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ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF THOMAS JEFFERSON ADDRESS OF HON. ROBERT L. OWEN OF O K L A H O M A DELIVERED IN NEW YORK CITY APRIL 13, J908 ;s u klahfl e; k ha< ould t] t a tj housr lersta ny bag t near arly \ neasdj terger to H tee. ! I S ta ; ies srr, ergen A i ;lahoDt t repex ey on/ ® || ks, ar ; ificien' uota.i irougi, l ial, t l zh hst( igainsH o f sat, •plus x issue^ my bt, Stater, ds fO|. State^ ig art, >i* the, in tbf int ofc any1* f tlie_ o jvadeh nitedy >nds?l ianksv iding “ mj't2 s an ught” *POSG»<; ! tbe= tber i for that IgMr ADDRESS OF HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. AN ADDHESS BY ROBERT L. O W EN IN NE W YO RK ON T H E A N N IVER SARY OF T H E B IR T H D A Y OF T H O M A S JE F F E R SO N , A P R IL Mr. P r e s id e n t and G entlem en of th e 13, 1908. N a t io n a l D e m o c r a t ic C lub : It has been one hundred and sixty-five years since the birth of Thomas Jefferson— the patron saint of the Democracy. In the cen turies to come the dignity and the value of this great intelligence and of this great heart will rise higher and higher in the estimation of man, for the birth of no man since the birth of Christ has been so serv iceable to his fellow-men. W e do well annually to assemble and burn incense on the altar in his memory— the man who taught religious liberty and the first to write it in the statutes of V irgin ia; the man who taught freedom of speech ; who put an end to entailed estates, overthrew the law of primo geniture, and in 1777 introduced in the Virginia assembly the first bill providing universal education and the first bill to forbid dueling; who established the University of Virginia ; the man who condemned monopoly and slavery, and pointed out their dangerous tendencies ; the man, above all other things, who loved his fellow-men and trusted them, and regarded them as his brothers and worthy to govern them selves; the man who stood firmly for a strict construction of the Constitu tion, who maintained the reserved rights of the States and of the peo ple of the S ta te s; a man whose ideas of government were so sound and so true that within a few short years his doctrines— opposition to slavery excepted— were established in the hearts and minds of all of the people of the United States, so that there was in effect only one party in the decade following his presidency. OKLAH OM A. You Eastern sons of the National Democracy may fancy that Okla homa is a long way off and has but few ties with Thomas Jefferson, but I call your attention to the fact that the purest Jeffersonian democracy upon the continent is in the heart of Oklahoma— all of the teachings of Thomas Jefferson are vitally active in the constitution of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is more indebted to Thomas Jefferson than is New York, be cause Thomas Jefferson, in the Louisiana Purchase, acquired by pur chase the very soil of Oklahoma, and made many republics where one empire had controlled. The people who first settled Oklahoma carried with them the liveliest memories of Thomas Jefferson. Among the first settlers of Oklahoma was my Indian grandfather, a leader of the Cherokees, who carried with him as a precious memory a silver medal, which I now show you, given to him by Thomas Jefferson. On the one Side is a medallion of Jefferson and the inscription, “ Th. Jefferson, Pres ident of the U. S., A. D. 1801,” and on the other side, embossed, are two hands in friendly grasp, with the legend “ Peace and friendship.” 51007— 9315 3 4 In the most beautiful part of the Cherokee Nation I have a country place named for the residence of Thomas Jefferson, and called Monticello. A t this country place the great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson gave birth to two of his descendants, Adalaide and Pattia Morris. Oklahoma has many ties binding that great Commonwealth to Thomas Jefferson, but chief of all are the intellectual and spiritual ties, drawn from the soul of Thomas Jefferson, establishing great principles of gov ernment necessary to the welfare and the happiness of man. R E L IG IO U S FREED O M . The great doctrine of religious freedom taught by Jefferson is found recorded in the Oklahoma bill of rights, section 5 : “ Sec. 5. No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, ap plied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion, or for the use, benefit, or support of any priest, preacher, minister, or other religious teacher or dignitary, or sectarian institution as such.” The right of free speech is written in the same bill o f rights, section 22, as fo llo w s: “ S ec . 22. Every person may freely speak, write, or publish his senti ments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse o f that rig h t; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions for libel, the truth of the matter alleged to he libelous may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libelous be true, and was written or published with good motives and for justi fiable ends, the party shall be acquitted.” And the principle of universal education is there adopted (Art. X I I I ) ; “ ( S e c t i o n 1. The legislature shall establish and maintain a system of free public schools wherein all the children o f the State may be edu cated. “ (S ec . 