public
school for the occasional Squeers’ school, the national postal
system for the pony express; as well ask the bird to return to
the egg and the oak to coil itself again within the acorn as to
ask the American people to abandon their system of highly
developed industries and return to the petty crudities of the
days of their ancestors. The American may be patient under
oppression and furious when aroused, but he is no crawfish.
Return to free competition ! Competition means war; prog-
ress is toward peace. Competition, like all warfare, means
endless and wanton waste of materials, energy, life; progress
is toward economy of matter and force and the daily growing
recognition of the sanctity of human life and personality. Com-
petition fosters selfishness and greed; progress is toward public
spirit and regard for others. Competition is the law of beasts;
progress is from beastiality to manhood, brotherhood, mutual
helpfulness, co-operation.
Again, a nation’s industries are organs of the body politic.
To “smash” them because not satisfied with their work is like
smashing one’s brains because suffering with headache. In
the one case, as in the other, the remedy must be found not in
destruction but in correction, restoration of healthful function.498
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
making the morbid organ serve the body rather than wreck and
menace it.
But we are told the trust is a child of blood, a product of
violence and anarchy, and therefore destitute of the right to
live; it is a house built on the sands of injustice and hence it
cannot survive in any form.
That the onward march of the trust has been characterized
by blood and iron, by force, fraud and superior cunning, by
ruthless might heedless of right, does not weaken the analogy
between its development and that of nations. How have
nations grown out of families, clans, tribes and states but by
conscienceless diplomacy and by fire and sword? Must we
therefore “smash” them and return to feudalism or any other
form of anarchy? Historically, in race evolution whether
political or industrial, might has preceded right, laying broad
and deep the material foundations upon which justice may
erect her more noble dwelling. It is for the quickened and the
enlarged intelligence of our time to demand that might shall
no longer reign and that white-winged peace shall spread her
pinions over the bloody fields both of war and industry.
Here we have the key to the solution of our problem. The
public good is the supreme law. Every institution finds its
reason for existence in the fact that it serves society; and to the
extent that it serves it it commands our esteem and support.
Government was once thought of as a family affair, resting on
the sanction of a partial Deity. The state was the private
property of the king, existing for his royal pleasure. All
this is now changed. The old idea has been made to stand on
its head. Instead of society existing for the king, the king
and that for which he stands, government, order, justice,
administration, exist for the people. If the king would be
tolerated he must obey the people. When he declines to do this
he gives place to another form of government that will more
perfectly obey and serve them. The Sabbath is for man, not
man for the Sabbath. Similarly, all religious institutions prove
their right to live only by proving that they serve man. And
so with other institutions, legislative, administrative, military,
judicial, educational and industrial. From the modern view-THOMAS ELMER WILL.
499
point the business man has exactly as much right to conduct
a business for his private profit solely, leaving society to derive
from his pursuit of lucre such incidental benefits as it may, as
the teacher has to teach, or the preacher to preach, the law-
maker to legislate, or the judge to write opinions for his
private profit, leaving society to catch what it can of incidental
good therefrom. Exactly as much and no more. Every social
institution exists not secondarily but primarily for the public
good. Incidental benefits are to be left not to society as a
whole, but to individuals and groups. The question for us to
face in considering the trust is, How can this industrial organ-
ization be made most fully and effectively to serve society as
a whole? And the answer is ready to our hand, prepared bv
ages of human experience. Government, courts, army, navy,
education, and in many cases industry, have been converted
into agencies seeking primarily in theory and in increasing
degree in fact, the public good by making of them public rather
than private institutions. Boldly, and in large measure suc-
cessfully—so successfully that we should scorn the proposal
to return to the old order—the public-ownership principle has
been applied to these institutions. The element of private
profit has been eliminated, the public has taken direct control,
and demands of its agents who administer these institutions
not that they shall get rich and paternally “furnish employ-
ment” to labor, but that they shall administer their trust in the
public interest and in accordance with duly prescribed rules,
receiving for their labor a stipulated salary plus raise if they,
do well and condemnation and punishment if they do ill.
Industrial monarchy must traverse the road beaten hard by
political monarchy and by the army, the navy, the postoffice,
and the little red schoolhouse. We must make the trust public
property. As we have already done with the postoffice, so we
must do with the trust; we must place in the national cabinet
an officer to control its movements; its workers must be organ-
ized on civil service reform principles, and its products must
be furnished to the people at cost. The path to this goal has,
I say, been beaten hard. Not only the national institutions
above named have trodden it, but a multitude of state and500
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
especially of municipal institutions. The public ownership
movement is sweeping forward like a resistless tide. To de-
mand city ownership and operation of gas, water, electric lights,
street railways and other public utilities is no longer, save in
some backward communities, regarded an evidence of radical-
ism or socialism. Conservative statesmen demand it. Individ-
ualistic single-taxers demand it. Imperial Germany and re-
publican England have demonstrated its success to the satis-
faction of imperialist, democrat, liberal and conservative. The
only question in English cities today is not, Shall the city take
over its monopolies? but Which monopolies shall it first take
over and on what terms ? Public ownership of city monopolies
is no longer a theory. Multiplied experiences have proved that
it is a success in every sense; that it lowers the cost and im-
proves the quality of the service; that it shortens the hours
and increases the wages of the workers; that it pays for itself,
and that at the same time it purifies politics. On this last
point, the bete noir of public ownership in the minds of some,
time forbids me to dwell; but the evidence that public owner-
ship tends to purify rather than corrupt politics is as conclusive
as the evidence that it serves directly the pecuniary interests
of consumer and laborer. Private corporations now vote their
hands or tell them to come back to work if the corporation
candidate is elected, but to stay away if he is defeated. Who-
ever heard of such wholesale “turning of the rascals out,” even
in the hey-day of the spoils system? But public industry
organized under strict civil service reform rules makes such
atrocities impossible.
"We must fight the devil of monopoly with the fire of public
ownership,” and the public ownership and operation of the
trust are coming as surely as the day follows the night. We
may evade the issue, we may experiment with “smashing, regu-
lating, licensing and taxing; but, like the Hibernian’s flea, ever
absent from the seat of danger, or like the eel, which the more
tightly we grip the more surely it escapes, the trust itself will
drive us to the one and only scientific and effective solution.
Carthage, I repeat, must be destroyed. But Carthage today
is not the huge industrial organization. It is the private owner-H. B. MARTIN.
501
ship and operation of that organization; it is the administration
of vast industries not in the public interest, but for private
gain. It is the prostitution of our industrial system to an
institution designed primarily for the levying of tribute, and
secondarily only for the service of the public; rather than an
institution designed primarily for public service and second-
arily only for the maintenance of those who administer it and
work in and through it. This situation must be exactly re-
versed. But as for smashing the trust, we must no more think
of it than of smashing the postoffice. Like the postoffice, in-
stead, we must capture it, convert it and make of it a public
servant. “The trust is a good thing—for those inside. Let all
the people get inside!”
H. B. MARTIN,
National Secretary American Anti-Trust League,
A trust, in the acceptation or understanding of the word
wnich is now practically uhiversal among the American people,
means a monopoly. Any individual or combination of individ-
uals, corporation or combination of corporations which secures
or seeks to secure a monopoly of any branch of business, indus-
try or commerce is a trust, and by the statute law of the United
States as well as of nearly all the separate states is declared to
be a crime, punishable by fine or imprisonment or both. It is
a crime under the common law and is certainly a crime under
the moral law. That these trust criminals who number thou-
sands all over the United States are not arrested and punished
for their crimes and a stop put to their predatory operations is
solely due to the fact that they are so wealthy and powerful that
they can defy all the ordinary processes of law.
The custom of all civilized nations has been, and is, that
when there appears in any community a criminal or group of
criminals, who are so powerful and dangerous that they can
not be apprehended or punished by the ordinary operation of
the police power and the ordinary process of the courts, then
it is found necessary to resort to extraordinary methods to
secure the proper punishment of men who can not be reached502
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
by ordinary means. These extraordinary measures vary among
the different peoples and nations of the world. One of the
most universally used and effective methods of securing the
arrest of extraordinary criminals ig for the government to offer
a substantial reward, to be paid to any person or persons who
shall furnish information that shall lead to the arrest and
conviction of the offenders. This remedy is peculiarly appli-
cable to the trust magnates and their agents. The great ma-
jority of the citizens whose testimony must be used against
them to convict them of their Crimes are men who are held
in financial duress and subjection to the trust power; small
business men, working men, traveling agents, bookkeepers,
assistant auditors, and men whose livelihood and that of their
families is absolutely at the mercy of the trusts against whom
they could furnish evidence if they but dared.
These witnesses cannot be produced or their testimony
secured unless the government throws the strong arm of its
protection around them and guards them from the vengeance
of the great financial power of the monopolies.
The simplest and easiest method for the government to give
this needed protection is to offer a substantial reward, sav
not less than $10,000 or more than $200,000, to any person or
persons who shall furnish evidence that will lead to the arrest
and conviction of the men engaged in the promotion, organiza-
tion or management of any trust.
Many of the trusts are upheld and maintained by the favor-
itism in transportation rates which they secure through a crim-
inal alliance with the private managers and owners of the high-
ways, such as railroads, telegraphs, telephones, pipe lines, etc.
Government ownership of these highways would abolish all
favoritism in rates, and give all citizens equal access to the
markets, thus destroying one of the main props of the trust
system.
Private monopoly of the banking system and private control
of the volume of currency through the national banking system
and the allied credit system of doing business, is another
instrument used by the trusts to uphold and extend their power.
Government issue of all money without the intervention ofH. B. MARTIN.
503
banks, in a volume sufficient to enable business to be done on a
cash basis, and the abolition of all banking corporations would
be a great help toward breaking down the dangerous power of
the trusts, and would in fact exterminate one of the greatest of
all trusts—the banking trust.
Prohibition of the use of the mails and postoffice facilities
to any individual or corporation who had been convicted of a
violation of the anti-trust law would be also of material
assistance for the extirpation of the trust evil. The abolition
of all corporations of every character would very materially
aid in checking that monstrous concentration of wealth which
most completely manifests itself in the formation of trusts.
There should be a law to prohibit destructive competition.
That is to say, where one concern which has secured a practical
monopoly of any line of business or the control of such immense
capital that it is able to undertake the establishment of a mo-
nopoly by selling goods at a loss in the territory of a small
competitive business man in order to drive him out of business,
and charging their patrons in non-competitive territory enough
more to make up for what they lose in competitive territory.
This should be forbidden by a law to compel any person plac-
ing a line of goods on the market to sell that line of goods at
the same rate in all localities with such addition to the price as
the difference in the freight would be, and leave the question
as to whether any concern was seeking a monopoly to be
decided by a jury.
The private monopolizing of the resources of nature in
shape of lands, mines, forests, water powers, etc., and the
holding of these resources of nature out of use, are of great
assistance in the formation of trusts. The abolition of such
monopolizing of the resources of nature will inevitably open
up vastly increased opportunities for the employment of labor,
and tend to secure the wealth producer not only personal
freedom, but the full enjoyment of the fruits of his labor.
And last but not least the organization of the great masses
of honest citizens into Anti-Trust Leagues will bring united
and harmonious action for the overthrow of the trusts both at
the ballot box, in the legislative halls, in the courts, in the5«4
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
field of business and industry by a boycott on their products,
and is certainly one of the most essential things to be done at
this time. That good citizens in all sections of the country
realize this fact is evidenced by this great gathering of anti-
trust men in conference here today, and by the rapid organiza-
tion of local Anti-Trust Leagues now going on in all parts of
the United States under the banner of the American Anti-
Trust League. It is one of the truest and best of maxims that
“they who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.”
On June 3, 1899, in the City of Washington, D. C., five
men met and formed the American Anti-Trust League, and
adopted this declaration of principles:
“Salus populi suprema est lex/'
“The long line of treasonable aggressions upon the rights
and liberties of the American people by the criminal commer-
cial conspirators known as trusts has reached a climax during
the present year, wherein the gigantic strides of the trust
power toward the complete subjugation of the entire commerce
and industry of the nation has clearly demonstrated that the
final supremacy of the trusts and the consequent downfall of the
industrial and commercial freedom of the American people is
rapidly approaching.”
“To check the growth and destroy the power of this new-
menace to the life of our republic, the whole sovereign power
of the patriotic citizenship of the nation must be aroused and
directed to definite action. An unorganized mass of people, no
matter how numerous, are comparatively helpless to make
successful head against the trained and disciplined legionaries
of the trusts, who have seized and fortified themselves in
possession of the bulk of the wealth, the land, and the highways
of the nation, and to a great extent of the legislative, execu-
tive and judicial branches of the national, state, and municipal
governments.”
“Hence it is now necessary for the people to so systematically
and overwhelmingly organize their power that they may peace-
fully resume the possession and enjoyment of those rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which have been
filched from them by the trust oligarchy.H. B. MARTIN.	505
“To this end the American Anti-Trust League has organ-
ized.”
From that beginning has grown up the great number of
local Anti-Trust Leagues in all parts of the country and the
gathering here of one of the most important conferences of
representative, patriotic people that has ever been held in the
United States.
Those who are here assembled fully realize that the control
of the financial and political destinies of the American republic
by a mere handful of millionaires and trust magnates threatens
to bring about in the near future the destruction of the republic
and the complete economic enslavement of all our people. The
great mass of independent business men are being frozen out
or destroyed by the evil power of the trusts, and compelled to
take their places in the ranks of the wage workers. The door
of independent business opportunity for our young men is
being barred by the great monopolies, who treat the millions
of farmers and workingmen as mere machines to grind out gold
for their coffers. We are fast approaching a condition where
we have a small handful of enormously wealthy plutocrats on
the one hand and a great mass of subject people on the other.
To avert these evils, to save the republic, to secure to the
individual citizen an opportunity to work and to follow the
business of his choice, free from the danger of being crushed
or enslaved by the great trusts, and to rescue the government
founded by Washington and Jefferson from the grasp of the
menacing power of monopolistic wealth, is the work which the
American Anti-Trust League has undertaken.
Its purpose is to embrace in one great united force of free
citizens all those who care more for liberty than for lucre, and
who would aid in guaranteeing to the present generation and
to our posterity those inestimable blessings of freedom and
equality for which the founders of the republic shed their
blood, and which it is our duty to hand down with unimpaired
value to those who shall come after us.Sofi
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE..
MORTIMER WHITEHEAD.'
s
I believe that the period of discussion has about passed.
The time for action is come. Deeds more than words are now
needed. Talk and discussion are educational, but talk that
ends in talk will never dislodge the foe.
And I believe that temporizing words or actions will never
win in this issue. So long as the people are told or believe
there are “good trusts as well as bad trusts,” that “trusts tend
to lower prices,” that “trusts are natural and proper,” “a part
of the evolution of progress,” so long will there be no change
for the better. We are dealing with tyranny, and tyranny
never shows mercy, never compromises. “They that take the
sword must perish by the sword.”
As to remedies, I believe that in the long run the ultimate
result will be that the people will again take into their hands
the rights and privileges which they have granted to others.
That we shall have government control of all public utilities,
and that the co-operation of the few at the expense of the
many will become the co-operation of all for the benefit of all.
And in this the Grange also stands fast, having gone on record
in favor of government ownership of the railroad, telegraph
and telephone, postal savings banks, parcels post and the issu-
ing of money direct to the people. Millions of Americans
already believe this is the real remedy, specially in the case of
the railroads and the issue of money.
But while this government ownership is “coming” the people
must be up and doing, preparing the way by using the most
available means for at once checking the advance of the enemy.
Not one remedy alone, but several must be used. Let us use
them all. What are they?
1.	Public sentiment must be still more awakened, educated,
if you please.
2.	This same public sentiment must be so thoroughly aroused
that it will insist upon the enforcement of the laws we already
have.
3.	I believe that one of the remedies which we have nearest
at hand and which can be used with good effect to hold manyDR. GARRETT DROPPERS.
5°7
trusts in check is in the tariff and is to place all goods manu-
factured or controlled by a trust on the free list. If they have
destroyed home competition let us try the effects of world-
wide competition on them for a time.
4.	The taxing power possessed by both the national and
the state governments; let it be used. Put a good round tax
on all goods circulated by a trust.
5.	Stop giving franchises and special privileges to any indi-
vidual, class or body of men. This is our right handed down
from the fathers.
6.	Pass a law making it a penitentiary offense for a corpo-
ration to contribute money for political purposes, “campaign
funds,” “election expenses,” etc.
7.	Pass a law making it a penitentiary offense for a public
official, whose duty it is to see that the laws are enforced, such
as prosecuting attorneys, to receive free passes on the railroads,
and the same of the judges of the courts.
I believe that “where there is a will there is a way.” And I
have that faith in the American people that so soon as their will
is once thoroughly aroused they will find the way.
DR. GARRETT DROPPERS.
Prof. Droppers said in part:
The trouble is today that the great masses of the people
have become hopeless because they have not seen a single
definite, useful reform carried in the face of the opposing
party for over thirty years. It is sad but true that in the
United States not a single reform of importance has been
carried against the monopolies in this space of time. There
has been much talk and not a little honest effort, neverthe-
less all this talk and effort have been in vain.
In the first place, railways are already in the hands of the
governments in many of the countries of Europe, in republics
as well as monarchies. The overwhelming tendency of public
opinion in those countries, both of the conservative and radical5°8
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
type, favors government control. Anyone can see from the
example of the American postoffice that the government is
entirely capable of doing the work of the railways, and of
course when government control of railways is mentioned it
includes the telegraph as well. In fact, the postoffice, railway,
and telegraph are peculiarly connected in many ways, and if
the three were combined under one administration many econ-
omies could be introduced both for the government and the
people.
In the second place, there is no reform that would strike so
heavy a blow at the existing trusts in the United States as
the abolition of private ownership of the railway and telegraph.
If railway transportation were in the hands of the government
and fixed tariffs were established for the transportation of
goods, tariffs that should be impartially enforced, there can
be no doubt that at least one-half of the evils of our trust sys-
tem in the United States would fall of their own weight.
In the third place, government ownership of railways would
in itself be a means of reducing rates both of passenger and
freight traffic. It is doubtful indeed if there is a single kind
of industry on a large scale that is so inefficiently and uneco-
nomically managed in the United States as our railways, not
because private ownership is necessarily uneconomical, but
because the system itself, when under private control, implies
great waste.
