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4
A SHAMEFUL FACT
In Lho beef trust bases on trial before Fed
eral Judge llu.ni.hrey in Chicago the attorneys
lor to packers contend that because Com, s
stonor Garfield had the authority to require . tlio
packers to furnish him information concerning
their business, and the packers yW&to thaL
authority, they aro Immune cm prosecu ion
Several witnesses have testified that before
submitting his report to lho VmtomntiBBlonQr
Garllold presented proof sheets of the same to
tho packors and their representatives. So clearly
has this been established as a fact that oyen
Uuitod States District Attornoy Morrison is using
that fact in the hopo of saving his case. Ad
dressing the court Mr. Morrison said:
"Tho theory of tho government is that
thero was an understanding that the matter
(aarflold'a report) should not be published
unlosH tho packors were satisfied with the
roport. Wo will show that Mr. Garfield came
back with a typewritten copy of his report
which had not yet been printed and that tho
packors were ready and anxious to havo this
roport go to tho publisher."
Of course it was humiliating for a repre
sentative of tho government to be required to
employ this shameful fact in order to avoid tho
technicality through which the packers expect a
dismissal of tho proceeding's.
Whatovor tho secrets revealed by tho packors
to Commissioner Garflold wore, his conclusions
amounted to tho claim that tho packers wore
making a very small amount of money and in
omo instances had actually lost money, and
that thoro was, in fact, no such thing as a beef
trust. The American people did not know then
that boforo that report had been submitted to
tho public It had passed under the critical' eye of
tho very men with whose investigation the com
missioner of corporations was charged. It was
genorally bclloved at tho time that Mr. Garfield
had not made a serious investigation of the beef
trust. But until tho revelations before the fed
eral court at Chicago it was not known that
lho recently created department of commerce and
labor was, in tho language of the street,
"playing horse" with tho helplesB victims of greedy
monopolists. Yet this same man who agreed
that boforo his report was submitted it would bo
acceptable to the mon under investigation, was
asSignod to investlgato tho Standard Oil trust!
It will occur to a groat many people that
whatovor tho outcome of the beef trust case In
Chicago may bo, Mr; Roosovolt should dismiss
Commissioner Garfield from the government serv
ice. JJJ
) THE SHIP SUBSIDY
Although the corporation lobby at Washing
ton Ib exerting its efforts to foist the ship sub
sidy upon tho people, it is notlceablo that repub
lican newspapers are not generally protesting
against that proposed stealand we have emi
nent republican authority for thus designating it.
A few yoars ago when it was seriously pro
posed to adopt tho ship subsidy many republican
newspapers denounced the scheme and what they
said then represented tho general sentiment
throughout the country on this question.
In December, 1900, the Indianapolis Journal
said: 'Congressjnen must have mistaken tho
atmosphere of Washington for that of the country
at largo or the clamor of a few ship-builders and
owners and their lobbyists for the voice of the
people. Lot republican members go back to the
platform of 1S9G, which demanded the upbuilding
of our merchant marine and carrying trade by
other methods than a ship subsidy'
said?1 ?No hJjfnnJ0, ,tU Du?uu. Io. Times
?AV inconsiderable part of President Mc
Klnloy s support in the recent election came from
iast8efulOWh0m th SUbSidy illGa Is trCoV ffi
About the same time the Portland Oreconinn
protested against the subsidy, and said- B
fact that building and Balling AmorioC shin J i2
competition with the fleets of tlTworkl tas en
ffi i, f!2n!to P P colossal8 to?-
irz
v iuu
s as
operate their
voce's :,Dsrs 3&Ms
ed: "it may be truo of our government n w
The Chicago Record-Herald, while declaring
The Commoner.
I bat the west was "not af frightened by the word
'subsidy,'" said "it balks over a proposition to
take money from the national treasury to render
the conditions of a self-supporting merchant ma
rine more unprofitable than ever." Tho Record
Herald denounced tho ship subsidy as a pre:
posterous proposition."
In December, 1900, the Chicago Tribune, dis
cussing James J. Hill's prophecies of what the
merchant marine of the United States is approach
ing in development, said: "It was not understood
when tho spellbinders were urging the people o
the northwest to vote in favor of the re-election
of President McKinley that one of the first items
on the senatorial program when congress met
would bo tho passage of a 'shipping subsidy bill
which contemplates annually expenditure for thirty
years for the special benoflt of a number of rich
men residing in eastern cities. There is nothing,
whatever in this adroit resolution (the shipping
plank of the republican national platform of 1900)
about fcsubsldles.' Tho word 'subsidies' was care
fully emitted from the platform. Nor was anything
said during the campaign in regard to the exten
sion of our merchant marine by a scheme of
public expenditure continuing for a generation.
Nobody can recall an instance of a public meet
ing at which the shipping subsidy bill was made
tho subject of fair, candid argument or any argu
ment at all; nor were tho claims to public aid of
tho persons interested in Buch legislation ever
explicitly set forth. , The republican
party should not be in favor of one set of meas
ures prior to November 6 and in favor of an en
tirely different kind of measures subsequent to
November 6."
JJJ
MAYBE HE KNEW THE SOURCE OF FUNDS
Many of the administration's warmest sup
porters as well as the people generally are greatly
disgusted by tho revelations concerning Com
missioner Gerfield. The Kansas City Journal, a
republican paper, says:
"If the testimony of the witnesses in the
packers' case is to be believed, Commissioner
Garfield is easily the prince of chumps in
President Roosevelt's official family and that
is saying a good deal. Facile princeps is no
name for it; ho is tho royal flush of four
flushers, and that is the limit."