2. The legislature shall provide for the establishment and support of institutions for the care and education of the deaf, dumb, and blind of the State.” “ A kt . X X I . Educational, reformatory, and penal institutions and those for the benefit of the insane, blind, deaf, and mute, and such other institutions as the public good may require, shall be established and supported by the State in such manner as may be prescribed by law.” NO SLAVER Y. Thomas Jefferson was strongly opposed to slavery, as he Indicated in many ways. In his letter to E. Rutledge (1787) he stated : “ This abomination must have an end. And there is a superior bench reserved in heaven for those who hasten it.” In the proposed Virginia constitution he subm itted: “ No person hereafter coming into this country shall be held within the same in slavery under any pretext whatever.” (June, 1776.) And also the follo w in g: “ The general assembly (of Virginia) shall not have power to * * * permit the introduction of any more slaves to reside in this State, or the continuance of slavery beyond the generation which shall be living on the 31st day of December, 1 8 0 0 ; all persons born after that date being hereby declared free.” 51007— 9315 5 In commenting on the deplorable results of slavery, Thomas Jef ferson said : “ The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual ex ercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting depotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate i t ; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of education in man ; from his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do.” And he also sa id : “ Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated, but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is j u s t ; that his justice can not sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible even ts; that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The A l mighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.” M y fellow-citizens, I comment upon these doctrines of the patron saint of the Democracy, because it was a failure on the part of the Democratic party to develop and observe this one teaching of Jefferson, which resulted in the retirement of that party from national control during the last half century. I have always thought that it was a providential thing for the poor Ignorant blacks of Africa that they should have been brought in con tact with the civilized races, even though it was through slavery, be cause it led to their gradual improvement from savage life. Ultimately, however, it was the unhappy influence of slavery which caused the original Democratic party to go to defeat in 1860. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of men, who, previously to that time, had been Jeffersonian Democrats, felt that Jefferson’s opinion with regard to slavery was r ig h t; that the continuance of slavery was equally harmful both to master and slave, and, under the leadership of Abraham Lin coln, they first set their faces against the extension of slavery to the Territories of the United States. Abraham Lincoln, in his speech at Ottawa, 111., on August 2, 1858, in reply to Douglas, said : “ I will say here while upon this subject that I have no purpose, either directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe that I have not the lawful right to do so and I have no inclination to do so.” But, as the contention proceeded, those original Jeffersonian Demo crats who opposed slavery became more and more resolved against it, until such men, under the new name of the Republican party, deter mined upon the complete abolishment of slavery in this country. The same spirit of American liberty which determined that the slavery of the black man under the forms of law should not exist in this country will stand against the enslavement of white men by mo nopolies under a more artful form of law. Organized gigantic monopo lies have invaded every field, controlling the volume and rate of wages paid to labor, and controlling the purchasing power of the wages &<! labor when paid. Lincoln was opposed to the extension of the slavery of black men, and before his term of office was out he already was foreseeing the danger of the enslavement of white men. lie foresaw the danger to the humbler toiling citizen of arrogant organized capital, aud in his first message to Congress pointed it out. 51007—9315 Am ong other things he sa id : “ Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first ex isted. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protec tion as any other rights. “ No men living are more worthy to he trusted than those who toil up from poverty— none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost.” The monopoly of various industries by skillfully organized capital has such control now that laborers by thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions are dependent for employment on those whose policy and interest may be served by the discharge of these laborers. The giant corporations deem it judicious, in cases, to restrict the output in order to raise the price, and thus dismiss labor at one door and raise the price to the laborer as consumer at the other door— deny him wages with one hand and raise prices on him with the other. Monopoly means ultimate mastery on the one side and slavery on the other. Monopoly means