It would be difficult to find anything that would make for
so much reform in the United States at the present time as the
ownership and administration of the railway and telegraph
system by the government.
DR. HIRAM W. THOMAS.
Moral questions must be studied as rational rather than
arbitrary. The social order arises in response to the three-
fold nature and needs of man. The body must have food,
raiment and shelter. Around the needs of the mind, arise
the institutions of learning, libraries, schools, colleges. The
affectional and moral nature call for the love of home andDR. HIRAM IV. THOMAS.
5°9
country; and these finding their correlatives in the Infinite,
ask for the religious. Books become sacred, temples arise,
altars of prayer are lifted up. The work of the world must
be done associately; there must be the divisions of labor, and
personal and social rights of property; and these take shap-
ing in government. Conscience says:	“Do what you think
is right;” each soul feels the imperative of the ought, and
the ought not. It took our world long to find the material
order; now that fact is gladly accepted; and our age is going
forth to easily perform the once impossible.
Slowly we are coming to realize the fact of a moral order,
and of moral sequences; and that it is only as man works
with that order that he can himself be great; and only as he
builds upon it, can society, governments and institutions be
enduring.
Moral laws are as certainly facts as are natural laws; the
one has to do with properties, the other with qualities; and
there are just as certainly qualities of mind, heart, conduct,
as there are properties of matter. Moral sequences are not
less certain than are physical effects, though not always im-
mediate and apparent.
The moral is inherent, is a part of the essential constitu-
tion of man; he did not create it, nor can he escape it. Back
of man, moral law is in the constitution of things; it is the
constitution of things; it is in God; it is God; it rests upon
itself; it is the uncreated, the self-existent. In our world, and
we may suppose in all worlds, it finds expression in the law
and fact of relationships, out of which arise duties and obliga-
tions; as the relations of the home, of society, of man to
man and of man to the Infinite. Outside of relationships, we
cannot think of duties and obligations.
Some such reflections seem to be called for that we may
be sure of our ground; sure there is a ground on which to
stand in any study of the questions of morality and monopolies.
We have before us the fact of essential morals; that which
is in the constitution of things. Then, there is a prescrip-
-tional morality; or that which society formulates as rules of
conduct, and this has naturally been * growth, depending uponANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
510
the growth of the rational and moral consciousness of man.
Governments were once despotic; slavery was universal;
woman held a lower place than man; the stronger subjugated
the weaker. Might made right. But with world-progress
there has come a clearer understanding of relationships and
duties; the rights of men, as men, to life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness are now largely recognized. And we sup-
posed that might no longer made right; and that it was wrong
for stronger nations to oppress the weaker. But now the
old doctrine of might is coming forth under the claim of a
“higher morality.” This new prescriptional morality is teach-
ing that it is the duty of the strong to rule the weak; espe-
cially where their country is rich in gold and diamonds or
where it is commercially valuable, and the people can be bought
for $2.50 a head.
In the light of this higher commercial morality of might,
there can be no moral argument against trusts and monopolies.
The fact that they have the power to become such, is a suffi-
cient justification; especially if they will endow universities
where only this “higher morality” dare be taught.
But this prescriptional morality of force, of might as right,
leaves out of sight the idea of equality. It is quantative, not
qualitative; it puts physical properties in the place of moral
qualities. It appeals to armies and navies, to enforce its de-
mands. But the essential morality rests upon and emphasizes
the qualities, principles and emotions of right, of justice and
love. It seeks to come into harmony with the world-order
of the good; to make all labor and business a vast transac-
tional righteousness in the great law of life and love in the
brotherhood of a world. And it says that the essential in
morals must progressively determine the prescriptional; that
the laws and institutions of society should express and conform
to the eternal principles of the qualitative; and that the social
order should not be dragged down to the low ideals of the
quantitative.
And in this plea for the essential morality, the ever becom-
ing of the life of God, as against the cold, calculating greed
of might: in this, is the l%al, the vital issue of the great strug-DR. HIRAM IV. THOMAS.
511
gies and battles of our time: The danger is that the greed
of gain and the pride and love of power will corrupt the
conscience of mankind. Many of the leaders, the rulers when
led up to the mountain top where the kingdoms of the world
lay before them, were not strong enough, great enough to
stand before the temptation. They were not deeply grounded,
charactered in the eternal principles of the good; they fell;
and hence are now seeking justification in the right of might;
and would thus corrupt the high moral sense of a world.
This is our danger; our hope is in the conscience of the peo-
ple and in the power of the true and the good. From all this
equivocation, double-dealing, special pleading and sophistry,,
our appeal is to the high court of reason, af right, of hu-
manity, and God.
It is to this tribunal that the trusts and monopolies must
at last make answer; not to the spirit and interests of com-
mercialism alone; but to the enlightened judgment and con-
science of a world.
In the light of essential morals, one cannot say that a
trust is per se or in itself necessarily wrong. There is noth-
ing wrong in a partnership; it is not wrong if two or more
partnerships be so enlarged as to become a company; and noth-
ing wrong if one or more companies become a corporation;
and if this be so it cannot be wrong for corporations to unite
in a trust.
All these are natural forms of economic evolution; they
reduce expenses and make possible larger production at less
cost. And it must be said also, that large things can be
done only on a large scale, and hence, require a large amount
of money. It is the necessary capital that makes possible
large forms of business; whether owned by the individual,
company, corporation or trust.
Against any or all of these, as such, from the standpoint
of essential morals, it cannot be said that they are inherently
wrong; 'and from the standpoint of economics, it must be said
that potentially they may be a large public good; and it may
be said that most of the large productive forms of business
have in some way been a public benefit.512
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The moral quality of an act' resides in the intention. If
the promoters and managers of trusts were working for the
public, for the people, they would be the noblest benefactors.
Incidentally the people share in some of the advantages; and
it may be that the owners and managers bring themselves to
think that they are engaged in a most benevolent work.
Some politicians think this; think they are “the trustees of
God”; that they are carrying on a vast missionary work ; spend-
ing hundreds of millions of dollars of the people’s money to
kill, or benevolently assassinate the Filipinos and the Boers.
This higher morality always looks to the lands that are rich
in gold and other sources of wealth'; and the benevolent trusts
always manage to get rich off of the people.
Admitting the economic value of large business combina-
tions, or trusts, we have to admit also, that trusts are liable
to become monopolies. That is their natural tendency, and
the only thing that has prevented the tendency from becoming
a cold, hard fact is the wonderful disinterested benevolence,
the selfless love of those who own and control the trusts. But
in spite of all this self-denying goodness it somehow happens
that nearly all the vast profits come to the trusts, and not to
the people, not even proportionate pay to the toiling brains
and hands that do the work.
But then, that also is a part of the higher “morality” that
places the profits of labor—the wealth of the world—in the
hands of the few, that they may endow colleges and fit the peo-
ple for self-government.
The simple hard fact is, that this once free land is rapidly
becoming a country of hired men and women; that the trusts
are becoming monopolies; and the danger is that the republic
may become an empire, a plutocratic oligarchy.
While trusts may be, and I think are, a first step in economic
evolution in our feudal age of money, an ugly form of an
ultimate good, there is, and can be, no moral justification of
monopolies. The only ground upon which they can stand is
force, the old doctrine of despotism that might makes right.
There is a power above man: “The earth is the Lord’s and
the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.”DR. HIRAM IV. THOMAS.
513
To this earth all must look for food, raiment and shelter; it is
the one source of supply for the millions. No one man, no
dozen or hundred men, have, nor can justly have, the right
to own or control these sources of supply. They belong to
the people; they are the gifts of God to man, and not the white
man alone, but the black man, the red man, the yellow man.
A monopoly is wrong per se; wrong in itself; it is not only
unmoral, it is immoral; it is a sin against the moral order of
the good. Sin is unsocial conduct, and there can be nothing
so unsocial as for the few to forcibly or by stealth or fraud
take from the many their God-given "rights to the natural
sources of wealth. It is to reduce the many to dependence
upon the few; it is another form of slavery; and it is none
the less wrong when done under the forms of law. The laws
of man cannot annul the laws of God; the laws of man cannot
make right what nature in the relationships of life says is
wrong.
The efforts and the powers of money to corrupt parties and
legislatures are the most alarming dangers of our troubled
times; they are assaults upon the reason and conscience of
mankind; they would, were it possible, undermine and destroy
the foundations of the moral order of a world.
These dangers arise from the monopolies that make possible
the fabulous fortunes of the few and necessitate the compara-
tive poverty of the many. There is something morally wrong
in the social conditions that make it possible for a few men
to make hundreds of millions in a few years, and that compel
millions of other men to work for at best only the comforts
of life. The wrong is not in having the great industries that
develop the wealth of the earth ; these are necessary; the wrong
is, that they are monopolies, and that the vast profits go to the
few and not to the many.
Mr. Smiley, in his very able book on Trusts, shows that in
the United States 125,000 families own thirty-three billion dol-
lars, an average of $264,000 each. These are the rich; of the
well-to-do classes, there are 1,375,000, who own twenty-three
billion, and average of $16,000. Of the middle classes, there
% are 5,500,000, who own eight billion dollars, or an average ofSi4
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
$1,500 each; and of the poor, there are 5,500,000 who own
eight billion, or $150 each. He says that the fortune of the
elder Vanderbilt was estimated at $200,000,000, and that a
laboring man saving $4.00 a day would have to work 160,000
years to earn what Vanderbilt “accumulated” in a short life;
and that if Adam had saved $30,000 a year from the creation
till now he would have to work on 600 years longer to earn
what Mr. Vanderbilt “accumulated” in a few years.
The trusts own very largely the natural sources of wealth;
the coal, iron, timber; they own the machinery by which they
are worked, and own or control the means of transportation,
and have much to do in shaping legislation; they own very
largely the municipal, state and national monopolies; they
capitalize their stocks at two or three times their actual cost,
and make this watered stock pay large dividends. And it all
comes out of the people. Standard Oil Stock that cost $100 per
share is selling at over $500; and that is the way the trusts
are piling up hundreds of millions; forced, practically stolen,
from the people.
It is not against trusts as combinations of capital for large
and new economic forms of industry that complaint should
be made, for these may be higher forms of public good, but
against trusts that create private monopolies that rob the
people. The hard, cold fact is that either the government
must control the trusts, or the trusts will control the govern-
must; the people must own the monopolies, or the monopolies
will own the people.
The one great need of our world is for justice, the justice
of love, equal rights for all. That is the struggle; the battle
of these great years. And be assured of this, that eternal
right, the God of right, is on the side of humanity.
HON. E. R. RIDGLEY.
Every time the sun sets a larger per cent of the country’s
wealth is in the vaults of the corporations and the pockets of
the great capitalists.HON. E. R. RIDGLEY.
515
The larger the ratio of the wealth they own the greater the
proportion of the labor they employ ; and the greater number of
laborers they hire the more votes they will control. These
results are inevitable under existing conditions; we cannot
prevent them by mandates and penalties. A new power exer-
cises the prerogatives of a crowned despot.
It claims the right to amend the Constitution in defense of
its theories of vested rights as it amends corporate by-laws.
It claims the right to expunge the provisions of the Constitu-
tion that deny or dispute its supremacy. It claims the right
to buy whatever may be forced on the market at a price. It
claims the right to own voters for feeding and housing them,
the same as it owns horses.
It not only claims these powers but it exercises them, and
that, too, in defiance of the popular will. A majority in every
existing party realizes the gravity of the situation—the menace
to Republican liberty—and stand ready to rebel against parties
and leaders who have secretly aided, or blindly permitted the
usurping oligarchy to carry on its schemes of spoliation.
Dazed by the stupendous power of the forces operating
against them, and disheartened by being misled and betrayed,
the people on whose virtue and discretion the stability of
government is entirely dependent, know not which way to
turn or where to look for relief from the mailed hand and the
iron heel of their oppressors. Judged by the history of the
past ten years, and with a conception of the skill with which
economical and political projects have been interwoven for
the purpose of deception, and to enable plundering combines
to crown with success the most gigantic schemes of robbery
ever imposed on an intelligent people, they have little con-
fidence that the controlling factors in any political organiza-
tion, who have ignorantly permitted or treacherously connived
in assisting the consummation of these schemes, will ever
advance and support measures to depose the usurping oligar-
chy, or right the wrongs they have done. Nor can the people
look for aid to men who have become great by their success in
winning popular confidence and their skill to betray it.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
516
The laboring masses of the nation are constantly told by the
organs of their oppressors that they are companions of capital
on a voyage of prosperity; but the only prosperity they see is
that of the corporations and capitalists. While it is true there
is less enforced idleness just now than in the recent past it is
also true that the prices of manufactured products have been
advanced from 25 to 200 per cent, but the pay of the help in
the factories has been increased only 10 to 25 per cent. These
facts prove that the increase of wages does not equal the in-
crease in the cost of living, for this reason, there are now more
people living from hand to mouth within our borders than ever
before. The operations of one man have in the -past twelve
months carried 25,000 people from the ranks of the well to do
to be herded with the homeless.
It is impossible for less than one per cent of the people to
gain in wealth in one year twice as much as the whole nation’s
increase in wealth in the same time without drawing on the
savings of those who are the victims of the present vicious
system.
The day foreseen and foretold by our lamented Lincoln, when
corporations would be enthroned, is here. They are enthroned.
They are the crowned usurpers before whom legislatures and
courts bow, the tyrants who give our modern statesmen their
positions, the despots who grant politicians their opportunities.
When we pause to consider that under this system of raising
national revenues by import and internal tax we are taxing
each family $50 annually, regardless of their inability to pay, we
are appalled at the burdens thus imposed on the average
laborer.
But there is a remedy. This national tax, if levied on cor-
porate wealth in proportion to ability to pay, would not be a
direct burden on the back of the struggling citizen, but would
be paid by corporations out of their ill-gotten gains; but in-
stead of this, while escaping their just taxes, these corporate
giants are imposing a burden almost double to that of the
national tax on each family, levying tribute in a thousand
ways made possible by our unjust system of taxation and
corporate privileges.HON. E. R. RIDGLEY.
517
They have the nation by the throat and their hand in our
pockets. Fortified in their position, as they are by the legisla-
tures they buy, and defended, as they are by the courts they
have leased, they have more power than all the Governors
and the President combined.
Should we by the aid of an X-ray, examine the hearts of
the men who control these corporations and have organized
these syndicates; who have drafted these plans and done this
work, we will find engraved thereon, like the motto on a seal,
the brutal and suggestive words of the founder of one of
these great monopolies: “The People Be Damned.”
When the people come to understand the purpose and in-
iquity of their barbarian oppressors—when they realize what
they have already accomplished, and the vast schemes of
plurtder these brigands are now engaged in executing, if they
still are imbued with human impulses, Christian Charity, the
nerve of true American manhood and patriotic purpose, they
will rally to resist this process, to overthrow this system and
depose the crowned usurper under a banner inscribed with
these precepts: “The Syndicates Be Damned.”
"The injunctions that protect them and the marshals zvho
guard them, he damned.’’
“The courts that illegally uphold them, the Congress that
defends them, and the usurper zvho serves them, be damned.”
But the people are almost without a chance to protest or
power to prevent; yet they can reclaim the chance and regain
the power if they so will it.
We meet to consider these alarming facts and conditions
and to suggest and discuss remedies. It is more important
that some potent remedy for this great trust evil be applied at
once than that the best be reached and adopted after long and
fatal delay.
Among the remedies that should enlist your attention is that
in H. R. Bill, No. 5756, of the present Congress. As one of
the signers to the call for this meeting, I earnestly request you
to cons.ider this pending legislation. It is both simple and5i8
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
feasible. Precedent has established its constitutionality. Those
who have carefully examined it concede that it would be im-
mediately and effectively repressive of all trusts. It would
enable private individuals and small corporations to live.
The bill taxes all corporations from one to ten per cent on
capital stock, plus market premium, and outstanding bonds.
To combine they must take out a special license, the tax on
which would be fixed by the aggregate stock and bonds of all
participant corporations.
One critic says the Standard Oil Company would willingly
pay $3,000,000 tax on its $100,000,000 of capital stock to be
allowed to continue its career of plunder.
If this critic’s premises were correct his conclusions would
be conceded; but instead of being taxed three per cent on
$100,000,000, this company would, under the bill, be taxed
ten per cent on $1,040,000,000. The New York World of
January 31, 1900, says this company’s stock was then selling
at $5.20 on the dollar, which stock value would be doubled
by the proposed law, by reason of this company being a mem-
ber of the oil trust, making a tax of $104,000,000 the first year.
A careful reading of the bill will show any interested in-
quirer that no large trust or great corporation could stand its
tax in competition with a small company paying but one or two
per cent tax or an individual who is exempt.
The bill is now in the hands of the House Committee on
Ways and Means. The next step is to get a hearing before
the committee. Favorable action by this convention would
be a great help to such hearing.
I hope the bill may have your support, as I believe it the only
immediately effective and legal way to restrain the robbery
of trusts, while we go on to establish public ownership of all
monopolies as the final and premanent remedy.
MRS. O. W DEAN.
That “the times are out of joint”; that present economic
conditions are unjust; that there exists the greatest inequality
in opportunities and in the distribution of wealth; that todayMRS. 0. W. DEAN.
519
the Scripture is being fulfilled which saith, “To him that hath
shall be given and from him that hath not shall be taken away
even that he hath”—this truth must be admitted by all.
Against these evils men have thus far struggled in vain.
The “crime of 1873” was to be righted, and silver—the money
of the fathers—was to be restored to its rightful place under the
constitution. Where is silver now ?
You cry out against boodle councils for making grants to the
gas and other trusts and end the outcry by electing other boodle
councils. You start a fight for municipal ownership of the
public utilities and end it by allowing the corporations to own
you. Everybody denounces the infamy of the Standard Oil
monopoly, but with each revelation that trust grows in power
and prosperity. One of your political parties in the state of
Ohio declared against trusts and then turned down its own
attorney-general for refusing to accept a $400,000 bribe from
the trust he was prosecuting.
The National Anti-Trust law was passed to punish the trusts
and your president selects the attorney of the trusts as his attor-
ney-general to enforce the law. You inveigh against bribery
and with each succeeding election this crime becomes more
flagrant. You expel a member of congress for polygamy and
then hoist your flag in the Zulu Islands over both polygamy and
slavery.
