QUESTIONS oFtHe HOUR A POLITICAL SPEECH DELIVERED BEFORE THE TIPPECANOE CLUB AT FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, C^^A UGUST 9, 1902 By ROBERT S. TAYLOR CONTENTS The Philippine Policy Page 4 Trusts « j2 Tariff Changes « 25 Cuban Reciprocity « 28 The Labor Question. « ,1 Copies Sent Free on Application to E. M. Hulse, Fort WaYxVe, Indiana Questions of the Hour. Wbj' should auybody vote for a dem- ocratic candidate for Congress this year? The people have decided against that party X)n the money question, and Con- gress has put the decision on the stat- ute book. The I'resident's Fourth of July proc- lamation put "Imperialism" to sleep with "Sixteen-to-one;" civil govern- ment exists in the Philippine Islands by act of Congress. There is no more Iiuperialism in Luzon than there is in Indiana. The census, with its marvelous show- ing of the growth of our manufactur- ing industries, has put the finishing touch of demonstration to the argu- ments which long ago convinced the American people of the wisdom of the policy of protection. The democratic party prates about trusts and monopolies but proposes no practicable cure for them and fights ev- ery measure to that end proposed by the republicans. Is there anything more? The path- finders of the democratic party have been hunting it with a candle for months^something to make a fight on, and have not found it. A party that has been uniformly wrong on every great issue for forty jears, and has no new issue to pro- pose, can have nothing to offer the country worth considering. A carpeu- tei-, old enough to be gray headed, who never built a house that would stand alone, is not worth hiring at any price. The country is in a state of unparal- leled prosperity. This condition is not to be attributed unreasonabl© to the wise laws enacted by the republican party; neither is the fact that it has followed those laws a mere coinci- dence. Solid credit and general coufi dence based on sound money have something to do with business as well as seasonable i-ains; and protection is sunshine to industry. The war against Spain brought in its train a number of novel and ditticult quesitions. But they have been so far closed that nothing remains for present action about which there is room for substantial controversy. There are many things in governmental affairs which demand, in the public interest, the freest discussion in advance, or while in progress, but wffich, when done, cannot be undone, and are, there- fore, no longer profitable subjects of debate. The admission of Texas into the Union was once a matter of mueii difference of opinion and violent con- troversy, but would be very unprofita- ble to talk about now. We cannot blot out the fact of Dewey's victory at Manila Bay, nor repeal the Treaty of Paris, nor restore the status in quo in the Philippine Islands. We have on our hands there a tremendous problem of administration; but if the demo- cratic party were iu power it would QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR handle it just as it is being liandled by tlie republicans, to the extent of its ability. There is. nothing in that de- partment of public affairs to justify a man in voting the democratic ticket. Of course, the great majority of i)ieu vote the oltl ticket, whether democrat- ic or republican, year after year. It is perhaps just as well that they do. That habit of the mass of voters im- parts a certain steadiness to the course of affairs, and may save us some vio- lent crises which would occur if every voter made up his mind afresh on the whole merits of the ease at every elec- tion. But there is a large and growing body of voters who do, to a certain ex- tent, make up their minds afresh at evei"y election in view of the whole sit- uation of affairs in the country as they see it, and then vote accordingly. These men are the arbiters'ljetween parties. They are the independent voters, so much in evidence in recent elections. I'hey have not been voting the demo- cratic ticket for eight years. There is no more reason why they should do it now. As for the steady-going republi- can, who habitually votes his party ticket, he will vote it this year with more sense of pride and satisfacciou than ever before. Why need I say more? Upon any question of choice between parties there is absolutely nothing to be said in favor of the democratic party. For the ordinary ijurposes of a campaign speech I might stop right now. But there are questions before the country of the greatest importance and the greatest dithculty; and, I may add, the greatest urgency. The republican party is in power. It is responsible for the wise administration of the gov- ernment. It must meet these ques- tions. We find ourselves, therefore, in this curious situation. The political problems which are demanding the at- tention of those who think for the pub- lic are not so much things at issue be- tween parties, as subjects for consid- eration within the republican party. What shall we do about the Philippine Islands, the Trusts, the Tariff, Cuban reciprocity and the Labor problem? These are the vital questions of the hour. The only profitable use which I know how to make of my time and yours is to talk about them— as a citi- zen to his fellow citizens, in a broad sense, but as a republican to his fellow republicans in a particular sense. THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. When so great and good a man and republican as Senator Hoar feels called on to make such a speech as he made in the United States Senate on the 22nd day of last May, in opposition to the bill creating a civil government in the Philippine Islands, I feel called upon to re-examine my views on the subject to see whether I may not by possibility be all wrong in my no- tions. I want to feel tliat I am right and my party is right on that ques- tion, or else find out where we are wrong, and put myself in the right, at least. As time goes by I find myself dis- posed to take a larger and larger viy force, no doubt. We bought Louisiana, Florida and Alaska, and subjected their inhabitants to our jm-isdictiou with like indifference to their wishes. This has been ovu- practical construc- tion of the Declaration of Independ- ence. Whether right or wrong it acquits us of inconsistency in our dealings with the people of the Philippine Islands. There are more people there than there were in Louisiana, Florida, California, or Alaska; but such a question does not depend on the number of persons affect- ed. If it was and is our duty to consult and defer to the wishes of the millions of people in the Philippine Islands in reference to our proceedings there, ;t was equally our duty toward the hun- dreds of thousands of people in the other places which I have named. I admit, however, that these prece- dents ought not to be taken as settling the question. An inquiry as to human rights is always in order, and in it all precedents are open to re-examination. EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT. The progress of the human race has been along two widely different lines. In one of them it has been a process of evolution in the Darv^inian sense, as cruel and pitiless ns that which goes QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR ou among the beasts of the forest; iu the other it has been a benign process of development. Man, the animal, has fought his way roiiufl the world; tlie stronger races subduing, enslaving, ex- terminating the weaker ones. Tlie man, homo— the nobler man, though often the same man, has utilize! the advantages gained by victory and con- quest to cultivate industry, letters, sci- ence, art and religion. Easter lilies bloom in soil fertilized l)y the blood of massacred women and children. THE RISE AND SPREAD OK JCIVILIZATION. Civilization has not sprung up spon- taneously over the world. It is a plant of rare origin. Its initial appearance has been limited in the world's his- tory to a few races and places. In some favoring locality a strong race appears having self-contained powers of growth. It outstrips its neighbors and outgrows its home territory; an I by commerce, colonization and conquests it carries its dominion and its institu- tions to other lands. The greatest ex- amples in history of such races are the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. We can hardly imagine what the world would have been if these nations had not existed. Their conquests were at- tended by many wrongs and cruelties. But the benefits to mankind which have followed them, and will continue to follow them, through all the future life of the race of men, outweigh these, thousanc's to one. There are some races of men which appear to be incapable of civilization. When brought into contact with its conditions they melt away, as our North American Indians did. Others, like the New Zealanders, can have a degree of civilization pounded into them which will contribute to their happiness and make them useful mem- bers of the world's societj'. Otliers only want a little help— just to be led by the hand. Of such are the Hindus, the Chinese, and the Central American peoples. None of them are or were barl)ariaiis. They are inheritors of ancient and decayed civilizations. But tliey have not the modern impulse, uor the power to awaken it ■v^athin them- selves. We are bound to lielieve that the highest good of mankind is to be found in the universal dissemination of the modern civilization — tlie houses, the clotlies, the education, the books, the arts, the machines, the manufacture, the commerce, which have lifted up life in Europe and America to the highest plane ever reachetl by man. It is also true that nothing can be more certain than that there are millions of people in tropical and oriental coun- tries who cannot attain that civiliza- tion by unaided efforts of their own, but to whom it must be taken with a greater or less degree of compulsion. There is not to be any sudden change in human nature. The experience of five hundred years is not to be re- versed. The world will achieve its pro- gress in the years to come as it has in the past— through more or less of tra- vail and pain. JAVA AND MADAGASCAR. Let me illustrate my thought. Java and Madagascar are two great tropical islands lying in the same quarter of the globe. Java has been under the dominion of the government of Holland for about 300 y,pars. Madagascar has never been under the dominion of any foreign power until the French took possession some five or six years ago. Java has an area of nearly 50,000 square miles; or about one and a half times that of Indiana. It has a popu- lation of 25,000,000, being ten times that of Indiana, or over 500 to the square mile. About one in 500 of the population are Europeans. It is a per- fect hive of industry. Its productions are among the choicest and best things which old mother Earth yields to man. Last year it produced ninety million pounds of coffee, and twelve million pounds of tea, with seven hundred U( J<>1 I ( »>:!!> Ul THK H<»l l; ilioiisaud ions uH sugar to sweeten them with. Just thiuk of the break- fast tables and the supper tables made fragrant with that coft'ee and tea, and the possibilities of pies and cakes from that sugar, and then tell me where in the world the acres are made to do more service to mankind than in the island of Java. But that is not all. That island pro- duced in 1899 (I have not the figures for 1900 and 1901) forty-eight million pounds of tobacco; eight hundred thousand pounds of cinchona^ or Pe- ruvian bark, Avliich is the material from which quinine is made, and enough, one Avould think, to cure the ague for all mankind; and a million seven hundred thousand pounds of in- digo. All this does not include the principal crop, which is rice, the universal food of the natives, of which they raise all of their own supply, besides a large surplus for export, the most of Avhich goes to Borneo and China. The ex- ports of all commodities from the isl- and for 1899 v,-ere valued at $100,000,- (K)0, and the imports at .$70,000,000, making a total foreign trade of seven dollars per capita. The people of Java are not highly civilized, but they are peaceable, prosperous, contented and happy. Madagascar has an area of about 225,000 square miles, or seven times that of Indiana, and a population, ac- cording to the latest authority, of about 2,244,000, or nearly the same as that of Indiana. It is a country of incal- culable capabilities. Its broad low- lands next the shore are covered with interminable and unbroken forests. It has vast areas of fertile, elevated, well watered table lands, with healthful cli- mate, beautiful scenery, and capacity for great variety of productions. It could support a hundred million people as well as Java can support twenty-tive millions. Its inhabitants are not savages by any means. They have organized gov- ernments, wear clothes of their os\u manufactin'o, and live in settled habi- tations. Missionaries have been at work among them, and in a certain sense have Christianized a considerable number of them. But their political in- dependence has left them free to live as their heathen ancestors lived before them for centuries past. They have no <'onsciousness of the world's prog- ress. They have no wagon roads, much less railroads. They know practically nothing of machinery and its uses. They make nothing to sell and have no money to buy with. A few traders in tljo sea coast towns do a little busi- ness. The total exports from the coun- try in 1900 v,-ere only .$2,125,000, and they embraced no cultivated products of the soil except vanilla, valued at $45,- 000, and Cape peas, valued at .$40,000. Not a pound of sugar, coffee, tea, to- bacco or spices, all of which its soil and climate are fitted to prodiice in boimdless profusion. Those of us who visited the World's Fair in Chicago will recall the Javan- ese colony on the Midway, with its ([uaint bamboo houses, tidy, intelligent looking people, and unique orchestra. But there was no representation from Madagascar, so far as I remember. To my urind there is a great object lesson for us in this contrast between .lava and Madagascar. One shows what the ^Nlalay race can do under the tutelage of a civilized government; the other" shows what it will do when left to take its own v/ay. You will be sur- prised, I think, as I was, if you will look at the map, to see how near the Philippine Islands are to .Java. They are really parts of one great archipela- go. The natives are mostly from the same original stock, and the countries are much alike in climate, soil, and pro- ductions. What Holland has done m •Tava we can do in the Philippines in comparatively short time, by better methods and with greater advantage tu the. people. NEW ZEALAND. The worlJ has made great progress in its manner of dealing with uncivil- QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR ized races since Spain asserted sover- eignty over the Philippine Islands three hnndred years ago, and the Dutch East India Company subjugated Java not very far from the same time. Per- haps the best illustration of this fact may be found in the colonization of New Zealand by Great Britain. A hun- dred years ago those islands were a terror to sailors. Their cannibal sav- ages were more to be feared than storms or shipwrecks. The first mis- sion upon the islands was established in 1814. They were officially declared subject to Great Britain as a colony :n 1840. The native tribes at that time submitted to British authority by treaty, although there have been fre- quent rebellions since. The area of the islands is 104,000 square miles, being about three times the area of Indiana. They contain now a white population of thi-ee-quarters of a million. The native Maoris niim- ber about 50,000. The people are blessed with every adjunct of the high- est civilization, including woman's suffrage. They have 2,2.57 miles of railway, 7,000 miles of telegraph lines and 8,000 telephone stations. They have 300 public libraries, containing over 400,000 volumes. They have 54 daily papers, GG weeklies and 26 month- lies. They have an advanced system of public schools on which the govern- ment spends over .