mastery of the one man and coequal servitude of the other man. NO MONOPOLY. Thomas Jefferson vigorously opposed monopoly of every kind except as a reward for literature and invention. He opposed monopoly in land. He pointed out the terrible effects of monopoly of land in France in 1785 as fo llo w s: “ The property of France is absolutely concentrated In a very few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year down wards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some of them having as many of 200 domestics, not laboring. They employ also a great number of manufacturers and tradesmen and, lastly, the class of laboring husbandmen. But, after all, there comes the most nu merous of all the classes— that is, the poor, who can not find work. I asked myself what could be the reason that so many should be permit ted to beg who are willing to work in a country where there is a very considerable proportion of uncultivated lands. Those lands are undis tributed only for the sake of game. It should seem, then, that it must be because of the enormous wealth of the proprietors, which places them above attention to the increase of their revenues by permitting these lands to be labored.” And if you will remember, gentlemen of the National Democratic Club, you will recall that when this condition of monopoly reached a certain point the finest qualities of monopolists were suddenly over thrown and sent to the guillotine by the commonest kind of people in one of the bloodiest revolutions known to history. The French revo lution that overthrew this great monopoly had the good result of di viding up the lands of France into small holdings, which has made France one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on earth, show ing a power of recuperation after the Franco-Prussian war that wag the astonishment of the world. I think that, perhaps, few men realize the extreme danger created by monopoly to the welfare and happiness of the people and to the 51007— 9315 1 stability of the country. The slavery of monopoly is not new in his tory. I recall a wonderful story of a monopoly recorded in Holy W rit that was once established in the most fertile valley in the world, the valley of the Nile. It was in the reign of a king named Pharaoh. He had a commercial adviser of great sagacity, a man, sold as a slave into Egypt, named Joseph, of Hebrew extraction. Under the advice of Joseph, Pharaoh and his captains stored all of the surplus corn of Egypt during the seven years of plenty, and there after during the seven years of drouth they had one of the richest mo nopolies known to history. The price of corn “ went up.” There was a “ bull movement ” on corn. The bears were not “ in it.” The price of corn went “ sky high.” And, first of all, Pharaoh and his captains took all of the money of the Egyptians in exchange for corn, and next they took all their jew elry in exchange for corn, and then— “ They brought their cattle unto Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses and for the flocks and for the cattle of the herds and for the asses, and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year,” and the second year, “ Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; ” “ for the Egyptians sold every man his field because the famine prevailed over them : so the land became Pharoah’s.” And when the people had sold all of their property and land to Pha raoh in exchange for corn, they said, “ Let us and our children work for you for corn, and Pharaoh, being a benevolent man,” kindly permitted them to do so. And on these mild terms Pharaoh allowed them to have a portion of the corn which they had raised with their own hands, because Pharaoh was a benevolent man and had a sagacious adviser of fine commercial instinct. Then Joseph said unto the people, “ Behold, I have bought you this day, and all your land, for P haraoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.” “ And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.” “ And they said, thou has saved our liv e s; ” and so it came to pass that Pharoali was the savior of the country. And Joseph and Pharaoh have not been the only monopolists who have been called by their captives “ the saviors of the country.” I well recall a recent scene in which certain great men of enormous busi ness sagacity are reputed, during certain recent years of plenty, to have laid up for use enormous values in cash and cash credits, and to have stored or made subject to control nearly all of the available cash and cash credits iu New York— to have been piling It up for several years on a bull market, and finally, when they had stored most of the available cash in Egypt, there was a repetition of the days of Pharaoh— and the famine came and the price of cash went up— there was a bull movement on cash or a bear movement on stocks and bonds, and the price of cash went sky high, and first of all Pharaoh and his captains took over Morse and Ileintz and allied interests, and then they took 51007—9315 8 over Tennessee Coal and Iron and other properties too numerous to mention, and still the price of cash went up. On October 24, 1907, the price of cash was out of sight, because there was a monopoly of cash in Egypt, and the Egyptians in W all street cried aloud and lifted up their voices and said, “ Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes? Let us have corn.” And at 2 o’clock interest rates ran up to 150 per c e n t; Union Pacific declined ten and a half points In ten sales, and at 2.15, when the Egyp tians were on the point of falling dead, and were looking at each other with ghastly faces, and considering the easiest way in which they might commit suicide, lo, the “ saviors ” of America, Pharaoh and his captains, “ let them have corn ” in exchange for their valued possessions. “ And th e E g y p t ia n s lift e d up t h e ir v o ic e s , “ And they sa id : ‘ Thou hast saved our lives.’ ” In the leading Standard Oil bank there are 23 directors; In the leading Morgan bank there are 39 directors; and they, with their sub ordinates and associates, making a number something less than 1 0 0 men, have control of every railway company, telegraph company, express company, steamship company, and all o f the great Industrials which have a monopoly in every one o f the great necessaries of life. F o r those who are curious to see a more elaborate description o f this system and the companies they control, I commend them to the remarks o f Hon. R o b e r t M . L a F o l l e t t b , o f Wisconsin, in the United States Senate during the last month. These great combinations and trusts exercise a substantial monopoly upon all of the great necessaries of life, and control their production, transportation, and distribution. In the last fifteen years these monopolies, commonly called trusts, have been wonderfully developed in our country. John Moody, in his revision of these statistics, bringing the figures down to January 1, 1908, presents the follo w in g. Table shoieing grovjth of trusts. 190Jt-1908. Classification of trusts. 7 greater industrial trusts........ X/Csser industrial trusts__ ____ Important industrial trusts in January 1, 1904. January 1, 1908. Number of Total capitali plants zation, stocks acquired and bonds or con outstanding. trolled. Number of Total capitali plants zation, stocks acquired and bonds or con outstanding. trolled. 1,638 5,038 1,528 3,426 $2,662,752,100 4,055,069,433 282 528,551,000 5,288 1,336 1,040 7,246,342,533 3,735,4.56,071 9,397,363,907 6,676 2,599 745 10,951,613,754 7,789,393,000 612,931,154,000 8,664 20,379,162,511 10,020 31,072,160,754 $2,708,438,754 8,243,175,000 (“) Total important indusFranchise trusts - _ _ _______ Great railroad groups. ____ a The stock and bonds of industrials for 1909 aggregate $ 17,529,126,232, Poor’s Manual of Industrials, 1910. 6 Railroad stock and bonds and assets for 1908 aggregate $ 1 9,370,078,153, Poor’s Manual of Railroads, 1909. 51007— 9315 L 9. The Increase In these two items thus appears to be over $13,000,and the incomplete returns for trust properties for 1909 exceed $45,000,000,000. One trust which he does not mention is “ the money trust,” the community of interests known as the system, by which the money and bank credits of the country, which is the lifeblood of commerce, can be controlled. The laws have been so written as to pile up, in large measure, the reserves o f the banks o f the country in three cities. And those who can control the supply of “ credits ” and of “ cash ” in the New York banks can, of course, control the price of stocks and bonds, whose market Is fixed in New York, and there is grim humor in heax-ing the Egyptians pay tribute to the masters of monopoly and to see them fall down and worship and to hear them declare, “ Thou hast saved our lives.” It would make a man almost doubt whether such lives were worth saving. Who is there so aall, so grossly ignorant, as not to perceive that monopoly means mastei-y on the one side and slavery on the other? The slavery of monopoly is not confined to the Egyptians on W all stre e t; it also goes to the Egyptians on the farm. Let me, as a farmer and an humble Egyptian, give you a simple illustration: From 1887 to 1894 I handled cattle. I had free ranges, cheap labor, and I worked at this business industriously for seven years, and in that time sent to market over 17,000 steers, and as a reward for my service In pre paring food for the American people “ Pharaoh ” paid me not one dollar in compensation above my actual expense. I earnestly thereafter ad dressed my extremely limited intelligence to discovering the reason why, and the reason was that when I took those cattle to the Kansas City stock yards there was but one buyer— Pharaoh— who had a monopoly on meat products, who had a monopoly by which he controlled the price of cattle and hogs and sheep. He had various buyers in the market, but only one price— the price was fixed every morning. W hat chances has a farmer or a cattle producer against this evil combination which fixes an arbitrary price upon his labor and upon everything which goes into the c a ttle ; that is, upon his corn, his oats, his rye, his millet, his wheat, his grass, and the labor of himself and of his children? W hy, the farmer is only an Egyptian, and he, too, is allowed to work for Pharaoh, because Pharaoh is a benevolent man. The meat trust is more considerate in these days. In the old days they killed the goose, of which I was one, that laid the golden egg. In these days they are wiser, and they encourage the goose to live by permitting him to have subsistence, while they content themselves with plucking the goose of all surplus and taking all the eggs. W e have not In our country a single