Not long ago one of your political parties told us that “a
tariff for revenue only” would solve the social problem and the
people voted that party into power, but when installed in office
its immaculate president faced about and declared: “The only
thing in the way of prosperity is the purchasing clause of the
Sherman bill,” and this clause was repealed only to be followed
by the troublesome times of 1893-96.
“Only put the reins of government once more in^rnr hands,”
said the leaders of another great party in 1896, and by means
of the protective tariff bill, we will “open the mills” and
golden streams of prosperity will gladden the sad hearts of the
people; but on its return to power the administration declared
that the one thing needful was “the gold standard” and pro-
ceeded to rivet upon us the golden chains of slavery by a bill520
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
which gives to the bankers a monopoly of the people’s money.
The promised tide of prosperity has come only to the syndi-
cates and trusts, leaving in its wake the wrecked homes and
sinking forms of the struggling masses.
You declared war against Spain, not for “conquest” but for
sweet liberty’s sake, only for us to learn that “criminal aggres-
sion” is “benevolent assimilation” and that a secret understand-
ing between the English monarchy and the American republic
is “destiny” as “manifest” as a holy alliance between God Al-
mighty and the Republican party.
We were solemnly instructed that “plain duty” required us
to give to our starving wards in Porto Rico not only “free
trade” but “free government,” only to find the sacred obliga-
tion broken and to learn that “taxation without representation”
and “carpet-bag government” are the greatest blessings of civil
liberty.
Your congress proclaimed that “Cuba is and of right ought
to be free,” and with a moral obligation resting upon you
equally binding as to the Philippines, you bought eight millions
of Filipinos at $2 a head and “protected” them by shooting
them down with gatling guns and “Christianized” them with
fire and sword.
Why such glaring inconsistency ? What is the trouble ? Why
don’t the reforms reform ? Why is it that in spite of organiza-
tion upon organization, contest after contest and one campaign
of education after another, we still go from bad to worse?
What is the matter with the men of our nation ?
This gathering means that in your opinion the trusts are to
blame, and those which seem to have monopolized public atten-
tion are the industrial trusts and the money trust, the latter of
which has been demonstrated to be the Mother of trusts.
Why so «ilent on the Father of trusts, the trust which ex-
cludes woman from her prerogatives as lawmaker, which de-
crees that man shall do all the lawmaking—a trust which man
established and which you gentlemen perpetuate—a trust which
usurps all the political functions, appropriates to itself the right
to make all the laws, and monopolizes the very fountains of
justice.'MRS. O. W. DEAN.	521
This Father trust is the oldest of all the trusts. How do you
justify it?
It cannot be justified.
What is the vital principle of our social organism?
You profess to believe that governments are just only as they
derive their powers from the consent of the governed.
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed this law of right
and it became the cornerstone of the Temple of Liberty which
our fathers built. The wisdom which gave us our free institu-
tions recognized that Liberty could not be where Equality was^
not, and so it was declared that all are born not only “free” but
“equal,” that is, with equal rights. This rule of right, as you
know, was made paramount in the great charter of American
freedom.
Have you lived up to it ? Can you profess to live up to it so
long as you claim for yourself that which you are unwilling to
accord to others ?
It will not be denied that woman has an equal claim with men
to the rights of life, liberty and happiness; yet she has no voice
in making the laws upon which these rights depend. She is
governed without her consent. She is taxed without repre-
sentation.
It is claimed that “woman is queen of the home and that is
her realm.”
But the laws which you men have made are fast making us
homeless. We are forced to go into the counting-houses, fac-
tories and shops to earn our living like men. This is the condi-
tion that your legislation has brought about.
If you say that an equal voice in public affairs has never been
accorded her, my answer is, that this only proves how old your
trust is. I make further answer. Nations have ever been
tyrannical and most of them that have lived are now dead and
those that are not are in a state of decay—all because of the lack
of justice.
Our republic alone of all nations declared for justice to “all”
in its organic law and made this declaration the law of its
being.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
522
If you violate the laws of your own being, you may not hope
to prosper. So long as you do injustice to any how can you
demand justice for yourselves.
Something has ever been wanting, something is still want-
ing, to give the elements of strength and durability to man-
made institutions; that something is the law of justice prop-
erly applied.
Such application requires that if woman is to be bound by the
laws enacted, she shall have an equal voice in their enactment.
It does not necessarily follow that with such voice the prob-
lem will be wholly solved. What I say is, it is not to be ex-
pected that it can be solved without it.
Nor can it be fairly asserted, on the other hand, that this act
of justice will not supply the one thing needful. It has never
been tried and in the absence of trial such predicate is, to say the
least, premature.
When woman is brought into the sanctuary of the lawmak-
ers, there will come with her the soul of woman—there will
come the tenderness and compassion of the mother-principle to
make your laws more Christ-like, consequently more just, and
your government more abiding.
This may indeed be the leaven that is wanting.
When you tell me of anything good where the mother-prin-
ciple is not, it will be time enough for you to hesitate to intro-
duce it into your system of government.
The fact that the quality which justice demands is denied
her, however, does not signify that woman should falter in her
duty to try and secure for all as much justice as is possible.
She should still do the best she can under her environment to
undo the wrongs which men are doing to themselves as well as
to her.
The trusts are an immediate menace to our civilization. All
the avenues of earning a livelihood are being monopolized by
them. Our sons have to face a wall of monopoly and our girls
are forced to enter into fierce competition with our boys for the
places the trusts have to give. Marriages are becoming less
frequent and every day it is growing harder for husband and
father to support their families.MRS. O. W. DEAN.
523
The women must unite their efforts, as best they can, with
those of the stronger sex in the supreme effort to save the re-
public and so preserve equal right for the men, if not for them-
selves.
How can she do this? She can familiarize herself with the
laws of the country, make a study of social problems and learn
the cause and cure for the public ills and so fit herself to con-
verse with father, brother and husband and to teach her boys
the duties and responsibilities of citizenship.
She can make her political influence felt at home, in the
school-room, with her church people, in her clubs and in society.
She can organize campaign clubs and co-operate with pa-
triotic men in every good word and work touching political
matters.
Realizing that this is her country as well as man’s; that the
Stars and Stripes are hers, too, she can use her best efforts to
maintain the principle for which that flag should stand and to
reclaim her country from the despotic power and greed of gold,
and make it once more
“The land of the free
And the home of the brave.”
When men shall be quickened in their zeal and women in
their enthusiasm by the inspiration born of a common purpose
as co-workers for the good of all, they will realize the ideal of
the Christ-Kingdom and will move forward together with irre-
sistible force to better government, higher civilization and
purer love.
Let it ever be remembered that reform movements, however
meritorious, will not triumph unless the great heart of woman
is behind them.
When this truth is realized, and not until then, may we hope
for deliverance from private monopoly and its attendant evils,
which today are the greatest curse of civil government.
Noble manhood aided by the unerring instinct of pure
womanhood will not only find the remedy for this curse, but
through such union the remedy will be successfully applied in
spite of all opposition springing from selfish interests.5^4
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Gentlemen of the Anti-Trust Conference: I give you a sen-
timent as the sign under which your National League may con-
quer—“Equal and exact justice to all."
H. L. BLISS.
In view of the announcement that the Commissioner of Labor
has instituted an investigation of trusts, the character of our
official statistics and statisticians becomes of special interest to
opponents of these organizations.
In no other country has there been so lavish an expenditure
of public treasure in the collection and compilation of statistics
as in the United States, and in no other country, probably, has
there been collected so comparatively few statistics that can
serve any legitimate purpose or so many that so fully justify
the facetious remark attributed to the astute statesman, Lord
Beaconsfield, that there are three kinds of lies, “lies, d—d lies
and statistics.”
Public confidence in these statistics is encouraged not only
by those whose means of livelihood is the collection and com-
pilation of statistics, but by the beneficiaries of the injustice
of existing social and economic conditions.
Opposed to any change, this influential class would leave the
solution of all economic questions to the statistical expert for it
understands better than does the general public how easy it is
to hide the truth under a statistical table, and that officials of
statistical bureaus may be safely depended upon to hide any
facts the knowledge of which might prove detrimental to the
selfish interests of those on whose good will their tenure of
office depends. With the ostensible purpose of discovering
their effect upon the condition of labor the Commissioner of
Labor, as has been announced, proposes to investigate one hun-
dred and fifty trusts, ascertaining prices and wages before and
after going into combination. As at first announced, this re-
port was to appear about the first of January, but from a letter
just received from the Commissioner of Labor by the secre-
tary of the Anti-Trust organization it appears that the investi-H. L. BLISS.
525
gation will not be completed and the report published for sev-
eral months. Thus there is to be sprung upon the public in the
heat of the coming campaign a report which many unacquainted
with the methods and purposes of the officials in charge of the
national figure factory may accept as conclusively settling the
question.
That Colonel Wright, who has instituted this investigation,
will endeavor to demonstrate the beneficence of trusts, that they
are the natural evolution of improved methods of production
rather than unjust laws, may be safely assumed from the fact
that any other conclusion would be a direct controversion of
the statements and conclusions of his recent as well as earlier
contributions to economic literature.
As there is likely to be but little opportunity for an investiga-
tion and controversion of the report after its publication and be-
fore the presidential election, it is a matter of importance to
warn the public in advance by exposing the character and
methods of the official responsible for the report. Having as-
sumed the roll of Sir Oracle and undertaken to statistically and
“conclusively” dispose of nearly every social and economic
question the Commissioner of Labor becomes himself a proper
subject for investigation. As he has ample opportunity to de-
fend himself against any unjust criticism this official cannot
complain if such an investigation proves disastrous to his repu-
tation either for ability or honesty. As Col. Wright proposes
to investigate trusts, let us investigate Col. Wright and discover
whether he is a reliable authority or whether while masquerad-
ing as the representative of labor he is in fact a special pleader
for the interests of the privileged classes, which by the organi-
zation of trusts seek the practical enslavement of labor. Col.
Wright’s statistical vagaries and falsifications I have consid-
ered in contributions to the Journal of Political Economy and
American Journal of Sociology. My articles in the latter
journal, four in number, entitled, “Eccentric Official Statis-
tics,” were called forth by an extended contribution to that
journal by the Commissioner of Labor, in which he highly com-
mended the statistical publications of the United States gov-
ernment, giving no hint of their grossly misleading character.526
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
To these criticisms of official statistics and his use of the
same which have received the commendation of eminent
economists, Col. Wright has attempted no reply, but manifests
his deliberate purpose to mislead the public by repeating the
errors to which attention has been called. This he does in his
work just published, “Outlines of Practical Sociology.” This
work we find caustically reviewed in the July number of the
American Journal of Sociology by the editor, Prof. Albion W.
Small, head of the Department of Sociology of the University
of Chicago.
In this review Prof. Small, besides criticising Col. Wright’s
sociological ideas, mercilessly scores his statistical methods,
showing not only that he quotes statistics partially ignoring
those which tell against his conclusions, but that he misquotes
and falsifies them.
This will doubtless be surprising to many who have been lead
to accept Col. Wright as an unquestionable authority. One of
this class, Secretary Gage, in an address at Peoria, 111., quotes
Col. Wright’s article in the Atlantic Monthly, “Are the rich
growing richer and the poor poorer,” as showing the error of
the popular opinion now prevalent, which he admitted many
things open to common observation seem to justify.
That statistics are at variance with observation is also ad-
mitted by Col. Wright in “Self Culture” and also in the
“Forum,” in which he declares “The statistical method of
study, which is the historical and comparative method in the
highest sense, enables us to arrive at some conclusions directly
opposed to observation, one is the empirical, the other the
scientific method.”
It would seem that statistics which are truly scientific must
agree with intelligent observation, and when we come to inves-
tigate these statistics, relied upon to disprove observation, we
find the only science appertaining to them is the science of the
statistical juggler.
Replying under date of May 3, 1894, to a letter in which I
had called his attention to the manner in which the public was
being misled by statistics presented in bulletins of the last
census, Col. Wright said, “You are aware, of course, that allH. L. BLISS.
527
the tabulation of the eleventh census was practically completed
before I took charge of it. If there are glaring errors in it I
am unable to help it because I could not retake the census. My
duty is simply to bring out the results in as creditable a way as
possible. I am in no way responsible for the plans of the cen-
sus or the collection of statistics.”
In another letter Col. Wright disclaims responsibility for
the conclusions of the Aldrich report—stating that he was
responsible only for the collection of the data, the summary or
conclusions being the work of the statisticians of the senate
committee. While Col. Wright may not be altogether re-
sponsible for errors of the census or Aldrich reports he cannot
thus escape responsibility for having popularized these errors
and for his errors of interpretation in comparison with which
the errors of the reports themselves are trivial.
While thus disclaiming responsibility we find Col. Wright
in the article referred to by Secretary Gage, a most plausible
and deceptive defense of existing conditions, quoting these
reports as showing conclusively that “the ordinary man is bet-
ter off than at any other period of our history.” “Fortunately
(he declares) there are facts at hand which can be used in this
examination and statements that cannot be controverted.”
For a controversion of Col. Wright’s statements and alleged
facts we need go no farther than a presentation of statistics of
the Aldrich report, which for obvious reasons he omits to
quote.
While presenting census wage statistics for each decade from
1850 to 1890, which seem to support his theory of a steady and
progressive increase in wages as the result of the evolution of
an improved industrial system, Col. Wright quotes the Aldrich
report for the earlier and later periods only. This is an evasion
of the issue, for there has been no complaint that there has been
no improvement in conditions since 1840 or 1850, but that in
recent years with the growth of monopoly the rich are growing
richer and the poor poorer, and that notwithstanding the in-
creased productivity of labor wages have not increased, but
actually decreased.528
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
Col. Wright’s neglect to fully quote the Aldrich report is
noticeable in his work just published, “Outlines of Practical
Sociology.”
By this method he avoids showing that during the period in
which, according to the census, there was an enormous increase
in wages, according to the Aldrich report there was practically
no increase and that during the period in which, according to
the Aldrich report the only considerable increase of wages
occurred, according to the census the increase was insignificant.
Thus by omitting to quote the Aldrich report for 1870, 1872 or
1873, Col. Wright successfully performs the scientific and
perilous acrobatic feat of riding at the same time two statis-
tical horses going in opposite directions. According to the
Aldrich report the increase of wages from 1850 to 1872
amounted to over 64 per cent, while from 1873 to 1891 the
increase was but 7 per cent, and even this insignificant appar-
ent increase during the period in which, because of improved
methods of production, we should expect the greatest increase,
we find to be fictitious and due to fallacious methods of analysis
adopted for the evident purpose of concealing an actual de-
crease. It may be remembered that this report was that of a
committee, the majority of which was desirous of demonstrating
that the result of the protective policy of their party was to
raise wages.
The method adopted by the statistician to whom the work
was entrusted shows that he understood what was desired" and
expected.
The Aldrich report, which has been widely accepted because
of its endorsement by Col. Wright, has been severely criticized
by those of recognized standing as economists, and instead of
attempting an extended analysis, for which I have not the time,
or asking you to accept my statement, I shall briefly quote from
an article by Prof. Chas. J. Bullock in the quarterly publication
of the American Statistical Association of March, 1899. Prof.
Bullock is the author of an elementary work on Political Econ-
omy used as a text book in many of our schools. That my
quotation may be better understood I may explain that the
method of analyzing or summarizing the data of the AldrichP. E. McDonnell
Bruce A. Campbell.
John J. Lentz.
Thomas Elmer Will.
George H. Shibley.H. L. BUSS.
529
report, which consists of quotations from the payrolls of estab-
lishments in the various industries investigated, was to classify
the employes of each establishment and taking the wages of
i860 as 100, compute for each class the ratio of increase in the
average wages for the different years. The average of these
ratios is taken as the average wages of the establishment, and
the average of the establishments as the average of the indus-
try. From the averages thus obtained is computed the general
average for all industries. Foremen and overseers of depart-
ments are each put in a separate class and the ratio of increase
of their wages given equal weight with that of classes em-
bracing large numbers.
Thus the increased pay of a foreman, which does not indicate
that he is getting better pay for the same work but better pay
for a more responsible position requiring greater skill and
efficiency, is made to exaggerate the increase or hide the de-
crease in the wages of the other employes.
Among other things Prof. Bullock remarks, “In one instance
a single brewer, who received $6.39 per day in i860 and $23.96
in 1891, is given as much importance as 7 coopers in the
next series, or 5 foremen laborers in the third series, or 41
common laborers in the fourth series, or 10 teamsters in the
last series. Since these quotations were all secured in the same
establishment, each series was given equal weight in determin-
ing the weighted average for all industries. It will be worth
while to take another example in which the series selected for
our study are drawn from different industries. This typical
brewer, who received over $6,000 per year, and was certainly
worth that amount as a subject of statistical investigation,
counted for as much in determining the simple average as 133
laborers who were included in a single series in establishment
48. The brewers’ wages increased 275 per cent between i860
and 1891. The wages of the 133 laborers increased 29.5 per
cent. The report has adopted a method of averaging that gives
equal weight to each of these series, and figures out a simple
average increase of 152.25 per cent for the 134 workmen. In
computing the weighted average for all industries the report
makes a bad matter worse. The industry in which the brewer530
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
was employed is given a weight of 16, while that in which the
133 laborers were engaged recieves a weight of 5. Such a
method of weighing made the brewer simply invaluable for
statistical purposes.
This is, of course, an extreme instance; but there are others
that are nearly as bad. Prof. Bullock remarks also, “Finally,
the methods employed in determining the average wage for
all industries weighted the quotations in an erroneous manner;
and the result of the errors was always the same, viz., to exag-
gerate the rate of increase between i860 and 1891. While a
study of the actual quotations will convince the reader that
there has been a very material increase of wages in these seven-
ty-five establishments since i860, it is impossible to accept the
computation of the report concerning the rate of increase.”
Yet, notwithstanding that the fallacious character of these con-
clusions has been pointed out and fully demonstrated, Col.
Wright quotes them as “facts and statements that cannot be
controverted.”	^
By the method shown the statistician succeeded in concealing
a decrease in wages (gold value from 1873 to 1891 of 20 per
cent), making instead according to his simple average an in-
crease of 7 per cent, and according to his weighted average
an increase of percentage.
For analysis of the data of the Aldrich report see “Present
Concentration of Wealth in the United States,” by Prof. Chas.
B. Spah.
Thus the statistics of the census are controverted by the
data of the Aldrich report even though "we accept the fallacious
summary of the statistician of the senate committee.
