286 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



under the pretense of being a lawyer, received a princely retainer 

 from some large interest for the practice of his influence instead of 

 the practice of his profession, it was found that it had so conducted 

 its affairs as to become a subject of blackmail or purchaser of pro- 

 tection. 



When the unlawful and unfair railroad rate, the rebate, the 

 drawback and the midnight tariff were investigated, they were 

 found to exist as a result of a demand by some unlawful enterprise 

 that had the power to demand and the shamelessness to exact such 

 unfair and illegal privileges from the railroads of the country. 



It was when the people came to realize these conditions that 

 they came to understand the importance of bringing about a 

 changed condition in our commercial and industrial life. They 

 found those conditions of illegality and unlawfulness were finding 

 their expression in the public life of the nation and state in the 

 corrupting and debauching of the public servants. 



These conditions, which the people have now come to gen- 

 erally recognize as being true, furnish my reason tonight for talk- 

 ing to this intelligent audience upon such a dry subject as the sub- 

 ject of "Combinations." And in order that I may be entirely fair 

 with you, like the prestidigator, I will say that I have no large 

 sleeves or false beard to conceal my movements, and that what I 

 shall talk about is a question of modem industrial trusts with 

 which we are now forced to deal. 



Now, this is a subject which would seem already to be ex- 

 hausted by the great mass of written and verbal discussion that 

 has been had concerning it in the past ten years. But it is by rea- 

 son of the fact that there has been so much said about the subject 

 that it is still open to discussion and debate; because much that 

 has been said concerning the industrial combinations has been said, 

 not for the purpose of enlightening the people, but to confuse them 

 concerning the principles which should direct their solution and 

 settlement by the courts and legislatures of the country. There 

 has been carried on during the course of the last ten years a gen- 

 eral debate as to whether trusts were a good thing or a bad thing 

 for the public welfare, and for trade or commerce. Now, the ques- 

 tion as to whether it would be a good thing, that, whether it 

 would be a sufficiently good thing to justify the apparent moral 

 wrong for those who do not have horses to take horses from those 

 who have more horses than they really need, would not be regarded 

 as a question upon which there could be a serious difference of 

 opinion. To go further, the question as to whether it would be a 



