Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1899 — Points Made by Trust Conference Speakers. [ARTICLE]

Points Made by Trust Conference Speakers.

WM. J. BRYAN—I want to start with the declaration that monopoly In private hands is indefensible from any standpoint and Intolerable. * * * The entire defense of the trusts rests upon a wrong argument. ♦ » • But I protest In the beginning against settling every question upon the money argument. I protest against the attempt to drag every question down to the low level of dollars and cents. * » » Money was made to be the servant of man, and I protest against all theories that enthrone money and debase mankind. • ♦ ♦ The first advantage of a monopoly Is to lower the price of the raw material furnished by the people to that combination. * » * When there Is competition every employer has to get a good man to meet competition. * * * I believe we ought to have remedies In both State and nation, and that they should be concurrent remedies. * * * What is the first thing to be expected of a trust? That it will cut down expenses. What Is the second? That It will raise prices. • » ♦ When you prosecute a trust In the United States Court It hides behind State's sovereignty, and when you prosecute it in the State court it rushes to cover under Federal jurisdiction. * • • Congress should pass a law providing that no corporation organized in any State should do business outside of the State in which it is organized until it receives from some power created by Congress a license authorizing ft to do business outside of its own State. * * ♦ If it is unconstitutional and so declared by the Supreme Court, I am In favor of an amendment to the Constitution that will give to Congress power to destroy every trust in the country. W. BOURKE COCKRAN—The remedy, then, is simply to define a practical penalty, a serious one, and then provide for publicity, and if you provide the proper statute of publicity you need" not enforce the penalty. * * * Our patience, our vanities, our hopas, our ambitious are but the delusions which bind us to the cause of human progress, making each one of us discharge some tribute which he owes to all humanity. * * • Any Industrial system which operates to swell the volume of production should be commended: anything that operates to restrict it should be suppressed, * * * I believe "a close study and careful examination will satisfy everybody of this fact, that the great strikes of this country have arisen from the refusal of the employers to discuss the question at issue between them and their employes with the agents that the employes select. ♦ * * Ari industry or a combination of capital, or anything you may choose to call it. that dominates a market restricted competition that delivers the consumer to it on its own terms necessarily depends upon a narrow output and large profits, extorted, not from the excellency of its service, but from the helplessness of those with whom it deals. • * * These are my suggestions: Publicity for corporate mismanagement, prohibition under penalties for special favors, right of action against any corporation whose service is suspended except an absolute defense proved that it was at all times ready to discuss with its employes questions at issue between them by agencies of their selection. GOV. PINGREE—The trust is the forerunner, or rather the creator, of Industrial slavery. • » » increase of wealth of the country is greatly to be considered, but if the people are to be degraded to Industrial slaves wealth under such conditions Is a curse. » • * I favor complete and prompt annihilation of the trust—with dueregardfor property rights, of course. I care more for the independence and manliness of the American citizen than for all the gold and stiver in the world. It is better to cherish the happiness of the American home than to control the commerce of the globe. • • ♦ The degrading process of the trust mean* much to the future of a republic founded upon democratic principles. A democratic republic cannot survive the disappearance of a democratic population. GEN. G. R. GAITHER—The control, regulation and direction of all trusts, whose business is carried on in more than one State, should be placed under the Jurisdiction of Congress. A similar jurisdiction over such combinations operating in a single State AouM be reposed in the respective State Legislatures. JEFFERSON iDAVIS—We have got to reconstruct our judiciary. I am here to say that if we ever have another civ'll war—and God grant we may not—it will be brought about, in my judgment, by judge-made law. SAMUEL H. GREELEY—Bailroads are the "mother of trusts," special rates of freight the food that prolongs their existence. When freight rates are as stable aS postage stamps monopoly will then receive its first blow. JOHN W. HAYES—I further assert and maintain that these great combinations are an assault upon the inherent and constltuSrtiSßsuM: stra as ss potlc control over labor. ■„ ■