The worthlessness of census wage statistics have not only
been demonstrated in my contributions to economic journals,
but more recently by eminent members of the American Eco-
nomic Association in a discussion of the census published as
No. 2 new series of the publications of the association (March,
1899). Mr. C. D. N. North, who has recently resigned from
the Industrial Commission to take charge of the manufacturing
statistics of the next census, contributes a paper to this dis-
cussion, in which he criticises census statistics of manufactures.H. L. BUSS.
531
Regarding the increase of wages indicated by a comparison
of the censuses of 1889 and 1890, Mr. North declares: “The
one thing we do know without the aid of official statistics is
that no such increase of average earnings occurred between
the decades. Hence we know that notwithstanding the popu-
lar belief that figures do not lie, one or both of these averages
is wrong.”
Mr. North also declares a criticism first made in my contribu-
tion to the Journal of Political Economy, December, 1894, one
of the severest criticisms of the eleventh census. “That criti-
cism (he says) rests upon the fact that the census schedule
called for the average, number of employes and the total amount
paid as wages and secured its average wage by dividing the
one into the'other. That the result was not a perfect average
is apparent, for the sum total of wages paid was not paid to the
average number employed, but to all employed throughout the
year.”
Prof. Chas. J. Bullock, who contributed to this discussion a
paper on census wage statistics, says:	“The returns of the
last two censuses are wholly incomparable for the following
reasons: 1. Because the census of 1890 was far more complete
in the cities than that of 1880. 2. Because in 1890 the total
wages was divided by a smaller number of employes than would
have been the case if the methods of 1880 had been fol-
lowed.”
Prof. Bullock, quoting the Massachusetts census, remarks:
“We have seen that the Massachusetts census, using as a
divisor the total number of hands employed during the year,
computed an average of $351.02 for the year 1885. It has also
been shown that for 1886; when the publication of the annual
reports on manufactures was begun, the average number of
employes was taken as a divisor and the average wage was
thereby increased to $395.89. Precisely the same thing occurred
in the federal statistics when the eleventh census ascertained the
average number of employes and used that as the divisor.”
In his Atlantic Monthly article and also in “Outlines of Prac-
tical Sociology,” Col. Wright cites the Massachusetts censusS32
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
as corroborating the United States census. As Col. Wright
was himself in charge of the Massachusetts census in 1875 and
1885, it is not possible to suppose him ignorant of the fact that
the apparent increase indicated by a comparison of average
annual earnings as reported in the earlier and later Massachu-
setts censuses is entirely fictitious. Instead of an increase a
decided decrease is shown, for following the method of the
earlier censuses, that is, dividing the total wages paid by the
entire number of employes, we find the average annual earn-
ings in 1895 to have been $371.08, a decrease from the aver-
age earnings obtained by the same method in 1875 ($392.88)
of over $21. Thus average earnings in 1895 were considerably
lower than during the depressed period following the panic of
1873. We find also according to the Massachusetts reports
that average earnings in 1895 were by the later method of com-
putation slightly lower in 1898 than in 1895. These statistics
we find substantially corroborated for recent years by statistics
of the manufacturing industries of Pennsylvania as presented
by the secretary of internal affairs of that state. According to
these statistics, which were obtained from 358 identical estab-
lishments representing 47 industries, though average annual
earnings were $9.01 greater in 1898 there was an increase of
ten days in the average working time and average per diem
wages were two cents less in 1898 than in 1895. Thus the
much boasted increased prosperity of recent years has not been
that of the wage earner. Because of limitation of space I am
unable in this paper to fully present these statistics, which are
certainly more worthy of credence than any we may expect in
the forthcoming report of the Commissioner of Labor, nor am
I able to call further attention to the numerous falsifications by
which that official has sought to mislead the public.
This I expect to do before the close of the coming campaign
and shall have accomplished the purpose of this paper if I but
succeed in warning the public against deception by Col.
Wright’s forthcoming report on trusts.PATRICK ENEAS M’ DON NELL,
533
PATRICK ENEAS M’DONNELL.
I propose in the time allotted me, before this enlightened
audience today, to show a six-hour wage day and minimum
wage by federal law to be the best neutralizer of trusts and pro-
moter of prosperity of any that has yet been suggested.
We are living in a land of wealth and poverty—of progress
and retrogression—of strikes and dissensions—of slavery and
starvation; where product is abundant—yet millions are lack-
ing a sufficiency.
What a wonderful land! What a wonderful people! Free—
yet slaves,—plenty—yet starving,—progressive—yet retrograd-
ing,—productive—yet idle.
We have the most progressive and enlightened means of
producing wealth and plenty of any nation on earth. Yet
strikes, dissensions, starvation and slavery (for lack of a
proper method of an equitable distribution) are the rule. This,
too, for the reason of our not making laws to bring about this
proper distribution.
Plenty can be produced to supply all the people with abun-
dance ; yet nine-tenths of all the people lack of the fullness of
the land, while one-half of all are living on one-half a sufficiency
and at least one-tenth of all are starving; yet twenty per cent
of all the products of our land are going to loss for reason of
no market, with nine-tenths of the people lacking the means to
purchase a sufficiency.
How are we going to get this means of equitable distribu-
tion? Invent it. Invent it just as we would a labor-saving
machine. Invent it just as we did the machine that brought
about the very conditions we speak of.
Therefore are we here to offer our suggestions toward the
accomplishment of some system—some measure to be promoted
—and receive sufficient sanction to become a law that may re-
lieve this want.
And should such a law succeed in accomplishing the proper
distribution of employment, the proper opportunity to the
masses, it will most certainly be as good a neutralizer of the
baneful effects of the trusts as we can possibly expect.534
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
I will not attempt at present to discuss the benefits brought
about by the centralization of great wealth—the enterprizeS
advanced—the cheapening of products and the bringing into
existence many commodities we could not afford if dependent
upon small means. In a word, we can say that the centraliza-
tion of wealth has elevated us from the lowly cot of the peasant
to palatial residences as compared with those of even fifty years
ago. However, this centralization of wealth has gone beyond
being entirely for our benefit, but it is not because of the cen-
tralization but because we need legislation that will give the
masses more benefit from this centralization—thereby leading
capital on to the promotion of good instead of driving it on to
the detriment of humanity.
Therefore, my idea of regulating the trusts and of bringing
about prosperity to the people is to bring into existence a fed-
eral law by which the masses of wage earners may legally
reach all the requirements they may be able to reasonably con-
sume.
This can be done by legislating a unit of labor and a minimum
wage. The producing means of today are so progressively
automatic as to curtail to a high degree the employment of
wage workers. And it is this lack of employment that reduces
the means of reaching the commodities and curtails consump-
tion, thereby lowering the markets and the necessity of produc-
tion, so that our manufacturers suffer proportionately with our
wage earners.
As a better distribution of employment would tend to dis-
tribute the products to a greater extent and increase the con-
sumption, thus causing a greater necessity for production,
which would help the manufacturers as well as the wage work-
ers, I believe the shortening of the wage day to such an extent
by federal law that the owners of the producing means could not
afford for the reason of the necessity for the product to suspend
the same at the end thereof, but would have to continue for the
length of another wage day at least on each given date, and for
reason of the law—with another crew of operators, would bring
about this distribution of employment and the means of reach-
ing the products.PATRICK ENEAS M’DON NELL.
535
My idea is, that for the present six hours comes nearest for
such a day, as I believe the producing means would suspend at
the end of a longer day, as it does now at the end of eight, and
therefore would not accomplish the desired result.
And as a means of distributing the product the same legisla-
tion should establish a minimum wage, which should be deter-
mined from the price of commodities and having in view a suf-
ficiency of same to support a designated size of family for
twenty-four hours—the same to be computed by state officers
elected for that purpose, thus constituting a unit of labor, while
the ability of the artisan would be free to command the respect
and the wage above the minimum due to it.
The operation of such a law would mean no need of internal
unions, strikes or arbitration, but the one great union of all in
these United States and the proper adjustment of an equitable
distribution to each one of the whole.
It would mean plenty of employment and plenty of money
for it, not only for the wage earners, but for he who is toiling
for himself—for the employer as well as for the employe.
To my mind it would mean no poverty except in case of
physical debility, and no lack of happiness where a sufficiency
of the necessaries and even luxuries for the welfare of the fam-
ily were at hand to allay such cravings.
Not only this, but our young men of today, whom we may
reckon by the thousands—aye, by the millions—who have little
or no hope of earning a sufficiency to have a home and family
of their own, would be imbued with hope and courage and am-
bition. There is no ambition without hope. At present they
lack the incentive of hope, and having no ambition they drift
downward instead of onward and upward. And, as to the
young women who should be to them the loving wives and the
mothers of their beautiful children, well—the best we can say
is that they have to work for a living in some department store
or they are taking care of some producing machine that throws
the young men who should be their husbands out of employ-
ment—thus incapacitating them from being such. So, too,
their ambitions and hopes are shattered. And as hope andANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE:
536
ambition are the parents of happiness, we lack the latter where
the former is devoid.
Our nation is fast getting to be a nation of unmarried people.
Thus a nation of people without homes—a nation of tenants.
Such is not a nation of strength. In such a nation the rich are
weak, for the strength and security of a nation lies in the num-
ber of its homes. I believe the rich people of this country
would willingly adopt a system that to their minds would cause
a proper distribution of the vast accumulations of the producing
forces of our land.
This system I propose would not make the rich poor to make
the poor rich! It would simply make everyone richer, so that
the least of us might have a sufficiency, while those of ability
would have all the luxuries that the country can produce.
It is not necessary that many people should starve to have
others wallow in riches. All may have plenty, while some may
have a surfeit. There is no reason why we cannot produce
even a surfeit for all with the resources at hand. We can cer-
tainly produce a sufficiency for all, and with very little exertion.
A means of distribution is all that is necessary, and this means
I speak of would leave to us the competing for superiority
thought by many and by your humble servant so necessary for
the welfare of humanity.
We could all be rich!
Those who are rich now would get to be worth twice as much
in a short time under the system I propose, and yet you can
see clearly that those who are starving now would get to be
well off for the reason of being able to obtain a sufficiency. We
would simply produce more wealth and distribute it more
equitably.
The possible production of wealth is limited only by con-
sumption. Therefore, as we tend to increase the amount of
consumption we also tend to urge the necessity of production.
Consumption only gives the value to commodities. Commodi-
ties then are wealth only as they are consumed (marketed).
All wealth is artificial production. All natural productions get
their value by artificial means. Artificial production then is the
source of wealth. If, then, this is the case, and we, having thePATRICK ENEAS M’ DON NELL.
53 7
means in hand to produce ten times the amount of commodi-
ties that we do, there is nothing to hinder us from bringing
into existence ten times the amount of wealth that we do at
present, but a system to consume it.
We have people enough to consume even twenty times as
much as at present could they but reach their requirements.
Let us find some efficient means of distribution and we would
not only make the rich richer, but the poor well off.
With the means at hand we might have a Klondike right at
home could we but get our product consumed. If the wage
earners—the bulk of the producing class and nine-tenths of the
whole population—would receive sufficient purchasing power
to enable them to obtain such a proportion of the total product
offered in the market as they could possibly consume, it would
enhance the necessity of production to just that degree and mul-
tiply the amount of wealth to that extent, and this would tend
to make everything connected with our system move at a rapid
pace around the circle of our business methods without injur-
ing anyone, but, instead, benefiting the whole.
As a means of carrying out such a proposition as I have here
briefly outlined, I would suggest such an act as would, I believe,
provide for the fulfillment of same, leaving its enlargement and
method of enforcement to a wise and enlightened congress.
This measure might be entitled “A Bill for an Act to Pro-
vide for a Greater Distribution of Employment,” by making the
wage day six hours on each given date and to provide for the
establishment of a minimum wage for the same, sufficient to
support a family of eight for twenty-four hours. The pro-
visions of such a bill may be briefly outlined as follows:
Section i. Provides that on and after January i, 19—, it
shall be unlawful for any person who may hold his or her serv-
ices for hire in such a way as to be deemed a wage worker, ex-
cept as hereinafter exempted, to give their services to any em-
ployer or employers for more than six hours on any given date;
violations to be punished by imprisonment for a period of not
less than seven nor more than thirty days.
Sec. 2. Provides that it shall be unlawful for any employer
to allow any employe, except as hereinafter exempted, to give538
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
his or her services for a longer period than six hours on any
date, punishments for violations to be a fine of not less than $10
nor more than $100, or imprisonment for not less than seven
nor more than thirty days. Or both fine and imprisonment at
the discretion of the court.
Sec. 3. Defines wage workers as including all persons who
may sell their services for hire, either by piece work, by the
hour, by the day, by the month or by the year. Provided, that
those doing their own work, domestics, farmers’ help, trainmen
making runs longer than six hours for the round trip, sailors,
soldiers, solicitors, officers, professionals, superintendents and
those having the care of establishments and enterprises requir-
ing a continual application of thought for the prosecution of
same shall be exempt from the provisions of this act.
Secs. 4 and 5. Provide that it shall be unlawful for any
wage earner or employer of labor to take or give ffi' six hours
services a sum lower than that designated by a boai~|[ of wage
commissioners of the state wherein such services shall be ren-
dered, and also providing for punishment of violations thereof.
Sec. 6. Provides for the election in each state of three com-
missioners who shall be designated as “Wage Commissioners.”
Their terms of office to be for two years.
Sec. 7. Provides for the filling of vacancies in the Board by
appointment by the Governor of the State wherein such vacan-
cies may occur.
Sec. 8. Provides for the collection of statistics regarding the
prices of commodities and determining therefrom the least
wage that can be taken by a wage earner or given by an em-
ployer—the same to be published semi-annually in the public
press.
Sec. p. Provides that the compensation per day of a wage
commissioner shall be five times the amount as computed to be
the lowest wage per day of a wage earner by the Board of Wage
Commissioners of which such commissioner is a member; pro-
vided, however, that such compensation shall not exceed that
of a member of the lower house of Congress.
Sec. 10. Provides for the election in each state in the Union
of a State Commissioner of Health, who shall be a duly quali-PATRICK ENEAS M’DON NELL.
539
fied and licensed physician in the state in which he is elected and
he shall hold his office for a period of two years and also fixes
his compensation and under the same system as that of the
Wage Commissioners.
Sec. ii. Provides that such State Health Commissioner shall
determine and list the quantity and kind of necessary and suf-
ficient requirements for a family of eight persons for one day
of twenty-four hours, and furnish a schedule of same semi-an-
nually to the State Board of Waga Commissioners. The vari-
ous State Health Commissioners shall hold a National Conven-
tion or conference once each year to compare and revise such
statistics relating to schedules of commodities, etc., etc. The
Wage Commissioners of the various states shall also hold a
National Conference once a year to compare methods of com-
puting and arriving at the minimum wage, etc.
This measure should be accompanied by a tariff schedule
framed to prohibit the importation of any commodity whidi can
be produced in abundance in this country, and it should be so
constructed as to admit freely all things we are not able to
produce.
This country should not be able to compete in a foreign mar-
ket and should be able to sell in a foreign market only that com-
modity which such market is not able to produce.
However, under such a wage law as I have suggested, our
home-market would be increased tenfold what it is at present, so
that the manufacturer would be kept busy supplying the home
demand, and consequently would care but little about the for-
eign market except when there would be no competition.
It would seem to me that it would require very little thought
on the part of the average citizen that such a system would be
of great benefit to him, and in my mind there is no doubt but
that the average manufacturer can see that under a system of
universal high wage, nine-tenths of our population would be
able to purchase and consume ten times as much as they do at
present, and that the manufacturer would, in fact, be the greater
gainer by the system. Moreover, he would be put on an even
plane with every other kind of manufacturer, as regards wages.
Such a measure would neutralize trusts to that extent, they54°
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
could exist only where they would promote good. And yet it
is easy to see that on account of the multiplied markets this
system would promote centralization of capital. It is not cap-
ital unions (trusts) or labor unions (trusts) we require, but
union of capital and union of labor that is necessary to advance
good and great enterprises, and these latter only could exist
under such a law.
It is generally conceded by intelligent men that our present
system of labor and wage is not what it ought to be, and that
uniform and permanent prosperity cannot come until the toiling
masses are enabled by an opportunity to reach such commodi-
ties as they are able to consume. This in fact would be the
foundation of universal prosperity. For it is an industrial
axiom that when the masses can consume, the farmer and the
manufacturer can produce. A stream cannot rise higher than
its source. If a laborer cannot buy bread there is nothing for
the miller who grinds the flour—there is nothing for the farmer
who grows the wheat. Give every toiler work and every wheel
and every plow will be set in motion.
As to the constitutionality of such a law, I will quote the first
voice of the Declaration of Independence:	“We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap-
piness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed ; that whenever any form of government becomes de-
structive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter .
.	. its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their safety and happiness.”
We have not equal rights nor equal opportunities when one
wage worker will be allowed to operate a producing machine
for ten or twelve hours on each given date, producing in that
time a sufficiency for a dozen persons for the twenty-four hours
to the detriment of the other eleven who are thrown out of em-
ployment and the means to legally reach the commodity that
has thus been produced, and with a machine that has come into
existence since the Declaration of Independence and the sign-PATRICK ENEAS M’ DON NELL.
541
ing of the Constitution. Therefore our system has changed
from the rights that that Declaration has given us and the first
section of the first article of the Constitution gives us the right
to remedy, which is, “All legislative powers herein granted shall
be vested in a Congress of the United States.” Any measure
that the people may desire and will prove to the Congress by
their vote, or other sufficient demonstration, the Congress will
naturally enact into a law.
A little thought will convince the thinking mind of the great
amount of legislation such a federal law would abolish or make
unnecessary.
I will mention but a few instances now. First, that of immi-
gration—for the reason that labor could not be imported under
contract to work cheap, as a contract to do anything against the
law of the land is an unlawful contract and therefore void.
This I think will answer those who hold that such a law as I
here propose is unconstitutional “for the reason that it abro-
gates the right of contract.”
Again, such a federal law would make unnecessary any law
on labor arbitration, on child labor, sweatshops and factory acts,
truck system legislation, department store legislation, and a
host of other acts and ordinances too numerous to mention here
now, but which the thinking mind will readily perceive.
I am heartily in favor of government ownership as fast as we
can bring it about. But, as soon as the government commences
to run some of the great producing machines, the wage workers
cannot get the proper benefit unless the wage day is shortened
to the extent that there will be at least two wage days on each
given date for the operation of such machines; and if this is
brought about without covering all operations where held by
private ownership, as well as government ownership, it will
work a hardship with one or the other.
