222 MOTHERS AND TRUSTS. MOTHERS AND TRUSTS. Three great authorities (?) on the economic conditions of labor assumed to have been created by trusts are in agreement with regard to their effect on the prospects of young men. The editor of Harper's Bazar, supposed to be a woman, in its issue for June 23, 1900, under the title of "Mothers and Trusts," wrote as follows: "This is a woman's cause for hating trusts, for fearing monopolistic tendencies of every sort. Her boy, ours, and yours, are defrauded of their American birthright-liberty and independence-while trusts operate to create a royal descent of money kings to rule the 'common' people. Woman's enmity against trusts is not on economic grounds. It stands on the American principle of liberty and equal rights, and the strength of it is the force of a mother's pride in her son. In some hour of feminnine association Mr. Croker must have read this article and taken from it the tip to square himself with the mothers of sons by raising the cry of "Young men being crushed by the trusts." Certain it is if every mother of a son in New York knew how the American principle of "liberty and equal rights" has been crushed out of the young men in New York by the Tammany organization, not a mother's son of them would vote the Democratic ticket. To attempt to avert such a calamity to its MOTHERS AND TRUSTS. 223 prestige and to win the votes of young men by championing their cause against trusts was a master stroke of policy, or will be if it succeeds. So good did this policy appear that it at once attracted the eagle eye of that master fisherman for votes, Bryan. He must be a reader of Harper's Bazar and regard its political wisdom as a little superior to that of the sainted Thomas Jefferson, for these times. Seizing an opportunity to address young men, at the request of a Democratic Commercial Travelers' Association, he delivered an address that should have been published under the title of "Fathers and Trusts," the text of which shows more inspiration from Harper's Bazar than it does from the Bible. But the love of the father for "My son Absalom" was a very fitting bait for sympathetic young men, uninstructed as to the facts, to bite at. The great consolidations were represented as throwing large numbers of young men out of employment and robbing them of opportunity for advancement. A quietus is given to all this gush and misrepresentation by the following facts: In 1890 the census reports show 322,638 reporting manufacturing concerns, employing a working force of 4,476,884 persons. The census for 1900, it is reported, has already received reports from 528,000 manufacturing concerns and the work is far from completed. If the concerns in 1900 employ, on the average, as many persons as 224 TO EDUCATE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE. they did in 1890, these 528,000 reporting concerns must be employing about 7,300,000 persons. This seems to indicate that "Mothers' Sons" can get into business for themselves, or can get a job, if they are built that way. All they need is the American genius for adapting themselves to conditions and hustle. The truth is the industrial conditions for labor are better now than they have been at any time since 1892. More persons are employed, there are far more manufacturing and industrial enterprises to give them employment, their wages per day are higher and the number of days they are employed in a year are greater. If every man who knows this by personal experience will vote as he is paid and do all he can to induce all others to do so, election day will not be a national strike for a reduction in wages from McKinley to Cleveland rates. TO EDUCATE THE PEOPLE OF A STATE. Taught by experience, the Ohio State Board of Commerce wisely proposes to conduct a campaign of education throughout the state, so that when the next Legislature convenes every member of it will be familiar with measures that will be proposed for enactment, and with the reasons why they should be enacted. More than this, each member will know that a respectable number of intelligent, thinking people, TO EDUCATE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE. 225 making an influential body of their constituents, have been studying these measures, know the sound reasons on which they are supported, and expect their enactment. Against such a preparation no member of the Legislature can offer any defense. It is the business of a representative to represent his constituents intelligently and correctly. If he cannot satisfy his clientele that his actions as their representative have been wise and for the promotion of the general welfare, he cannot expect long to remain their representative. His public life depends upon his ability to have the electors of his district, at least a majority of them, satisfied that his course as a legislator has been guided by a correct understanding of their wishes. The voter is the source of sovereign power. An ignorant voter cannot use his power wisely any more than an ignorant representative can. If measures based on the propositions announced are to be enacted in form best calculated to promote the general welfare, they must be thoroughly discussed. Every reason favorable or unfavorable to them should be carefully considered. Every voter should be as well informed as the person selected to represent him. To accomplish such a work the great thing to be done is to cause each voter to realize that these questions have a genuine personal interest for himself, and that it is his duty to inform himself about them. 226 CAMPAIGN AND THE TRUST QUESTION. THE EFFECT OF THE CAMPAIGN UPON THE TRUST QUESTION. Before the adjournment of Congress the people witnessed shrewd efforts on the part of both parties to manufacture material that would serve their purpose well in the discussion of the trust question during the pending campaign. In the political conventions of both parties the treatment of the trust question was invariably regarded as extra-hazardous. It received the most careful attention that expert and sagacious leaders could give. Inspired with the vital importance of the question, writers of all shades of opinion, of all degrees of mental equipment, of all grades of intellectual and moral fitness, poured forth a torrent of literature far exceeding any man's ability to examine or properly to digest. All of these indications seemed to designate the trust question to be the crucial question of the campaign. But all of these signs have failed. It has not been so. Early in the campaign indications appeared which caused shrewd observers to see that the trust question did not hold the place it had been assigned. The reason for the collapse of the trust question as an immediate political issue is clearly exposed in the literature for which both parties are sponsors. The discussion soon developed the fact that neither party possessed a monopoly of virtue or intelligence. It was shown, each for the other, that Democrats and |