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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1905)
- f'1" miwwifmmwmm The Commoner. jUIiT 21, 1905 T" " " r.i..rriiinT..i ... i-riM iiTllPif XURRNT TOPICS "V C-iii B" n i.. m inn m wmmgmm 1 mm ' J ''II u4p CMftl3ku j ' " IllirwftilHi, ' " i " -jr-jryTjni H J.t ifT ! .rr: jTmi'. . . -- t. -ri- .r- h wv i bum Will rf1 ' i aP" 0 V Mb M MB, ROOSEVELT is said to be greatly dis appointed because of the criticism to which liis administration, has recently been subjected in the columns of many of the republican news papers. The St Louis Globe-Democrat, for in stance, congratulates the country that Horace Porter was chosen to be senior special ambassa dor in the ceremonies attending the transfer of the remains of Paul Jones while Loomis held only the role of junior special ambassador. The Globe-Democrat says that it is not crecntauie to that country that Loomis had anything to do with the affair, saying: "Loomis appointment for this mission was a mistake which the presi dent doubtless realized very soon after he made it. Loomis will figure among the liabili ties rathpr than among the assets of the ad ministration." Referring to the Paul Morton Santa Fe case the Globe-Democrat says: "The country wants to see the square deal in the Mor ton case,", and that "all the public asks is that tho law be enforced fairly, regardless of the per sons it hits." The Globe-Democrat adds: "Some admissions were made by Morton and other offi cers of the road in various connections which have a suspicious look. For this reason the presi dent's defense of the secretary was. not pleasing to the country." a THE New Yorlc Evening Post refers to "Mr. Roosevelt's whitewashing of Paul Morton5 It points out that "some, hide-bound organs" have defended the whitewashing on the ground "that Roosevelt is great and good and could not pos sibly err." The Post says: "At tho very moment that the president, was publishing his defense of Morton, members of the Chicago Teamsters' "Union were being sent to prison for violating an injunction forbidding an act not yet commit ted. The Santa Fe injunction ordered the cessa tion of acts declared to be illegal. The first may have been open to the criticism that it Infringed the liberties of American citizens; the other was unquestionably a just order and a prompt remedy. As the strikers entered their cells they must have envied Paul Morton, who so easily established his innocence by blaming his subordinates or the printers who failed to print the Santa Fq rates correctly. In either case the subordinates and printers escape punishment together with Mr. Morton. By contrast, would it not have been a magnificent spectacle one to reassure the whole country if Paul Morton, secretary of tho navy, had been brought into court to face his accusers? His would then have been the decisive experience of the man who is indictc, if unjustly, he could have walked out of court with a full vindicatioii, holding his head far higher than now, when amiably whitewashed by a president whose opin ion is without legal weight in the premises." IN EITHER CASE, whether Mr. Morton was found guilty or acquitted, according to the Post, "the power of the court would have been strikingly asserted, no one would have dared to say as well they may today that there exists in this country one kind of justice for railroad officers and another for trackmen and conduc tors." The Post adds: "If Mr. Roosevelt was so certain that his secretary was merely the victim of subordinates' errors and as 'clean as a hound's tooth,' he should have welcomed this judicial in vestigation. Instead, in his eagerness to white wash his friend, ho has actually crippled the court, which now finds itself unable to punish those who have defied its orders because its hands have been tied by the prosecuting officers ap pointed for the express purpose of bringing the guilty to book. True, the president has ordered Mr. Moody to "bring proceedings for contempt against the corporations which makes the cor porations rejoice; the men behind them feel free to violate any laws they choose; the interstate commerce commission throws up iM hands. This farce of corporate prosecution may well set the judges to reflecting that in fairness they should punish for contempt hereafter no individual strikers or strike leaders, but merely the unions to which they belong. They know, as Messrs. Har mon and Judson said, that 'the object of congress in providing a remedy by injunction in such cases, leaving the necessary penalties for disobedience to the discretion of the court, was to avoid the niceties of procedure and proof required In strictly criminal prosecutions, and, to apply to railroad officials the remedy so often found effective in other cases.' " AMONG the republican newspapers which sup port Messrs. Judson and Harmon In their -view of the Paul Morton case and oponly crlticiso Mr. Roosovelt arc tho Now York Press, tho To ledo Blade, the Chicago Inter Ocean, the Boston Record, tho Pittsburg Dispatch, tho Milwaukee Sentinel, the Des Moines Register and Leader, the Kansas City Journal, the Topcka Capital and State Journal, tho St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and the Detroit Tribune. IT WILL be remembered that soon after he was given "a clean bill" Francis B. Loomis was made special ambassador for the purpose of re ceiving the remains of John Paul Jones, but some one seems to have reminded Mr. Roosevelt that he had gone altogether too far In his anxiety to compliment a man who, as Secretary Taft put it, had been guilty of "indiscretions," and so Mr. Roosevelt appointed Horace Porter as senior special ambassador, which resultod in the reduc tion of Mr. Loomis to the grade of junior special ambassador. Referring to this change the Now York Evening Post says that "it proves that it is never too late to mend, that you never can tell, that second thoughts are best, that one must look before ho leaps, or any other trite morality which may apply to a headstrong president." The Post adds: "It is a welcome, if somowhat ridicu lous, exit from an untenable position. In his eagerness to do honor to a favorite under fire, Mr. Roosevelt clean forgot Horace Porter, to whose zeal tho recovery of Paul Jones' body, or of one 'equally as good,' is due. In this anxiety to pay a compliment to Mr. Loomis Mr. Roose velt came very near, also, to affronting tho