Pharaoh, but we have a hundred Pharaohs and 10,000 captains of Pharaoh, who have a monopoly upon every line of commerce, upon every railway, every steamship line, upon every means of transportation, of conveying intelligence, of production and of distribution; upon every express company, upon every telegraph line, upon all of the great industries. Monopolies in iron, and steel, and copper, and tin, and zinc, and lead, and all m eta ls; monopolies in every line of chem icals; monopolies in every line of d ru gs; monopolies in fer tilizers ; monopolies in all building materials, cement, plaster, lumber, stone, g la s s ; monopolies in house furnishings; monopolies in tobacco; monopolies in oil and all its by-products; monopolies in asphalt and s a l t ; monopolies in various food products, including coffee, and tea, and sugar, and meats, and canned goods, and crackers, and bakery products. 51007— 9315 0 0 0 ,0 0 0 , 10 Monopolies in everything from the cradle of the child to the cerement and casket of the grave. Pharaoh has not been content with a monopoly of corn. The Ethical Social League, at its conference on April 7, 1908, in New York, pointed out some remarkable facts in relation to the smaller purchasing power of the dollar paid in wages, and pointing out the number of unemployed according to the statistics of Samuel S. Stodel, as fo llo w s: California----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Colorado____________________________________________________________ Connecticut________________________________________________________ Illinois______________________________________________________________ M assachusetts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Missouri____________________________________________________________ Montana____________________________________________________________ Rhode Island-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------New York State-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Pennsylvania-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ohio____________________________________________________ ____________ Michigan-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New Jersey---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Delaware------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------M ary lan d--------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------Virginia____________________________________________________________ W est Virginia---------------------------------------------------------------------------------North Carolina------------------------------------------------------------------------------Florida_____________________________________________________________ Oregon______________________________________________________________ W ashington________________________________________________________ Idaho_______________________________________________________________ Arizona----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nevada_____________________________________________________________ Nebraska----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------Dakotas------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Minnesota----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------W isconsin----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Indiana---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kentucky---------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------Tennessee__________________________________ ________________________ Arkansas----------------------~--------------------------------------------------------------------Louisiana-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Texas_______________________________________________________________ Alabama-------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------South Carolina-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Georgia---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 95, 000 40, 500 55, 000 300, 000 95, 000 85, 001) 18, 000 30, 000 750, 000 350, 000 200, 000 135, 000 8 0 ,0 0 0 30, 000 75, 000 42, 000 40, 000 30, 000 45, 000 5 1 ,0 0 0 44, 000 20, 000 12, 000 14, 000 19, 500 20, 000 43, 000 92, 000 00. 000 30, 000 23, 000 21, 000 47, 000 40, 000 39, 000 30, 000 27, 000 Total------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------- 3, 100, 000 But I call your attention to these things, and to an unorganized mob of 1 0 , 0 0 0 unemployed recently reported to have assembled in this city, and driven away by platoons of mounted police. They were sing ing a significant song— “ La Marseillaise.” I call your attention to the operations of the tobacco trust, and the apparently unthinking, unreasonable, and almost unexplainable viola tions of law by the “ night riders ” of Kentucky and Tennessee. Abraham Lincoln demanded, as the voice of the American people, that slavery of the unoffending blacks should not be extended-to the Territories of the United States, and later emancipated them all. Thomas Jefferson protested against the slavery of man as an abstract as well as a concrete proposition. The old Democratic party was split asunder and driven from power because a large part of that party was under the influence of those who thought slavery justified. The Republican party, which arose out of the loins of the Demo cratic party, whose membership prior thereto