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VOLUME 7,:NUMBER 32
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ATTORNEY GENERAL Hadley of Missouri
in a newspaper interview recently, said:
"Concortd action is necessary to determine the
jurisdiction of tho various classes of courts in
regard to railroad and antitrust disputes. It
probably will be necessary to ask ,congrSS.to
pnss an act talcing away a portion of the power
of the federal courts In matters pertaining to ,
stato legislation, and in that way obviate future
controversy. The question at Issue is simply
' as to 'whether the people of the United States
shpuld direct theit representatives in congress
to take from tho United States circuit courts
tho right to veto the acts of the stato legislature.
Tho power which thereby would be taken from
tho United States circuit courts could be exor
oisod by tho courts ofi the various states, and no
injustice Will be done to vested interests by re
quiring that they shall look to the courts of the
state in which they do business for the preven
tion of injustice."
mmM
A JUDGE who undertakes to vindicate the
law in the presence of the. Standard Oil
. systom acts, it seems, at his peril. Judge Landls
lives at Logansport, Ind. A Logansport dispatch
to, tho Philadelphia North AmOrican follows:
"Friends of Judge K. M. Landis, who recently
Imposoda $29,240,000 fine on the btandard Oil
company, assert that the judge is being fol
lowed b'y detectives In the employ of the octopus
and his every word and movement are being
reportod promptly to Standard Oil people. When
Judge Landls came here two strangers followed, ,
and when he went to Indianapolis they kept on
his trail. On Landis' return to Logansport .the
two men came also, and have since been, joined
..by a third. Judge Landis is reported as being
'advised of their presence and as saying: 'I
JZ. t r.A r-.4-r.-n! Inonontlnn i' .Tuof wVint In
no one knows."
MR. BRYAN recently visited Peoria, 111., and
speaking to a Representative of the Peoria
Herald-TranBcrlpt he referred to a statement
made by Robert G. Ingersoll, in Peoria, in the
fall of X896, after the election, concerning him
self. Mr. Bryan said: "Colonel Ingersoll said
when a man has been defeated fpr the presi
dency that is generally the last of him. I think
Mr. Bryan has seen his best days.' " Mr. Bryan
was going Bouth and by the time he reached
1 Georgia, Colonel Ingersoll's opinion had been
sent out by tho Associated Press and published
in the newspapers generally. A Cincinnati paper
telegraphed him tho substance of the interview
on route, and asked if he had anything tosay.
Mr. Bryan said: "I wired back the following
reply: 4I do not care to discuss Colonel Inger
soll's interview. He is not an authority on the
future. He does not believe tliere is a hereafter
for anyone.' "
A ND NOW IT IS John D. Rockefeller chief
tX. among the "defenders of national honor"
and leader among "the calm, conservative think
ers of the country," who is preaching calamity.
In an interview at Cleveland, Ohio, with a rep
resentative of the New York American, John
D. Rockefeller, "speaking earnestly and delib
erately," said: ."The policy of the present ad
ministration toward great business combinations
of all kinds can have only one result. It means
disaster to the country, financial depression and
financial chaos. The world already has a fair
dose of this, since the extreme penalty imposed
on one corporation, with a limited number of
shareholders, has caused a loss of confidence,
reflected in a falling stock market, a tightening
of money and a fear of the future. The news
papers are full of this, and reflect the feeling of
unrest. What will be the effect when similar
action is taken against corporations with
myriads of stockholders aontavnrt fiPAi,ni.n.a
the country, the investors, the widpws and or
phans? There can be but one answer. Tho
present situation will be intensified many fold
It doesnot require an expert tp reason this out
The most superficial thinker can do it. I wili
go further and say today that because of. the
adminiBtration, with its reports every five min
utes of new actions and of heavy fined, the coun
try Is already beginning to drift toward the
rocks of financial depression. Confidence 1b
gone, and confidence is the basis of all pros
perity With confidence established there can
be no stopping of the wheels of progress. With
out it, all Is at a standstill." m ,..
JN THE SAME interview Mr. Rockefeller
further said: "There was a time not long
before the present runaway, hit or miss impul
sive agitation began, that I would be called up
onHhe. telephone, say by Kuhn, Loeb & Co., say
by Mr. Morgan's office, and asked if I wanted
to .come in a syndicate -and a certain allotment
of shares would be given to me, but I was also
told that I would have to make immediate ar
rangements. If my reply Was that I needed
several days for consideration, the telephone re
ceiver would be hung up in all likelihood. When
I called several days later and said I would go
in the syndicate, I would be curtly" informed
that I had lost my opportunity that the syndi
cate had been completed. What is the situation
now? I am called and asked to participate in
many syndicates, but in none of them is the
time for decision fixed on the instant. Instead
of the former attitude I know they are content
to await my decision and I know there is no
danger that I will be too late. I can judge in
' another way. Requests are coming in to me
today for money from quarters it was least tx-
'pected would be asking for money Some time
ago. Today I was offered the unprecedented
interest of seveh per cent for $1,000,000 to
1 $2,000,000 or $3,000,000. The security was
beyond all certainty secure, If there was con
fidence enough to unlock the money vaults of
. the country, I would not have.been asked this.
What has been the secret of the marvelous" co
hesive force of the company? Northing but ab
solute confidence in each other. Nothing but
confidence in the men. who directed the policies
of the Standard Oil company. It could not have
lasted had there been any of this browbeating
and crushing they speak of."