$2,500,000 per an- num. They export over $65,000,000 of products per annum and import S50,- 000,000, making a total foreign trade of $115,000,000 per annum, or $120 per capita, which is more than four times as much per capita as we do ourselves. Among the exports in 1900 were wool, $23,000,000; gold, $7,000,000; and frozen meats, $10,000,000. The natives have been justly and kindly treated. Their land titles have been respected and they have been put in the way of education and develop- ment. They have schools on whicli the government expends about $100,000 per annum. They have representatives of their own race in the Legi-slature and are entitled to vote for them on sub- stantially the same terms as the whites. More than this, they exercise the right and vote only in a little less proportion to their numbers than the whites. Ail this has been accomplished in a coun- try where cannibals occupied the (and less than a hundred years ago. TASMANIA. The New Zealailders were vicious enough, but the Tasmanians were more so. They would not be reconciled to the white man's presence. They fought until they Avere exterminated. The last survivor was the queen of the tribe, who died in 1872. Their little island— about three-fourths as large as Indiana— contains 175,000 inhabitants, and has schools, colleges, railroads, tel- egraphs, telephones, and had a foreign trade in 1900, exports and imports, of $23,000,000. A century ago the island had not a white inhabitant. The first party of settlers landed in 1803. AN ILLUSTRATION NEARER HOME. The drainage of Indiana swamps has been of immeasurable benefit to the State and its inhabitants, as a whole. But it has ruined many men. There were farmers living on the borders of the swamps— thriftless, unenergetic men, who eked out a living from year to year on scanty crops of corn and hay, but who were wholly without means to pay the assessments neces- sary to defray the cost of draining the swamps. When the assessments came their farms were sold to meet them. It was hard luck to them. They were enjoying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in their own way and want- ed nothing but to be let alone. But the world cannot wait on such men. No man has any rights which are not subordinate to the general wel- fare of society. As the interdependence of men increases this truth grows and widens in its application. QrESTIO.NS OF THE HOUR The same tbiug is true of nations. No nation lives unto itself, any more than any man. The Divine command to "subdue the Earth" will not be exe- cuted until the whole earth and all its parts are made tributary to the com- fort and the happiness of the whole race of men. The lands adapted to groAV corn must grow it for mankind; the lands adapted to grow coffee must grow it for mankind. The Indians were holding in unproductiveness this vast Mississippi Valley, capable of produc- ing billions of bushels of corn and wheat. Was it not right that they should give it up to men who could develope its resources for the World's benefit? They were like the thriftless farmer with his forty acres on the edge of the swamp. There is no world's legislature to en- act these principles as law, nor any world's court to enfoi'ce them; but they exist, and they underlie emigrations, wars, revolutions, conquests and all the great movements of men. The actors do not think of it in that light. They are prompted by their several personal and selfish motives. They un- consciously work together to great ends. AN UNEXPECTED RESPONSIBILITY. I suppose no more unexpected thing ever happened to any nation than that which happened to us when the Philip- pine Islands fell into our hands. It was like finding a baby on the door- step. What should we do with them? What could we do with them? Spain's power was utterly broken. She could hold them no longer. The situation was extraordinary beyond precedent. The archipelago embraced a large num- ber ,of islands peopled by numerous tribes, speaking different languages, and exhibiting many grides of social condition, from the lowest savagery to a degree of civilization. Spain had been in nominal possession and control for three hundred years. In her wav she had Christianized a considerable part of the population. The Tagals, the most advanced of all the tribes, were at that time in rebellion against her authority. There were other tribes who had never really submitted to her con- trol. The condition of the Archipelago as a whole was one of chaos con- founded. In the situation which confronted- George Dewey next morning after the fight there was but one thing to do, and that was to hold everything as he found it for the time being. When the war was over, and the Peace Com- mission met in Paris, the same ques- tion loomed up, only in larger form. What- shall we do with the Philippine Islands? And again the only possible answer was, Take them over for the present and decide the final (luestion later. And to-day we are holding them just for the present, to decide the final question" later. But as time goes on the "pres- ent" expands and the "later" recedes. With no such previous intention or ex- pectation on our part, we have become schoolmaster of thePhilippinos. A large preparatory work has been done by Spain. But a vast work remains to do. We have on our hands there some peo- ple as docile as the Hindoos, some as teachable as the Javanese, some as savage as the New Zealanders, and some as implacable as the Tasmani- ans. What power on earth can under- take with greatest promise of success the vast task of educating, harmoniz- ing and civilizing those heterogenous and discordant peoples? There are only four nations at all competent for such a Avork. They are England, Ger- many, Holland and the United States; and of these no one can do it better than we can. If it is to the interest of the Philippinos and mankind that they shall remain under the control and guidance of any power foreign to themselves for a short time or a long time, we are the power, and it is ours to accept that responsibility and dis- charge that duty. 10 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR WHAT SHALL WE SAY TO THEM? As respects the practical question of what we shall do now the main con- tention of Senator Hoar and those who think with him, is, that we should tell the Philippinos what Ave are going to do with them. We have the best of reasons for not doing that; we do not know ourselves. He holds that we should deal with them exactly as we dealt with Cuba, and say to them that we only await the pacification of the country to launch them on an inde- pendent career. But there is a wide difference betAveen the cases. When we declared war against Spain the situation was one which exposed us to a suspicion that our action was not as disinterested as we pretended. We could clear oiu-selves of that suspicion only by first making the declaration which we published that we would not take possession of Cuba for ourselves, and then keeping the promise. This it was practicable to do. The Cubans occupy one island. They have some mixture of races, but no highly intensi- fied race hostilities. There is ground to hope that they may be able to live peaceably together. We could not ra- tionally hope that as to the Philippi- nos. They are far behind the Cubans in fitness for self government. The Senator speaks of Cuba as though the problem of her future had been suc- cessfully solved. We do not know that. Suppose it should be otherwise, and she should prove to be unequal to the task of maintaining a .stable gov- ernment, what will we do? Sit by and see her torn to pieces by one revolution after another, like Venezuela? I sup- pose we would have to interfere again. We took the precaution to preserve that right, and compel her to agree to it before we withdrew our army. After pacifying the Island a second time, what will we do with it then? We have no assurance that we may not be confronted with that very question within ten years. It will be prudent to await the result of our experiment there before duplicating it in the Phil- ippine Islands. The underlying proposition of those who advocate Philippine independence is that every human being has an ab- solute right to liberty— not simply per- sonal liberty under the restraint and protection of law, but political liberty —the right to participate in govern- ment, and to be subject to no govern- ment to the institution of which over him he has not consented. That is not true. If it is, then our war against the south forty years ago was the greatest crime of all the ages. There was a great, intelligent, highly ad- vanced people who wanted to change their government. They believed that they had good reason to do so. Not onlj^ was their slave property in danger from northern aggression, but they were subjected to heavy burdens under our tariff system for the benefit of north- ern manufacturers. They wanted free trade with the world. They were so much in earnest about it that they for- bid protective duties in their constitu- tion. We sent armies into their coun- try and subjugated them, and com- pelled them to submit to a government which they detested. They have seen their error, and have learned to love the government which they hated; but That does not affect the question. They wore forced into submission by arms, precisely as the Philippinos have been. And yet that is one of the achieve- ments which Senator Hoar proposes to eugra .^e on the grand historic monu- ment which he so beautifully described in his speech. The truth is, that while there is a right side and a wrong side to every question of the establishment of gov- ernment over an unwilling people, the people themselves, wlio v.'ill be sub- jects of tlie government, if it be estab- lished, are not, iind cannot be permitted to be, the final judges on that point. Their mere wisli does not settle llie question, and ouglit not to Every such question poncevn« the whole world. It <,)l KSriONl^ Ol' THE iHH 11 is indispeusable that society shall be organized under governments. It is to the world's great interest that those governments shall be good govern- ments, such as shall be capable of pro- moting the welfare of their subjects and those who have relations with them, in the highest degree. If you ask who shall decide this question, I have to answer that there is no appointed tribunal authorized to decide it— no world's court with inter- national jurisdiction. It is a case in which, sad to say, might makes right, in large degree. And yet, not alto- gether, and less and less as the power of public opinion grows and extends. But harsh as it seems, we cannot es- cape by way of the theory that all men, everywhere, have the absolute right to choose their own form of gov- ernment and their own governors. I do not believe that our friends who approve the reasoning of Senator Hoar would apply their own theory to the Philippine Islands to-day if they had the power and responsibility all in their own hands. The archipelago contains more than a thousand islands, peopled by many different tribes speak- iiig many different languages and ow- ing neither love nor allegiance to one another. Each of these tribes has its own right, according to the theory I am combatting, to choose its own form of government and direct its own polit- ical destiny. Each one of them will choose to be independent and to run its government and affairs to suit it- self. We could not, according to this theory, rightfully compel any one of them to submit to the domination of any other one, any more than we can compel them all to submit to us. The only thing we could do would be to Avash our hands of the whole business and let every tribe shift for itself. That would leave the Islands in worse plight than that in which we found them, because Spain exercised a com- ijion authority over all of them and all their inhabitants. As to some of them it was hardly more than nominal, and as to others complete and eft'ective. But upon the whole, the domination of Spain was a blessing to tlie Islands. It lifted some of the tribes up from downright barbarism into a civiliza- tion intinitely better than savagery, and prepared them all for still further advances. Tlie fundamental principles of right and wrong do not change. If the things we are doing in the Philippine Islands are wrong and against human right, then the like things were always wrong. If that be so, the whole course of civilization has been wrong from the beginning. Every tribe which men found when they first sailed around the world ought to have been let alone as they found it. Madagascar is the type of what the islands of the sea vj'ould have been if they had all been dealt with on that principle. No, political liberty is not the pri- mary right; it is a boon to be deserved, to be eai-ned. Liberty follows dis- cipline. It belongs to those who are fit for it; and in higher degi'ee as their fitness is higher. Those communities and nations are entitled to it who can use it, and in the degree in which they can use it wiselj'. We made ourselves judge between Spain and Cuba; the events following have made us judge over the Philip- pinos. We have taken up the work which Spain laid down, to accomplish more. I trust, in twenty-five years than she could accomplish in a century. It is upon us to think for those people, plan for them, decide for them; to be, in a true sense, their school master. In the curriculum of that school the first lesson to be taught is obedience to law; the second is practical partici- pation In simple local administration; the third a limited exercise of the elect- ive franchise; the fourth, and othei'S following, larger and larger participa- tion in the affairs of government as they become fitted for it, with pro- gressive general education all along the line. How long it will take to reach the v^ QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR point at which we can safely put upon them full respouisibility for their own affairs as an independent nation it is impossible to foresee. That it may come is earnestly to be desired. That is, or ought to be, the goal of our ef- forts, the final object in view. I count it great good fortune to have known Governor Taft. The world has no fit- ter man for the great oflice he holds. He has been called to be a Savior to those feeble people. That it is to him a sacred task to w^hich he is giving his heart, .soul, mind and strength with apostolic consecration is not to be doubted. All in all, the government, under tlie administration of the republican par- ty, and against every hindrance and embarrassment which the democi'atic party could put in its way, has dealt wisely and well with the Philippine problem. The strong, wise, tender, conscientious treatment of Cubans, Philipplnos and Chinamen by Presi- dent McKinley — may his memory be ever green in the hearts of his coun- ti-ymen— has inscribed a glorious page in the history of the republic— aye, in the history of the world. I have no higher aspiration for myself nor to offer you than to follow his footsteps along these lines. TRUSTS. We are sharply confronted by one of the hardest problems of modern times in the trusts, as we call them. Partly from our happy-go-lucky dispo- sition to put off disagreeable tasks; partly from our doubts of our ability to cope with the difficulties presented; partly from the influence of great vest- ed interests, and partly from cowardice, w^e have drifted along with little effort to meet this question. Meanwhile it growls in importance and in difficulty. Few men will admit that they ought not to be dealt with by law; most men belicA'e that they must be dealt with by law before long or the gravest evils will follow. The responsibility