Therefore, we need to shorten the wage day first and put all
private ownership and government ownership on the same
plane in this respect, and then the wage earners would not be
seeking as a sinecure government employment as they do at
present.54-
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
I will quote from the Chicago platform of 1896: “We hold
that the most efficient way of protecting American labor is to
prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete
with it in the home market, and as labor creates the wealth of
the country zve demand the passage of such law as may be
necessary to protect it in all its rights." If the last is truth-
fully meant then-I will say, coming from the ranks of labor, I
hold I have heard no better suggestion than this Six Hour
Federal Law that would give to labor the opportunities it de-
sires, or that would widen the scope of opportunities for capital
of all degrees.
Inasmuch as the wage earners would prosper, so would all
classes of business men prosper. Therefore do I believe that
all thinking men will agree that legislation of this nature is of
paramount necessity and that such legislation would undoubt-
edly neutralize the baneful effects of the trusts to a greater ex-
tent than any yet suggested. As, how could trusts effect the
wage worker if he be assured the opportunity of continual
employment on every date and a sufficiency therefor to reach
all the requirements he can reasonably consume.
Or, how could they trouble the small manufacturer if he can
find a ready market for all he can produce at a fair margin, for
his richer neighbor cannot hire help cheaper than he.
Let us devise and bring into existence some law that will
multiply the opportunities for employment now curtailed by the
progressive producing means of the time and we will make
this country what it is designed to be, but is not.
Let any of the great parties put such a plank in their plat-
form—a plank which would give employment and plenty to
millions of idle and hungry wage earners and the success of
that party would be assured; and should the provisions be car-
ried out honestly, then true prosperity would come and come to
stay. And that party would be lifted on the crest of a popular
political wave to the highest pinnacle within the reach of the
emancipated toilers of America.COTTER T. BRIDE.
543
COTTER T. BRIDE.
A new condition has come upon the country within the last
few years, which, when fully consummated, will utterly de-
stroy the independence of the laborers and toilers of our coun-
try, and in a comparatively short time reduce those who at
the present time consider themselves in comfortable circum-
stances or even as capitalists to the ranks of an ever increasing
army of dependent laborers.
Today when those of moderate means seek a legitimate in-
vestment in property or the erection of buildings that will add
to the convenience of general society, and which under the con-
ditions that formerly existed, would greatly benefit the invest-
ors they meet the changed conditions and are at first puzzled
for an explanation. When they consult the bricklayer, the
painter or the carpenter and ask for an estimate upon a job
they are astonished to find the figures at least thirty per cent
higher than those of three years ago.
In starting to investigate the cause of the change the first
question that naturally suggests itself is, have the wages of
laborers and artisans so advanced as to Cause this increased
estimate? To this inquiry the answer is “No,” that wages on
the average are no higher than three years ago, and that in
many trades business is dull and employment scarce. Further
investigation proves that the cause of the advanced cost of
building material is accounted for by combination of capital,
which has purchased and consolidated under one head all of the
many individual concerns, co-partnerships and corporations
that formerly supplied the material. The result of this has
been to form a monopoly in each branch of production so
strong that it is able to control the entire product, fix the sup-
ply and regulate the price solely in its own interests and to ut-
terly disregard the welfare of its customers. These combina-
tions are known as trusts. They are despotisms in industry,
having absolute and undispute control of production in the
various industries.
The question arises why should manufacturers of the vari-
ous products of the country seek these combinations? Is it
because they were not prosperous before? No, there is evi-544
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
dence of greater prosperity, among the manufacturers of the
country during the last quarter of a century than among any
other class, except the bankers and financiers. In elucidating
the motive that impelled these independent manufacturers, co-
partnerships and various corporations to combine, we will out-
line the modus operandi of forming a trust.
The two essential factors to commence with are, the promo-
ter, a scheming fellow who conceives the idea of effecting a
combination and making from a few hundred thousand to a few
million dollars for himself out of the operation. In order to
succeed he must have a private understanding with some large
financial concern, either a bank or the cashier or president of
a bank, who will co-operate with him for a share of the profits.
The promoter having decided to form a combination in some
special line of industry, and having secured his side partner
in the shape of some financial institution, proceeds to visit
the various individual concerns and offers to buy them out by
paying them anywhere from two to five times the value of their
plant, offering to pay them generally an amount of cash equal
to the cash value of their plant and then permitting them to
hold in the shape of bonds or preferred stocks in the company
an additional amount equal to perhaps two or three times the
value of the plant, and when necessary giving them a further
pledge that they shall be retained in the management of the
property at a high salary under the consolidation. After all
this is done the price is always sufficiently high to leave a large
margin of stocks and bonds to be divided between the promoter
and his side partner, the financial institution before mentioned.
We will cite as an illustration the International Paper Com-
pany that has consolidated under one ownership and manage-
ment nearly all of the paper mills in the country that manufac-
ture news paper. It is estimated that the entire value of the
plants and capital employed to carry on the business prior to
the formation of the trust amounted to about fifteen millions
of dollars. These concerns are now capitalized at $55,000,000,
and having under their control four-fifths of the paper mills
of the country that supply news paper, are able to fix the price
and compel every publisher to pay their price or suspend theirCOTTER T. BRIDE.
545
publications. The result is that paper has advanced fifty per
cent in price within three months, until at last the newspapers
of the country have formed an association and have set up a
loud and piteous cry for relief from the extortion of this
monopoly.
In the formation of this company there were fifteen millions
of dollars of actual capital and forty millions of water. The
price of the product has to be sufficiently advanced to pay in-
terest and dividends upon $55,000,000 instead of $15,000,000,
hence the abnormal advance in the price of paper. When cer-
tificates of stocks and bonds can be issued forty millions of
dollars in excess of the property of the company, upon what
basis do the forty millions of fictitious capital rest? What is
relied upon to convert an actual cash capital of fifteen millions
into investment securities representing $55,000,000? Simply
extortion, the greed of the owners of the certificates of stocks
and bonds and the fact that the community has need for paper,
is absolutely at their mercy and must submit to their extortion.
What is true of paper is true to a greater extent in many
other instances, but it may be taken as a fair example of all the
trusts. The farmers of the country will realize that the barbed
wire trust has its hands in their pockets when they go to pur-
chase wire, the builder will see that the nail trust is plundering
him when he goes to buy nails, the price of which has more
than doubled within a year. In fact, practically everything
that is manufactured *is now controlled by one of these giant
monopolies who hold the mass of the people at their mercy.
Greed is an appetite that grows upon what it feeds and is never
satisfied, but forever cries "More, more, more.”
AVhat effect have these trusts upon the laboring men ? Have
their wages increased on account of the enormous profits of
the trusts? By no means. It is impossible to advance wages
and at the same time give value to fictitious capital through an
advance of prices. The object of the trust is not to advance
wages, but to increase the profits of those who form the com-
bine through plundering the people and they have no more con-
sideration for the laborers they employ than they have for the
customers who consume their goods.546
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
When competition between employers ceases on account of
all the various plants in a given line coming under one owner-
ship and management the laborer employed in that department
becomes absolutely helpless and at the mercy of the combine.
When the business was carried on by different independent
concerns, if one concern cut down wages another concern
might have good orders and prospects and employment to give
and offer better wages. If one concern shut down perhaps
another through more skillful management might have en-
larged their business so as to demand additional labor and in
the competition of the different concerns the laborer stood not
only a fair chance for continuous employment, but some chance
of receiving reasonable compensation. But under the consoli-
dation of industries under a single head, having plants in dif-
ferent cities, towns and states, if the laborers in one locality
become dissatisfied they can close the works and fill their orders
from the products of their mills and factories at other points
until the laborers through sheer force of starvation and the
crying demands for food and clothing of those dependent upon
them are forced to accept whatever wages are proffered. The
trusts realize their own strength and the utter dependence of
their employes and take advantage of them. They are also
powerful to compel the various cities and counties to value
their plants and property for the purposes of taxation at a
figure much below their actual value; through a threat<o close
down the works, throw the people into idleness and cut off the
income of the village or town and not only starve the laborers,
but cut off the profits of those engaged in trade of all kinds
and depreciate the value of real estate as well.
-/There is another feature about the trust that deserves the
serious attention of every American citizen, namely, it cuts off
all opportunity for the young man to go into business for him-
self and acquire an independence or competence after the man-
ner of former years. ) While business was on a competitive
basis there was always an opportunity for young men to go
into business in a small way and build themselves up upon
their merits and acquire a competence or even a fortune, but
since each branch of business has passed under the control ofCOTTER T. BRIDE.
54 7
a huge combination which is despotic in the control of that
branch of business in its entirety there is no longer a chance
for any successful rivals to enter the field with either large or
small capital because the trust will be able to undersell them
in whatever field may be available while it is able to make
enormous profits in other fields.
Besides, the trusts being great customers for the transporta-
tion companies and representing vast capital and political in-
fluence, will always be able to make contracts for the transpor-
tation of the large quantities of goods they distribute at rates
sufficiently below what will be given to other and smaller con-
cerns to wipe out any reasonable margin of profit.
Thus it will be seen that under the trust system the only fu-
ture before the young men that fill the schools, colleges and uni-
versities of America is to enter into the service of the trust and
accept such compensation as the trust is willing to give them.
We warn the people that the trusts will undermine and de-
stroy their liberties and seize control of the government, if they
are not overthrown.
When the trusts have destroyed the small business man and
have the field in each department of industry to themselves
then will come a warfare between the trusts and the money
kings and in the end the men who are now the chief bene-
ficiaries of the formation of trusts will find themselves driven
out and forced to become employes conducting business for
the great financial magnates and money kings who control the
money and credits of the nation.
The money kings have already practically seized upon the
transportation business of the country and within two decades
of the present, if the tendency of the times is not arrested, the
presidents of trusts now representing millions of dollars and
vast incomes will be but salaried employes for the Morgans,
Rockefellers and other great financial magnates who, through
the control of money and credits, will be able to dispossess
them of the power they now wield.
I would here warn our socialist brethren who believe that
the trust is paving the way to state socialism, one huge govern-
mental trust under which he thinks all the people will be ben-ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
5^8
eficiaries, that they are deceiving themselves, that their dream
has no greater foundation in fact than the pleasant and delirious
dreams of the opium eater, that such notions are a narcotic
that can only deceive them to their ruin.
Civilization, freedom and progress rest upon the rights of in-
dividuals to earn and to own in their own right in an open field
under competition where favoritism is impossible and
without the restraining hand of private monopoly. Only a
few branches of industry are of such a character as to make a
public monopoly desirable.
The question arises what shall we do to be saved? The an-
swer is plain. Capital will not combine unless such combina-
tions are provided by law with certain privileges and immuni-
ties that individuals do not possess. It is only because under
corporation laws great masses of capital representing a large
number of owners can be so consolidated and endowed with
the powers to operate in the field of enterprise in such a way
that each holder of stocks and bonds occupies a certain uni-
form and just relation to the whole concern that their interest
can be protected, that these combinations can exist. They are
creatures of law. Why, the repeal of corporation laws would
cause the instant dissolution of all trusts. If the people should
withdraw the props which they have put under these concerns
they would fall of their own weight. This being true, a modi-
fication of the laws can be such as to eliminate every harmful
influence that comes from capital. Again, the general govern-
ment is given power under the Constitution to regulate com-
merce between the states and it has the power to place an
embargo upon all operations that are carried on by a monopoly"
and are harmful to the interests of the people.
The burning question in regard to trusts is, shall the peo-
ple who are to be the victims of trusts turn the government
over to the trusts, or shall they rescue the government from the
hands of trusts and legislate for their own protection? The
people have the power. I Will they use it ? If those who profit
by the trusts are permitted to control the government the trust
evil will multiply until it destroys the people and deprives them
of participation in tlj£ government Those who profit by theJUDGE ROBERT A. NEFF.
549
trusts cannot be relied upon to destroy the trusts. On the
other hand, the insatiate greed that has called the trusts into
existence will impel them onward and onward in their destruc-
tive course until the republic lies in ruins at their feet and the
people are deprived of their liberties, if they do not rise in their
might and rescue the government from the trusts.
The people will have no difficulty in ascertaining which po-
litical party puts forward as candidates trust magnates and
has the support of trust influences. Neither will they have
any difficulty in discovering which party is represented by the
opponents of trusts and is making its fight against the trusts.
The only way of dealing with the trust question is to put into
the halls of legislation, state and national, and into the execu-
tive chairs of state and nation men who are on the side of the
people and against the trusts.
JUDGE ROBERT A. NEFF.
A deplorable condition confronts the Union today. In
theory, we have a government of the people, for the people,
and by the people, but in practice we have a government of the
Trusts, for the Trusts and by the Trusts. The object of this
Conference is to discover some feasible plan whereby to thwart
this hydra-headed- monster that seizes man at the moment of
his birth and holds him powerless in its cold slimy coils until
the tombstone that marks his lonely grave is paid for. I have
listened with the deepest interest to the various ideas advanced
and in them I see much that is commendable. I most heartily
agree with the socialistic ideas and believe that in years to
come a great many of them will be carried out, but I realize
this fact: socialism can only grow through education, and
that many years must pass before the masses will be sufficiently
educated to the truths and blessings of socialism sufficiently to
crystallize them into law. I also see a remedy in the inspired
preachings of the great reformer, Henry George, for I
realize that man is a land animal, and when you take from him
the God granted right to freely occupy and cultivate the soil, we
take from him his only alternative,and place him in the clutches550
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
of the land grabber. I most heartily agree with the advocate of
government and control of the various railroad and transporta-
tion systems, for I believe that is one of the solutions of the
great economical problem and, in my estimation, the one upon
which the people of this country are near a unit, but I believe
that under existing conditions such a thing is impossible until
certain formidable obstacles are wiped out of existence.
For years Congress and our various state legislatures have
been enacting laws with the view of curtailing trusts, yet today
we have in existence more Trusts and combines than ever
before known in the world’s history. What does the great
Trust magnate care for law, so long as he controls the court that
interprets the law ? I tell you that if you want to strike at the
very root of this deadly Upas tree you will find it in the federal
judiciary. Understand that it is not my intention to question
the honesty or integrity of the judges who occupy the federal
bench, but I do without any mental reservation or equivocation
question their fitness for the positions they occupy. For years
past, every man that has been appointed to the federal bench
and Supreme Court of the United States has been selected from
the ranks of corporation lawyers. The best part of his life
has been spent in defending the corporations and antagonizing
the people. He has become so thoroughly embued with cor-
porate interests that it is a second nature with him, and his
education and surroundings, the education of his life and busi-
ness, have so poisoned his mind against the people that his
Court becomes a city of refuge for the corporations.
The people of this country are sovereign only in theory.
Through their congress and president they enact a law to de-
stroy the trust. The trust goes before some federal judge and
he, with a stroke of his pen, annuls the law. Eighty millions
of people through Congress create a law, and five members of
the Supreme Court, sitting in Washington, kill it. Can you call
to mind any incidents in the past ten years wherein the Con-
stitution of the United States has come to the assistance of
the people as against the corporation in a federal court? But
the very moment the people of this nation enact a law interfer-
ing with the so-called liberties of a trust or corporation thatJUDGE ROBERT A. NEFF.
551
corporation flies to a federal judge or the Supreme Court of
the United States, and the old Constitution is pulled out of its
coffin, the dust knocked off, and after warping and twisting it
sufficiently to fit the corporation’s side of the case, the court,
in a very elaborate decision finds that the law is unconstitu-
tional. With such a condition existing the people are abso-
lutely powerless in the hands of the corporations. Congress
might enact laws from now until the crack of doom designed
to abolish the power of trusts, but until some restriction is
placed upon the federal courts the laws will be absolutely in-
effective.
I believe the first step necessary to take, is to make the peo-
ple of this nation sovereign. I believe the wishes of eighty
millions of people ought to outweigh the legal opinion of any
federal judge, or the learned conclusions of the nine men con-
stituting the Supreme Court of the United States. Gradually
the Supreme Court of the United States has usurped authority
to pass upon the constitutionality of rational legislation, an
authority that I don’t believe was ever intended by the framers
of the Constitution to be vested in any court. The precedent,
if I am not mistaken, was established by Chief Justice Marshall,
and it has been adhered to with such alarming tenacity by the
Supreme Court and the federal judges, that no potentate or
czar of any civilized nation upon the face of the earth wields
such absolute power.
The remedy I would suggest is a constitutional amendment,
taking from all courts the right to pass upon the constitution-
ality of national enactments. Let the court perform its na-
tional function of applying the law to the case before it, but
make it keep its hands off the constitutionality of all laws
created by Congress. Of course, I would not apply this restric-
tion to acts passed by state legislatures, for I realize that state
legislatures frequently do a number of wild and foolish things,
but under the present condition of affairs, you might as well at-
tempt to carry water in a sieve as to enforce the law against
the great trusts and corporations. Let us return to the true
principle of self-government. Let us make the people sover-
eign, not only in theory, but in fact. Let us by a constitu-552
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
tional amendment say to the trusts and the courts:	By the
Eternal God this is a government of the people, for the people
and by the people, and when the people of this nation, through
both houses of Congress, enact a law, it shall be in full force
and effect until the power that created the law chooses to re-
peal it. When we reach this condition, we will have taken
from the trust its only instrument of defense. Then let us fol-
low this with the initiative and referendum, and other ideas
of reform, and we will forever settle the problem as to whether
the masses or the favored few shall govern this country, and
the world will then realize that the Constitution of the United
States is the corner stone of liberty and not the bulwark of
trusts and corporations.
HON. E. J. DEAN.
In every country and in every age of the world’s history
every step forward has been first taken by those who have
dared to think and #ct for themselves. Independents have
always taken the lead in blazing the way to new and better
things in what seemed at the time to be in the wilderness of
doubt and uncertainty to those who were more conservative.
No party unalloyed with new elements can reform itself.
The sage of Nininger who has just spoken seems to have
given up all hope of reform in either of the old parties. He
says: “They have alternately governed this country for the
last fifty years and they have brought it to the condition in
which it is. There is no remedy to be hoped for at their
hands. They have promised us a hundred times and they have
betrayed us a hundred times.”
