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AUGUST 23, 1907 v
The Commoner
A "Trust Busting" Administration
Washington, D. C., August 19. The trust
busting proclivities -of tho Roosevelt administra
tion is the favorite theme of tho republican
romancer. Judged by actual results, however,
the "big stick" is really something of very doubt
ful value. In tho first place the president in
hunting for trust-busters has partaken liberally
of talent that, judged by their antecedents,
would not seem to warrant the assumption that
they-would be so very apt to "run amuck."
As attorney generals he has appointed suc
cessively Knox, Moody and Bonaparte. The first
was a trust attorney and is now a trust candidate
for the presidency. The second was a good con
servative congressman with a corporation prac
tice and Is now on the United States supreme
court bench. The third, represented at one time
in one capacity or another, nearly all the public
service corporations of Baltimore. He Is still
the attorney general and is just at present grac
ing the office by holding a controversy over au
tomobile laws with Marshal Collins of Glen
Echo.
Of President Roosevelt's appointees to the
department of. commerce and labor, the first,
Cortolyou, dignified the office by making It a
sort of collecting agency of large campaign con
tributions from large corporations to finance
Mr. Roosevelt's campaign In 1904. Mr. Cortel
you Is now secretary of the treasury, In which
position he has pleased President Roosevelt's
alleged Wall Street enemies most mightily.
They of the Exchange, it Is rumored, would be
glad to see Mr. Cortelyou succeed President
Roosevelt, and It Is also rumored that the pres
ident Is not at all adverse to this program, if
the Taft boom is punctured in its travels. The
second" appointee as head of the department of
commerce and labor was Metcalf, also a good
conservative congressman and a lawyer with a
corporation practice. He Is now doing what ho
can to provoke war . with a friendly natf on by
sending our navy to the Pacific coast, from
whence he comes, and where his political for
tunes are said to be tottering. The third In
cumbent of the office Is Oscar Straus as yet
untried. These are the president's sextet of
itrust-busters. Bet us see what they have done
in dealing with the criminal combinations that
have violated tho federal law against conspir
acies In restraint of trade.
The following summary of the administra
tion's anti-trust prosecutions Is based upon a
careful investigation, made by a newspaper man
unknown to your correspondent, and can easily
be verified. First, a suit was brought to dls-
solve the Standard Oil company of Ohio, which
did not dissolve for years, and that when it
did, it became the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey, something stronger and more diabolical
than ever before. The New Jersey company is.
still doing business in the same old way despite
expensive investigations and threats of fines.
Then Wo had the bill filed by Mr. Knox to de
stroy the Northern Securities merger. The su
preme court gave the company an adverse de
cision, causing it some slight trouble for a few
years. But the people back of the combination,
Hill and Morgan, were not touched by the find
ing of the court. In fact th y made more money
out of the scheme after Knox and the supremo
court had given them some gratuitous adver
tising than they did before. Of course the form
of the merger was changed. But in substance
It remained intact. Next came the prosecution
of the beef trust and the immunity bath so clev
erly applied to the packers by the president's
tennis court pet, Mr. Garfield, The beef trust
prosecution resulted in, the enactment of a fed
eral law by which the people pay several million
dollars to inspect the packers because of condl
. tions for which the packers themselves are re
sponsible. The steers which are rejected are
charged up against the cattle raiser by the beef
trust. -Thus the government pays several mil
lion dollars yearly to see that the beef trust
gets good cattle. In the meantime the trust
is still doing business according to old methods,
jls recent exposures show, giving short weights
and raising prices. Then the terrible rebaters
were haled into court, found guilty and sen
tenced. Sentenced to what? To pay into court
a small part of th loot taken illegally from the
people. Rebating is still a fine art, and. widely
practiced. Anybody who does not think so
should 'read the decision of the inter-state com--'
moree commission, No. 687, sanctioning tho re
bates by which the grain trust exists. Then Mr.
