| Show BRY ans REMEDY FOR TRUSTS f great democratic leader makes an indirect reply to bourke cockran the would regulate monopolies by both state and federal laws and if necessary overrule the supreme court by a constitutional amendment why monopolies are Injurious Tariff only partly responsible for trusts watering of stock one of the greatest evils to be overcome F chicago sept 16 the civic federation trust conference at central music hall was addressed today by ool W J bryan the hall was packed la anticipation ot ool bryans reply to W bourke cockran on the trust question it was reported that col bryan bad a set of to present presumably antagonistic to trusts cig they now exist he however denied this saying 1 I have none prepared and I 1 am not sure whether 1 have to prepare any for presentation the speaker was introduced by governor stanley of kansas who acted as chairman of the opening session col bryan spoke in part as follows the trust question has grown in importance within the past two years more trusts have been organized when we come to consider tha capitalization and magnitude of the interests involved than were organized in all the previous history of the country and the people now come face to face with this question Is the trust a blessing or a curse it a curse what remedy can be applied to the curse I 1 want to start with the declaration that monopoly in private hands Is indefensible one trust may be less harmful than another one trust magnate may be more benevolent than another but there Is no good monopoly in private hands and I 1 do not believe it Is safa tor society to permit any man or grona of men to monopolize any one article of merchandise or branch of business the defense of the monopoly is always placed on the ground that it you will allow people to control the market and fix the price they will be good to the people who purchase of them the entire defense of the trusts rests upon a money argument it the trust will sell to a man an article for a dolf lar less than the article will cost under those conditions then in the opinion of some that proves a trust to be a good thing in the first place I 1 deny that under a monopoly the price will be reduced in the second place it under a monopoly the price is reduced the objections to a monopoly from other standpoints far outweigh the advantage that the trust would brine in the early years ot Lincol ns administration he sent message to congress and in that message he warned his countrymen against the oppression of plutocracy he said it was tha attempt to put capital upon an equal footing with it not above labor in the structure ot the government and in that attempt he saw the approach of monarchy lincoln was right whenever you put capital on an equal tooting with labor or above labor in the structure ot the government you are on the road to aiding a government that rests not upon reason but upon force nothing is more important than that we shall in the beginning rightly understand the relations between money and man what is the purpose of the trusts or the monopoly tor when I 1 use the word trust I 1 use it la the sense that the word means monopoly and what is the purpose of monopoly the arst advantage of monopoly Is to lower the price of raw material furnished by the people to that combination the besl thing after you have bought up all the factories Is to close a part of them and turn out fit employment the men who are engaged in them and it you will look over the country you will see where those enterprises terp rises having come under control of the trusts have been closed up and now as monuments tc the wisdom of the trust system As in the case of local strikes and shut cuts the work goes on elsewhere thua preventing serious loss what does it mean with trusts it means that if people employed in one factory are not satisfied with the terms fixed by the employer and they can close down that factory and let the employed emp loyes starve while they go on in other factories without loss to the manufacturers when ia bran oh of the industry Is entirely in the hands of monopoly one man in that industry has to go to one man tor employment and that one man will ax wages as ho pleases and the laboring man will then chare tha buttering of the man who sells the raw material when monopoly has absolute control brains will be U a discount there is no question about it a trust a monopoly can lessen the cost of distribution thera will be no need tor commercial travelers because when anybody wants goods all ho has to do is to write to the one man who has them for aale and say what will you let me have it tor today he cannot only alx the price ot what he sells but he can fix the terms upon which he sells you have to trust that mans generosity and upon his decision upon what Is fair upon one side and upon the other 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 we have not had la this country yet a taste of a complete trust a complete monopoly and we cannot tell what will be the results of a complete monopoly by looking at the results we have followed from an attempt to secure a monopoly because in the attempt to secure the monopoly the monopoly has been lowering in order to rid itself of competition but when it has rid itself of competition what Is to be the result my friends all you have to do is know human nature god made men selfish selfishness Is merely the outgrowth of an instinct of belt preserve tion it Is the abnormal development of a mans desire to protect himself we must recognize mans selfishness and we must make laws so that one must not be allowed to trespass on the rights of others in their efforts to secure advantages tor themselves I 1 believe that society is interested