had been Democrats, 51007— 9315 11 whose adherents had been and still were the disciples of Jefferson, went into power, and has retained power almost as long as the Democratic party did prior to 1860. The same evil which tore the Democratic party in twain in 1860 is tearing the Republican party in twain in 1908. By natural processes the political power of monopoly has become enthroned in the United States under forty years of Republican admin istration. Both parties were agreed on the tariff in 1857. The ex penses of war repaired a high tariff in 1861 for the raising of revenue, and high tariff stimulated home m anufactories; it enabled the American manufacturers to make money easily by taxing the American consumer. Immediately there arose a special class who profited by the-privilege of taxing their fellow-citizens under shelter of the tariff law which cut off foreign competition. When foreign competition had been extinguished and home compe tition began to be engendered, the most natural thing in the world took place. W ith the telegraph and telephone and lightning express trains available, commercial competitors quickly assembled in peaceful con ference, arranging various devices by which competition with each other was extinguished and a monopoly in every line of commerce was assured. And now Pharaoh and his captains are in control, and millions of the Egyptians are paying for the privilege of working for Pharaoh and his captains, who are the “ saviors ” of mankind as the captains of mo nopoly and employers of labor. There are said to be over 6,000,000 women driven by economic need out of the homes of America, outside of domestic service, compelled to earn their daily bread in competition with the wages of m a n ; hun dreds of thousands of young and tender children are being sacrificed on the altars of Mammon under the grinding process of modern mo nopoly and the exacting demands o f corporation owners, who cry for “ dividends, dividends, dividends,” on watered stock, of which only a fractional part is honest capital entitled to interest. The domestic and social relations of the sexes have been seriously changed by these harsh conditions, and women have invaded every avenue of labor. The homes which women naturally love, for which they are nat urally fitted, the homes where they should find their employment and render the most valuable service to the Nation in being the mothers of the Nation and in teaching to the children of the Nation the lessons of religion, morality, industry, and frugality, have been impaired in serious degree, the man and the woman and the child being obliged to work long hours in order to retain for themselves enough for the neces saries of life, after the stealthy hands of the captains of Pharaoh have levied the artful tribute of monopoly upon every dollar received for their wages. Of course, Mr. President and gentlemen, I realize and thoroughly well understand that many of the great beneficiaries of monopoly are, i a fact, men of high benevolence and of sincere patriotism. It is also true that some men, who are so religious that they will not shave on Sunday, find no conscientious scruples against shaving other men for the balance of the week ; but among tlie captains of Pharaoh there are also many men of great intelligence, and of great benevo lence, and of great patriotism, who do not realize the effect of monopoly on the weaker laboring elements of the Nation. Their benevolence is shown by sucb enormous contributions to education and to the public servico, 51007— 9315 a such as the benefactions of John D. Rockefeller, o f Andrew Carnegie, and other very rich men. They are entitled to personal credit for their good works and to discredit for their bad works. Their good works, however, show that the men who have conducted successful monopolies under the shelter of law and in spite of law have the same generous impulses which God has planted in the hearts of the great majority of ®ien. It would, however, be asking too much of human nature to expect those who have been or are successful in the manipulation of business and in the establishment of monopoly, by which their ambi tion for power and for property accumulation is gratified, to ask them to contribute to the control of monopoly by law. This duty is im posed upon the patriotic sons of America of both parties— of both those who have always adhered to the original Democratic party or to that branch of the Democratic party that arose under the new name of “ Republican party.” It matters but little under what banner men may promote good gov ernment, provided they stand for those principles which shall secure to all an equal opportunity in life, an equal right to “ life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It gives me the greatest pleasure to pay my homage to the patron saint of the Democracy, because he stood firmly against the terrible evils of slavery and of its twin brother— monopoly. The people of Oklahoma have put on record their opposition to mo nopoly in these w ords: “ S ec . 32. Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free government, and shall never be allowed, nor shall the law of primogeniture or entailments ever be in force in this State.” And because primogeniture and entailments promote monopoly, Okla homa has followed the teachings of Jefferson, in forbidding primogeni ture or entailment. Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, made the declaration : “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And section 2 in the bill of rights of the Oklahoma constitution not only declared that all persons have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but added the following words, “ and the enjoy ment of the gains of their own industry.” The Oklahoma constitution goes further ; it provides the means by which monopoly shall be controlled, and the citizens of that State may peacefully enjoy the gains o f their own industry. The first movement the people of my State adopted to protect them selves against modern monopoly was to put into effect the “ initiative and referendum,” by which the people of the State “ reserved to them selves the power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution and to enact or reject the same ” at the polls independent of the legis lature, and also reserved power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the legislature. This power goes to every county and district in the State, and every city of 2,000 or more people may write their own charter of local self-government. The constitution provides for a mandatory primary for the nomina tion of all candidates for state, district, county, and municipal officers for all political parties, including United States Senators. In this way no machine politics will ever be engineered by the monopolies in Oklahoma. 51007— 9315 13 The first act of the constitutional convention was to drive out of town the lobbies of railroads and monopolies assembled for the purpose of influencing the constitutional convention. The constitution of Oklahoma did not content itself by merely de claring that monopolies should not be allowed, but they provided for the remedy of the evil by the eompletest publicity. In the bill of rights will be found the follow ing: “ S ec . 28. The records, books, and files of all corporations shall be, at all times, liable and subject to the full visitorial and inquisitorial powers of the State.” And because monopolies heretofore have bidden themselves behind the constitutional provision, “ that no man shall be required to give evi dence which might tend to incriminate him,” section 27 of the bill of rights requires any person having knowledge of facts that tend to estab lish the guilt of any other person or corporation charged with an offense against the laws of the State shall not be excused from giving testimony on the ground that it may tend to incriminate him, but no person shall be prosecuted on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he may give evidence. The corporation commission of Oklahoma, under the constitution, is given full power to compel publicity and to exercise control of corpo rations doing business in that State, and are required to ascertain the actual value of the capital invested in any such corporation as a basis of determining their charges, if excessive, and have the right and duty to determine the charges made by such corporations for any service performed in the State. It has been said that Thomas Jefferson believed with Jesus of Naza reth in the doctrine of loving your neighbor as you love yourself, and that he was the first statesman to write into a public document the genuine teaching of Christ, and he wrote it in one word— Equality.” The time has come in the United States when this great doctrine should be recognized in our statecraft. When the thousands of our citizens who have distinguished themselves in commercial enterprises or adventure shall realize the truth that their own happiness would be better subserved if they would cease exploiting their power over their neighbors and brothers ; if they would be content with a small interest upon vast accumulations of the wealth produced by the labor of the American people; if they would be content with the property which they have heretofore, either justly or unjustly, taken from the pro ducers of the Nation, and from this time forward consent that the American producers shall be allowed, in the language of the Oklahoma constitution, to have “ the enjoyment of the gains of their own in dustry.” It seems to me that it would be unwise to destroy the great corpora tions which have been constructed in this country by our so-called captains o f industry. I have read with great interest the address of George W . Perkins, esq., on the “ Modern Corporations,” before the Columbia University, of February 7, lt>08. He argues in favor of organization, and denies that these great organizations are due to the greed of man for wealth and power. He points out the injury of destructive competition, the harm of commercial warfare, the economy and efficiency of the modem corporation, its value in standardizing wares, its power to steady wages and prices. He argues that we should control the corporations; that the corpo rations owe a duty to the general public, and best serve themselves and 51007— 9315 14 their stockholders by recognizing that duty and respecting i t ; that these great corporations are, in fact, great trusteeships, and the larger the number of stockholders the more it assumes the nature of an institu tion of savings. He points out the great growth in the number of stockholders in various railways and in United States Steel. And with much of this argument I find