The Journal wants to know whether Mr. Gar
field "supposes that the government's attitude
toward monopolistic trusts in general and the beef
trust in particular was merely a bluff," and it
concludes:
"It appears that Mr. Garfield has betrayed
his trust as well as the packers. President
Roosevelt's warm defense of Loomis and Paul
Morton and Press Agent Bishop has given him
a well-earned reputation for sticking to his
friends, but he will have to look up the fa
mous recipe that used to make such a lasting
coat of whitewash for the White House if he
expects to stick to Garfield."
Mr. Garfield was born and raised in the re
publican party and it would not be surprising to
learn that he did take it for granted that the
trust busting program was "a bluff." Perhaps
ho has learned that the trusts have during three
campaigns provided the republican party with its
campaign funds. Would it be strange that far
the light of these and other facts Mr. Garfield
was not impressed seriously with his mission.
JJJ l j
CHAMP CLARK'S SPEECH
All too brief reference has been made in the
newspapers to the speech delivered in the house
cLZrep?natiV?nuary 5 Representative
Champ Clark of Missouri. Mr. Clark was fre-
tZI!innterrUpt?i1 b reP"Mcan membSs! and
the dialogue provides one of the most interesting
mcZT in tlle lB?cSE
mi. Clark s speech was admirable, and the eood-
national capital. llc at tue
JJJ
WHERE IS THE DIFFERENCE?
sevGrfiGVfr!'alT,(iaily1neW1Bpapers that have been very
attention to the beams to thJl 0l1 to pay somo
eyes. It developed in the ''Town Ci e? tor,al
that that publication profited by vJrXtS ?Q
telling what it knew'to boYoVhf aSdtTf
.VOliTJME 6, NUMBER 4
people amply able to pay for silence. But is" that
any worse than to deliberately publish mislead
ing editorials with a view of deceiving the peo
ple into the belief that policies calculated to
benefit only the owners of the paper are of gen
eral public benefit? Several great daily news
papers aro known to be owned by railroad cor
porations, and these papers are constantly trying
to make it appear that they are published with a
sole view of benefitting the people when they are
in fact published for the sole purpose of mis
leading the people. "Town Topics" seems to
have profited by what it' did not print. Somo
other publications are published for the purpose '
of profiting the eminent corporationists who own
them by blinding the eyes of the people to the
real purposes of the owners. Is that sort of. thing
more honorable than the-policy pursued by Mann's
publication? x .' '
JJJ
A NEW DIVERSION
It ,is stated that Mr. Henry C. Friek; the
steel and coal baron, has purchased-a Pittsburg
daily newspaper that has long made him the sub
ject of ridicule. This offers a new field for the
diversion of our multi-millionaires, and incident
ally points the way to a solution of that vexed
t question as to how the money being accumulated
' in a few hands shall be distributed among the
people. Managers of big corporations long ago
secured great newspapers through which to safe
guard and advance their corporation -interests,
but it seems to be something new for a corpor
ation manager to invest in a newspaper in order
to avoid its ridicule. If" our multi-millionaires
begin that sort of thing and keep It up it wili
be easy to see a solution of the problem of vast
fortunes. Mr. Rogers will have to turn a great
many Standard Oil and Amalgamated Copper
tricks if he manages to buy up all the newspapers
that are ridiculing him, and Sterator Depew, in
stead of resigning $20,000 sinecures will have to
hustle quite lively in search of more.
JJJ
WEIGHING THE MAILS
:
It is announced that some time this spring
the government will weigh the malls, westTof
the Missouri river for the purpose of fixing the
compensation the railroads shall receive 'during
the next four years for carrying the mails. Tho
weighing will occupy about 100 days. The rail
roads will be paid for four years on a basis of
what is carried during the weighing period. This
plan makes it easy to pad the mails during the
weighing period. l has been charged time and
again that during the mail weighing season tho
mails have been loaded down with public docu
ments sent out under congressional frank and
shipped from point to point, weighed and re
c hem, ? again during the weighing sea
son, rhat the payments made to railroads for
Sf,F!'tinS the mails are responsible for tho
deficit in the postal department is well known.
VnrLmilli0nS S dollars are paid every year to
, corporations for mail service. Pound for
5S5? J toe railroads charge 800 per cent more for
mail carrying than they do for express carrying;
and instead of furnishing cars as they do to the
SaeiSSforCtmftPanie Ul chare Uncle Sam a
rif e mail cars that nually equals tho
cost of the cars, and in many cases exceeds it
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JJJ
CAN IT BE?
LA"
Even the St. Louis Globe-Democrat is scared.
The Globe-Democrat appeals to the republican
leaders to "do something," and concludes in these
words:
"On the work which will be done in the
S2?i ?iree rf?Ur montus' tuerefore, will d
. pend the maintenance of the republican su
premacy in the legislative department of the
government. The election of a aemoeralX '
tuVhv fVV6 then thTseconS '
half of President Roosevelt's term, would bo '
a bad blow to the republican party and a '
menace to the country. This peril should 1 be
oftnSS 'I mId tE remainde?
Sin? SS,0n by tb0 republicans In each
theaUs1atfe ngreSS' part,cularly 7 those in
Coming from the Globe-Democrat it is a re-
?aPSSIeiad?,,Mlon ?at "on the worl which wm
be done in the next three or four months will
SZov lermaintenance of the repub?lcan su
premacy." For years we have been told by tho
Globe-Democrat that republican supremacy was
assured because the republican iSartyl i the "God
andmorai,tyMorganIzatlon CaJ ?eJg;
that the republican party is liable to error? - .
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