is on us. It is our duty to apply our best powers to the study of the subject and to discuss it with unshrinking can- dor. The word is a misnomer, as now ap- plied. The first great combinations or- ganized in this country to control busi- ness were trusts in a proper sense. The stockholders of a number of corpora- tions engaged in the same business as competitors would pool their stock in the hands of a small body of trustees, who would thus hold the voting power in all the^ corporations, and so be able to direct and control them as though they were one corporation, and thus suppress all competition among them. This Avas the nature of the original Standard Oil combination, and, I be- lieve, of the original Sugar Trust. Such arrangements are so palpably unlawful — such clear violations of the common law against combinations in restraint of tra,de that they quickly went to pieces when vigorously at- tacked in court. So another mode of reaching the same result was adopted. The corporations desiring to combine to control their common business Sm- ply caused to be organized one mon.ster corporation with an authorized capital sufficient to buy up all the corporations proposing to unite in the scheme. This is the form which these combinations usually take in recent years. But hav- ing become accustomed in the earlier discussion of the subject to the use of the word "trusts," we still continue to cail great combinations in business by *iat name, although they are really, now, for the most part, simply huge corporations. We ought not to be surprised at the appearance of these organizations. They are, not the result of any new badness in human nature. They are but one manifestation of the modern tendency to do things on a great scale. This tendency is irresistible. It not only cannot be arrested, but it ought not to be arrested. It is the way of the v>'orld's progress. We might as r well attempt to put a year-old rooster I QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR 13 back into his native shell as to try to force the world's business bacli to its old scale and methods. So far as their mere scale of operations is concerned the big combinations are here to stay, and grow in size and increase in num- ber. What is there, then, to do, or propose, that is worth talking about? THE GENESIS OF THE COMBINES. I think I can express my thought most clearly by beginning at what ap- pears to me to be the origin of the con- ditions which present this perplexing problem. We founded our social order on the doctrine of equal rights and free competition. Our fathers supposed that to give every man an equal chance lui- der the law to apply his energies in his own way to such work as he preferred was the surest guaranty of general prosperity and happiness. We applied this doctrine to mean that the individ- ual man was not only entitled to this equality and freedom of competition in every field and form of individual exer- tion, but in every lawful form of asso- ciated exertion, as by the formation of corporations. Upon the subject of these organizations our laws were lax and our practice laxer. JN^en were per- mitted to erect corporations at will, and to issue stock and bonds for any con- sideration or no consideration, as they pleased. The law took no notice of their management or affairs except under in- .solvency or bankrupt laws. The conditions thus introduced afford- ed opportunity for the exploitation of business enterprises on unlimited scale Avith very little money. Such an attrac- tive field was bound to have its occu- pants. The promoter has become a rec- ognized character. He need not be a person having any of the old fashioned mailly and useful qualities. Ho need not have the executive ability to run a factory or manage a railroad, nor the skill of an inventor, nor the craft of an artisan. But he must have shrewdness, plausibility, nerve, with a touch of un~ scrupulousness. The skill which these men have acquired in the art of pro- moting the largest enterprise with the least money, the tricks they practice with common stock, preferred stock and bonds, have given the world a new illustration of the versatility of the hu- man mind. It is out of these conditions that the combines have arisen. They have brought with them many balefnl consequences, and they threaten many more. Let me enumerate some of them. They wrong the people in the matter of prices. They pay too little and charge too much. The proof of this fact is partly in the existence of the oppor- tunity. We know the instincts of human nature. A combination which has con- trol, whether total or partial, of the available supply of a commodity will use that control for its own advantage. It may be wise enough not to use it extravagantly — to hold its prices at a level which will not strangle consump- tion, nor dangerously tempt competi- tion. But it will use it, and in th^ de- gree and manner supposed to be most profitable to itself, according tl) the views of its managers. The proof of this fact is further mani- fest in tlie profits made by the concerns. How did Carnegie and Schwab and Frick malvo their hundreds of millions? Not in stock speculations, gold mining or railroad working, but in iron and steel manufacture. No reasbnable prof- its could have yielded such fabulous sums in so short a time. The United States Steel Corporation was incorpor- ated a year and a half ago with a capi- talization ill stock of one billion, one hundred thousand dollars, and three hundred million dollars in bonds. The record of its transactions reads like a chapter from Monte Cristo. A state- ment recently issued by the company shows that its net earnings for three months past were $36,764,(3-t3, and for nine months past, .$101,142,158. I do not think it is supposable that the real value of the company's property ex- ceeds $500,000,000. If not, its earnings for the last nine months equal twenty 14 QUESTIOXS OP THE HOUR per cent of its real capital. I d;) not doubt that it is phuidering the people of the United States to-day to the ex- tent of one dollar per annum for every man, woman and child in the country in its unjust prices. I do not know how many millionaires and multi-millionaires have been bred by the Standard Oil Company. The great one is Mr. Rockefeller. But ev- ery little while an obituary notice dis- closes that somebody has taken ever- lasting leave of a million, or some mill- ions, his possession of which is ex- plained by the statement that he was a Standard Oil magnate. I once traveled across the continent with a man Avho raised sheep on the plains by the hundred thousands, and shipped part of them— so many of them as he could not find sale for on the Pacific coast— to Chicago by the train load. He told me that there was practically but one sheep buyer in the Chicago market. He said that he was once so outraged by an offer made to him that he refused it, and undertook to mafte a stand on the price. A whole day passed, and no one offered any- thing for his sheep; another day with the same result, and then a third; when he took his medicine and sold his sheep for less than the first offer. The meat trust may be too slippery a combine to be caught by the law; but of its existence none of us have any doubt. I do not think that it is wholly responsible— perhaps not at all, for the late rise in the retail price of meat. Thei'e are other causes— legitimate causes, enough to account for that. It was simply collecting ungodly profits before the rise, and has not omitted to do so since. Out of these unjust profits the ex- ploiters of the combines build up for- tunes so vast and so suddenly acquired that the effect on themselves and on society is demoralizing and corrupting. The spectacle of mushroom million- aires springing up everywhere excites in one class of men the impulse to do likewise, fills them with a feverish longing for wealth and makes them im- patient of the slow progress of earning a modest competence. Another class of men, conscious of their inability to emulate the milliou-geiters, take it out in hating them, and cursing the gov- ernment, the law and the society which permit such inequalities to exist among men. Worse than this, the aggregated wealth of the combines corrupts all public agencies— the press, the legisla- ture, the schools, the very pulpit. Not universally, nor Avholly, but insidious- ly and ii-resistibly. It sets up false standards, exalts the importance of dress, ornaments, equipages and style, and relegates to contempt the simple, plain, wholesome ways of life. All this Is brought about by a wicked and cruel interference with that very equality and freedom of competition which we pretend to maintain by law. If all our corporations were what they profess to be — the simple consoli- dation in one fund of the money of the stockholders, there would still be a great advantage to them, and one in which society would share, in the in- creased efficiency of the money, skill and energy thus concentrated in one enterprise. But that would not be an unjust advautage. Such a corporation is only an enlarged and modified part- nership. But the opportunity now given by our loose laws and our looser administration of them to organize cor- porations on fictitious capital, and so secure credit and do business without the investment of money destroys equality and freedom of competition. By this license the law adds to the natural inequalities of men an unjust artificial inequality. It favors most those who need favor least. It is only daring, audacious, resourceful men that can avail themselves of the opportuni- ty given by the law to organize com- bines. To put millions and billions of dollars into their pockets by making them thus favored of the law is horri- bly unjust. There is no more pathetic fact in life QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR 15 than the natural variousuess of gifts among men. The fact that of half a dozen boys, nursed by the same mother, brought up arouud the same table, edu- cated at the same school, one shall achieve a large success in life while the others struggle along in obscure medi- ocrity, is one of the sad but apparently remediless incidents of our existence. That the law shall interfere to aggra- vate that variousness and give to one of those boys the chance to become a Rockefeller, or a Schwab, while the others run plows or railroad trains, is, as I have said, wicked and cruel. THE REMEDY. All this is easy to say. Even a Demo- crat could say it. But It is nothing but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals unless one has .something to suggest in the way of remedy. If these evils can not be cured it is not worth while to complain about them; if they can, then how? A man would be very vain to suppose that he had solved the problem. But if he has thought about it, his thought be- longs to his fellows, so it be offered modestly and as his contribution to the general discussion. This is mine. First. Let us correct our primary and greatest mistake — the license to launch corporations on a basis of fictitious stock. Let us require all corporate stock to be paid for in cash, at par, or in property actually worth its face in cash. Second. Require all existing corpora- tions to conform their organizations to this principle by either reducing their stock to the net value of their prop- erty, or paying to the company the dif- ference between the face value of the stock and the actual consideration paid for it when issued. Third. Subject all corporations to such powers of visitation and examina- tion by the government and such re- quirements to make reports at stated times or when called on in such pre- scribed and uniform modes as shall put it within the power of the government to know that all corporations observe at all times the conditions of fair competi- tion in business. The purpose and effect of these three requirements would be to eliminate water from corporation stocks, and to compel the business of corporations to be carried on upon a clean basis of ac- tual values. It would not put any lim- itation upon the scale of business nor prevent monopolies. For that we have now in the common law, and by statute in most of the states, prohibition of all agreements in restraint of trade. We really need little or no further legisla- tion to enable us to prevent monopolies of that kind — that is, monopolies rest- ing upon agreements, except some moi-e effective means of enforcing existing law, and particularly, of discovering the existence of such agreements, I suppose no one doubts that there exists an anthracite coal trust, resting on agreements among the railroads and mine owners; but it is probably impo.s- sible to prove that fact under existing laws. The power of visitation and ex- amination proposed in the third of the foregoing suggestions would go far to make it possible to unearth such agree- ments. If it were provided that, in such investigations, the officers and agents of the company might be exam- ined under oath it would be hard to con- ceal the existence of such agreements from faithful and diligent officials. But there is another kind of monop- oly—one not resting in agreements among those engaged in the field of industry monopolized, but in ownership of the mines, materials, railroads, boats, factories or other property on which the conduct of the business de- pends. If one company owned all the copper mines in the United States, it would have a monopoly of copper pro- duction in this country without any agreement with anybody. Such a monopoly need not be absolute in or- der to be largely, or even wholly, ef- fective for the control of prices. I believe that the Sugar Trust supplies IG QUESTIONS OP THE HOUR about seveuty-five per cent of the sugar used in this country. But that is enough to enable it to control the prices. The air has been full of ru- mors of an impending consolidation of the great meat packers in one coi'por- ation with a capital of five hundred million dollars. Such a corporation would be able to dictate in a large de- gree botla the price of cattle to the farmer and the price of meat to the consumer throughout the' United States although it would neither buy nor slaughter all the animals. It follows that the provisions of law I have, so far .suggested would not, of themselves, suppress monopolies, be- cause it would still be possible to or- ganize a corporation with such capital as would enable it to secure substan- tial control of a given branch of indus- try. Nor is there any. way in which that can be done without impairing that freedom of competition which is the very corner stone of our industrial system; the very breath of industrial life. I am not willing to give- that up. To give it up means socialism, the con- trol of all Industry by the state, the paralysis of individual energy, the ex- tinction of the strongest forces of hu- man progress. ■ Anything but that. But we need not be reduced to that alternative— monopoly or socialism. We can give free play to men's activities, and let them do business on as large a scale as they please without that. The vastness of the scale brings in some incidental consequences that are dis- agreeable. Mr. Bryan's gush about the "young man Absalom" had a pa- thetic truth in it. The consolidation of all business in the control of a few great concerns does appear to .shut the door of opportunity against young men. It makes the old-fashioned, honorable, independent career impossible to most of them. It offers them instead mere employment. That employment car- ries with it possibilities of reward far beyond any that were offered under the old order. There is a chance for one Charles SchwjCb among a million. But W'3 would rather see more mod- erate chances for a greater number. Mr. Bryan, with his usual shallow- ness, discussed the misfortunes of Ab- salom as though all the conditions which he deplored could be undone; as though the great corporations could be broken up into little ones; the long railroads chopped into short pieces, and the department stores scattered over the city again. But that is impossible if we are to hold fast to free compe- tition. The . aggregation of business brings with it increased economy of production, increased profit to pro- ducers and progressive cheapening of the product. With competition free these advantages are boimd to impel men to widen- the scale of business more and more as long as further ad- vantage is attainable by that means. To those conditions we must submit, and we must accommodate ourselves to the incidents which are inseparable from them. This means that we cannot prevent by law that form of monopoly, or ap- proximate monopoly, which consists in the ownership and control by a single corporation of any portion or all of the material, machinery and output of a particular branch of industry. But it does not mean that we. must endure all the wrongs which such monopolies may be disposed to inflict upon us. The impelling motive which actuates the promoters and managers of a cor- poration is to make money.' If a cor- poration has such control of the field of its business that it can name its own prices for what it buys or sells, or both, it will exercise that power so as to make the most money it can out of it. There are considerations which will set some limit on its impulses, according to the wisdom of its man- agement. Very extravagant prices tend to discourage consumption, pro- voke public discontent to dangerous pitch and stimulate competition. There is a point beyond which it would ba suicidal for the meat combine to ad- vance prices. The same thing is true QliE«Tl().