Tr-IE RECENT deaths of Alabama's senators,
Morgan and Pettus, the former ori June 11.
and the latter .on July 27 are, in the brevity of
the time within which the state lost two sena
tors without a parallel in the' history of the
union. Referring to this fact a writer in the
New York Evening Post says: "The nearest
approach to it occurred "in the case of South
Carolina in 1850, when Senator John C. Cal
houn and Franklin II. Elmore, the man who
was appointed as Calhoun's successor, dicd within-less
than two months of each other, Calhoun
dying on March 31 and Elmore on May 29. In
1857-1858 South Carolina again lost two sena
tors by death within a brief period, Senator
Andrew-P. Butler dying on May 25, 1857, and'
Senator Josiab J. Evans on May 6, 1858. Some
forty years ago Vermont lost two senators, Jacob
Collamer and. Solomon Foot, within a period of
- less than five months, Pollamer dying on Novem
, her 9, 1865, and Foot on March 28, 18G6; and
some ten years ago Mississippi lost two senators,
James Z. George and Edward C. Walthall, with
in a period of a little over eight months, George
dying on August 14, 1897, and Walthall on
April 21, 1898."
O
IN A NEWSPAPER interview given out at
Cleveland, John D. Rockefeller said some
good words for Secretary Taft and Governor
Hughes. The New York World report says:
"Mr. Rockefeller was unstinting in his praise
of Secretary Taft and Charles E. Hughes, gov
ernor of New York. 'Both of them,' he said
'are deliberate men, safe men.' Secretary Taft
Mr. Rockefeller said ho believqd to be a man
who would do as his conscience dictated, and
that he would not be guided by the beliefs and
policies of a predecessor. He said the public
utilities bill the gas Investigation and other
public acts of Governor Hughes all characterized
him as a thinking man., and not an impulsive
heedless one. This is the first interview Mr
Rockefeller has ever given of this character'
Throughout he was most earnest. He had evi
dently carefully thought over what he was going
to say before he consented .to be interviewed."
SECRETARY TAFT, returning from his sum
mer retreat in Canada, visited the presi
dent at Oyster Bay. A correspondent for the
Chicago Record-Herald made to the secretary
this statement: "Mr. Taft, the Standard Oil
king has placed you seemingly in the position
of not being in sympathy with Mr. Roosevelt's
agitation against the trusts. He attacks the
administration, which in this case means the
president, and singles you out as a safe and sane
man." Mr. Taft replied: "I can't help what
Mr. Rockefeller says. The president and I un
derstand one another. As far as the confidence
' of the American people in President Roosevelt
is concerned their support of his administration
is the. best answer. Any action taken by Mr.
Roosevelt or his officials is not the result of an
hour's deliberation. Depend on that." A later
Cleveland dispatch says that Mr. Rockefeller
denies giving out the interview.
AT .THE TIME Judge Landis imposed the
$29,240,000 fine against the Standard Oil
trust he instructed the grand jury to take up
the part, played by the Chicago & Alton Rail
road company in the granting o.f the rebates for
r the acceptance of which the oil trust was fined.
It began to look as though, there would bo
"something doing" in the prosecution of rebate
evils and other sins of trust magnates. But
little by little it began to leak out that the sit
uation was notso serious; for the magnates as
it seemed. The- first news was given by the
Washington correspondent for the- St. Louis
GlobeDemocrat, who said: "The .government
many months ago promised the Chicago and
Alton railroad officials immunity from prosecu
tion for 'granting' rebates to the Standard Oil
company if those railroad officials would furnish
information with which to convict the Standard
Oil company of 'receiving' those rebates. This
promise of immunity was- made on behalf of
the department of justice by former District
Attorney Charles B. Morrison of Chicago, with
the approval of William H. Moody, who was at
that time attorney general of the United States.
On the strength of this promise of immunity,
the officials of the Chicago and Alton did grant
information respecting the transactions which
were involved in the.case in which Judge Landis
recently imposed the fine of $29,240,000 'upon
the Standard at Chicago. Several days before
Attorney General Bonaparte left Lenox, Mass.,
on his way to Washington, via Oyster Bay, these
facts were laid before the attention of Mr. Bona
parte in a letter, which he received from District
Attorney Morrison. Attorney General Bona
parte, who returned to Washington today, has
written an official letter to Judge Landis, calling
his attention to these facts."
IN THE SAME Washington dispatch it U said:
"One thing is almost a foregone conclu
sion the Chicago and Alton railroad or Mr.
Harrlman will not be prosecuted in jjpnnection
with the same transaction for which the Stand
ard Oil was fined at Chicago. It is not known
here what action Judge Landls will take when
he receives Bonaparte's letter. When that let
ter was written Mr. Bonaparte probably expect
ed that Judge Landis would call off the investi
gation which the Chicago grand jury is now un
derstood to be making in an effort to return an
indictment against the Chicago and Alton for
'granting the rebates for which the Standard
was fined for 'receiving.' For some days the
grand jury at Chicago has been investigating,
with a view, it is understood, of returning in
dictments against the Chicago and Jtom If this
grand jury investigation relates to something
not related to the 4,391 indictments which the
foderal grand jury at Chicago returned in 1906
against the Standard for receiving rebates from
the Chicago and Alton, Chicago, Burlington and
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