es and writings serve but
to make them more obscure. If these attempts to refute his
misrepresentation of my attitude towards the trusts should result in
making his own clear, then this discussion will have borne fruits of
substantial value to the country. If Mr. Wilson has any plan of his
own for dealing with the trusts, it is to suppress all great industrial
organizations--presumably on the principle proclaimed by his Secretary
of State four years ago, that every corporation which produced more than
a certain percentage of a given commodity--I think the amount specified
was twenty-five per cent--no matter how valuable its service, should be
suppressed. The simple fact is that such a plan is futile. In operation
it would do far more damage than it could remedy. The Progressive plan
would give the people full control of, and in masterful fashion prevent
all wrongdoing by, the trusts, while utilizing for the public welfare
every industrial energy and ability that operates to swell abundance,
while obeying strictly the moral law and the law of the land. Mr.
Wilson's plan would ultimately benefit the trusts and would permanently
damage nobody but the people. For example, one of the steel corporations
which has been guilty of the worst practices towards its employees is
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan's plan
would, if successful, merely mean permitting four such companies,
absolutely uncontrolled, to monopolize every big industry in the
country. To talk of such an accomplishment as being "The New Freedom" is
enough to make the term one of contemptuous derision.

President Wilson has made explicit promises, and the Democratic
platform has made explicit promises. Mr. Wilson is now in power, with
a Democratic Congress in both branches. He and the Democratic platform
have promised to destroy the trusts, to reduce the cost of living, and
at the same time to increase the well-being of the farmer and of the
workingman--which of course must mean to increase the profits of
the farmer and the wages of the workingman. He and his party won the
election on this promise. We have a right to expect that they will keep
it. If Mr. Wilson's promises mean anything except the very emptiest
words, he is pledged to accomplish the beneficent purposes he avows by
breaking up all the trusts and combinations and corporations so as to
restore competition precisely as it was fifty years ago. If he does not
mean this, he mea