French' government. As tho matter stands, Gen eral Porter will have charge over all ceremonies up to the time of the consignment of the remains for transport. Since tho mortal remains of a naval hero are not recognized collateral, they will be reasonably safe in tho hands of Loomis, 'Acting.'" THE PROTEST made by President Roosevelt in behalf of Paul Morton and the position -taken by Mr. Roosevelt with respect to tho con demnation of men before they have been con victed of wrong-doing Is, we are reminded by tho Dallas (Texas) News, strangely at variance with Mr. Roosevelt's arraignment of General Tyner. Referring to the Roosevelt statement -the News says: "If the letter accredited to President Roosevelt, which oxculpates Mr. Paul Morton and sets forth the decision of the writer, that the government shall not bo permitted to prosecute him for the alleged violation of the Interstate com merce law, that he shall not bo brought into "court in the ordinary way to tell what he knows, and in which the strange doctrine, tha't a violation of the Elkins law by a corporation does not lay the officers and managers thereof subject to pro ceedings for contempt, is clearly set forth if tho president really takes it upon himself, as this letter indicates, to say whom the attorney general shall prosecute and whom he shall not prosecute, and 'differentiates between the corpora tion and its individual officers' then, of course he has brought before the American people a brand new revelation, both as to the power of an executive officer and the meaning of the law. In spite of the authority by which the letter is declared to be genuine, one would prefer to be lieve that it is not genuine, or that it has been changed In some way." THE NEWS adds: "If it is genuine, then all this oratory about rate legislation and other talk indicative of a determination to hold railroad corporations and the trusts to the law is merely tall talk with nothing to it. In the. light of the record in this case, it reads like lines de signed to deceive and divert the people. The Blb"i.-ui dfinn gaumed, as alleged, by the President is made clear in the statement of one of nis friends and admirers, that "betakes tho ground that whatever the officers of the railway did thoy did in purpuanco of tho system at that timo In voguo and because thoy could not woll help thcmselvos." Assuming that this Is true, that noithor Mr. Morton nor any other official Is-responsible and bound to respect the law In any- " thing he may do, what Is there In any other law'or In any prospective or possible law that officers ' and managers of corporations will ever be bound to obsorvo or respect?" SECRETARY CHEATHAM of tho Southern Cotton association says that it has been shown that there was a leakage I . the agrlcul- tural department and that others besides Assist ant Statistician Holmos had something to do with that leakage. Tho prosecution of Holmes and his associates is generally demanded, but the United States attorney for tho District of Columbia has given the opinion that a prosecution will not Ho. Congressman Burleson of Texas has drafted a bill to bo introduced at tho next session of congress making it a penalty of imprisonment for an cm ployo or official of the government to divulgo information of a confidential character such as embraced In tho crop statistics before their offi cial publication is authorized. THE ACCEPTANCE by James B. Dili, one of tho leading corporation lawyers of the place on Now Jersey's court of errors and appeals, has created widespread discussion. The Now York World is authority for the statoment that Mr. Dill surrenders an income of $300,000 a year from his law practice to become a judge with a salary of $3,000 a year, and that his last private act was to refuse a retainer of $25,000 offered by an insurance financier. Mr. Dill delivered an ad dress at tho commencement day exercises of Oberlin college; June 28. Ho took for his sub ject "Back to Beginnings," and dealt with the evils of "graft." In that address ho had considerable to say about "frenzied flnnnco" and. "dummy di rectors," and his remarks attracted general atten tion because ho has in tho past boon conspicu ously identified with trust organizations. A friend . of Mr. Dill says that he goes on the bench "not as a friend of corporations but as a stern and fearless judge." MR. DILL'S record as a lawyer and his new field of effort are described in brief by the Now York World in this way: "As corporation lawyer, he made $300,000 a year in fees; as judge of tho New Jersey court of errors and appeals, ho will receive $3,000 a year salary. As corporation lawyer, ho Is said to have "received a fee of $1, 000,000 for settling the affairs of tho Carnogio Steel company; as judge, he can not practice In courts. As corporation lawyer, he drafted and obtained the charters for thirty-three trusts; as judge, he may have to pass upon the crimes and misdemeanors of som . of these corporations. As corporation lawyer, he learned all the tricks of Wall street high finance; as judge, he will detect these tricks when tried. As corporation lawyer, on his last day of private practice, he declined a retainer of $25,000 equal to more than eight . years' salary on the bench. Among the corpora tion charters obtained by Mr. Dill were Federal Steel, American SLoel and Wire, American Tin, Plate, Otis Elevator, National. Biscuit, National Steel, and the Carnegie company." EASTERN newspapers say that Elihu Root surrendered his profitable law practice and accepted the place of secretary of state in con sideration of President Roosevelt's active sup port for the republican nomination in 1908. The New York World says that Secretary Taft will soon withdraw from the race and give his sup port to Mr. Root, and in return Mr. Taft will be appointed Chief Justice of the sup. imo court by Mr. Roosevelt if Chief Justice Fuller retires In his term, or by Mr. Root X he Is nominated and elected. The World says: "Mr. Root believes he will have the hearty support of the corpora tions with which he has been allied professionally since he left the cabinet seveneen months ago. He also is confident that he will be boomed by the New York delegation to the national conven tion. Tho president and Mr. Root think this combination can not be beaten. They regard Mr. Root's nomination as a settled fact, and they-are supremely confident that he will be elected. Tho ) H Tl , ..! A 9 K19 M 1