When the wealth of the new world was poured into the lap
of the old world a middle class of society was created—an
independent class—that broke away from the traditions of
the past, and, taking a new departure, founded a government
—not upon the rights of property, as heretofore, but upon the
rights of man—-the people of other countries following their
example.
Washington, the first President of the new system, was
elected twice as an independent. He chose his cabinet fromD. L. KREBS.
553
diverse political parties. The electoral college was made a
part of the organic law to secure independent action. The
veto power was placed in the hands of the executive to secure
independent action of the departments. Party fealty was not
made the test to get and retain office. There were only sixty-
one removals—-save for cause—during the first ten adminis-
trations of the government. The first national convention at
the hands of the caucus was not held until 1832. Up to the
latter date the spoils of office, as a corrupting agency, were
almost unknown. One national bank was considered dan-
gerous to the public welfare and was wiped out. A tariff
save for revenue was considered unconstitutional. Tempora
mutantur, nos et mutamnr in illis.
The President is now put in nomination at the dictation
of the caucus; the spoils of office are treated as a corruption
fund; the veto power is used to defeat the will of the people;
instead of one national bank, there are thousands, acting in
* unison, to create the trust of trusts; the tariff is used more
to create monopoly than to yield revenue.
A hundred years ago corporations were weak and debts
small; today the corporations have usurped the functions
of the government and are administering it as their unbridled
greed may choose to dictate, and as their uncurbed passions
may choose to execute, and debts have increased to one
hundred and fifty billion dollars. The protests of this con-
ference, however, coming from the unpaid attorneys of the
people, may cause them to pause in their mad career if they
hear a responsive echo from the people.
D. L. KREBS.
All trust monopolies are human greed organized under
color of law, but are nevertheless illegal, opposed to public
policy, exist in violation of the common law and are detri-
mental to the welfare of the people.
It is not necessary to point out the evils flowing directly
from their existence. This has been done by the press and554
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
from the platform. There are none who openly defend them.
A few of their beneficiaries feebly and apologetically try to
excuse them, and turn aside the righteous indignation of the
people, aroused by their open and bold defiance of the law
and their destruction of the rights of the individual.
What most concerns thoughtful men, is how to control and
restrain these illegal combinations and ultimately deprive
them of their power to crush individual enterprise. Their
success primarily depends upon their ability to destroy com-
petition. It therefore follows that if we desire to control
them we must restore the opportunity to compete with them.
The grant of special privileges, and artificial or legal restraints
upon the enjoyment of natural resources for manufacturing
purposes, must be taken away from them. The right to trans-
port manufactured products and the material entering there-
into upon the equality which the law intends every shipper
shall have, must be enforced.
This competitive opportunity can only be restored by reme-
dial legislation on the part of the national and state govern-
ments, keeping in mind the wisdom of permitting business
to pursue its course unfettered by all unnecessary restraints
and that the primary object sought to be obtained is the restor-
ation of competitive opportunities. We observe that this may
be obtained by the following measures of legislative action
by the national government:
a.	Let Congress adopt a statute abolishing the import duty
on every article of raw material that is used in the manufac-
ture of products controlled by a trust or other combination;
and also upon the like manufactured products, and make it
obligatory upon the secretary of the treasury to cause the
same to be admitted free of duty.
b.	Amend the patent laws so as to provide that all pat-
ented articles controlled and produced by any trust or other
combination, directly or indirectly, shall cease to be protected
by the patent laws of the United States.
c.	Revise the Interstate Commerce Laws by giving to any
stockholder of every common carrier and to any shipper af-
fected thereby, the right to bring an action against the recip-D. L. KREBS.
555
ient of any rebate, drawback or other allowance, whereby an
advantage is secured over any other shipper of a like prod-
uct or article of carriage, and to recover double the amount
of such rebate, drawback or other allowance, together with
attorney’s fees and cost, one-half the amount recovered to
be paid into the treasury of the common carrier, and in addi-
tion to such right of action provide that upon such trial had
and a recovery, a like action shall be allowed against the
board of directors of such common carrier by any stockholder
or shipper, and such former recovery be prima facie evidence
of a right to recover a like amount, one-half of which shall
be paid to the plaintiff in such action, and the remaining half
into the treasury of the carrier company. Having done this,
remove all penalties from the officials and thus deprive them
of every privilege of refusing to testify.
d. Amend the Trust Act of 1890 to meet the decision of
the Supreme Court in the case of the United States vs. Knight,
or what is better known as the American Sugar Refining
Company case, and make the act apply to the manufactured-
product of every trust or other combination whenever the
same is placed on carriage for shipment beyond the state lines.
The reason underlying the revision of the Interstate Com-
merce Act on the lines indicated is, that if the recipient of the
discriminative rates was made liable instead of the carrier,
the tendency by these trust-combinations to use the power of
great aggregations of capital to force these discriminative
rates from carriers would be checked. The liability placed
on the board of directors instead of the corporation would
cause such action on their part as would compel them to con-
trol their traffic agents.
In the domain of state legislation and control, one of the
most difficult questions to deal with is to provide against
the operation of those monopolies and trusts organized under
•the laws of some other state.
A majority of the states, we assume, provide by statute
that no foreign corporation shall do business therein, except
upon compliance with regulations provided. Most, if not all,
of these are ineffectual to cure the evils existing. Others55^
ANT I-TRUST CONFERENCE.
are too drastic and to a great extent defeat the object sought
to be accomplished.
If it be borne in mind that the favorite method of form-
ing these illegal combinations is by combining the capital
of existing corporations already over capitalized and adding
thereto large additional stock issues, for which no value is
given in exchange, the manner of controlling these illegal
combinations may seem less difficult. We suggest that the
following statutory regulations may be enacted with good
effect without impinging in the least degree upon any legiti-
mate enterprise.
In states where by the constitution or statute it is provided
that full paid stock shall not be issued, except for money
paid or property received, the suggestion for legislative action
would but render effective such regulation. We suggest for
consideration legislation by the state upon the following lines:
a.	Let the state create a “Board of Appraisers,” under
proper regulations, whose duty it shall be to carefully appraise
the property of every corporation or stock association seeking
to do business within the state and wherever property is taken
in payment of full paid stock, if the same has been taken at
a fictitious value, prevent the entrance of the corporation
within the state; and in case of the application for a charter
for a domestic corporation, withhold approval of the appli-
cation for its incorporation until the amount of capital is
reduced to the fair value of the property taken in exchange
for full paid stock.
b.	Prevent by statute a corporation or joint stock asso1
ciation from acquiring, owning, holding or controlling, directly
or indirectly the stock of any other corporation or associa-
tion engaged in a like business.
c.	Compel all foreign corporations doing business within
the state to make quarterly or semi-annual returns to the
proper department of the amount of business done within
the state, so that if possible the foreign corporation may be
placed on an equality with the domestic in the matter of tax-
ation, and also require the payment of the bonus upon the
capital stock such as is charged to domestic corporations.MRS. MERIBAH E. WILLIAMS WALKER. 557
d. Provide proper and efficient regulation of transporta-
tion by common carriers within the state.
Much has been said about requiring publicity of action
on the part of these monopolies and the correction of the
evils growing out of their methods by such publicity. Per-
haps there is some sensitive soul managing one of these com-
binations .that may shrink from such publicity. Who would
venture to say, however, that the Standard Oil Trust or the
Tin Plate Combine would change their nefarious methods
on that account. To detail the growth of the Standard Oil
Company would be to write the history of repeated crimes.
Investigation by state legislative committees and the expos-
ure of the violation of statute and common law has not served
to check the criminal methods of its expansion, or caused its
beneficiaries to refrain from repeating them. We fear that
something more effective will be found necessary. In the
judgment of the writer the most effective will be found to
be the revision of our tariff laws, at least in so far as they
afford a shelter for monopolies, and the other suggested rem-
edies herein set forth in outline.
MRS. MERIBAH E. WILLIAMS WALKER*
To secure the life, liberty and happiness that in America
are accounted as man’s inalienable rights, it is necessary that
the people shall be, either directly or by faithful proxy, the
law-making body.
For, as declared by Jefferson, “All the powers of govern-
ment, legislative, executive and judiciary, result to the legis-
lative body.” That body in its sphere is the sovereign supreme,
holding the power of life and death, of liberty and slavery,
of happiness and woe over its helpless subjects.
In our several states the laws are enacted in the name of
the people. This gives color to the claim that the people
make or “consent” to the laws, and that the laws, are, there-
fore, made in the interest of the whole people.
* Author of Direct Legislation.558
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
But as a fact it is known that the people do not make the
laws directly except in a few instances, but that for one-hun-
dred and twenty-five years the people have tried the experi-
ment of making the laws by proxy.
And with what result?
One finds the statutes burdened with laws granting special
privileges. These authorize, create monopolies, or the one-
power to sell (mono-one, ply-to sell).
The land and nearly all of nature’s bountiful resources—
waters and forests, mineral and gas deposits, vegetable and
animal products, are now controlled by monopolies created by
special privilege laws.
Other means of production, mechanical forces and tools, and
the means of exchange or distribution, including money,
through special privilege laws, are rapidly passing into the
control of those holding the special privileges. It is only
a question of a short time when all of the necessaries of
life, liberty and happiness will have been brought under the
control of monopolies, that is, “cornered.”
Having gained control of the supply of anything, it is evi-
dent that the monopolist controls its price, lowering the price
when he must buy, and raising it when he sells. The producer
and the consumer are both at his mercy. Industry is his
serf, because of the special privileges granted by law that
have given him the monopoly. Every slave is a law-slave,
and to free him the law that binds him down must be an-
nulled. Until the special privilege laws that created the mo-
nopolies are repealed the rich must grow richer and the poor
poorer, until revolution intervenes.
We are faoe to face with the most alarming condition in
our history. Those seeking monopoly laws have combined
to force their demands. You-pat-me-and-I’ll-pat-you legis-
lative trusts have fixed their grip upon the throats of our
legislators, and the thumb-screws of mammon are hardly to
be resisted. Most legislators will yield their demands.
Why? Are legislators all base?
Far from it. But you have placed them in a defenseless
position. You have given them autocratic power; in thatMRS. MERIBAH E. WILLIAMS WALKER.	559
lies their weakness. If the trusts cannot tempt them through
avarice and ambition, the trusts will not hesitate to coerce them
through fear of ignominy and death, politically, if not abso-
lutely, like Lincoln and Garfield.
Should your representatives yield, sell the special privileges
demanded and create a privileged class to enslave you through
monopoly, you are hardly less guilty than they.
You made them law-monopolists. You gave them the power
to sell the laws, and this bared them to temptation, ignominy
and death.
What one of you under the thumb-screws of mammon and
might would not cry out “surrender”?
Protect your legislators and they will protect you. And
this is what direct legislation means—to safe-guard your
representatives from coercion and corruption and yourselves
from the rule of the privileged classes. Such a rule is de-
nominated an aristocracy. America has become an aristoc-
racy, the people no longer rule, the trusts and monopolies dic-
tate the government.
The remedy lies at the root of the tree. Take from your
proxies this autocratic power, this monopoly of law, this power
to sell the laws; by reserving to yourselves the right to veto
or to “consent” to the laws made by them, and you will re-
move the motive that brings the trusts to corrupt and coerce
the legislators. You will remove their power to grant spe-
cial privilege laws, that create the privileged class, the trusts
and monopolies. You will remove the slave-fetters from your-
selves and become self-governing sovereigns.
Provisions are already made by which a referendum clause
may be inserted in a bill. Demand that this shall always be
done, except in cases of emergency.
Get nearer to the president, vice-president and senators by
electing them directly. The country seems ready for this
step.
Make the most of the people’s “right of petition.” Demand
that it at once be given legal force. Demand that your legis-
lators pass a law making it mandatory upon councils, legisla-
tures or state, municipal or national secretaries, or other offi-ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
560
cers authorized, to act upon the people’s petitions, and to
grant a referendum on any matter when demanded by a suf-
ficient per cent of the people. This is a simple way to secure
many benefits of direct legislation, while awaiting the slower
process of constitutional amendment.
Voters can do this.
How ?
Put the test to every candidate of every party for office
before election, whether or no he wants autocratic power to
rule over you, or the monopolist’s power to sell the laws for
his own profit. If he does “scratch” him.
If he is afraid to refer the questions that the people want
to the people, “scratch” him.
While he is ‘“good-fellowing” you before election, find out
if he thinks you are capable of self-government; if he does,
he will favor direct legislation—that is the test. Apply it.
If he does not favor it be assured that he thinks himself
just the smart Aleck capable of governing you—and is after
the chance to sell the laws to feather his own nest—“scratch”
him.
Test your party candidates and pass the word down the
line of your comrades where each one stands on “autocratic
power,” or “law-monopoly.”
Then you will know whether you are helping to elect a
master or a true representative.
Other trusts or monopolies are now imminent. Imperial
and monarchical whispers are burdening the air. Some one is
trying to “corner” the republic’s domain—to parcel it out
into dependencies.
Look at the struggle for Porto Rico, acknowledged to be a
test case to determine whether Congress, or some one that
it may appoint, can govern outside of the constitution.
That is, can Congress parcel out the United States terri-
tory, grant it to this or that man or trust, and empower them
to rule it absolutely—not limited by the constitution.
Do you say that this is not the scheme, that it cannot be
so base as this? Read and ponder the senate bill for the
Philippines. It is as follows:Mrs. Meribah E. Walker.
Ignatius Donnelly.
Mrs. Lucinda B. Chandler.
Alfred B. Westrup.
Robert A. Neff.
Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond.
Mortimer Whitehead.MRS. MERIBAH E. WILLIAMS WALKER. 561
“That when all insurrection against the sovereignty and
authority of the United States in the Philippine Islands, ac-
quired from Spain by the treaty concluded at Paris, Dec. 10,
1898, shall have been completely suppressed by the military
and naval forces of the United States, all military, civil and
judiciary powers necessary to govern the said islands shall,
Until otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such per-
son and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the
president of the United States shall direct for maintaining and
protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoy-
ment of their liberty, property and religion.”
There you have it, military and civil, legislative, executive
and judicial powers all in the hands of one man—authorized
to rule—liberty, property, and religion, outside of the con-
stitution.
An absolute monarch! Ye gods! and this proposed in
republican America! Think what his title to keep pace must
be—president of the United States and king of the Philippines.
What a spectacle—Republicanism crucified in America, and
imperialism enthroned! Voters, men and women, the blood
of the nation is on your hands. Where is your patriotism?
Down with these bills, send your protests to your legislators;
and down with the trust on law-making.
Nor is the end yet. This attempt to force “imperialism”
upon America is not a passing whim. The same beast “greed”
that overthrew republican Greece and Rome gnaws incessantly
at the vitals of every republic. The same concentration of
power and wealth that has now established here the rule of
an aristocracy is rapidly goinjf on. Imperialism, an empire
with a sovereign and subject peoples, is openly advocated.
The pyramid of government is rapidly being turned to stand
upon its sharpest height—cencentrating power instead of on
its broadest base—the people. Eternal vigilance -is the price
of our liberty.
Spot this imperialism wherever it dares to raise its head.
Spot the party that fosters it. Spot the man that favors it.
However the present bills before Congress may fare, do not
forget the traitors who put and helped them there.562
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
DWIGHT S. PRENTICE.
Three separate and distinct orders, or motives, govern the
movements of nations and peoples of the world; they may
be named in three words—war, peace, brotherhood, The
first is usually actuated wholly by the power of greed. If
you have not got what you want as a nation and are strong
enough, take it. The second is a condition of doubt, not
quite certain that you are strong enough to take what you
covet, hence an armed neutrality. The third, to which no
nation has yet attained, the ideal, brotherhood.
The war of business is embodied in the motto, “Competition
is the life of trade.” Governments prohibit their citizens from
taking what they want by force, which would be individual
war, hence other means must be adopted, but the object is
the same—to down your competitors and get their trade.
It is the actual war of individuals in commerce, an inces-
sant struggle for supremacy. Sometimes terms of peace are
agreed to by fixing a schedule of prices to which all the com-
petitors agree. Prices are raised and the public pay a hand-
some profit to the armed neutrality that constitutes the com-
bine, which enjoys a season of prosperity, till some of them
find, or believe, that others are getting more than their share
of trade by cutting prices, then the war of competition is
again on.
It is to avoid the frequent recurrence of these contests for
supremacy, this war of individuals, that trusts are formed.
The idea is permanent peace and prosperity. A combination
of interests in which all shall* equally share according to the
number of shares they own in the trust. It is no longer even
armed neutrality. It is the brotherhood of dollars, every one
whether made of gold, silver, paper or water, is the acknowl-
edged equal of every other dollar, a true brotherhood of dol-
lars. These trusts are not at all a brotherhood of men. They
do not as men, love each other, but they do love dollars and
they have undoubtedly designed a far- more effective plan
to secure them from the public than either the war of com-
petition, or the peace of combination to keep up prices. ItDWIGHT S. PRENTICE.
563
is the ideal brotherhood, the absolute and perfect equality
of dollars. The wealthiest individuals in the nation have
formed and entered the trusts. These trusts are the result
of the great peace conference of dollars. The czar’s peace
conference of men was less successful. The great trouble
seems to be that dollars are more ready to combine, more
brotherly than men, and not till men learn what the trusts
so clearly point out, will men enjoy the peace, prosperity and
happiness, that is clearly theirs whenever they prefer to ignore
war and armed neutrality and shall be wise enough to see
that it is as possible for all men to share equally in prosperity
as it is for dollars, then a true brotherhood will be ushered in.
The trusts are but a natural solution, the survival of the fit-
test, the outcome of a desire for a permanent peace after the
war of competition. Actuated, it is true, by selfish motives,
as are all human actions, only not as yet able to see the great
truth that the highest elevation, the highest happiness of any
is only possible through conditions that will give equal oppor-
tunities for all; and that the best interest of the race is at-
tainable only through the elevation of all. This truth was
recognized in the preamble to the constitution of the United
States of America, in the assertion that all men are born
free and equal and endowed with the inalienable right to
liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that to preserve these
rights governments were instituted among men. The formu-
lating of a bill of the natural and inalienable rights of man
by your convention might more clearly point out the duties
of government and hence the true remedies for the evils
which man suffers, than will be possible without a clear rec-
ognition of these rights. Allow me to suggest some of these
for your consideration. First, the land belongs in usufruct
to the living, hence conveyances which ignore this right,
as an equal right, are void morally. The right to use belongs
to the living and this right forbids the right to convey, or
ignore, the rights of the unborn who must also in their time
have an equal right to the usufruct.
