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.VOLUME 6, NUMBER 34
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of predatory wealth and that It oven now, con
tains so many members who owe their election
to favor-seeking corporations and are so subserv
iont to their mastors as to prevent needod legis
ation. The popular branch of congress has four
times declared in favor of this reform by a two
thirds vote and more than two-thirds of the states
have demanded it, and yet the senate arrogantly
and impudently blocks the way.
"The income tax, which some in our country
have denounced as a socialistic attack upon
wealth, has, I am please 1 to report, Hie endorse
ment of the most conservative countries in the old
world. It is a permanent part of the fiscal system
of most of the countries of Europe and in many
places it is a graded tax, the rate being highest
upon the largest incomes. England has long de
pended upon the income tax for a considerable
part of her revenues and the English commis
sion is now investigating the proposition to change
from a uniform to a graded tax.
"I have been absent too long to speak with
any authority on the public sentiment in this
country at th'tj time, but I am so convinced of the
justice of the income tax that I feel sure that the
people will sooner or later demand an amend
ment to the constitution which will specifically au
thorize an income tax and thus mako it possible
for the burdens of the federal government to be
apportioned among the people in proportion to
their ability to bear them. It is little short of a
disgrace to our country that while it is able to
command the lives of its citizens in time of war,
it can not, even in the most extreme emergency,
compel wealth to bear its share of the expenses
of the government which protects it.
"I have referred to the investigation of in
ternational controversies under a system which
does not bind the parties to accept the findings
of the court of inquiry. This plan can' be used'
in disputes between labor and capital; in fact, it
was proposed as a means of settling such dis
putes before it was applied to international con
troversies. It is as important that we shall have
peace at home as that we shall live peaceably
with neighboring nations, and peace is only pos
sible when it rests upon justice. In advocating
arbitration of differences between large corporate
employers and their employes, I believe we are
defending the highest interests of the three
parties to these disputes, viz: the employers, the
employed and the public. The employe can not
be turned over to the employer to' be dealt wlh
as the employer may please.
"The question sometimes asked, 'Can I not
conduct my business to suit myself?' is a plausible
one, but when a man in conducting his business
attempts to arbitrarily fix the conditions under
which hundreds of employes are to live and to
determine the future of thousands of human be-
3sh answer without hesitation that he has no
right to conduct his own business in such a way
aa to deprive his employes of the right to life
liberty and the pursuit of happiness To support
this position, I need only refer to . th i
regulating the safety of mines the factory aws
fixing the age at which children can be Sored
The XrT oZVTV1'115 teofTtoSt
him against those who work for him and to"
estrange them from him-a condition depCable
frorn every standpoint. "i"uru.me
"But If it is unwise to make the employer the
2niUBt0di1011. f the rIshts and uteres syof thl
employes, it is equally unwise to give the em
ployes uncontrolled authority over the rights ami
morGelS if ?e ?mpl0yer' he employes are So
more to be trusted to act unselfishly and diin
torestedly than the employers in tL!?,fif'
at present. Is a t.Z "l? OI.ule employe
the workman as mVatZr:"1 -inJure
AZZ&rgtoJ&TSS,
Tint t v a T V ""Bu-eumer mat ought
not to be. Society has, moreover, something
at stake as wail n thn Q;.w ' u,meuu?
SSSLS? .HI"?. -s. ; K
To r ;,n ,, w uie PUU11C- Society, therefore
is justified in demanding that the differences be
tween capital anrl iniim. aimii i, ,' , , es De
fni mftn-no 7 uu holmou oy peace-
i im means. If a rjorrr.fiTmnt tmr.n,.ttni !, ,
Stt ? ." of an" industrial
BHtf X . i aiiyottl or r mcn Cm of its motion in
stituto an inquiry, public opinion way be relied
upon to enforce the finding, if there is compulsory
submission to investigatio it is not necesry XS
there shall be compulsorA acceptance of the de
c sion for a full and faiAinvestigation w n in
almost every case, brine- nhW n noffi ' m
'No reference to the laflbr question is com-
..