' Moody started to dissolve the Standard OH
Company of New Jorsey In a way unsuccessfully
tried many years before by tho Ohio courts. And
now' after suit has been pending slnco 1902, wo
are told that the coal trust will bo prosecuted
and the United States courts will dissolve tho
mergers said to exist by which the railroads con
trol the anthracite output. It will be as hard
to do this, by mandate of court, as it was for
George W. Perkins to dissolve tho merger that
existed between him and himself In lfls two
capacities as J. P. Morgan & Co., and as vice
president of the New York Life. Tho anthra
cite companies are the railroads that tap the
coal fields of Pennsylvania, and the railroad
companies are the owners of tho coal mines.
They can not bo separated excoit intone way,
and that is to put tho coal trust out of the rail
road business, and tho railroads out of the coal
business. This Is exactly what they havo dono
In that Oklahoma constitution that our president
says is so impossible and pernicious an instru
ment. Briefly, the present much heralded trust
busting methods of the Roosevelt administra
tion have not been effective, If judged by re
sults. There is not a big truot in existence at
tho advent of the present administration that- is
weaker because of anything tho administration
has dono, and there are several trusts that are,
actually stronger. The spirit may havo been
willing, but the means the administration has
employed have proved fujtlle. Like Pete, the
White House bull pup, the administration's bark
has been far worse than its bite. If corpora
tions have violated the law, they have been fined,
and in turn they have collected the fine out of
the pockets of the people by raising their prices
a fraction of a cent. Now the president threat
ens to appoint receivers for naughty corpora
tions. Why not appoint guardians for naughty
burglars and highwaymen? Did tho adminis
tration ever hear of the criminal, clause of the
Sherman act by which heads , of corporations
guilty of the crimes which all our so-far futile
and expensive Investigations and court proceed
ings have disclosed, can bo -sent td jail? Here
is tho remedy. Why doesn't tho present ad
ministration use it? Tho "big stick" is a thing
of show after all. It is like tho sword of state
carried before the English king at coronation
ceremonies. It Is a large ugly looking weapon,
but blunt and harmless, emblematic of mercy.
The penalty of $29,240,000 imposed upon
the" Standard Oil company by Judge KeneBaw
M. Landis of Chicago is enough to make one
gasp. Probably no such fine has been Imposed
In the history of jurisprudence, but, after all,
wbat does it mean? A newspaper correspondent
who carried tho sad tidings to John D. Rocke
feller on his private golf links at Cleveland says
that the eminent head of the disciplined com
pany merely smiled and went On playing his
game with unshaken nerves. This seems rea
sonable. Most people have acourC of last resort
if injustice has been done them. At the risk
of kbeing guilty of an Irish bull it may bo said
that Mr. -Rockefeller has two courts of last
resort. The sentence imposed by Judge Landis
will go, of course, first to the federal court of
appeals, thence" to the: United States supreme
court. If it were anything save a complete mon
opoly that had teen sentenced the judgment of
the United States supreme court would end It,
but If it b& admitted, what is rather doubtful,
that that august tribunal will r.pprove in toto
the Landis decision, Mr. Rockefeller and the
Standard Oil company 1iave yet one more ap
peal. All they havo to do "is to appeal, or rather
to direct, their agents all over the United States
to raise the price of oil one or two cents a gal
lon and the people will pay the fine, while the
authorities of the law will got the credit of hav
ing Imposed It,
In u rather obscure -newspaper yesterday I
saw a cartoon which thoroughly expresses the
facts In this case; which indeed sets them forth
''more clearly than any written word could do.
The stern judge on the bench Is -fining the
Standard Oil company uncounted millions. Mr.
Rockefeller with that .smile of benevolence
which he has of late cultivated and with his
hand on the shoulder of a somewhat undersized
and cringing figure responds, in effect: "It is
ll right, judge this, gentleman will pay." The
gentleman handing up his pocket book is labeled
"The Consumer." In the end that is the result
of all fines levied upon corporations that are
purely monopolistic. They may pay for the
moment, but they take it out of those who do
business with them.