myself strongly inclined to agree. I wonder if Mr. Perkins will agree with me when I express the hope that these great trusteeships of gigantic monopolies, when controlled by the people of the United States, shall be content to be confined to a reasonable interest upon the money actually invested? We have a perfect right to control these monopolies legally, morally, and it is a patriotic duty to do so. And they should not be permitted to tax the American people in excess of a fair interest on the capital actually invested. If they were so controlled, it would give stability to w ages; we would hear no more of overproduction nor of under consumption, but these enterprises would proceed upon rational lines and work for the welfare of all of the people of our common country. It seems to me that such investments of capital which have estab lished monopolies in interstate commerce should be limited to a maxi mum earning of 1 0 per cent per annum on their actual investments, and 'that they should be allowed to lay up as a trust fund abundant surplus to provide against contingencies. They would then cease to be private monopolies and would become public monopolies, retaining all of their desirable features and having none of the injurious features left. The owners of such monopolies, if patriotic, should be content with this adjustment, which would be equitable and fair and just to them and to the people of the United States. The first step in the control of these corporations must necessarily be complete publicity, requiring a sworn report of actual assets, based upon a true valuation, with penalties of imprisonment for any false affidavit, together with accurate and frequent reports of the actual earn ings of such company and the disposition of such earnings. The excess earnings over and above a rational return on these monopolies might well go into the Treasury and be employed in improving our national waterways and in building good roads. T H E O PP O R T U N ITY FOR T H E REVIVED DEMOCRACY. W hile there are many thousands of patriotic Republican citizens who earnestly desire the protection of our country from the corrupting po litical influence and the insidious robbery by these great corporations, it would be very unreasonable, if not impossible, to expect the Repub lican party to give such relief to the country, for the obvious reason that these selfish interests which have been built up behind a tariff wall have entwined and intertwisted themselves into the machine politics of the Republican party until they exercise a dominating influence and control over the organization of that party. The patriotic elements of the Republican party are too disorganized to bring up to their own standards of good citizenship the selfish in terests in that party. Theodore Roosevelt has made many excellent recommendations, which have either been ignored or so indifferently complied with that during the seven years of his service instead of these monopolies being abated and controlled they have increased beyond any thing known in human history. The disinterested, unselfish Republicans should be invited and en couraged by the revived Democracy to rally around the flag of Jefferson and join the Democracy in restoring the Government to the highest Ideals, from which we have in recent decades departed. 51007— 9315 15 The people of the new State of Oklahoma have laid down the prin ciples of good government in their constitution, which are drawn from teachings of Jefferson, and which should he a beacon light to guide all the patriotic sons of America, of all parties, hack to the days of good government and of sound national health, in which our people shall have peace and happiness, in which women and children shall be per mitted to return to their homes and be withdrawn from commercial slavery, when men shall be permitted to enjoy the fruits of their own industry, and when capital shall be content with a reasonable interest upon an actual investment, and when every rich man shall find his hap piness in promoting the brotherhood of man and not in stealing from his fellow-men, by craft or force, the proceeds of their labor merely to pile it up as a monument to their own ambition and folly. When the principles of Thomas Jefferson, which have been wonder fully worked out and developed in the constitution of Oklahoma, shall have been established throughout the Union, we will see an end to harmful monopolies in our country and a wonderful intellectual and spiritual development of the American people, as well as a commercial development for which the past holds no parallel. When these prin ciples of good government shall have been established men will more and more pay tribute to the man who pointed the way and will celebrate with greater and greater honor the 13th of April, the birthday of the immortal Jefferson, the patron saint of the Democracy. 51007— 9315 o a Oklai >ank h 'OUll t woulc at a unders e, any l yet lit icularly , go meae i eraerg< as to . stance. > aitetl Stj|! denies s' emerge!. :ead. 1 Oklalit the rej t tiiey o' to. banks, a ■e deficit eir quota le tlirou laterial, t which 1, ued agaii ),000 of s i if surplusj es so issu nit may lited Stat 1 bonds t^ lited Statt tanding a jay for tl 100 in tl [ amount « e out an| Hint of till slant! evatfS i of Unite; •oad bonds r o f bank nitstandin ition, in mi !. It is ai