THE FARMER AND THE TRUSTS. 407 



gers, carrying the corrupt influence of money to the very 

 liearthstones of the people, does far more liarni than the 

 unreasonable profits which may sometimes be extorted from 

 the people as the result of legislation so obtained. I have 

 spoken of national legislation in connection with Trusts, 

 because it is mainly by tariff laws and patent laws that Trusts 

 have thus far been able to live, but the same influences are 

 used to control state legislation, in wliich, however, railroads 

 and other interests wliich state legislation may particularly 

 affect, supply the corrupting influence. 



The industrial Trusts exist mainly by virtue of tariff and 

 patent laws. Other enterprises, like railroads, telephones, and 

 the like, secure their monopolistic advantages, which must 

 form the basis of all Trusts, in other ways. I have spoken 

 mostly of those based upon tariff laws because they are the 

 most numerous and most oppressive. 



The remedy for the abuses of Trusts, however, would not 

 be found in the repeal of tariff and patent laws, the result of 

 which would be the expansion of Trusts on a more gigantic 

 scale than ever, because they would then necessarily be made 

 strong enough to overbear competition by the sheer weight of 

 capital. The Trusts are now adjusted to conditions as they 

 exist.* They would speedily readjust themselves to such con- 

 ditions as might arise. They would probably become inter- 

 national, after the manner of the Standard Oil Company, 

 which is already international. 



The first step in an attempt to control the Trusts is to get 

 out of the darkness and into the light. We do not know what 

 they are doing, and we need to know. Then we can permit 

 them to continue doing what is right and stop their doing 

 what is wrong. This appears to me self-evident. The army 

 whose every move is known to the enemy, while those of the 

 adversary are not known until they have been made, is in a 

 way to be surely beaten. That is exactly the condition of the 

 contest between the farmers and the Trusts. Any continuance 

 of the contest on the present basis is quite certain to result in 

 continued discomfiture of the people. The warfare is carried 

 on, as already shown, by paid guerrillas living among the 