\^ ()F THE tiUl JC of the Standard Oil, Sugar, and Steel Trusts, and all other monopolies of products of general cousuiuption, Tlais circumstance is our protection against being swallowed alive. The wise monopolist's prices will bo carefully fixed so as to yield the high- est permanent pi'ofit without chok'ng the demand or offering too much In- centive to competition, or stu-ring up too much public indignation. With the business all in few hands, and con- ducted on a scale so immense, and in such secrecy that the public can forq^ no close judgment of the cost of pro- duction, pi'ices can be fixed and per- manently maintained which are in fact unjust and oppressive. I believe that we are suffering from that injustice to-day. I believe that Ave ai'e paying unjxist prices for our meat, oil, sugar, steel, rubber goods and all other com- modities controlled by the trusts. The mai-gin of excess is not extravagant, but it is an excess and an injustice. And the tendency will be to an aggra- vation of that injustice as men become more skillful in the art of monopoly and more and more of the industries of the country come within the control of the combines. How shall we meet this danger and still preserve the prin- ciple of free competition? The three suggestions already offer- ed go some way in that direction. If they were embodied in the law, and the law were enforced, the formation of monopolistic combines would be shorn of its main attractiveness. I think the principal incentive to those schemes is the prospect of immediate profit out of the watered stock issues of the big corporation. I suppose that, as a rule, the owners of the constitu- ent corporations that go into a great combine receive two or three times the real value of their property in stock and securities of the new concern. If that speculation were forbidden, the pi'omoter would find his occupation comparatively unprofitable. An addi- tional and great discouragement to the organization of combines would be found in the requirement that they must carry on their business under the scrutiny of the government and with more or less publicity. At the same time we need not. and we ought not to i-ely wholly on these repressive and deterrent influences of the law. We ought to provide punish- ment for combines which use their power to wrong the people by the im- position of unjust prices. I do not mean that we should fix prices in ad- vance by law. That would not only be impossible to do wisely, but it would cut out free competition by the roots. It is one thing to foresee in advance what will be a just price for sugar next year; quite a different thing to ascer- tain what was a just price for it last year. The unknown factors of the future become known factors in the past. It is true that in such a scheme of control as I am discussing the legal in- vestigation of the justice of prices would involve questions with which courts do not ordinarily deal at pres- ent. "When it is necessary to know what was a just price for a given com- modity at a given time in the past the law commonly looks to the market price. But a market price is one which rests on competition. If there was no competition and no possibility of it there was no market price in the legal sense of those words; only a price in the market fixed by the arbitrary will of one person. But there is always a just price. And this the law can as- certain with approximate accuracy by methods not impracticably difficult, nor violently novel. To the three sug- gestions heretofore made I therefore add the following: Fourth. The law should provide that a corporation having under its control such a large proportion of the business in any branch of trade or industry that it can dictate prices, which shall use that power to impose upon the public unjust prices, shall be punished in some suitable and adequate manner. In such a case the wrong is not that 18 QUESTIOXJS OF THE HOl'lt Ihe company is big, uor that it has a monopoly by its mere ownersliip of all the supply, machinery or output of a given industry, nor that it can con- trol prices, uor that it does control them; but that it exercises that po^yer unjustly. That is the wrong. What can the law do but forbid the wrong and punish the wrongdoer? Such a law would not apply to any transactions except those of a concern holding a monopoly. Prices made by competition ought not to be interfered with by the law. It is only wheie dealers, either singly or in combination, lift themselves above competition that there is occasion for such interference. CONSTITUTIONAL AMKNDMENT. It would be impossible to secure the enactment and enforcement of such laws as I have suggested by the state legislatures and governments. They lack the necessary power. Each one of them can deal only with persons and things within the borders of its own jurisdiction. They would be certain, also, to lack the disposition to act har- moniously. No power exists which can cope with the difficulties to be encoun- tered except the congress and courts of the United States. To make avail- able that power will require an amend- ment of the Constitution of the United States. The only authority which Congress has now to legislate on the subject of monopolies is found in the so-called "commerce clause" of the constitution \Yhich is in these words: "The Con gress shall have power to regulate com merce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes." In the exercise of this power Congress enacted the law creating the Inter State Commerce Commission and the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The former relates to railroads passing through or into more than one state, and is plainly within the authority granted; because the whole business of a railroad is commerce. The anti-trust law was approved July 2, 1890. It is of such interest in this connection that I will quote the first and second sections of it. "All act to protect trade and comnierct! against unlawful restraints and monopo- lies. "Sec. 1. Every contract, combination in tlie form of trust or otlierwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or com- n.erce among thp several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to bo. illegal. Every person who sliall make aiiy such contract or engage in any snch ccnibinalion or conspiracy, shall be deem- ed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on con- viction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or ))y lioth said punishments, in the discretion of the court. "Sec. 2. Every person who shall mo- nopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other ]«er- son or persons, to monopolize any jiart of the trade or commerce among the sev- eral States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dol- lars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, iu the discretion of the court." In 1893 the Government brought suit under this law against the American Sugar Refining Company, commonly known as the Sugar Trust, and four of the refining companies which had been absorbed by it, asking to have the con- tract under which the American Sugar Refining Company had purchased the stock of the other companies set aside and the combination declared unlawful. The judgment of the court was adverse to the Government, first, in the Circuit Court, then in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, and, finally, in the Supreme Court of the United States. The point of the decision was, that the law was confined in its operation to commerce and did not extend to manu- facture; that it was necessarily so lim- ited, not only by its terms, but by the words of the constitution; that the Sugar Trust was engaged in manufac- ture, and not in commerce, within the (,)ri:sTio.\s OF the houk J9 meaning of the law and tlio constitu- tion. The foilowiny quotation from the opinion of Chief Justice Fuller will exhibit the distinction thus drawn. "Commerce succoeds to in;uuif;ieturo, and is not a part ui it. Tiic powt-r to rej;ul;ite conunerce is tlic power to pre- scribe tile rule by wliicii ('(unuierce shall be governed, and is a iiu^er iiulepandciit of the power to suppresss snonopoly. But it may operate in repression of uiouopoly whenever that comes witliin the riil<;s by which couunerce is s,^<)verned or when- over the transaction is itself a monopoly of commerce. * * '■' The fact that an article is manufjictured for export to another State does not of itself moke it an article of interstate commerce, and the intent of the manufacturer does not determine the time when the article or product passes from the control. of the State and belongs to couunerce." — Unit- ed States vs. E. C. Knight Co. et al., 15(> U. S. Rep. 1. One member of the Court — Mr. Jus- tice Harlan, dissented from the deci- sion. But his strong and earnest opin- ion stands alone against the judgment of his eight as.sociates, the three judges of the Court of Appeals and the judgv who sat in the Circuit Court — twelve judges to one. The case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1895, and though often referred to since in other deci- sions has never been questioned as to the main proposition covered by it. We are bound to take it, 1 think, as a final settlement of, the meaning of the anti- trust law and of the commerce clatise of the constitution, so far as that was in- volved. Accepting that view of the de- cision, the following extracts from Jus- tice Harlan's dissenting opinion have a suggestiveness and force after the lapse of seven years even greater than when they were penned. 'Tf this combination, so far as its op- erations necessarily or directly affect in- terstate commerce, cannot be restrained or suppressed under some power granted to Congress, it will bo cause for reg:-ct that the patriotic statesmen who framed the Constitution did not foresee the ne- cessity of investing the national govern- ment' with power to deal with gigantic monopolies holding in their grasp, and in- juriously controlling in their own inter- est, the entire trade among the States in food products that are essential to the , comfort of every household in the land. * * * "We have before us the case of a '.'om- bii|^tion which absolutely controls, or may, at its discretion, control the i)rice of all retined sugar in this country. Sup- pose another combination, organized for private gain and to control prices, should obtain possession of all the large flour mills in the United States; another, of all the grain elevators; another, of all the oil territory; another, of all the salt-pro- ducing regions; another, of all the cot- ton mills; and another, of all the great establishments for slaughtering animals, and the preparation of meats. What power is competent to protect the people of the United States against such dan- gers except a national power — one that is capable of exerting its sovereign au- thority throughout every part of the ter- ritory and over all the people of the na- tion?" The prophetic supposition of the learned Justice — no less statesman than jtidge, is unfolding in reality. The last authentic stimmary which I have seen of the number and capitalization of trusts in the United States, or cor- porations which we call by that name — that found in the Commercial Year Books for 1900 and 1901, shows a list of over two hundred with aggregate capitalization, in stock and bonds, of over eight billions of dollars. WIIL NOT CURE ITSELF. We sometimes hear people say that the trust business is only a passing phase of industrial development; that the question will solve itself if we. will let it alone. Why should it? Will men ever grow tired of making mouej'? Will the race of daring, shrewd, un- scruptilous men. quick to take advan- tage of every easy way to make big money die out? Not so. A certain type of promoters may have their day. Certain kinds of schemes may lose their power to attract. But the great, greedy corporation, gathering within its grasp whole fields of industry, and levying on the public all tribute which 20 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR it can maintain and collect, has with- in itself po seeds of mortality. It is common to speak of this subject with a certain reservation; as that "If there is no other way, we must amend the Constitution." Why say 'if?." We know there is no other way. There is nothing to add to Justice Harlan's sad protest against the momentous decision of the court. Time has confirmed— is dailj'^ confirming the truth of his sol- emn declaration that there is no power given among men that can save the people of this country from the com- plete and perpetual domination of these vast combinations except the power of the government of the United States; and that can be invoked only by an amendment of the Constitution. It behooves us to be up and about it without further delay. This, therefore, to make the series complete, is my final suggestion. Fifth. Amend the Constitution of the United States to provide that Congress shall have like ample power to regu- late and control corporations, whether organized under the laws of the sev- eral States or under the laws of Con- gress. THE BEEF TRUST SUIT, I do not mean to say that the Sher- man Anti-Trust Law is incapable of useful application. It has been in- voked in the suit now pending in Chi- cago against the Beef Trust. A large part of the business of that combina- tion is the purchase of cattle in vari- ous states and territories, and the ship- ment of them and of the slaughtered and cured meats from state to state. Unless we are all greatly mistaken, it is engaged in interstate commerce on a vast scale. There seems reason to believe that the case may so far differ in that respect from the Sugar Trust case that the law may be upheld and enforced against the Beef Barons. We may rest assured that the Attorney General and his assistants will do all that is in the power of lawyers to se- cure that result. SUMMARY. To recapittilate concisely, I say that we must en^ct such laws as shall 1. Require all corporate stock to be paid for at par In cash or property at its cash value; 2. Require existing corporations to conform to this principle by reducing their capital stock to an amount equal to the actual value of their property; 3. Require publicity of all coi-poi'ate business by sworn i-eports and official examinations; 4. Provide for the punishment of any corporation having a monopoly which shall abuse its power by the imposition of unjust prices. 