The inventions and discoveries of the past, not temporarily
alienated by patents, belong to all the people equally and itANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
564
is the duty of government to see that all equally share in this
greatest source of wealth. It is the monopoly of this source
of wealth which is the object of the formation of all trusts
and the control of production through such monopoly; it is
the taking to themselves the benefits of these inventions, which
have by our patent laws become public property. It is of
this wrong that the public has the right to complain and for
this wrong it is the duty of government to find a remedy.
H. BUTLER.
The object of all trusts is to obtain the greatest return
from capital and labor invested, or expended, in agricultural,
mining, manufacturing or commercial pursuits.
Combination has already greatly increased returns, but cap-,
ital, or those controlling it, thus far seems to have been the
sole beneficiary. The present problem is, how can the dif-
fusion of the benefits of combination among all the people be
accomplished ?
It is admittedly wrong that capital should continue to ap-
propriate for its own special use all the benefits of combin-
ing forces.
To control , the combining forces of capital and labor so
that each may be just with the other, is worthy of your most
careful consideration.
The greatest combination of capital today is money; and
as this combination controls all the others, the present duty
of the American government is to get control of all combi-
nations, by controlling this greatest of all combinations—
money.
Money is the only trust that is powerful enough to con-
trol all the industries of the nation. It is the only trust that
c'an say whether labor or other capital shall be employed.
It is the only trust that can own and control everything
except daylight and air, and yet while it is so controlling and
powerful it is the most easily controlled of all trusts.
Elect a president and Congress that will give to the people
a system of government banking; a system that will take theH. A. JERAULD.
565
power of receiving, loaning and issuing money out of the
hands of private individuals and corporations and make it one
of the solemn duties, and obligations of government, which it
should be, and of right already is.
Then, and not till then, shall the government (the people,
for in America the people are the government), say when
the mills and the mines shall be opened; when and how much
capital and labor shall be employed; what compensation capi-
tal and labor shall receive; when, if ever, panics shall be nec-
essary; yes, under a system of government banking, operated
for and by the people, capital and labor would each share the
benefits of combination and continual employment. And to
inaugurate such a system of banking is an obligation you owe
the people of the United States and of the world.
H. A. JERAULD.
It is suggested herein that to simplify the trust problem
the various legislatures adopt the fruits of the matured experi-
ence and judgment of our courts as evidenced by the weight
of authority.
The judicial decisions on the powers of private corporations
are conflicting, and the law thereby is rendered uncertain and
ineffective as a certain controlling authority. Until the con-
flict of judicial authority upon this subject shall cease corpo-
rations cannot be satisfactorily controlled and trusts will con-
tinue to be incorporated.
The “weight of judicial authority” ppon this question is
to the effect that “the powers of a private corporation are
such as are expressly granted by statute, and such as are
necessary to the exercise of those expressed,” (see Thomas
R. R., 101 U. S., 8£).
But courts are powerless to agree upon this principle, and
they do not always agree with themselves.
In section 1005, “Bishop on Contracts,” the author cites
Mathews vs. Skinker, 62 Mo. 329, a case in line with the
“weight of authority,” and which cannot be refuted by legal566
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
reasoning; but it was reversed in Bk. vs. Mathews, 98 U. S.
621, by a decision, the reason of which was not remarkable
for its “weight.” Then in section 1007 the author cites Riche
vs. Ash. Ry. Car. Co., L. R. 9 Ex. 224, as authority that at
common law in the absence of statutory restraint, a corpora-
tion has “the same powers as a natural person in contracting
but that case was reversed on the principle first above stated.
The arguments in that case in the court of exchequer—
where the judges were equally divided—were remarkably clear
presentations for and against the first principle herein stated,
but the higher court was unanimous.
The short chapter on Corporations in “Bishop,” shows clear-
ly that the law is not clear. By “Thompson on Corporations,”
where all the cases are cited, one can prove anything on the
point in question.
Not to multiply cases, a careful examination of those cited
shows that common law powers should not be attached to
statutory corporations.
The vice of retaining in the law both of these doctrines (often
maintained by the same court), consists in the inconsistent con-
structions given to the same and similar statutes. They can
be interpreted as a grant of power, or not a grant, i. e., as
a grant, or as a restraint of unlimited power. If a grant,
the court determines what power is created and given; and if
a restraint, what power is taken away from some ampler but
definite power that the statute did not create.
The granted power can be comprehended; but that which
is taken away is but a fraction of the residue. The people
should suppress the “residue.” The courts in construing stat-
utes relative to the powers of private corporations, as stat-
utes or restraint, have accorded to such corporations a mighty
high position in the law. Edmund Burke in his speech on
the India Bill said that “restrained power is Magna Charta,
but that the East India charter was created power.” Burke
should be good authority. Rufus Choate wrote of him and
Cicero—“both knowing all things—but God knows where to
end on Burke.”H. A. JERAULD.
567
The reason the weight of judicial authority- opposes the
engrafting on our statutory corporations, the incidents of the
corporations of the common law, is because the former corpo-
ration is not like the latter; but is in fact the legitimate successor
of the associated and joint stock companies, that for over 100
years were refused recognition as corporations by Parliament
and the common law courts. (See A. & A. Corp. 52-64, 591-
595; Riche vs. Ashbury Ry. Car. Co., L. R. 7, H. L. 653,
L. R. Ex. 9, 224; Eng. & Irish Appeals 673; Enc. Brit., tit.
“Corporations,” “Companies.”)
It is a slowly dying rule of court to deny private litigants
the right to show that a corporation suing under usurped
auhority is to that extent without right. If corporation
abuses are to be suppressed, that defense should be allowed
and in many cases it is.
Should corporation combinations be prohibited a claim by
a corporate member of such a combination and growing out
of the prohibited transaction, would be defeated by such a de-
fense, and would tend to suppress the combination.
Finally corporations should be formed under general laws,
by written articles stating the purposes of incorporation, and
certain powers should be attached to each respective purpose.
The purposes and powers should be clearly prescribed by laws
and incorporation should not be allowed for other purposes.
Legislative interpretation should make it clear that common
law powers are excluded and that private citizens might de-
fend their property as above indicated. The legislature should
have discretion to select and change at will the purposes of
incorporation, but the rest would better be supplemented by
constitutional sanctions.
The Ore Ry. case, 130 U. S. 1, 25, 30, decides substan-
tially that the Oregon constitutional clause that “Corporations
may be formed by general laws” necessarily requires-them to
be formed wholly by statute. Of course this excludes the
common law; but experience shows that even so plain a clause
needs to be interpreted by the legislature, unless the consti-
tution goes farther and ordains that they shall derive no pow-
ers from the common law.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
568
These ideas are neither novel nor untried; neither anarchistic
nor partisan; but plain, old fashioned, up-to-date, conservative
rules; approved by the best judicial authority, and on that
account they may be worthy of the consideration of our legis-
lators.
BRUCE A. CAMPBELL.
In discussing the general effect of trusts upon the Ameri-
can people it seems to me that they are as detrimental to the
American farmer as to any other class of people that are af-
fected by them. In many ways he is directly and indirectly
affected by these gigantic combinations of capital which are
organized for the purpose of imposing upon all classes of
the community and more especially upon those who comprise
the commodity-producing class.
It is an admitted fact that the farmer of today does not
receive any more for his commodities than he did before the
organization of the trusts. In many cases he receives less,
due to other causes, perhaps, which do not enter into the
present discussion. He receives less for his corn and wheat
today than he did 20 and 30 years ago.
But has the natural concomitant decrease in the price of
those commodities, which he needs and uses in his every
day life, come at the same time ? It seems not, and an investi-
gation of the statistics upon the subject will bear me out in
the statement.
Today the farmer goes to town to get some barbed wire
to keep his stock in while they are on pasture. He goes to
the hardware dealers and inquires the price and they tell
him that there has been an increase of 87! per cent in the
price of barbed wire since he was in town the last time. He
inquires.the reason and the dealer probably evades the ques-
tion. He buys the wire and goes home and picks up hi9
weekly paper and discovers that all of the barbed wire manu-
facturers have formed a combination under the laws of New
Jersey, perhaps, in order to control the output and price of
all the barbed wire that is manufactured in the country, andBRUCE A. CAMPBELL.
569
if he is a thinking man he at once concludes that the trust
affects him and causes him to pay more for the commodity
than he did before. If he is compelled to pay $15 for the
commodity that previously cost him $8 the trust has simply
robbed him of $7 in the transaction. Or to make the example
clearer, if corn is worth 25 cents per bushel at the time of
both transactions he is compelled to raise 60 bushels of corn
now in order to get the same amount of wire that previously
cost him 32 bushels. And it seems to me that this is a more
proper reckoning because in a money transaction it might
be thought by some people that the price of his corn had also
risen as well as the price of the wire. But in the latter method
of computation it shows that in order to get the same amount
of wire he was compelled to raise nearly twice as much corn
as before.
Within three weeks after the organization of a combina-
tion to control the output of our large flouring mills flour rose
30 cents per barrel and during this same time there was no
corresponding rise in the price of wheat. I could cite many
other instances of a rise in price of those articles needed by
the farmer, but it seems that the two named are sufficient
and that they are highly suggestive of one of the direct effects
of the trust upon the farmer.
It has been clearly demonstrated by others at this confer-
ence that the organization of a trust means the practical con-
centration of the industry into as small a scope as possible,
and the trust will only manufacture such an amount of the
commodity under its control as will enable it to' obtain the
highest price for each separate part. Thus as it controls the
whole industry and can limit the output it can also control
the price. Suppose, for example, that all the buggy manu-
facturers of the country should get together and agree to
form a trust. They also agree that they will make but one
grade of buggy and they find that by manufacturing only
100,000 of these buggies they can get $50 apiece or a total
of $5,000,000, but if they manufacture 150,000 buggies of
the same kind they can get but $30 for each buggy or $4,500,000
for the lot. The consequence of it all is that they will570
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
limit the production and thousands of men who make the
other 50,000 buggies will be thrown out of employment and
the trust would affect them, but this effect is not directly con-
cerned with my subject of the e'ffect of the trust upon the
farmer. But now my analogy comes in. The men who are
thrown out of employment by my supposititious case, as well
as thousands of others whcTare out of work on account of
the manifold operations of the trust, are likely to be short of
money for awhile at least and as many of them will be re-
quired to go into less remunerative employment, they are
compelled to reduce their former standard of living.
And now comes the farmer with his commodities and he
finds out the application of. that well known principle that
a decrease in general prosperity, as in the above case, neces-
sarily means a greatly decreased demand for agricultural prod-
ucts. , Those men who were thrown out of employment still
need the products of the farm, but owing to their decreased
standard of living they are not able to buy near as much
of them as they formerly were. Their purchasing power
has decreased and although they still have as many wants
as before they do not possess the necessary money with which
to satisfy them and consequently are compelled to do with-
out some agricultural commodity. And thus the farmer is
affected by the trust and that effect is detrimental to him
as well as to the laborer.
In this great country of ours with its vast areas and mag-
nificent distances the tiller of the soil is especially at the
mercy of one sort of combination. I refer to the railroads
which have the farmer at their mercy. Although perhaps
not a trust in the strict construction of the word they re-
semble one so closely that they can fairly be considered in
this connection.
Mr. Hobson in his excellent little book on the “Evolution
of Modern Capitalism,” page 139, speaking of this tendency
of the trust, says:	“The tendency of the trust to strengthen
its industrial position and at the same time to find a profit-
able invesment for its surplus profits, by fastening upon an
earlier process of production or a contiguous industry andBRUCE A. CAMPBELL.
571
drawing it under the control of its monopoly, is one of the
most important evidences of the rapid growth of the system
in America.” This exactly covers the case under discussion
where the railroads are endeavoring to get control of the
earlier stages of production which in this case means the
products of the farmer.
A few great syndicates are rapidly getting control of the
railroad lines of the country and their amalgamated systems
are so regulating freight rates as to get the maximum rate
for themselves, and as there is very little competition between
railways except between large centers of business, they can
easily do this.
This monopoly affects the farmer, more than any other
person. The small retail dealer can add the freight to the
cost price and make up his loss, but the farmer who is a
large consumer is compelled to pay tribute to the railway
magnates as well as to the promoter of the original trust.
But as it affects him coming it also affects him going.
Grains collected over a large territory have to be collected
at certain central points in order to be graded and redis-
tributed for general consumption. Consequently the produce
of the farmer passes into the hands of men in these centers
of business and they realize the profits. This is true of other
agricultural products which are raised in such small quanti-
ties by the individual that he is unable to compete with much
advantage to himself, but the owners of the concentrated
wealth get the profit for these combinations that rightfully be-
long to the producer. These combinations to the detriment
of the farmer even exist to some extent in the retail busi-
ness and strange to relate in a recent investigation of trusts
by the legislature of New York it was discovered that a milk
trust for the retailing of milk in New York had been formed
and that they paid the farmer a fixed price of 3 cents a
quart for his milk for which they charged the consumer 8
cents, or a profit of over 100 per cent. And to quote Mr.
Hobson again, page 141, we may say that:	“Hence it arises
that the prices paid by the consumer for farm produce are
picked pretty close by various groups of monopolists or re-572
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
stricted competitors before any of them get back to the farmer
or first producers.”
A crisis is before us. Citizens of all classes and espe-
cially that corner stone of American prosperity, the Amer-
ican farmer, are in danger. Protection for him and indirectly
protection for ourselves seems to be our imperative duty.
Some plan must be devised that will prevent the robbery of
our producers and which will take the farmer, as one man
puts it, “from that place which he occupies where he is
more at the mercy of trusts and other combinations than
any other body of producers.” The trust compels him to
pay more for what he buys then gives less for what he sells.
His position is pitiful considering his numerical importance
in the community. The trusts are bleeding him and an Eng-
lish writer says that, “The position of the American farmer,
crushed between the upper and nether millstones of monopoly,
is one of pathetic impotence.”
While this is partly true, it is partly false. It may appear now
as “pathetic impotence,” but it should not seem so much longer.
Let the American farmer rise from his lethargy and show his
strength at the polls where it is the right of every American
citizen to stand up for his rights and the rights of others.
Let him show to others that his position is not one of “pathetic
impotence,” but that he has the power and that he can use
it to help himself and the community. Then at the dawn of
a new era he can have himself to thank for the good that he
has accomplished. Let his battle cry be, “The trusts are
hostile to me, hostile to my friends and hostile to goo'd Amer-
icanism and I, too, will be hostile to the trusts themselves.”
ANDREW J. OSBORNE.
The national banking system is an unconstitutional system
of money, is destructive of the rights of the people and a
menace to free government.
On the theory that:	“An ounce of prevention is better
than a pound of cure,” I call attention to the national bank
note, which I hold in my hand. It reads upon its face:
“The First National Bank of Chicago will pay the bearer onANDREW /. OSBORNE.	573
demand five dollars more or less.’’ A bank note is a debt
then on the part of the bank issuing the same.
Bank notes are corporation debts and individual credits
to the persons holding them. United States notes are na-
tional or public debts and likewise credits to the persons hold-
ing them.
Suppose A, a wealthy farmer, borrows of the banker
five thousand dollars in the notes of the bank, which notes
are their indebtedness issued to A and become his credit from
the bank. A issues to the bank his indebtedness, a note for
five thousand dollars, which becomes the bank’s credit, and
a demand against A. The banker’s notes are demand for
money. Thus it will be seen that A’s note is the banker’s
credit and the banker’s note A’s credit, and both are a de-
mand for money. Yet the bankers exchange notes with the
people, who are the owners of the wealth and wealth pro-
ducers, who must redeem the banker’s notes as well as their
own.
Thus it will be seen that the banker made A pay him for
the use of the bank indebtedness as a medium of exchange.
I will here introduce the law showing the power of the
bank note passed by Congress:	Section 23 of the National
banking law provides that such notes shall circulate the same
as money and shall be received in all parts of the United
States in payment of taxes, excises, public lands and all
other dues except for duties on imports, and also for all
salaries and debts and demands owing by the United States
to individuals or corporations and associations within the
United States except interest on the public debt and in re-
demption of the national currency.
Section 32 provides that:	“Every association formed or
existing under the provisions of this act shall take and re-
ceive these notes at par for any debt or liability to said asso-
ciation, existing under and by virtue of this act.
The bankers have converted their real wealth into national
bonds from which they draw a liberal income, and then they
have an indebtedness issued to them as notes. Notes are
always an indebtedness on the part of the giver and credits574
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
to the holder. This indebtedness—notes—is loaned to the
people as money. This is surely expertness in finance, when
the bankers make the farmers pay the interest on the banker’s
indebtedness, and yet make them furnish the security for bonds
and bank notes. Then, according to the law of Congress,
the people are compelled to pay interest to the bankers for
the use of their corporation debts to circulate as money.
No matter how much fear of banking corporations or lackey
respect for their owners may refine phraseology concerning
them, the men who operate a dishonest system of money to
obtain the wealth of others, without an equivalent service, are
dishonest. Banking and loaning bank notes as money is a
bunko game and the financial experts who are advocating
corporation control of money are bunko steerers. The solu-
tion of the problem consists in recognizing labor as private
capital, which is the private property of all, and money as
public capital the property of all. When the power to issue
and loan money at three per cent is vested in the govern-
ment, the competition in business will be increased to lower
incomes, that is now crushing private capital—labor.
Our present monetary system and that of Great Britain
is founded on injustice, falsehood and greed and needs mysti-
fication to cover up its deformity, which is being furnished
largely by the American press and modern financial expert.
The only paper money a nation can properly use is the na-
tion’s debt put in circulation as a medium of exchange. In
this kind of money the people are all stockholders.
The banks issue notes, the people are compelled to use
these notes as money or suffer financial disaster. The bunko
steerers in Congress made a law that the people must use
these notes for money or go without a medium of exchange.
Now, if some confidence man in any big city of the United
States should get hold of some innocent man, not well in-
formed, and victimize him out of two or three hundred dol-
lars and get caught at it he would be sent to the penitentiary
for a number of years. Yet the loaning of bank notes as
money, when clearly understood, is a confidence game forANDREW J. OSBORNE.	575
which every person engaged should be tried for and convicted
of getting property under false pretenses.
