The Republican Party And Trust

The attempt of tho Demócrata to I make it appear thatthe I ty is the party of monopoly, and that I ihey are the only true I olists, has nothing butimpudence to rest I upon,- not a single fact supports it. I They talk, many of them, the principie I of free trade, pure and simple, as Mr. I Thurman did in Port Huron ; but I ers like President Cleveland deny any ■wish to bring about free trade. Thus, even granting that free trade would I destroy trusts (as it certainly wouldn't I do) how can the Democratie party lay claim to an anti-trust policy ? WiU Mr Whitman, who talks about the Republican party and trusts bo glibly and ] travagantly as to be absurd, explain it? Here are his premises : 1. Freetrade will destroy trusts ; 2. The Democratie party is for free trade. If we could grant the premises, of course the syllogism would point unmistakably to the Democratie party as the anti-monopoly party. But the trouble with it is that the first premise is an assumption which remains to be proved, and the second is disclaimed by many of the leading Democrats. The president has "protection" arguments in his celebrated message on the tariff, and the list Democratie platform contains "proteetion" arguments. So, even if we could grant the first premise, the second is plainly untrue, and no conclusión favorable to the Democracy could be drawn. That is all, absolutely all, they rest their tremendous assumption of virtue upon. We candidly admit that thus far the Republican party has not perfected a method of "downing" the trusts. Trusts are of such recent origin, and of such marvelous growth, that a wholly new and unexpected and mighty question has suddenly been sprungupon the people. It islike the Democratie party to try to make capital out of them without doing anything to resist their encroachments. The Republican party has not had control of the government during the period that has witnessed the greatest growth of trusts; but tainly it is more likely to do something valuable than the Demócrata are if it gets a chance. In a speech at Danville, Ind., Aug. 2G, 1886, Mr. Harrison said : "I believe the principie of the protection of American industry is well established and well defended by the principies of political economy and by the duties of patriotism. There are one or two things that in some respects are working against it, and one is this abominable and un-American systeru which is recently developed, called trusts- I do not refer to the gas trust at Indianapolis; that is first-rate ; it is the only trust of that sort that I know of that is reallyin the interests of the people- but this sort of thing has come about : The men making steel raHs form an association, and they say, We must not tnake too many steel rails, the price will go down ! And so they say to a steel mili over in St. .Louis, -jnow aon i you niake any rails this year at all ; you let your tires go out ; you can discharge all your workmen, and we will pay you out of the pool enough to niake you a good dividend on your stock or your capital.' And the mili shuts down, turns out the workmen that should be there, and gets out of the pool a good interest on its investnient. We had a whisky poolI don't know that anybody 'would object that they limit the proiiuction, but it will do just as well for illustration. They work it the same way. They say to this distillery, 'Your capacity is a hundred barrels; youmake fifty.' And to another, 'Your capacity is two hundred ; you make a hundred.' And to another, 'Don't you run at all, and we will pay you.' And they pool it all up and tix prices this way. Now this thing is running too far. It is un-American ; it is unpatriotic in my judgment, and you will notice that those who are attacking our tarriff system take their position behind these facts and use them as the ground of their assault. We must flnd some way to stop such combinations. There has recently been an attempt in Pennsylvania, as reported, in the great anthracite coal regions npon which the cities of Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and the people of the seaboard depend, as well as of the West, for much of their winter fuel, to combine together, the railroad and mineowners, and say : 'We will only produce 60 much coal, and we will force the price up.' I believe these things should be made unlawful, prohibited and punished as conspiracies against the people." With Mr.'Harrison as president, and with a Republican congress, trusts would have to hunt their holes, if it is in the power of president and congress to make them.