The Commoner.
plete that does not include some mention of what
is known as government by Injunction. As the
main purpose of the writ Is to evade trial by jury,,
it is really an attack upon the jury system and
ought to arouse a unanimous protest. However, as
the writ is usually invoked in case of a strike
the importance of the subject would be very much
reduced by the adoption of a system of arbitra
tion, because arbitration would very much reduce,
even if it did not entirely remove, the probability
of a strike.
"Just another word in regard to the laboring
man. The struggle to secure aa eight hour day
is an International struggle1 and it is sure to be
settled in favor of the workingman's contention.
The benefits of the labor saving machine have not
been distributed with equity. The producer has
enormously multiplied his capacity, but so far the
owner of the machine has received too much
of the increase and the laborer too little. Those
who oppose the eight hour day do it, 1 am con
vinced, more because of ignorance of conditions
than because of lack of sympathy with those who
toll. The removal of work from the house to the
factory has separated the husband from his wife
and the father from his children, while the growth
of our cities has put an increasing distance be
tween the home and the workshop. Then, too,
more is demanded of the laboring man now than
formerly. He is a citizen as well as a laborer,
and must have time for the study of public
questions if he is to be on intelligent sovereign.
To drive him from his bed to his task and from
his task to his bed is to deprive the family
of his companionship, society of his servlcd and
politics of his influence.
"Thus far I have dwelt upon subjects which
may not be regarded as strictly partisan, but I
am sure that you will pardon me if in this pres
ence I betray my interest in those policies for
which the democratic party stands. I have not
had an opportunity to make a democratic speech
for almost a year, and no one not even a politi
cal enemy could be so cruel as to forbid me to
speak of those policies on this occasion. Our
opponents have derived not. only partisan pleas
ure, but partisan advantage as well from the divi
sion caused in our party by the money question.
They ought not, therefore, begrudge us the satis
faction that we find in the fact that unexpected
conditions have removed the cause of our differ
ences and permitted us to present a united front
on present Issues. The unlooked for and unprece
dented Increase in the production of gold has
brought a victory to both the advocates of gold
and the advocates of bimetallism-the former
keeping the gold standard which they wanted and
the latter securing the larger volume of money
for which they contended. We who favor bimet
allism are satisfied with our victory if the friends
of monometallism are satisfied with theirs. And
we can invite them to a contest of zeal and endur
ance in the effort to restore to the people the
rights which have been gradually taken from them
by the trusts.
"The investigations which have been In pro
gress during the past year have disclosed the
business methods of those who a few years ago
resented any inspection of their schemes and hid
their rascality under high-sounding phrases.
Ihese Investigations have also disclosed the
source of enormous campaign funds which have
been used to debauch elections and corrupt the
ballot. The people see now what they should
have seen before, namely, that no party can ex
terminate the trusts so long as it owes Its po
litical success to campaign contributions secured
from the trusts. The great corporations do not
contribute their money to any party except for
Immunity expressly promised or clearly implied,
a lie president has recommended legislation on this
subject, but so far his party has failed to respond.
No Important advance can be made until thi3
corrupting influence is eliminated and I hope that
the democratic party will not only challenge the
republican party to bring forward effective legis
lation on this subject, but will set an example by
refusing to receive campaign contributions from
corporations and by opening the books so that
every contributor of any considerable sum may be
known to the public before the election. The great
majority of corporations are engaged in legiti
mate business and have nothing to fear from hos
tile legislation and they should not be permit
ted to use the money of the stockholders to ad
vance the political opinions of the" Offl
cf FS , , J? , he corporations. Contributions
should be individual, not corporate, and no party
can afford to receive contributions even from in
dividuals when the acceptance of those contri
butions secretly pledge the party to a course
wh en it can not openly avow. In other words
politics should be honest, and I mistake political
'.
conditions In America if they do not presage im
provement in the conduct of campaigns.