It Is greatly to the credit of Judge Landis
that in a judicial opinion he expressed regret
that tho financial penalty was the ohlyj one ho
could irapoMo. His decision should bo a matter
of BorloiiB discussion in tho next congress. For
if in an effort to destroy a monopoly by fines
we moroly fine the people who already suffor
from boing compelled to deal with tho monopoly
it is clear that tho law is foolish, vain, and in
effective.. Several publfc mon ranging from tho
presldont of tho United States down, have been
preaching tho doctrine that Uio way to destroy
trusts, railroad discriminations, and other vio
lations of free competition, was to put tho of
fenders In jail. Not ono is yet in jail. It should
bo tho business of tho Sixtieth congress to find
out wlyr such is tho case, and if It is tho fault of
tho law, to amond It, and If it is tho fault of
those who are supposed to enforce the law, to
force thorn out of public place.
.'.' " WILLIS J, ABBOTT.
Washington Letter
Washington, D. C, August 19. Tho mys
tery of the naval operations ordorcd by Uio
administration becomes greater as tho orders
are made public. It Is now announced that
the Atlantic coast lsto bo stripped clean of
battleships and cruisors. Not merely Is Ad
miral Evans to be glvon sixteen battleships, but
ho is to have sixteen armored and protected
cruisors as well. Not moroly arc thoro ,to. bo
no ships loft along tho Atlantic seaboard, but
four armored cruisers now on tho Asiatic sta
tion are to be sent across tho Pacific to join
the colossal fleet at San Francisco. When all ""
are gathered under one command Admiral Evans '
will be supremo over the greatest fighting fleet
ever gathered together.
What Is It all for? The silly littlo quarrel
between a section of tho American press and a
section of the Japanese press, which never ex
tended to the responsible governments of the
two countries, has long since died out. The diffi
culty about Japanese schools In California con
corning which the president remarked with character-lotto
modoratlon that ho Would-onWrccth
will of the government if it took all tho military
and naval force at Its command, seems no longer
to be acute. Even if it wore, sixteon battleships
seom a rather powerful force to bring against
stricken San Francisco. Is it to rehabilitate the
political fortunes of Secretary of tho Navy Mot
calf, That statesman did not havo high stand
ing on tho Pacific coast when called to the
cabinet, and six months ago had lost whatever
popularity he had. Or Is It that the republican
party on the Pacific coast is in such a dire state
that It seems wjso for Its leader, who happens
to bo commander-in-chief of the army and nayy
of the United States, to send the whole navy
thither that the sight of it may fire the Califor
nia heart with enthusiasm?
Everywhere the navy is popular. .Where
ever a. small squadron is gathered people flo'ejk:
to gaze upon it with pride. The most monstrous
squadron or fleet the United States has ever
seen visiting Pacific coast harbors one after an
other will have a marked effect upon the politics
of "that section. There arc disadvantages In
being politician and oomraandor-in-chlof at 6nde,
particularly when the country must pay tho
price.
That the victory of tariff revision, is the
plainest message now on the political signboard
can bo told by tho actions of members even
of the republican party which is responsible for
that iniquity. In Ohio Mr. Taft, the revisionist,
has thus far beaten at every point Sonator For
aker, who stands as the exponent of high, tariff
ideas. In Iowa Governor Cummins practically
drove Secretary Shaw, the standpatter,, out of
public life and has forced even the wary Allison
to say in his customary cautious manner that
before so very long the tariff must be revised.
Tho fight against monopoly in private hands,
railroad extortions and aggressions and the rob
ber tariff Is well under way. But will the peo
ple commit Its leadership to the generals in that
party which has been responsible for -all three
evils.
WILLIS J. ABBOTT.
The government owes Mr. Rockefeller
$92.70 for witness fees. In view of what Mr.
Rockefeller gave In return for that amount of
money we are inclined to believe he is keeping
right in line with precedent. We get about that
much oil for the same money.
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