5". Amend the Constitution of the United States so as to give Congress power to pass these laws. This program will shock some timor- ous people. They will say it is impos- sible. "WTiy so? Exactly such laws exist and are enforced in the case of national banks. Their stock must be paid for in cash; if their capital be- comes impau'ed they must make it good; they have to make reports and submit to exammations; if they exact an unlawful price for money they are subject to punishment. Substantially similar provisions exist in respect to insurance companies and tinist coou- panies in most of the states. Such laws would require nothing from a corporation except that it shall conduct its business exactly as an honest man would conduct the same business as an individual, subject only to the visitorial power necessary to enable the govern- ment to know that it is being so con- ducted. We ought to have enacted such laws a hundred years ago. But it is not too late now. They would con- fiscate no man's property, abridge no man's just right, put no impediment in the way of business, hamper no man's useful activity, deprive no man of his just reward for woi*k well done. On the other hand, they would pre- serve the vital principle of free com- petition unimpaired. Eveiy man would QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR 21 have equal chance to do his best, alone, or in fair association with others. Great fortunes would be made— not in a daj', by organizing paper corpora- tions, but by successful conduct of real business, and without wrong towax'd the' public. Wealth so obtained would be more wisely used, would excite less envy, and would have less demoraliz- ing influence on society. Why should we not set our faces at once toward a reform so great, so beneficent, so en- tirely practicable? The task is one for the republican party. It has the responsibility and the ability. Will it take it up in earn- est? There's the rub. Great mouied, so- cial and iwlitical interests, friendly to us, will oppose such measures at every step. Have we the mor31 courage to put those things behind us and go for- Avard in the unwavering discharge of duty? Our party needs a waking up. We are like the too worldly Scotch con- gregation whose distressed pastor prayed the Lord 'to take this people in Thy hand and shak 'em ower Hell," but, he added, "dinna let 'em fall." THE president's ADDRESSES. The country has heard nothing for a year, that I recall, in Congress or out of it, on this subject, from any repub- lican leader except the President. He discussed it in his message to Con- gress at the opening of the last ses- sion, and has discussed it since with his accustomed force and frankness at many times and places, beginning, I believe, at Pittsburgh on the Fourth of July. It will be of interest in this connection to refresh our memories by a brief extract from his address at Wheeling, a month ago. I quote from a report in the public press. "It is a good deal like taking care by the engineers of the lower Mississippi River. No one can dam the Mississippi. If the nation started to dam it, its lime would be wasted. It would not hurt the Mississippi, it would only damage the population alon^ the banks. You cannot dam the current; you can build levees, and keep the current within bounds and shape its direction. "Now I think that is exactly what we cau do with these great corporations, known as trusts. W( cannot dam them, we cannot reverse the industrial touden- cies of the age. If we succeeded in do- ing it, then the cities like Wheeling will have to go out of business, remember til at. You cannot put a stop to or re- verse the industrial tendencies of the age. You can control and regulate them, so tJiat they will do no harm. * * * The change in industrial conditions has been literally immeasurable. Those changed conditions make necessary gov- ernmental changes thi-ough regulation and supervision. Such changes, were not provided for and couid not have been provided for in default of a knowledge of prophecy by the men who founded the republic. In those days any state could take care perfectly well of any corporation within its limits, and all it had to do was to try to encourage their upbuilding. Now the big corporations, although nominally the creatures of one state, usually do business in other states, and in a very large number of cases the wide variety of state laws on tlfe subject of corpora- tions has brought about the fact that the corporation is made in one state, but does almost all its work in entirely dif- ferent states. It has proved utterly impossible to get anytliing like uniformity of legislation among the states. Some states have passed laws about corporations, whicii, if they had not been ineffective, would have totally prevented any important corpo- rate work being done within their limits. Other states have such lax laws i-hat there is no effective effort made to con- trol any of the abuses. As a result we have a system of di- vided control — where the nation has something to say, but it is a little diflS- cult to know exactly how much, and where the different states have each something to say, but where there is no supreme power that can speak with authority. * * * Now, I want you to take my M'ords at their exact value. I think — I cannot say I am sure, because it has often happened in the past that Congress has passed laws with a given purpose in view, and when that law has been judicially inter- 22 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR preted it has proved that the purpose was not achieved — but I think that by legislation additional power in the way of regulation of at least a number of those great corporations can be conferred upon the general government. But, gen- tlemen, I firmly believe that in the end power must be given, probably through a constitutional amendment, to the na- tional government to exercise in full supervision and regulation of those gi'eat enterprises. * * * The mere fact of the publicity itself will tend to stop many of the evils and it will show that some of the all'.*ged evils are imaginary. And, finally, in making evident the remaining faults, those that are not imaginary, and are not cured by the light of day itself, it will give us an intelligent proposition as to the methods to take in getting at them. We should have under all circum- stances one sovereign to which the big corporations should be responsible — a sovereign in whose courts the corpora- tion could be held accountable for any failure to comply with the laws of the legislature of that sovereign. I do not think you can accomplish that among the forty-six sovereigns of the states. I think that it will have to be through the national government. It would be unjust to the President to omit to emphasize the conservative, cautious, kindly spirit in which he ap- proaches the subject, and in which he advises that legislation must proceed. This from his speech at Concord, N. H., Aug. 28, will show that he is proposing no program of demolition. "If we approach these problems in a spirit of hysteria we will fail, as well as deserve to fail; if w^e approach them in a spirit of envy and rancor and 'nalioe toward our fellows, we will not only fail, but we will drag them and us in a com- mon ruin. Shame to us if we wink at the evils; They are there. Shame to us if we fear to face the problem! Face the problem, realize the gravity and then approach it in a spirit not merely of deter- mination to solve it, but of hearty desire to solve it with justice to all, with malice to none; to solve it in a spirit of broad kindhness and charity; in a spirit that will keep us ever in mind that if we are to succeed at all, it must be by each doing to the best of his capacity his own business, and yet by each rememboi'ing that in a sense he is also his brother's keeper." It is an extraordinary thing for the Pi'esident of the United States to dis- cuss such a question in such a way. But his object is plain. It is to arouse his party to arouse Congress to actiou. There is need of it. ■ He is the man to do it. The President is the one man who commands the universal ear. When he speaks we all listen. He is the one man who represents us ail; the one man put in office by us all; the one man responsible to us all. PLATFORM OF I90O. The platform upon which William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt were nominated two years ago said this: "We recognize the necessity and pro- priety of the honest co-operation of cap- ital to meet new business conditions, and especially to extend our rapidly increas- ing foreign trade; but we condeuui all conspiracies and combinations intended to restrict business, to create monopolies, to limit production, or to control prices, and favor such legislation as will effec- tively restrain and prevent all such abuses, protect and promote competition, and secure the rights of producers, labor- ers and all who are engaged in industry and commerce." If platforms meau anything, this platform was a pledge to the people that, if continued in pow'er, the repub- lican party would endeavor by legisla- tion to remedy evils of the trusts. What has it done in performance of that pledge? Nothing; absolutely nothing. It has not tried to do anything. The President's speeches are to the pub- lie; but they are none the less a duty call to his party to redeem the promise of its platform. THE DEMOCRATIC REMEDY. One of the stock arguments of our democratic friends against the protec- tive tariff for years past is that it fos- ters monopolies. It was quite to be expected, therefore, that as the prob- lem of the trusts forces itself more QITESTIONS OF THE HOUR 23 sharply upou the public attention, the democratic party should grow more in- sistent upon this argument, and offer free trade as a remedy for the evils of the trusts. The theory of protectionists always has been that the tendency of a pro- tective tariff to raise prices would be counteracted in a country as large and enterprising as ours, by competition among our own manufacturers and pro- ducers. The purpose of the combines is to .suppress that competition. And to the extent, in any given case, that the tariff protects the combine against foreign competition, it assists it in maintaining its prices against home competition. Intelligent and candid protectionists have always recognized the pertinence of this argument against their system for what it was worth. But it is worth very little. Suppose we should repeal all the pro- tective features of our present tariff' to- day; what v^ould happen to the trusts? Some of them would not be affected at all. All those who deal in commodities not subject to duty would feel no new- competition^ by reason of free trade. As to all tile others, they and all the rest of us would have to do business under new conditions. Our industries would have to hold their ground against foreign competition, or shut up. We know what the latter alternative means" from sad and recent experience. It is only nine years since the land was filled Avith smokeless chimneys, stand- ing like monuments in graveyards of industry. Such a condition, of course, would not continue permanently. Forty years of effective protection, save only the life of the Wilson tariff, have cre- ated in this country such taste, apti- tude and capacity for varied industrial pursuits that no competition can ex- tinguish the industries. They may be paralyzed for a time, but they will re- vive again, no matter what happens. It might be— it would be upou such re- adjustment of wages and prices as Avould compel the American working man to meet the competition of work- ing men in like occupations round the world; but the industries would go on. on some basis. And whatever that might be— whether free trade outright, or half way free trade, the great com- binations would still have the same relative advantage over the little con- cerns that they have now. Trusts flourish most under conditions of gen- eral prosperity. Possibly we might be able, by free trade, to produce such conditions of poverty in this country that the trusts would starve outj but I doubt it. They would be relatively un- prosperous under conditions of general distress. But under all conditions they would still maintain the same advant- age over their little competitors, and the same power over the community. The Standard Oil, and the Sugar Trust, and the Beef Combine, and scores of others, managed to weather the hard times of "93. ^ Do we want to make times harder than they were then? Considering the unspeakable value of the protective system to this country, the good that it has done us, and is doing us to-day, I should say that a re- publican v,'ho would consider for a moment the proposition to try to kill the trusts with free trade must have gone trust mad. To cut off your nose to spite your face is an old illustration of foolishness; this would be to cut off your nose to spite another man's face. It will be said that no one proposes so extreme a measure as the entire abolition of protection, that it is only proposed to abolish the tariff on trust- made products. How^ shall we define and limit the term? A few trusts con- trol the whole production in their de- partments respectively; but most of them only a greater or less portion of it;. I believe that the Rubber trust, for example, controls the entire out- put; the Sugar trust about 75 per cent; the Steel trust about 60 per cent, and so on down. Where would we draw the line? Would we class as trust- made goods all goods of which any considerable part is made by one big corporation, and abolish the tariff on 24 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR those goods? Of course the law would operate on all manufacturers alike — the big corporation and all its little competitors. It would be an indiscrim- inate vengeance that would destroy forty innocent men, doing 40 per cent of the business, in order to punish one guilty big concern doing 60 per cent of the business. On the other hand, if we apply the free trade remedy only to monopolies in the strict sense, that is, to combines that monopolize the whole business in their respective departments, it will hit so few that it will amount to noth- ing as a remedy. I am not sure, in- deed, that it would hit anybody. Even in those lines in which the monopoly seems most complete, such as rubber goods, matches, pins, etc., there may be some concerns in the business out- side the one big one. As a remedy for the evils of the trusts the proposition to repeal the tariff on trust-made goods may be classed with free silver and fiat money. It is an impracticable, absurd and dan- gerous scheme. It will fit the views of a populist for that very reason. It svill fit the views of an out and out free trader because he is for free trade any way, without reference to its ef- fect upon the trusts. But no man who believes in the theory of protection at all, or values the stability of present business conditions and realizes the ef- fect which would be produced on the couijtry by such tariff changes as would 'affect the trusts in any substan- tial degree, can possibly give it any countenance whatever. THE DISCUSSION OPENED. The President's speeches have had already one good effect, which, I sup- pose, he intended and desired— they have provoked criticism and discus- sion; especially his suggestion that complete control of the trusts is not attainable without an amendment of the constitution conferring that power upon Congress. We have been told by high authority that such a proposition is "absurd," "preposterous." "impossi- ble." It has been pointed out that such an amendment can be adopted only by a resolution passed by a two- thirds vote in each branch of Congress, ratified by the