| Show I WAR AGAINST TRUSTS M C Wetmore Has Consecrated His Life to I t MENACE TO THE NATION t RICH MAN SEES COUNTRYS DESTRUCTION DE-STRUCTION AHEAD I Believes the Trust System More Dangerous Dan-gerous Than Anything That Has Yet Confronted the CountryMore Important He Says Than Financial Finan-cial Issue 4 New York Herald By resigning the presidency of the largest tobacco factory In the world and announcing his intention to consecrate conse-crate his vast wealth and the remainder re-mainder of his life to fighting trusts Moses C Wetmore of St Louis has become be-come a unique and potent figure In American politics He will carry Into this work the energy and brains of a selfmade commercial giant Many many years ago a shabby boy began life as a tobacco stripper in one of the small cigar factories which dotted the country before industrial concentration I began to crush out such pet Individ l ual enterprises This lad worked nara at his nlenial employment and In course of time became an expert cigar maker then a boss Soon he had a subordinate part in the management of the business and later went on the road as a salesman By dint of hard work and shrewd management young Welmore secured the confidence of his employers and I was given an Interest In the concern Years rolled by and the tiny shop had I grown into a great factory with hundreds hun-dreds of employees At last a few years ago the quarters in the congested congest-ed part of the city became too small So in an outlying part of St Louis a vast new factory rose covering mini acre with elevators to lift railroad trains and every facility which ingenuIty Ingenu-Ity could devise a city In itself This was the factory of the Liggett My ers Tobacco company and its president presi-dent the man who controlled and directed I di-rected those great industrial energies Jn energe was the tobacco stripper of long ago Moses C Wetmore From two rooms in a levee tenement with half a dozen workers Including the firm the business had advanced step by step until the eye could not at a single glance compass the wilderness wilder-ness of manystoried buildings and countless lofty chimneys interwoven with a network of railroad tracks and with employees numbering as many thousands as they had in the begInning begIn-ning numbered units This vast system sys-tem had been built by wisdom and foresight fore-sight coupled with honest dealing Many men contributed their best efforts ef-forts but every rivet of the vast structure had felt the powerful blow of President Wetmore One may easily understand the love Wetmore bore for the thing he had created I was in a I certain sense the monument of his lifework His thoughts had entered into every extension had attended the laying of each brick in the lofty stacks Its honor was his honor and he strove to keep both stainless The years that witnessed the building of the great factory brought other things to Mose Wetmore They brought him wealth His share of the profits swelled into millions which he judiciously invested In real estate and he now ranks as one of the wealthiest men in St Louis LouisI < y 1 i > When the influence of trusts first began be-gan to be felt and generally recognized in the west the Liggett Myers Tobacco To-bacco company was at the height of its prosperity The net earnings were over 1000000 a year and the business was continually extending Then the tobacco trust was formed by the big eastern manufacturers The trust soon I realized that without the Liggett Myers and Drummond Tobacco companies com-panies both of St Louis It could not control either the output or the mar ket So its agents were set to work to capture the two biff western outsIders These efforts however met with obsti nate and unexpected opposition Wet more from the first declared he had no sympathy with the object or methods of the trust and declared his independence independ-ence Harrison I Drummond president presi-dent of the Drummond company also declared his intention of staying out and agreed to stand by Wetmore and fight the trust A bitter commercial warfare began Contrary to its expectations the trust could make no headway against the allied al-lied firms Wetmore was triumphant and at the end of the year announced the largest dividend In the history of his company Imagine his disgust when after steadfastly keeping the agreement for two years his ally Drummond listened to the sirens voice and entered the trust with the office of victj president The desertion of Drummond wa a stunning blow and the trust confidently expected Wetmorc to give up the light But his opponents little appreciated the nature of the man On the contrary Wet more called his directors together and made to them an impassioned appeal to stand by their guns His eloquence and arguments prevailed and the directors di-rectors agreed to support their president presi-dent in continuing the tight for independent inde-pendent existence I was then war I I to the anise one uy one au us minor I allies fell and the Liggett Myers company stood alone opposed to the trust Ever method known to trusts wa employed to ruin AVetmores company com-pany but the end o the year showed I over 900000 net profit Failing to win by fighting other means were resorted to Slowly but surely the trust undermined Wetmore in the board of directors In this waIt wa-it finally secured a majority in favor of selling the plant to the combine Heartsick at this desertion in his own ranks Wetmore nevertheless fought bitterly to the last A week ago the annual meeting of the board of directors direct-ors was held I became evident that I a majority had sold out t the trust i In vain did Wetmore argue then storm then plead with tears in his I eyes His associates turned a deaf tar I to his entreaties They offered him the presidency under the trust at a salary of 25000 a year Hot with Indignation Wetmore refused office under the trust and announced his retirement from the concern he had devoted his life to helping help-ing build A new president and other officers were elected and Wetmore left the meeting after warning the directors direct-ors of the consequences of their act I was nearing the hour when labor in the vast factor ended for the Jay I For the last time Wetmore walked sadly through the buildings To some of the foremen he told the news of his severance from the company I spread with the rapidity of a prairie fire Half an hour later when Wetmore emerged from the l great arch 01 tne rectory his I 1tfl en former employees to the number of 4000 filled the street and blocked his way On the teps he paused and permitted his dimmed vision to wander over the sea of upturned faces He saw there boys In shirts and aprons just as he had once dressed their fingers stained brown from stripping he saw gray haired men who with him had witnessed wit-nessed and assisted the building of the his trusted employees factory and friends On