Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1900 — MR. JONES’ TRUST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MR. JONES’ TRUST.

DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN STOCKHOLDER IN AN OCTOPUS. Bryan’. Campaign Manager Hold* Cotton Ginnera by the Throat—The Round Cotton Bale Trust and Why Bryan Does Not Denounce IL Senator J. K. Jones, Chairman of the Democrat National Committee, is a defendant in a proceeding brought under the anti-trmt law of Texas. He has company in his trouble. John E. Searles, well known in Wall street as one of the biggest “trust magnates,” is a co-defendant. The Texans have placed these two gentlemen under fire because they are the heaviest stockholders In a concern known as the American Cotton Company. John E. Searles is President of the organization. The Chairman of the Democratic National Committee says his company Is but a “large business concern,” but the Texans—and Texas Is a Democratic State —think differently. It is charged that the Jones-Searles combination constitutes a conspiracy against lawful trade and free competition. The American Cotton Company is a monopoly if there ever was one. Not only is entrenched behind $7,060,000 capital stock, but It is fortified by patents which exclude the possibility of competition. Nlcoll’s Stock Exchange Handbook, a recognized authority, says: “The American Clotton Company is a corporation which controls the patents for machinery and processes in making round lap bales.” “Controls”—that word itself is suggestive of the “octopus.” It is the word over which Mr. Bryan fumed in his St. Louis denunciation of trusts. Every cotton-ginning plant in the South must have one of the machines manufactured by the American Cotton Company. They save time and money. The cotton ginner must make his arrangements with the Jones-Searles combination. It

has exclusive possession of the field. The glnner must come to the terms of the combination. He can deal no place else. He cannot even buy Independence from this $7,000,000 combination. The American Cotton Company refuses to sell its product. It leases Its machines. The manufacturer attaches one to his plant and yearly pays tribute to the American Cotton Company. So great are the profits of this combination that in the short time the concern has been In existence Senator Jones Is said to have risen from the estate of a comparatively poor man until he is now regarded as a millionaire. And the Southern ginners continue to swell the bank account of the Democratic cam palgn manager. William Jennings Bryan, in his denunciation of trusts at St. Louis, gave a list of the great corporations of the country; but he left out the American Cotton Company and the American Ice Company. The others he denounced; but these two great Democratic organizations he ignored. He exclaimed: “Those who attempt to divide private monopolies Into good monopolies and bad monopolies will never make any progress toward the overthrow of trusts.’’ Therefore Mr. Bryan will not succeed as a trust smasher. Even in making his division In monopolies Mr. Bryan showed strong discrimination. He specified such concerns as the Federal Steel Company. Yet this combination is only one of several iron and steel companies In the country. No one Is forced to do business with the Federal Steel. There are the American Steel and Wire Company, the Republic Iron and Steel Company, the National Steel Company, the Carnegie Company, and there are others. But Mr. Bryan made his division in favor of the American Ice Company, which bad absolute control over the prices in New York City, and which, last spring, turned upon the poor of the tenement house districts and added to Its wealth by the suffering of the pov-erty-stricken; and Mr. Bryan also makes his division in favor of a concern which is so strongly fortified that every cotton-ginning plant in the United States is forced to pay tribute to It It depends, when Mr. Bryan denounces trusts, upon whose ox Is being gored. * . Prosperity on the Farm. Between July 2d, 1896, ths date of Mr. Bryan’s first nomination for the Presidency, and July sth, 1900, the date

of his nomination this year, the price of ten of the principal farm products Increased 45.8 per cent. There was not a single decrease in price of these articles, which Include wheat, corn, oats, lard, mess pork, beef, cotton, wool, hay or butter. Against this the increase of the articles bought by farmers was only 19 per cent. There was an. actual decrease In the price of sugar amd tea, and small Increases In the price of rice, sisal. Iron, petroleum, tin plate, leather, sugar and cotton cloth. In every case a bushel of wheat will buy more to-day than It would four years ago. These statements are all official and can be verified from the public records. The assertions of the Democrats and Mr. Bryan four years ago that McKinley’s election would bring misery, have In every case been disproved. The farmers know the difference between distress and prosperity, and they are not likely to vote to bring about that old condition.

"It Sort o’ Looks as If I’d Have to Expand."