"While men may differ as to the relative Im
portance of issues, and while the next congress
will largely shape the lines upon which the next
presidential campaign will be fought, I think
it Is safe to say that at present the paramount
issue, in the minds of a large majority of the
people, is the trust issue.
"I congratulate President Roosevelt upon the
steps which ho has taken to enforce the anti-trust
law and my gratification is not lessened by the
fact that ho has followed the democratic rather
than the republican platform in P.vnrv hfinn
he has made. It has been a great embarassment r
to him that the platform upon which he was
elected was filled with praises of the republican' ' .
party's record rather than with promises of re-,""
form; even tjae enthusiastic support given him'
by the democrats has enabled the champions ; of
the trusts to taunt him with following democratic
leadership. He has probably gone as far as he
could go without incurring the hostility of the lead
ers of his own party. The trouble is that the re
publican party is not in a position to apply effec
tive and thorough-going reforms, because it his
built up through special legislation the very'
abuses which need to be eradicated.
"Before any intelligent action can be taken""
against the trusts we must have a definition of a
trust. Because no corporation has an absolute ;
and complete monopoly of any important product,
the apologists for the trusts sometimes insist that'
there are in reality no trusts. Others insist that
it is impossible to legislate against such trusts :"
that may exist without doing injury to legitimate
business. For the purposes of this discussion . '
it is sufficient to draw the line at the point where,
competition ceases to be effective and to designate
as a trust any corporation which controls so much
of the product of any article that it can fix the "
terms and conditions of sale.
"Legislation which prevents monopoly not s'
only does not injure legitimate business, but act-'
ually protects legitimate business from injury.'
We are indebted to the younger Rockefeller for"
an illustration which makes this distinction clear." ' -'
In defending the trust system he is quoted as say- si
ing that as the American beauty rose can not ,'"
be brought to perfection without pinching off .
ninety-nine buds, so that the one hundredth4 ''bmr ' '
can receive the full strength of the btisli, so great "' ' r
industrial organizations are impossible without
the elimination of the smaller ones. It is a cruel
illustration but it presents a perfectly accurate
picture of trust methods. The democratic party (
champions the cause of the ninety-nine enter
prises which are menaced; they must not be sac
rificed that one great combination may flourish ' :
and when the subject is understood we shall re
ceive the cordial support of hundreds of thousands
of business men who have themselves felt the op
pression of the trusts or who, having observed
the effect of the trusts upon others, realize that'
their safety lies, not in futile attempts at the
restraint of trusts, but in legislation which will . v
make a private monopoly impossible !
"There must be no mistaking of the issue and
no confusing of the line of battle. The trust, as
an Institution, will have few open defenders. The
policy of the trust defenders will be to insist upon
reasonable regulation' and then they will rely up
on their power to corrupt legislatures and to intim
idate executives to prevent the application of any
remedies which will interfere with the trusts.
Our motto must be: 'A private monopoly is in
defensible and intolerable,' and our plan of attack
must contemplate the total and complete over
throw of the monopoly principle in industry
We need not quarrel over remedies. We
must show ourselves willing to support
any remedy and every remedy which
promises substantial advantage to the peo
ple in their warfare against monopoly. Some
;?ing 1lsft0,be expected from the enforcement of
the criminal clause of the Sherman anti-trust law,
but this law must be enforced not against a few
trusts as at present, but against all trusts, and
tne aim must be to imprison the guilty, not merely
to recover a fine. What is a fine of a thousand
dollars or even ten thousand dollars to a trust
which makes a hundred thousand dollars while
the trial is in progress?
"If the criminal clause is not going to be en
forced it ought to be repealed. If imprisonment ""
is too severe a punishment for the eminently Ve- ''''
spectable gentlemen who rob eighty millions of -people
of hundreds of millions of dollars annually-'
the language of the statute ought to bo changed'
for nothing is more calculated to breed anarchy '
than the failure to enforce the law against rich
criminals while it is rigidly enforced against petty
offenders. But it is not sufficient to enforce ex- -
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