The law that permits this practice is an evidence of the
criminal ignorance of the man who made it, or if they chose
the other horn of the dilemma and admit the greater crime of
betraying the confidence of their constituents, they knowingly,
maliciously and viciously, for personal popularity or gain
committed this unpardonable sin against the life, liberty and
happiness of their fellow men. Such laws are a disgrace to
civilization, are a disgrace to the intelligence of the people who
make them and a contradiction of their honesty, and the sooner
they are wiped out the better. All these corporations, whether
of England or America, are cunningly devised schemes of rob-
bery of the industries of the world.
Legal tender is that which the law authorized in payment
of debts. Legal tender partakes of distinct qualities and asso-
ciations. Things of material existence as articles of wealth are
legal tender in specific contracts, in the sale or purchase of any
kind of property or goods, when the property or goods tendered
are according to contract in quantity or quality, and within the
time specified in the contract. This is law and will establish
the right of the nation to pay the bonds in coins of gold and
silver as to weight and fineness as specified in the contract.
The legal tender of money is a function that adheres to and
is an attribute that belongs to all national money, that is, all
money issued by the nation, be the money coins of gold or
silver or be it paper money. The legal tender function does not
follow because of any inherent quality in the metals, gold or
silver, but because the United States has placed the national
stamp on that which should always be accepted by the people
of the nation as a guarantee of their acceptance by the nation
for their face value, for all debts, public and private, within the
jurisdiction of the United States. The legal tender serves a
necessary purpose as there is always a demand for a legal
means of payment. In the commercial relations of the people,
debts are made and contracts forfeited which have to be settled
in money; hence the necessity of the legal tender function being
recognized in all money issued by the nation. The legal tender576
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
quality is an attribute and an inherent condition that follows
as a natural sequence to the nation’s paper money if not legis-
lated against.
The debt of the nation is the debt of all the people. Notes
always represent a debt. The nation’s notes are the notes of
all the people, and as such are a legal tender to all the people.
Any legislation that deprives the nation’s notes from occupy-
ing their full power as a legal tender to all the people and to all
purposes is contrary to all well established principles of law.
The legal tender is the most powerful function of money; it
inheres in the nation’s notes, and is supported by the most
clearly defined elementary principles of law. The legal tender
is inherently the attribute of all national money. The notes of
a corporation cannot be a legal tender, nor honestly perform
the office of exchange and the payment of any debts or taxes
except those due to the corporation. To retire the nation’s
notes, greenbacks, or to deprive them in part or in whole of the
legal tender function is to discredit our own notes and to dis-
honor our public debt. The punishment follows in the form
of bondage to all wage workers and to agricultural industries
or any other industry not protected by tariff legislation.
Every dollar issued by national authority, whether on paper,
gold or silver, is a public contract with the public that such
dollars will be accepted in our markets in trade and commerce,
and will be redeemed by our people in any and all forms of
wealth exposed for sale in our markets.
As long as the confiding public can be confidenced into pay-
ing the bank’s promises in wealth to each other, thereby float-
ing the bank notes in the markets of the nation, and paying
interest for the privilege of using the bank debts as money,
and believe that this is money reform, there will be no advance,
and there can be no permanent prosperity for the industrial
classes in this nation. To remove the legal tender function and
cease to use the nation’s notes as money and bestow it on the
notes of corporations are two unconstitutional acts of a very
grave character. They are offenses against the people who
create the wealth of the nation. An intelligent people, when
directed to the facts, will demand the removal of this wrongA. B. H'ESTRUP.	577
and the further use of the nation's notes for money as a full
legal tender.
The pro-British influence in the majority of our Congress
and all departments of our national government is truly dis-
gusting to behold. The ruling dynasty, Hanna, McKinley and
Gage, supported by a Wall street majority in Congress, have
for a number of years been industriously forcing upon the
nation, in partnership with the financiers of England, that
labor-robbing scheme known as the gold standard, which is to
be followed by a banking trust copied from England’s banking
system. When this is done one short step more—to invest Mc-
Kinley with the power of an emperor, establish the gold stand-
ard, pass the present banking law that is now before Congress,
let it become rooted in our commercial systems, and the English
aristocracy will have gained a foothold in America. Money
will rule the nation, industrial serfdom will prevail, the masses
must learn to spell masses without the m.
A. B. WESTRUP.
I shall make some very extraordinary statements to you.
One of these statements is that a theory, a philosophy which
claims to be a solution of our economic evils has been strug-
gling for nearly half a century in an unsuccessful effort to get
a hearing; and this, notwithstanding the fact that the literature
that presents this philosophy goes deeper into the subject and
analyzes it more minutely than the literature of any of the
other theories.
Another extraordinary statement, as you will undoubtedly
admit, is that the real issue involved in the money question
has never been discussed by the public generally, is not alluded
to in the text books, and is entirely absent from the literature
known to the public at large.
I will venture to say that these and other statements I shall
make are of such an extraordinary character that many of you
will turn a deaf ear and regard them as preposterous. But
why should you? Were not telegraphy, the electric light, and
many other marvelous achievements once considered impossi-57*
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
ble by many? The very fact that neithter the “gold standard,”
free coinage of silver nor a purely government credit money,
are regarded as the final solution of the money question, would
seem to be good reason why we should entertain any proposi-
tion, however extraordinary it might appear; otherwise, how
do we know but that the very one we reject as preposterous
is the very one that affords the satisfaction we are in search of.
It will no doubt appear strange to you to hear it asserted that
there should be no money lenders; -and that savings banks are
economic contradictions. As stock companies which were for-
merly engaged in the life insurance business have disappeared
and have been substituted by the mutual companies, so will
the money lenders disappear when the mutual feature is ap-
plied to the issue of credit money.
The issue of paper or credit money by means of a system
which has incorporated the mutual or co-operative principle
is simply the extension of the clearing-house method. If
bankers can organize a clearing-house association and relieve
themselves from a scarcity of currency by issuing clearing-
house certificates, why may not business men and manufac-
turers and other men and women organize a credit association
and issue certificates of credit to relieve themselves from a
scarcity of currency which has enforced a credit instead of a
cash system and made monopoly possible? If the security
upon which bankers loan their money secures them against
loss would it not just as well secure the holders of credit cer-
tificates against loss if placed in the hands of responsible
trustees? It will hardly be denied that the clearing-house
certificates are as reliable as any credit money that we know
of. Will it be contended that only bankers can furnish such
reliability?
If we would only imitate Columbus when he stood the egg
upon end; if we would only break the superstition and mys-
tery that enshrouds this subject, and exercise common sense,
we would readily comprehend that the present system for sup-
plying paper money is an absurdity, an outrage, the very foun-
dation of monopoly which is the trust evil.
But I will present this in more academic style.A. B: IVESTRUP.
5f9
Let us proceed by the inductive method of reasoning. We
will ascertain the definitions of the term money and also deter-
mine the relation of the article money to man and civilization.
It is too elementary to argue that money is the medium of ex-
change. We are all agreed on that point. What we need to
consider is the nature of money and its supply. If we examine
a coin we see that it is made of a metal, a product of labor
that is a commodity which is bought and sold; that a coin,
after the stamp on it has been obliterated, can be sold; it still
has market value. We arrive at the -conclusion, therefore,
that coin money can very properly be designated commodity
money.
If we examine paper money we find that the material of
which it is made is a commodity, but the value of that com-
modity, in proportion to the face value of such money, is too
insignificant to be considered. We cannot therefore class it
as commodity money. Further examination reveals the fact
that it is credit—a form of credit. But credit must have a
relation to some individual or association. Let us bear in mind
these points as we proceed. So far we have concluded that
money is a medium to facilitate the exchange of the products
of labor; that coin money differs from paper money in that
the former is commodity money, while the latter is credit
money; and that credit must be the credit of some individual
or association of individuals. Now let us briefly consider,
for I must be brief, what it is that naturally limits the supply
of money. Various metals are coined into money and it is
evident we cannot have more than there is metal to make it of.
In other words, the volume of this kind of money is limited to
the available quantity of the metals they are made of. On the
other hand, credit money is not limited in the same way; the
material of which it is made is unlimited; but since it is credit
it must have a limit, for credit cannot be unlimited; and it
naturally follows that security which makes credit good inde-
pendent of character will make paper money good. We find
therefore that the natural limit to the volume of paper or credit
money is security.ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
580
If we now compare the nature of money and the natural
limit to the supply, as here presented, with the demands of
civilization and the right of the individual, we can arrive at
a definite conclusion as to the defects of our present system
of money and the aid it affords monopoly.
The demands of civilization in connection with the medium
of exchange may be stated thus: I. That there shall be a
sufficient volume or quantity to enable all business to be con-
ducted for cash. 2. That it shall be of the kind that is the
most portable. 3. That it shall be that which costs the least.
4. That it shall be absolutely reliable.
The right of the individual in this connection may be ex-
pressed in these few words: That there shall be equal oppor-
tunity to obtain it. This must be conceded, for if we furnish
credit money to some who put up security, on what grounds
shall we deny it to others who put up security ?
Now to what extent does our present money system conflict
with these requirements, and what is its relation to monopoly?
1. That business is not transacted for cash, except to an
exceedingly small amount, is known to all. 2. Exclusive of
all subsidiary coin, a large proportion of our money is gold
and silver which is not the most portable. 3. Instead of using
all credit money which costs the least we are using much coin
money which is very costly and in consequence forcing bor-
rowers to pay for it all the market will bear. 4. Credit money
which is based partly on credit, partly on confidence and partly
on gold cannot be classed as absolutely reliable. As to the
right of the individual, it is totally ignored. The government,
which is regarded as the agent of the whole people, selects a
few individuals, and, on the pretext that they have better se-
curity than the others, furnishes them with credit money, on
gold deposited, free of charge; on United States bonds, half
of 1 per cent per annum.
Now let us examine the pretext for this discrimination be-
tween citizens.
The credit money which is furnished by the government to
national banks on a deposit of United States bonds as well as
that obtained on a deposit of gold (gold certificates) is loanedA. B. WESTRUP.
58i
on every kind of security, from small objects worth a dollar to
a block of buildings, a manufacturing plant or an entire rail-
road. The fact that money is loaned on these things proves
that they are good security, otherwise money lenders would
not loan on them. I have shown that paper money is a form
of credit, and my object now is to show that borrowers are
deprived of their right by being compelled under the present
system to borrow money lenders’ credit instead of using their
own credit as they could if a system with the mutual feature
and which complied with the condition required by civilization
and the right of the individual were put in operation. If an
individual can freely obtain credit of a merchant or manu-
facturer, it is because he owns wealth which constitutes se-
curity, and I contend that society should provide the means
whereby he may obtain his credit in the form of paper money
instead of in the form of goods and be relieved from the in-
terest he pays either on the deferred payment for the goods he
buys on credit or the interest he pays the money lender who
enables him to pay cash. In other words, I contend for the
right of the individual who is entitled to credit to obtain it in
the form of paper money if he so elects.
The present system of money denies that right and there
is no escape from being robbed as I have shown.
Now as to the relation that this iniquitous system has to
monopoly. I believe the volume of paper money in this coun-
try is about $1,000,000,000. The mortgage indebtedness is
at least twenty times that much. The system which I propose
and under which all borrowers with security would obtain
new bills right from their source—the printing press, instead
of getting them second hand as they do now would furnish
from this source alone twenty times as much money as we
have now.
Think for a moment what would become of monopoly when
for every two dollars of security, for a limited time, one dollar
in credit money could be obtained from its source. With
eighty billions of wealth we could have forty billions of paper
money. Interest would be reduced to half of 1 per cent to all
borrowers. Money lenders would be forced out of the business.582
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
The fierce competition which now keeps down compensation
for labor would cease, for the capitalists would compete for the
laborer instead of the laborer competing for the capitalists.
There would be a surplus of capital instead of a surplus of
labor. There would be forty dollars to hire labor where there
is one now. Monopoly’s irresistible foe.
The control of the supply of money is indispensable to the
existence of monopoly. Free money is the remedy. I know
that critics will come forward with arguments to refute what
I have presented as the correct theory of money. They will
contend that my system has no gold basis; or that it would
result in wild-cat banking; or that the money of such a system
would not be legal tender. But I contend that the gold basis
theory is as absurd as it would be to assert that the country
would be ruined if we did not all wear silk hats or make our
furniture of cast iron. Time will not permit me to debate
these points now, but let us debate them to a finish as soon as
possible. Put up the best man you have and I, single-handed,
will overwhelmingly refute with facts and logical argument
all the combined assaults from Goldville or anywhere else, and
I will use not one of the stock arguments of the greenbackers
or free silver advocates to do it.
Be not deceived any longer. The real money question has
not yet become a public issue.
LEGRAND BYINGTON.
Mr. Byington called attention to the following points:
1.	That the charges against trust monopolies made by the
committee in their call were all true.
2.	That the trusts are habitually guilty of the following ad-
ditional offenses:	Corrupting legislation, bribing courts, pur-
chasing juries, suborning witnesses, subsidizing public officers,
juggling with unclean politics, etc.
3.	That universal and free competition, in all lines of human
production, labor and exchange of commodities, was the funda^
mental and irrepealable law of all healthy business.LEGRAND BY IN GT ON.
583
4.	That this world-wide industrial and trade philosophy
had, to a large extent, been superseded by trust combinations,
“whose development and prodigious capacity for evil were the
marvel and terror of our industrial humanity.”
5.	That the origin of these gorgons of monopoly was, in
the main, “in the loose and excessive grants of corporation
franchises, whose expanding influence and movements over-
shadowed the land.”
6.	That society’s highest interests demanded that these
“engines of spoliation should be shorn of their tremendous
facilities for extortion.”
7.	That this could only be done by subjecting them to the
strictest mandatory and restrictive provisions of state laws,
in respect both to their creation and management.
8.	That other forms must develop details of this reforma-
tory legislation; but that this conference should insist upon
the following specifics in charter grants: 1. No share or stock
certificate to issue until paid for 100 cents to the dollar. 2. Each
share to be forever equal to every other in power and intent.
3. “Watering” to be outlawed with severe penalties. 4. Joint
interests, “pooling,” combinations, consolidations, etc., effect-
ually prohibited. 5. Net earnings in excess of 6 per cent per
annum dividends to go into the public treasury for the use of
the state. 6. All corporation stock to be listed by the com-
pany for taxation as other personalty, and the taxes paid there-
on by the company to be pro-rated among the stockholders.
7. Principal officers of the company to give bonds for honesty,
and be made personally liable for corporate debts and damages
resulting from their malfeasance. 8. Alphabetical lists of
stockholders to be constantly posted in all company offices.
9.	All attempts to transact any business other than that spe-
cifically authorized to be cause of forfeiture on complaint of
any private citizen.
9.	That these and such other kindred measures as shall be
found necessary “for the emancipation of a monopoly-ridden
people” should be so aptly and crisply expressed in all charters
as to forestall all exculpatory rulings of obsequious courts.584
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
10.	That the remedy for trust evils must be ascertained by
this League—but a cure must proceed from the American
electorate. And our first concern is with the legislative candi-
date and elective court.
11.	That there is little hope of success, without first over-
throwing a great party—the worst, in all things, that ever
cursed a free country—which has behind it about seven thou-
sand millions of interested trust-money resources.
12.	That in one sense this League is strictly non-partisan.
That is, under no circumstances will its members vote for a
candidate for public position unless he has an established
character for rock-rooted integrity and is known to be iron-
clad in his convictions of the rectitude of our demands.
13.	That whatever our individual opinions may be about
party professions, the claims of no candidate will be consid-
ered who has nothing but a party tag for a recommendation.
14.	That “jumping Jack” politicians as class seeking office
will be snuffed out.
In conclusion Mr. Byington said:
“A heroic figure in our American history, in his parting
advice, warned us that this self-governing people would best
achieve a glorious and beneficent destiny by asking nothing
but what was right, and by submitting to nothing which was
clearly wrong. Let this be the shibboleth of the propagandism
we this day inaugurate. Let the individual citizen be in all
good things and ways exalted; and the selfish schemes of the
confederated corporate cormorants be strangled by the drastic
agency of equal and just laws, wisely framed and faithfully
executed.”
D. A. PETRE.
Mr. Petre’s paper read in part:
Let me illustrate now in as few words and figures the condi-
tions existing in 1890 and those of 1850, according to United
States census reports relative to wealth distribution.
In 1850 the wealth owned by capitalists (the term capital-D. A. PET RE.
585
ists meaning those who do not produce), was eight billion of
dollars; in i860 it represented sixteen billion of dollars; in
1870, thirty billion of dollars; in 1880 it had climbed up to
forty-eight billion of dollars, and in the year 1890 in the same
rapid proportion it had reached the fabulous figure of sixty-
two billion of dollars.
Now let us see where it is distributed. In 1890 the capitalist
class owned seventy-one per cent of the wealth of the nation;
the middle class, twenty-four and one-half per cent; and the
working class four and one-half per cent of the wealth.
Estimated up to date, these conditions have multiplied to
the extent that the capitalist controls eighty-two per cent; the
middle class fifteen per cent of the wealth, and the working
class three per cent. Now, as it is shown by statistics that in
1890 the capitalist represented only nine per cent of the entire
population, the middle class just thirty-nine per cent, and the
working class fifty-two per cent of the whole population of the
country, it is not difficult to draw a fair conclusion, that the
fifty-two per cent of the population who produce all the wealth
have been cheated in the transaction. At the present date,
however, this latter class, according to the best estimates, have
increased to seventy-five per cent, reducing the middle class
to nineteen per cent and the capitalist class to six per cent of
our population; all of which has been accomplished by means
of the trust, favored by special privileges; and it is only by
the special privileges that this octopus could ever have existed.
Now, as the trust has influenced the baneful conditions, as
we understand the situation to be, it is apparent to all that
we must seek a remedy in law. I am not prepared to say that
any suggestions I offer are the only means to the end, because
there are many wiser students of economy in this audience;
but I wish to offer that which to me suggests a partial remedy,
apart from the money trust.
1. The abolition of all import duties on raw materials en-
tering into manufactures controlled by trusts, said duties rep-
resenting a bonus or profit to the few af the expense of exter-
mination of small tradesCo6
ANTI-TRUST CONFERENCE.
2. The control by the general government of all means of
transportation, to be conducted under strict civil service rules,
since under the present system the larger shipper is able, not-
withstanding interstate commerce law, to obtain rebates on
freight, regardless of law, which allows of an additional profit
to the trusts, with flagrant injustice to the smaller producer and
shipper.