legislatures of three- fourths of the states; as though the President did not know that when he made the suggestion. Such an amend- ment is not impossible in a legal sense. We have added fifteen amendments to the constitution since its adoption. It would not take long if we were of one mind about it. Congress will be in ses- sion sixty days hence. The legislatures of all, or nearly all, the states meet this wintei". The amendment could be in force by next "ground hog day" if the people were unanimously demand- ing it. On the other hand, if the matter is as important as many of us think, if it may involve the perpetuity of oiir in- stitutions, if it is that or socialism, fifty years will be well spent in secur- ing the amendment. On Jan. 1, 1831, a paper appeared in 'Boston containing this announcement by the editor: "I am in earnest— I will not equivocate — I will not excuse— I will not retreat a single inch— and I will be heard." The paper was the "Liberator;" the editor, William Lloyd Garrison. The anti- slavery movement had begun. Thirty- -four years later the thirteenth amend- ment of the constitution, prohibiting slavery in the United States, was adopted. The fight for honest money, and the honest discharge of public obligations in this country, began in 1868. It end- ed thirty years later by the passage of the Act of March 4, lidOQ, The proba- bility or improbability that this Con- gress or the next, or the next, will adopt such a resolution, or that three- fourths of the states will ratify it two years hence or twenty years hence is not a thing to be considered. If the domination of the trusts is believed to be incompatible with liberty, and if it is believed that the prevention of that domination is possible only by art QUESTIONS OK THE HOUR rtinendmeut of the constitution, then every citizen who so believes ought to work for that amendment while he lives; and dying, bequeath the same patriotic duty to his heirs and their heirs until the work shall have been accomplished. This does not mean that we shall omit to use such constitutional power as we have in the meantime. No doubt Con- gress has power to pass a better law than the present one; and it ought to do it without delay. The field of state leg- islation should not be neglected. And all laws, state and national, should be vigorously, fearlessly and strictly en- forced. TAI^IFP CHANGES. Protectionists have always argued that the effect of protection would be to develop industrial aptitude and skill in oin- own people. It takes time to ac- complish that result. The most skillful citizens in every craft are those who have grown up in it, and whose fathers followed it before them. Moreover, it is necessary, in order to build up na- tional industries, to develop employers as well as employes, to familiarize the owners of capital with the business of manufacture, to inspire in them confi- dence and courage to undertake indus- trial enterprises, and teach them skill in their management. Our arguments and predictions have been singularly con- firmed. Never before in the world has any economic theory been more com- pletely justified than has been the theory of protection in the history of our coun- try. That theory implies that there should come a time when that result of the protective tariff will have worked itself out. Obviously that will require much longer time in some departments of in- dustry than in others; l)ut it will come at last in all of them, else our argu- ments have been unsound. They have not been unsound; and that precise re- sult is in progress of realization, and has been realized in some departments. In the manufacture of iron and steel, for example, our skilled workmen long ago overtook and passed those of the old world. In the manufacture of plain glass and pottery, ordinary boots and shoes, plain clothes, agricultural imple- ments, engines, and many other things we have nothing to learn from abroad. In processes requiring the highest man- ual skill — in the manufacture of the finest porcelain, glassware, laces, vel- vets, and the like, we are probably still somewhat behind some others. Our other argument for the tariff has been that it is necessary to cover the difference between the wages paid here and those paid in competing countries for similar work. That is a valid argu- ment and as good to-day as it ever was. But there is one fact not to be ovei*- looked in that connection. It is the ex- tensive use which we make of labor saving machinery in manufacturing processes. In that respect we are mak- ing wonderful advances all the time. Every step in that advance lessens the labor cost of the product. It has thus come about that in many lines of man- ufacture we can pay much higher wages than our competitors and still produce the goods at less cost. FOREIGN TRADE. A nation cannot maintain a high tar- iff, high wages, and high prices at home, and be a successful competitor in the general markets of the world, except so far as it may be able to off- set this disadvantage by superiority in its goods, or sometliing of that sort. If it costs forty pounds of gold in labor and materials to build a locomo- tive engine in this country it cannot be sold in another country where the same engine can be built for thirty- five pounds of gold. Our democratic friends used to throw this argument at us. We were told that we must have free trade in order to reach the "markets of the world." Our answer was, that our own markets— our home market was a lietter thing for us than the mar- kets of the woT'ld; and that we could 20 QUESTIONS OP THE HOUR not afford to excbauge tlie certainty of that foi' au uncertain chance at the other; which was a perfectly sound argument. At the same time we were bound to admit that, so far as we could get access to foreign markets without giving up our own. it was to our interest to do so. It was to ac- complish this end that the policy of reciprocity was inaugurated. It will be but another application of the same principle to modify our tariff from time to time in its rates and schedules, as the conditions of business change, here and abroad. Let us take the iron and steel indus- try, for example. The maui expense in that manufacture is in handling the material. W& do that almost wholly by machinery, and on' an immense scale. Iron ore is now shipped from Lake Superior to Cleveland, and other Lake Erie ports, in vessels carrying live or six thousand tons. It is un- loaded by machines which take out a whole cargo in one day. The opera- tion of these machines is perfectly marvelous. The latest device out is an improved "grab bucket"— I should call it a steel hand— which will pick up a ton of coal or ore as easily as you can take a nickle out of your pock- et. The thing lights on the pile as easily as a bird, then wiggles and twists about to work its fingers in among the lumps, and then closes down on a ton or more of the stuff, picks it up and carries it away to a dock or car just as I would take a handful of beans out of a bag and put them in a pan. At the furnace the ore is dumped into a bin underneath au elevated track by slippiug a catch which lets the bottom of tlie car drop down by a hinge. A car load of ore is put in the bin while you take oft' your hat. At the loAver edge of the slanting bottom of the bin is a chute with a hinged door througb which the ore is discharged into a bucket hold- ing a ton, or as many tons as you like, which is then whirled up in a twink- ling to the top of tbe furnace and dumped in. And so it goes, until the white hot steel rail comes fi'om the rolls; and at the end of the process it can be said with almost literal truth that not a pound of its weight ever strained the muscles of a human back. It was by being shrewd to see and quick to take advantage of these labor- saving devices that Andrew Carnegie made his millions— selling iron for a dollar that cost him fifty cents. These improvements, together with our natural advantages in the supply of ore and fuel, have put us ahead of all the world in the production of iron and steel. That industry needs no fur- Iher protection. I am not talking now about cutlery, saws, and the thousand and one things that are made from iron and steel by the application of further labor and skill upon the material; but of iron and steel in their original or large, heavy form, such as pigs, ingots, hilicts. beams, bars, plates and the like. Plain cotton goods, such as muslin, print cloths, sheeting and duck, are now made by machinery from the picked cotton to the finished stuff. Pick- ing machines are coming before long. With the world's main supply grown in our fields, and coal under the fields to run the machines to make it up, there is no reason why we should not lead the world in plain cottons. No other staple has a wider or more enduring, or rapidly expanding market. Civilization begins with cotton clothes. The awak- ening of the Orient means a prodigious increase in the market for cottons. We ought to have the lion's share of it. It is now the British lion's. Close after the cotton cloth comes the sewing machine. I believe the business in this country is in the hands of a combination which exports ma- chines in lai'ge quantities and sells them abroad for less than they are sold here. The patent laws may aft'ord some justification of this. The funda- mental sewing machine patents expired long ago, and those inventions are now free to the public. But there are new patents being issued from time to time QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR 27 Avhich authorize the luaimfacturers to hold up prices on machiues containiug- those improvements. But good ma- chinos can be made without those im- provement's; and it may be if the sew- ing machine combine were not able to add to the protection afforded to it by the patent laws the additional protec- tion afforded by the tariff laws the peo- ple could obtain machines like the original Singer and Ho Ave for less price than th?y have to pay now. The democrats have been arguing for many years that the fact that Ameri- can made goods are sold abroad for less prices than at home is evidence that our tariff unjustly enhances home prices. But that does not always hold good. In the tirst place, as I have said, our patent laws give the pat- entee an absolute monopoly of his in- vention for seventeen years. He can do just as he pleases about prices. And that is a wise law, too. I belieye that the patent law is to be ranked with the protective tariff" in its beneficent effect upon the industries of this country. In the next place, it may very well be that a manufacturer, having supplied his home market with all that it Avill lake at his establish(=d price, can afford to export his unsold surplus at a price which would ruin him if it were applied to his whole output. The Pennsylva- nia Railroad can afford to take me to Chicago and back for a dollar as one of a trainload of excursionists; but it v.'ouid not keep its trains going long at that rate as a regular fare. It is necessary, therefore, to distin- guish betAveen cases. A sale abroad by a patentee of his patented article at less price than he exacts here signifies nothing. A sale by any manufacturer abroad at less than his American price of a mere small surplus signifies noth- ing. But Avhen a manufacturer, con- trolling the whole trade here, does a regular and large export trade in un- patented articles at prices below those obtained here, it is open to suspicion that he Is getting an unjust advantage from our tariff. In harmony with these views I should say that the duty ought to be removed entirely from iron and steel, and plain cotton goods, and that the duty on sewing machines ought to be looked into. In this I am saying noth- ing Avhich the truest protectionist may not say. I have been saying for thirty year.-; that this result would come— this development of American manu- facture. It has come. \Tlry does not my own logic compel me now to say that, the tariff on iron, steel and cotton goods having done its work, the duty ought to cease? I ought to add that I have selected these particular commodities as mere illustrations. I have stated Avhat I believe in regard to them. But I am not a tariff' expert, and I might be in error as to any particular article or sfliedule. Such an error "Avould not affect the validity of my argument. OUR platfor:m. When the republican national con- vention met in 1896, the Wilson tariff", enacted under President Cleveland's administration, three years before, Avas in force. 0\u- platform, denounced that tariff", and pledged the party to enact one more in harmony Avith the princi- ples of protection— a pledge which it promptly redeemed by the enactment of the Dingley tariff, noAV in force. The platform Avas good, the laAV Avas ;j;ood, and the results have been good. But the platfoi'm contained this signifi- cant language. "We are not pledged to any particular schedules. The ques- tion of rates is a practical question to be governed by the conditions of time and of production.'" Those republicans Avho believe that the present time and the present con- ditions demand some changes of rates, or even abolition of duties not required for fair protection of American indus- try, are within the liberty reserved to them by their party's platform. I do not hesitate to say that I think that Congress ought to consider the subject at its next session.' I think— 28 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUll althoiigli I repeat my reservation thai I am not very wise on the subject- that it ought to repeal the duty on iron and steel, and plain cottons at once, and perhaps on some other arti- cles to which the same reasons for repeal apply. Then it ought to appoint a Commission or a committee to go over the whole field and report at the beginning of the next Congress. This would not mean an abandonment of the principles of protection, but a con- sistent adherence to them. It would be to prune the system of provisions which have become inconsistent with those principles by reason of changes in business and economical conditions which have taken place. Of course there Avill be an outcry against any proceedings of that kind. One of the difficulties against which the friends of protection have to con- tend is the disposition of great inter- ests which are benefited by it to resist changes which the public welfare de- mands. That is part of the price which Ave have to pay for the bless- ings of the system. It is our business to see that the wishes of those men shall not receive undue consideration. It will be feared by some that the very agitation of the question will dis- turb business. I do not think so. The people know that the republican party is devoted to the principles of protec- tion and will make no change in the tariff which will violate those princi- ples. A revision of the tariff by a democratic Congress would be a very different thing. It would be on differ- ent pi'inciples and on different lines. The business of the country might well take alarm at that pi'ospect. One of our stock arguments against the democratic slogan, "tariff reform," has been that the tariff should be re- formed by its friends, and not by Its enemies, which is good and true. But what if its friends will not reform it when it needs reform? There is an unrest in the public mind on this subject which we ought not to ignore. I think it proceeds mainly from irritation at the growing power of the trusts. The people are earnestly looking for some way to curb that pow- er. Inasmuch as those trusts which deal in things protected by the tariff enjoy the benefit of that protection, it is easy to fall in with the suggestion that the quickest way to cripple them is to re- peal the tariff on the things which they produce. Our first duty is to correct this error, to show the people that it i.s impossible to extinguish the trusts in that way, or even to hurt them without hurting ourselves more; then