many of those faces there were tears and ort all concern and regret re-gret The crowd saw a man past the prime of life plainly dressed his bared head tinged with gray his face tearstained tear-stained and deep sown with lines of I strong emotion His old f employees crowded around and shook Colonel AVetmores hand until it was sore So ended an unusual and affecting sexeS I S A > t1M which finally several a man from a thing ot his making As he walked through the crowd on his way to a trolley car Mr Wetmore drew a piece of tobacco from his pocket and threw I on the ground I will not chew trustmade tobacco he exclaimed From this moment I cease to use the leading brand manufactured manu-factured by this iniquitous combine and I want you and your friends to follow fol-low my example < 2 > < < > < 1 Although M C Wetmores name is little known in national politics his influence in-fluence has been farreaching His hand has been felt rather than seen I For many years he has worked quietly in the ranks of the Missouri Democracy Democ-racy and vas known to the state committee com-mittee as a liberal contributor to the campaign fund Not however until three years ago did his power extend beyond the boundaries of his state In 1S9G the prominence of the silver question thrust Missouri for the first tTie into a sphere of national influence influ-ence Richard Parks Bland was the recognized apostle of the movement in favor of the white metal As the time for the national convention approached a number of prominent Missourians put their heads together and decided that the states opportunity had come to make itself felt State Senator John Farris a warm personal friend of Bland had already heralded the silver champion as the man to lead the new Democracy to victory The politicians saw that the Bland movement had genuine vitality and decided de-cided not to obstruct i But there was no money to engineer the Bland boom In this emergency Wetmore came to the rescue with the result that Bland went to the convention with over 200 conventon delegates pledged What happened at Chicago is history Bland refused to be dragged from his farm near Leabnon into tne turmoil To frantic telegrams from his managers asking acquiescence to this or that deal he returned the invariable reply re-ply I desire only the good of the party The convention must do whatever what-ever it considers best So a hundred votes short of the required twothirds the Bland boom lost momentum then began to wane Confident they could not nominate Silver Dick and never very enthusiastic in his favor the men at the head of the Missouri delegation cast about for a satisfactory substitute substi-tute The finger of destiny pointed to William Wil-liam Jennings Bryan But before the forces which were to swing the nomination nomina-tion t Bryan were set in motion the consent ot one man not a politician was considered necessary This man was M C Wetmore When he consented to abandon Bland for Bryan the thing was a good afc settled A short time after the Democratic convention occurred that famous conference con-ference in AVetmores apartments in the Planters hotel when the campaign was mapped out Mr Bryan Senator Jones and Governor Stone of Missouri w represent re-present Several times during the sumner sum-ner the operations of the Democratic national committee would have ceased but for the timely check signed by AVetmore After Bryans defeat Wet more took him Jones and Stone to a shooting box in Arkansas where ways and means for continuing the fight were agreed upon This famous conference con-ference lasted a week Those on the inside believe AVetmore to be individually ually the most influential man in the Democratic party today although he has never held a political position I will be seen therefore that Vet mores declaration of war asainst the trusts is not the vaporing of Impotency I impot-ency He can set in motion influences that will make a great political organi nation tingle through all its members With his brains determination and vealth he is an opponent whom even the greatest aggregations of capital may dread < > < > > < < G I consider that the trust System is more dangerous to the country than nything that ever confronted it said Mr AVetmore when approached by a correspondent The whole thing is promoted by greed and cupidity and not by economy There never was a war fought that so gravely menaced the welfare of the people or the nations as the commercial combines called trusts amassing into a few hands as they do the tremendous power of almost al-most unlimited wealth Knowing as I do the awful power of these pools I I do n t consider that the ie war was = as dangerous to the institutions of the country as this svstem Of vastly greater importance to the people than the financial issue is the question of trusts I should be made the leading issue of the next presidential presiden-tial campaign and everything possible should be done to stamp out the evil before it grows to proportions that will enable it to throttle the people I think the people may be relied upon to settle i and settle it right as they have ulti lately settled ever Important setted every ques ton that has been presented to them for settlement At the rate things are going now it Is easy to see that after all of the industrial dustrial concerns are consolidated into trusts governing and controlling everything every-thing in this or that line of trade it docs not require a great stretch of im gination to conceive that these trusts will be consolidated under one manage icnt This would fix the control of ill commodities and the power to name the price of everything in common use Anybody who knows anything about the power of wealth knows that such a combine would be stronger than the government Itself The courts would be powerless to deal with It or its employees em-ployees and municipal assem biles state legislatures and even the congress of the United States would be subject to its blighting influences Colonel AVetmore admits that he has decided to embark in the manufacture < of tobacco as a member of an independ ent corporation of which he probably will be president This company vill i have sufficient capital to meet the trust on Its own ground and in addition it has been promised the support of the labor unions the tobacco growers the leaf tobacco dealers the retail grocers and warehousemen all over the country coun-try This has already been pledged Already Al-ready there is some talk here of the new corporation purchasing the old Liggett 8 Myers plant In this city Xo definite plan has been matured however how-ever and it cannot be stated that this property will be purchased I it is the latest improved machinery will be put in It and Its capacity will be made equal t the big Liggett Myers plant the largest in the world I it is not sufficient ground will be bought and anew a-new plant will be erected thereon |
