there is one thing surer than death and taxes, it is that this beloved government of ours belongs hair and hide, body and soul, to the trusts.
We don’t expect our own bull-pup to bite us in the hind leg, but we expect him to bite the other fellow; and when thrifty gentlemen like Rockefeller, Morgan and Carnegie, spend their hard earned cash to acquire a government after their own heart, this institution cannot be utilized against its rightful owners.
The fact is, we have two governments in the United States, a little one with its headquarters in Washington and a big one with its headquarters in Wall Street and its hindquarters all over the country. This government owns all the mines, water powers, forests, railroads, factories, colleges, banks and life insurance companies.
It determines what kind of clothes we wear, what sort of houses we live in, what kind of grub we eat, whether our children go to school or to the factory and whether little Mary plays piano or slings dishes in a hash joint.
The little affair in Washington is only the errand boy or, at the most, the policeman of the real thing in Wall Street. We cannot control the master with his servant, and a government belonging to the trust has neither the power nor the inclination to regulate the trusts. All attempts in this direction have been miserable failures. That the advocates of regulation are still taken seriously by some folks, is a clear indication that the American people have lost their sense of humor.
Trust Busting.
The Democrats, on the other side, propose that the trusts be busted, and they invite us to return to competition and the good old days of
6