demon- strate our sincerity by turning our at- tention to the subject of regulating the trusts by law in the most effective man- ner possible, and in like manner taking up the tariff for separate consideration with a view to the correction of any in- equalities or injiistices M'hich are in it. either of original imperfection or sub- sequent development. There has been a great change in in- dustrial and commercial conditions since the enactment of the Dingley tar- iff'. Continual improvements in machin- ery have reduced the labor cost in many departments of industry. The world's markets have widened. Our relations to them have changed. We are reach- ing out for a larger share in interna- tional commerce. We must have it in order to find room for the activities of our people. These are the "conditions"' referred to in our platform. They de- mand our attention and our study. CUBAN RECIPROCITY. I believe that our honor and our inter- est alike require that we shall deal lib- erally with Cuba in the matter of trade relations. I would go to the length of free trade. I would take Cuba into the Union at once as respects commercial riglats and privileges, requiring her to maintain as against the rest of the world a tariff substantially identical with ours. This would give her all the commercial advantages of a State of the Union. It would give to American capital the opportiuiity for safe invest- ment in Cuba. It would give to Cuba an opportunity to work out her owu QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR 29 destinj- under the most favorable condi- tions possible^ WOULD BENEFIT tJS. Such an arrangement would promote that interchange of commodities which nature has ordained and which is bene- ficial to both parties — the interchange of productions between widely separ- ated latitudes. We enjoy that advan- tage now in high degree. The wheat of the north and the sugar of the south; the wool of the north and the cotton of the south; the apples of the north and the oranges of the south are all freely interchanged among us. The addition of Cuba to the circle vv'ould give an en- larged market for wheat, corn, flour, pork and manufacttired goods, and an enlarged supply of sugar, rice, tobacco, and tropical fruits. PREVENTION OF ANNEXATION. But the main element of advantage to us would be that it would enable Cuba to maintain her independence. The two great forces that affect public affairs are political considerations and commercial considerations. I think it may be assumed that the political forces in Cuba will favor her inde- pendence. The natural pride of her people, the instinct of nationality, the ambition of her politicians will all tend in that direction. But if she falls into a condition of commercial distress, and there is no relief in sight except an- nexation, she will be clamoring at our door for admission; and she will get in, —woe to us. I think it will be an unfortunate day for us when we admit Cuba into the Union. The strength of a free gov- ernment is in the average intelligence of its people. Ours is none too high. The admission of Cuba would lower it. In dealing with the hard questions that will tax our powers for the next half century— taxation, tariff, trusts, labor, money, municipal ownership and oth- ers that we know not of, which the swift changes of modern life are sure to develop, Cuba could render us no assistance — she- would be a load to carry. There is such a thing as genius for self-government. It is a racial instinct. The Anglo-Saxon race possesses it; th^ Latin race does not. The instinct of that race is to follow a leader. Our South American sister republics are torn to pieces by frequent revolutions because their people are compelled by their natural instincts to follow leader- ship, and are continually being led into strife by ambitious leaders. WAR WITH MEXICO. That is not the worst of it. While Cuba would be a burden to us in the conduct of our government it would be a burden that we could carry if we had to. But the admission of Cuba would be the first of nobody knows hoAv many more additions to our circle of the same sort of undesirable states. I should look for them first from the toi'ritory of Mexico. There has been a great influx of capital and enterprise inio Mexico from the United States, a lid it is going on at an increasing rate. Mexico has been highly prosperous for a number of years because she has had a strong leader in command. But the chances are that when President Diaz dies there will be a scramble for the succession among rival leaders that will precipitate a revolution. When that comes American interests in Mex- ico will suffer; we shall intervene for their protection; and war and conquest will be the natural result. We are cultivating the war spirit with our growing navy and our land and naval maneuvers and mimic bat- tles. I do not agree with the views expressed by the President in his late tour, nor with the policy of the ad- ministration and its predecessors for tei- years back, on this subject. The burdens which the world carries in its military and naval establishments are enormous. The only road to universal peace is universal disarmament. We 'M (»l KSjlC.N.S Oi' THE HOlTt could do iDore to bring- tbat about than aii.v (jthor or all otbor -uations put to- i>< tlier. We are the one great nation that could dare to set the example. If v/e would set oursels'es about it by argument, protestation and example, we could disarm Eui'ope and secure the establishment of an international couit in fifty years. What we are do- ing will make disarmament impossi- ble. The world is grooving afrrdd of us. Every Avarship Ave build contrib- utes to the building of three others elseAvhere. The Peace Congress at. the Hague has turned out to be the empti- est mockery of all time, and Ave have done nioi'e to make it so than any other nation. The maxim that the best security of peace is to be prepared for Avar is true in a certain brutal sense. It is true among dogs, bulls and bruisers. It is also true that the men Avho practice box- ing and carry pistols are the men Avho get into roAvs and commit homicides. If Ave had no navy there never would be any Avar betAveen us and England or any European nation. We might have to submit to some indignities, as all teachers of righteousness do, but they would not be serious, and a persistent refusal on our part to make war, or threaten war, or prepare for war, and a persistent insistance by us upon the establishment of international courts and international laAVS for the settle- ment of international disputes, and a ready and loyal submission by us to the decisions of such courts would com- pel the respect of mankind and tend mightily to bring about the reign of laAV among the nations as it reigns among the people of the nations. But then— Avbat's the use? So far as I know, 1 am the only person in the United Staies who holds tlic:-e views. outside of the Friend's Sociity hvjI the Dunkards— certainly the only republi- can speaker who expresses tliem; and, grand aud inspiring as they are to me, they count for nothing. We have set out upon the other course. It is to be our mission to scare the AA'orld into peace and good behavior by our mani- fest ability to punish oITenders. We can do that, too, to better effect than any other nation; aud if we Avill be the considerate and kind policeman, as Avell as tlie big one, we may not need to use our club very often. It is idle, however, to suppose that there Avill not be occasions for Avar, and it is certain that we.are c\iltiyat- ing tha martial spirit that leads to Avar on" small provocations; and that we shall haA'e more Avars and make more conquests is a probability which, it seems to me, no thoughtful man can overlook. And if Ave take Cuba into the Union, Avhy not Mexico, Central America, and all South America, Avhen the time comes? I am so impressed Avith the import- ance of these considerations that I Avish there could be an amendment added to our constitution to the elfect that for a hundred years no state shall be admitted to the Union from any ter- ritory off the mainland of North Amer- ica,' or south of our present southern boundary. We can govern outside ter- ritory, if need be; but Ave .need no out- side help in governing ourselves. All this has to do AviUi Cuban reci- procity. Let us put her on a footing of free commercial relationship Avith the United States and she avIU prefer independence; and Ave shall thus be saved from an unwise departure Avhich may implant tendencies in our govern- ment to bring us infinite trouble in the future. REET SUGAR. There is one feature of the business Avhich is distressing to me. I refer to the effect of the fi"ee admission of Cu- ban sugar upon our oaa'u sugar indus- try. Our cane sugar industry is not, and never Avas logically Avithin the protective principle, because it is in- capable of groAvth beyond the supply of more than a small part of our Avauts. Our cane groAving lands are confined substantially to the southern half of Louisiana. That state produced last QUESTIONS Ol^' 'J'HE liOUK 81 J'ear 270,000 tons of sugar, while our total consumption was 2,100,000 tons. Its production might be increased somewhat, but at the best it could fur- nish only a small part of the amount required for our use. At the same time, I have been satisfied to protect cane sugar. The Louisianlans are our brethren; their soil and climate are such that thej^ could not find anything else equally profitable to substitute for their sugar industry; the freedmen who do the work are entitled for many reasons to our peculiar consideration, and a- sugar duty combines with its protective effect a good form of reve- nue duty, if reasonable in amount. These facts taken together would jus- tify a duty on sugar even though there AA-ere no beet sugar production in ex- istence, or possible. The beet sugar industry stands ou different ground. It is the child of protection. It has in it possibilities of indefinite growth. We have watched its beginning with large expectations. It will be a grief to see it perish, if that must be, as a result of Cuban reciprocity. I do not know that that will be the case. As I have said, cur annual consumption is about 2,100,000 tons, which will increase v>ith increase of population and prosperity, and de- crease in price. The largest crop here- tofore produced in Cuba was 000,000 tons. Add to that Louisiana, 270,000 tons; Hawaii, 312,000; Porto Rico, 85,- 000, and we have a total of 1,267,0(X) tons of free cane sugar. If we add to this our present produc- tion of beet sugar, which I take at 100,000 tons, we shall have a total an- nual supply of l,3i^7,000 tons paying no duty. It would be necessary in that case to import 793,000 tons subject to duty to make up our required supply. The probable etiect of such conditions would be to lower the price of sugar below the present rate, but not to a free trade rate. But all such calculations as these are very uncertain. I do not know how much the stimulus of a profitable mar- ket would increase production in Cuba and Porto Rico; and the Philippine Isl- ands are an unknown factor. I feel bound to consider the question as though Cuban reciprocity would break down our sugar industry iu its in- fancy; and this is to me a distressing tiling to contemplate. But there are two things to be re- membered. The first is, that Cuban sugar is bound to come, duty free, be- fore long, if we refuse to admit it now, anyway. If we do not admit it from the Republic of Cuba, we will from the State of Cuba, and that very soon. We shall only make a virtue of neces- sity by admitting it now. The other is, that there is a point of honor involved which transcends every commercial consideration. When Pres- ident McKiuley asked the Cuban rep- resentatives to agree to the terms of the Piatt resolution by which ^he Cu- ban republic was to make concessions to us of great value, he did not promise reciprocity. He ha l no power to bind the United States by his promise, and was careful not to put it in that way. But he did say that he would "use his influence'' to briui.g it about. The Cubans trusted that assurance, and agreed to the terms of the Piatt resolution. William McKinley is dead, but his influence still reaches me. No obligation ever touched me more closely than that which binds me to carry out in letter and spirit the intent of his assurance. I do not see how any republican can feel otherwise. Free Cuban sugar is another inevita- ble consequence of our war against Spain which we did not foresee at the time, like to that which confronts us in the Philippine Islands. We must face them both like men. THE LABOR QUESTION. Never before has the labor problem been presented in this counti'y in a form to bring out the real question— the hard question which it contains, so clearly as it has been disclosed iu the 32 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR case of the antliracite coal stx'ike. Tlie meeting called by the President and held in his presence between the repre- sentatives of the mine owners and the miners was an historic event. The newspapers are with one accord berat- ing the railroad presidents as though they were monsters of inhumanity. And yet not one of them has answered, or attempted to answer, or can answer the position of the owners. They sim- ply said to the President "Protect us in the operation of the mines and we will fui-nish the coal; there are miners enough who desire to woi"li and whom we desire to employ; but they are not allowed to work by the striking miners." I think they had the President in a corner. What answer could he make? This is supposed to be a laud Avhere law is supreme; and he is the highest executive officer in the government. It is his sworn duty to execute the laws. What could he say to men who had broken no law, and who were avowing their readiness to supply the public with coal as soon as they were protected from unlawful interference Avith their businesis? They went further than that. They offered to submit to arbitration before the judges of the courts any claims of the minei's for higher wages, such ar- bitration to be between the owners and the miners directly, and not the union. Now who will be to blame if women and children freeze for want of coal? The miners. Who alone can get it out of the ground? The miners. Who is preventing it from being taken out of the ground? The miners. It is not a question of wages. The ownei's have offered in writing to submit that ques- tion to arbitration in a perfectly fair way. The judges of the courts know how to hear evidence and make just decisions. And in the meantime the work of mining coal can go on. • But the miners will have none of that. The owners must treat with the union, employ none but union men and obey the rules and regulations of the union. That is the issue which the miners ten- der. The newspapers curse the mine own- ers, and for what, when we get to the bottom of it? Because they will not hand the control of their business over to John Mitchell. They talk of seizing the mines under the power of eminent domain, taking them out of the hands of the owners and operating them by the government; or of appointing re- ceivers and running them by the court. For what reason? Because the owners do not furnish coal? But the owners are willing to furnish coal; they are not doing it because the miners will not mine it and will not allow any one else to mine it. THE ISSUE. This makes absolutely clear the other of the two most momentous issues ever tendered to the people of this countrj' — the control of all labor by unions. If we could be admitted to the consulta- tions of the labor leaders behind closed doors, we would learn that they are conducting a systematic plan of cam- paign for the subjugation of employers. They propose to compel every working- man to take his place in his appropri- ate union, and to compel all employers to recognize the unions, and deal with