Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1907 — “TRUST BUSTING.” [ARTICLE]

“TRUST BUSTING.”

The Indianapolis Star is making an heroic effort for the Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, but when it remembers all those funny things it used to say about him it has a hard time to keep a sober face. It is strange that nobody won’t take no real iuterest in Mr. Fairbanks’ little bubble except Mr. Fairbanks and his moneymade machine.

A good many persons —either straight-out Republicans or those vaccinated with Republican virus —have been fond of talking about Mr. Bryan having “grown rich.’’ It appears that he is assessed for taxation on about $50,000 worth of property of all kinds. And you can bet that be lists all he has and pays taxes to the last cent. Every dollar that he has he has honestly worked for, too.

The net earnings of the steel trust for the three months ending June 30 were $>42,000,000. Its net earnings for the jear will be about 1170,000,000. Most of this enormous profit comes out of the pockets of the American people. The tariff gives the steel trust practically a monoply of the American market and it fixeß prioes to suit itself in the United States. It has just taken a oontract to supply 12,000 tons of steel rails to Japan. These rails are to be good rails and they are sold to the Japanese several dollars less per ton than the trust charges American railroads for rotten rails. As the American public pays for the rails used in this country the excesss over what the rails are fairly worth represents the trust’s stealage. For the license to continue this stealage the trust makes large contributions to the Republican campaign fund.

Congressman Jenkins of Wisconsin is evidently an ass He declares that if the states insist on their rights they will “plunge the country into civil war,” Only a short time ago Secretary Root told the states that if they failed to exercise their rights the general government would be compelled to take things into its own bands. On the other hand Senator Beveridge has made himself ridioulous by talking about "Calhoun state’s rights.” As a matter of fact no man, north or south, east or west, who possesses ordinary common sense, is asking anything for the states which they are not entitled to nnder the federal constitution or wanting to deprive the national government of a single.power conferred upon it by that great document. Fools of the Jenkins •tripe are not fit for congressmen.

Their proper place is in some quiet—-and obscure—lunatic asylum.

The daughter of tqe president of the American Protective Tariff League is about to marry an Italian duke. Her father, who in ad* dition to being the head of the tariff league, is a New York millionaire, proudly consents to the marriage. The tariff has enabled him to get riob off of the American people by keeping ont foreign competition. Being rich he can afford to buy a duke for a son-in-law and set him up in great style abroad on American money. But this man who can import a duke for his daughter is not willing that foreign goods shall be brought into the United States to compel the trusts, by fair competition, to charge American sconsumers reaonable prioes. Like all of the tariff barons and the trust magnates he objects to any reform of the tariff which would reduce his profits and give his fellow countrymen a chance to live. With less profits in his pocket he would be a less desirable papa-in-law for some foreign idler with a title. But the tariff must be reformed, even if the Protective Tariff League does lose a few dukes and lords from the family circle.

The Indianapolis News (Ind. Republican) says: It is all well enough to fight the trust, We believe in that and we applaud the President for every step he takes. But let us not shut our eyes to the facts; and in sober earnest now how much good has this fight done? The trusts are in business at the old Btand just the same. Perhaps under other forms or working through different methods; but the results are the same so far as the consuming public is concerned. Indeed in some instances, as we have noted prices are even higher than they were before the trusts were spectacularly dissolved. The Baltimore Sun does not overstate the situation when it declares: The President has been “trustbusting" for seven years, and if any private citizen in this whole broad land has received any benefit fiom bis evertions—if the price of any one trust-made article has been reduced by the “trustbusting” which has so delighted the country—then the market reports do pot disclose the fact, Let us not be deceived; we are going to have trusts and monopolies until w.‘ begin to tap the sources of their power—until we begin to fight them with the only effective means —that is real competition. As long as prohibitive tariffs exist men can organize completely to control the home market in such a way as to exact from the public the last penny that the “protection” permits. Reduce the tariff from robber figures to reasonable rates and the monstrous exactions of the principal trusts and monopolies will instantly vanish and the tap-roots of these unholy parasites of industry and commerce would be cut.