in the independence of every citizen everyone Is interested in this because it a man dies and leaves no provision for his wife and children the burden falls upon society another thing that to my judgment has aided monopoly is a high tariff nobody can dispute that a tariff law import duty enables a trust to charge for its product the price of a similar foreign product plus the tariff now some have suggested that to put everything on the tree list that trusts make would destroy the trusts I 1 do not agree with this statement as it is made so broadly I 1 believe that the high has aided tha trust to collect more than the trust otherwise could collect but I 1 do not believe that you could destroy all trusts by putting all trust made articles on the free list why because it an article can be produced n this country as cheaply as it can be produced abroad the trust could exist without the benefit of any tariff at all though it could not extort so lucli as it could with the tariff and wallo some relief may come with modifications of the tariff we cannot destroy until we lay the axe at the root of the tree and make monopoly impossible by law it has been suggested that discrimination by railroads has aided the trusts there Is no question that discrimination and favoritism secured by one corporation against another has been largely instrumental in enabling a monopoly to become practically a complete monopoly now that can be remedied by laws that will prevent this discrimination and when we prevent discrimination still monopoly may exist the remedy must be complete enough to prevent the organization of a monopoly 1 I believe in addition to a state there must be a federal remedy and I 1 believe that congress has the power to place such restrictions and limitations even to the point of prevention of any corporation organized in one state to do business out ede of that detate col bryan at this point read the famous circular letter advertising the corporation laws of delaware he commented sarcastically on advantages set forth in the letter A person in the audience inquired delaware and new jersey are both democratic states are they not to which mr bryan replied they were not in 1896 he continued 1 I have read this letter in order to show that where a state can seek an advantage tor a corporation po ration of these aggregations of wealth it is not safe to place the people of other detate at the tender mercies of the people of such a state as may desire to secure its running expenses from the taxation of corporations organized to prey upon people outside one method for the annihilation of the trusts has occurred to me and to me it seems a complete method it may not commend itsell to you it la this that congress should pass a law providing no corporation organized in any state could do business outside of the fatato in which it la organized until it rec elvea from some power by congress a license authorizing it to do business outside of its own state applause now it the corporation must come to body created by to acure to do business outi V s f S ff f M aldo the state then that license can be granted upon conditions which will i in the first place prevent the watering of stock lu the second place prevent monopoly in any branch of business and third provide tor publicity as to all of the transactions and business of the corporation it it la unconstitutional and eo de dared by the supreme court I 1 am in favor of on amendment to the constitution that will give to congress power to destroy every trust in the country it has been suggested that no water be allowed in the stock I 1 do no believe that any state should permit any organization or corporation to put a drop of water in the stock of a corporation why should corporations be allowed to put out stock which represents no real value we bad a case in nebraska aher we tried to regulate railroad rates and one railroad in our state was capitalized and bonded for more than five times what Is would cost to duplicate the road and yet the judge held that in fixing rates we bad to consider the watered stock as well as the actual value of the road when the case went to the supreme court a decision was rendered which was in substance that in determining what was a reasonable rate we had to take into consideration many things not measured by the cost of production and you will find that it the watering of stock is permitted then the cry of the innocent purchaser Is raised and you will be told that you must protect the man who bought this stock sly judgment Is that no man can stand in the position of an innocent purchaser who buys stock in a corporation it that stock Is not represented by actual money invested because he can find out what the stock stands tor it he will only investigate some people have tried to separate the laboring man who works in the factory the working man who works on the farms I 1 warn the laboring men in the factories that when they join with the monopolies to crush the farmer as soon as the farmer is crushed the laboring man will be crushed and his ally will be destroyed and in test of endurance the farmer will stand it longer than the laboring man the farmer was the first man on the scene when civilization began and will be the last one to disappear but my friends why should we try to see who could hold out the longer in suffering for one hundred years all nations have looked into this national hope and instruction let us settle these questions let us teach the world the blessings of a government that comes from the people at the conclusion of the speech fhe orator resumed his seat to face a sea of waving arms and storm of cheer three quarters of the audience lett when he had finished |