them upon all questions of wages and other conditions of employment. When everything is unionized what will em- ployers be but servants of the unions? That work is far toward completion in Chicago. It is said that there are 525 labor unions in that city, with an aggre- gate membership of 800,000, embracing 85 per cent, of all who work for wages. The anthracite coal strike is a great strategic movement in the general campaign — a sort of Sherman's march to the sea. The employers form the most odious combination in the coun- try. We all hate them. We instinctive- ly sympathize with the miners. Their lot is a hard one. Every kind hearted man would like to see them succeed in this contest. The unions have never QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR mght a fight under more favorable inditions. On tlie otlier liand, the owners are uhting for then- lives. Are they to be ■ wners of the mines, or mere agents for the United INIine Workers? That same (juestion confronts employers evei'y- where to-day, only not in such acute lorni. THE OTHER SIDE. This is a true statement of the case and the issue. And yet it has another side. In the anthracite coal mines a few men control the employment of a Inmdred and fifty thousand minex'S. They have fox-med a combination so close that it might as well be one man. If each individual miner had to act by himself — malie his own application for employment, his own bax-gain for wages and houx's, and keep his place ;it the xuere will of the employer, he would be practically a slave. He would ' be compelled to take the terms offered i — assuxning that he had no resources I for a livelihood except mixxixig. What is true of the miner is true of workingmen gexierally. The conditions of modern life compel more and more of us to seek employment — to live on wages. At the same time, the employing, wage-paying power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. IN UNION IS STRENGTH. The workingman can escape from the helplessness of his individual weakness only by organization. Good people see this and applaud it every- where; and yet seem to be as blind to the inevitable consequences of such organization as we all were to the in- evitable consequences of the war against Spain when we went into it. The object of the union is to put its members upon some footing of equality with their employer in making terms. But if he will not listen to reason or persuasion, what then? The strike. It was an idle thing to organize the union if it can do nothing but submit. After the strike what? It is idle to strike and let other men take the places. They must be kept out. If persuasion and argument again fail, then what? Force. How much force? All that is uecessax'y to win. This is war. The anthracite mines ax"e in a state of siege. If the anthracite miners had cap- tured all the dix'ectors of the coal I'oads and mining companies and carx'ied them off to the xnoxxntains, to be held as hostages, as INIiss Stone was held by the brigands, until they agreed to recognize the union and acquiesce in its demands, what an outcx-y thex-e would have been over the whole wox-ld. And yet it would not have been a whit different in principle froxji the present px'oceedings, and it woixld have been mvxch less inconvenient to the x-est of us. We would not miss the society of the dix'ectors neax'ly as much as we may miss the coal in their mines. The essential object of a stx'ike is to com- pel the employer to do something against his will, and to compel it by pxxnishment— by the infliction of injury. The kind of punishment is not materi- al to the principle involved. WHY DO WE TOLERATE IT ? Society not only tolerates this condi- tion of war in its midst, but approves and encourages it until the inconven- ience becomes unbearable; and then it visits its maledictions, not on the strikers who made the war and broke the peace by lawless measures, but on the employer who is mex-ely defending himself against attack. Why is this? There is a universal law, above all other laws, the world around. It is the law of self preservation. The com- mon law of England and our country recognizes this law to the extent that a man who is menaced in person or property of himself or faxuily under circumstances in which the law will not, or cannot protect him, may pro- tect himself— to the death, if necessary. That is the situation of the working- t. Of 9 34 QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR men of this country. The industrial changes which are going on are threat- ening to reduce them to slavery. The law does not protect them. It protects tlie employers in their ownership, their iucorponitions, their consolidations and combinations, but it leaves the indi- vidual workingman to make his fight alone. The union is his only salvation. And the union is of no avail unless it will fight; and it is foolish to fight un- less you fight to win. Society, in a dim, unconscious way, recognizes this situation, and approves the warfare of the union, without distinctly perceiv- ing why. THE WAR MUST GO ON. The battle the workingmen are fight- ing is not for themselves alone; it is for us all. It is for the independence, the comfort, the education, the eleva- tion, the manhood of American citi- /-c-nship. It must go on until the law is able lo deal with the labor question iu a way to do justice to all. Until then the only thing the unions can do is to bear and forbear when they can, and fight when they must. I believe the anthracite coal strike was a justifi- able one, and that there is nothing to be said in criticism of the strikers, and will not be if they keep it up unril next spring. Society deserves punishment for its neglect of this great question. It can be stirred to action only l)y pun- ishment. I believe we shall have it iu abundance before we are whipped to our duty. We shall have mobs, riots, conflagrations, slaughter— war in all its hideous forms; and all for our own blindness and selfishness and stupidity in not perceiving the drift of the times and the necessity of keeping pace in tlie law with the progress of society. We are a much beleaguered people. With the trusts reaching out for the control of all manufacture, trade and pi-ices, and the unions marching on to the control of all labor, what is to be the fate of society? Are we to become the slaves of two great despotisms? Things tend that way. ■ THE REMEDIKS. Again the word comes back to me, as to every man who opens his mouth to speak on a question like this, "Have you anything to suggest? If not, keep still." Yes, I have— a little. The time has not come for the laws which the conditions will finally re- quire. Those laws will impose on em- ployers a lar'ge surrender of theii I'ig'hts, as they now regard them, and they will impose on the unions and their members restrictions to which they would, at present, be very unwill- ing to submit. It will take many and dreadful punishments to bring us to the point where the legislation will be possible. The employers will suffer all tlie plagues of Egypt, and the work- ingmen will wander forty years in the wilderness before we siee the promised land. One of the indispensable laws will be one requiring the unions to organ- ize in some form in which they can be held to legal responsibility for their contracts and conduct. Possibly such a law could be passed now in some states, but I think the unions would oppose it everywhere. COURTS OF INVESTIGATION AND CEN- SURE. There is a line along which, as it seems to me, useful legislation is pos- sible now, which would help in the solution of the problem and ameliorate conditions somewhat in the meantime. We could easily provide in every state a tribunal with the compulsory pow- ers of a court whose duty it would be, upon the appearance of any serious labor ditticulty. to call the parties be- fore it and compel them to show cause why they were disturbing the general peace by their fight. It should have power to compel the attendance of wit- uesso.-; and the production of books and papers. It should make an adjudica- tion upon the merits of the contro- versy. I would not confer upon such a court at present any power to punisli QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR 35 except by ceusure. I think that woulil suffice in most eases. If tliere had been such a court in Pennsylvania, it would have been its duty to investigate the coal strike five months ago; to go thoroughly into every matter of wages, hours, prices, profits, and everything else that affects the question of right between the mine owners and the miners. If it had found the wages inadequate or the conditions of labor oppressive it would have been its duty to say so, and state what concessions the employer ought to make to their employees in these respects, I believe that such a finding would be practically compulsory upon em- ployers. When summoned before the court in such a proceeding they would bring their lawyers. They would be compelled to make a showing iu the nature of a defense of their conduct. They would have had their day in court— a chance to be heard on every point. The whole force of public opin- ion would be behind the court, and Avould be well nigh irresistible, al- thcrugh the coui-t would do nothing ana could do nothing but censure the party in the Avrong. If such a court had found in the present strike that the demand of the miners for the recognition of the union Avas one which they ought not to insist on, in view of the injury acrruing to the public, they would have given that point up. I think they will do so yet, and that when they do it will be iu consequence of the meeting before the President. Up to the time of that meeting the owners had had but two words for the miners and the public— "unconditional surrender." But when they founa themselves before the President and at the focal point of the burniug glass of public opinion, they yielded, and of- fered to arbitrate the question of wages. Mitchell held out for recogni- tion of himself and his unions; but I shall be disappointed if he does not give in on that point, and let the men go back on terms of wages to be fixed by arbitration. THE INDIANA LAW. We have a law iu our state somewhat like this. Our labor commissioners are required to investigate every stubborn strike which the parties will not set- tle nor arbitrate, and report the facts to the Governor; and he is authorized to give them to the press. I do not know that this provision of the law- has ever been acted on by the commis- sioners, but they have been instru- mental iu settling many strikes; and how far the knowledge of the fact that the issue might be compulsorily inves- tigated has influenced contestants to come to terms, no one can tell. I should think it an improvement to call the tribunal a court, and give it all the powers of a couit up to the point of pronouncing judgment, and at that point limit its power to one of censure. xin economical way to constitute the court would be to authorize the Gov- ernor to designate a judge or judges for each case as it arises from among the judges in office at the time. THE CRISIS. The people Avill not wait on the re- publican party much longei-. It is charged by its op«poneuts with sub- serviency to the trusts. Its conduct gives color to the charge. There is nothing in the recent past to indicate that our senators and representatives have had or have any wish or purpose to pass any laws that will inconven- ience the trusts. I have seen some cam- paign documents containing elaborate comparisons between the records of the democratic and republican parties in the matter of anti-trust legislation; very much to the advantage, of course, and truly, of the republican party. I think it would have been just as well to omit that. The Pharisee who thank- ed God that he Avas not as other men may have spoken the truth. He cer- tainly had reason for thankfulness if the "other men" were democrats of the present standard of weight and fine- 3G ■QUESTlUisS OF THE IIOUK ness. But he never got much credit for his prayer, either iu Heaven or history. For the salve of other great issues the people have borne with the delinquency of the re- publican party on the trust question. But that forbearance will find its limit; and unless we attack the question with manifest earnestness and sincerity of purpose the people will let out the job to the democratic party. Can anybody measure the disaster of such an event? Not that the repub- lican party ought to have perpetual tenure of powei'. It ought not. It is a calamity that there is but one party fit to run the government. But that is our unfortunate situation. I do not know how to truly describe the demo- cratic party in the kind language which I habitually employ. It is in a state of utter demoralization. Its seduction by William J. Bryan seems to have im- planted in its system an incurable dis- ease. It contains millions of good and true men. It contains, in its nominal membership, able men, great statesmen —men competent to deal wisely with public questions; but they are sitting on the back seats; they have no effec- tive influence in shaping the policy of the party. To put the democratic par- ty in power at this time AVOAild be to take risks impossible to measure. It Avould be particularly incapable of dealing with the trust question. Its instincts wou*d lead it to violent and reactionary measures; to make war on capital; to demolish the great combi- nations; to try to force society back to the conditions of a hundred years a^o. At the same time it would be intuitive- ly opposed to the one step necessary to make any effective anti-trust legisla- tion possible, which is an amendment of the constitution giving Congress power to regulate and control all cor- porations. It has yet sticking in its bones enough of its old, ante bcllum states' rights theories to set it against any such increase in the power of the United States government. It is by and through the republican party, an<5 that party alone, that any useful legis- lation on this great question is possi- ble. OUR DUXV, Our duty, therefore, is plain, ^^'e must keep the republican p^arty in pu\v- er at AVashingtou. We must hold our majority in the House of Representa- tives. We must let no guilty demo- cratic candidate escape. But with that we must let our Sena- tors and Representatives understand tuimistakably that there must be no- more trifling with the trust question; tliat they must take hold of it without delay and deal with it with all the wis- dom at their command. To accomplisli this effectively each one of us must do something; not merely listen to what some one else says, but say somethin,:^- himself. We can do it. Suppose every re- publican editor in the- state would say something about it once a week, arid every republican spealver mention it once in each .speech, and every republi- can voter write one letter about it to some one of our Representatives or Senators in Congress. Just this, if he can think of no more: "Dear Sir: — Do something about the trusts. Yours truly." Washington would be astonish- ed at the Pentecostal tire that Avould possess the Indiana delegation. We ar-i the sovereigns. Let us for once assert our prerogative. We have uiore power than the trusts if we will only use it. My brethren — not fellow citizens now> but brethren — brethren in the felicity of thinking alike concerning the things of the republic — brethren in an inherit- ance of glory in the achievements of our party — I speak to you as one look- ing backward on many years of earnest political activity, and forward to few. It is not all of party success to win the tight — to stay in power. There are, iu every party, as in every man, forces that pull downward. It is the forces that lift upward that make the party great. The individual men of the party are those forces. Let us lift, lift, lift — every man in his place. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 608 112 1