SSlSmmBmmfl mmmmmmmMim ??W?5Sn T " Vf, fT W"',(S The Commoner. , .VOLUME 7, NUMBER 33 8 "jwwaiHijiumm,nuffw " R6NT KIMM, " "fa A IlltlH ' iMlni'lgmilfclllulWW '' IIHIWI MW " W'JM J.3aMWJtlMliiMwMJiMJMi9tOWBB5flWHEfttflMMyWMW8BBMB (UpiMML rifV4db Hf.CUR W W 'CvLVaMrfni "wi--!- i miii nail iWi 5 i"i THE DAY OF tho straw voto is at hand. Tho Los Angeles Nows took the first one with this result: Taft 159, Hughes 46, Foraker 20, La Folotto 12, Fairbanks 11, Knox 8, Cortelyou 8, Cannon 4, Shaw 1, Garflold 1. The Chicago Tribune took a poll of 4,700 editors, congress men and politicians in eleven states of the cen tral west. Tho states wore Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas. In answor to the question as to whom thoy preferred as the successor of President Roosevelt the votes stood as follows: Taft 544, Fairbanks 159, Cannon 101, Hughes 184, Knox - 19, Senator McCullom 39, President Roosevelt 158. o C OVERNOR GLENN of North Carolina is' not Of to bo frightened by threats as to the effect tho enforcement of the law may have upon tho "business intorests of the country." In a newspaper interview Governor Glenn says: "I have no patience with this cry that the legisla tion in our own state and elsewhere in the south along these lines is going to retard the develop ment of the south by frightening capital, hurt ing tho railroads, and, in effect, killing the goose that lays the golden egg. I am an indus trial governor. Only recently a prominent man wrote to me asking what my position was on Questions in which capital was interested. I told him, as I have told others before, that I was an industrial governor. I have always made it a point to protect capital and protect the rail- roads from anything that was unfair. But when the railroads try to run us, then it is time to call a halt." O- 1N A NEWSPAPER interview Attorney Gen- oral Bonaparte said: "We have several coveys (of trust magnates) under investigation" and scrutiny, and hope to land one of them in the penitontiary for violation of the anti-trust laws. This will require a little time, and it is a matter which can not be publicly discussed. I have been asked very frequently and by the representatives of many newspapers, whether it was not, as asserted repeatedly in some of tho newspapers and by others, better policy to punish, by imprisonment, if possible, individual offenders against the anti-trust laws, rather than to obtain finos against corporations. I have replied on Bovoral occasions that, in my opinion, it would be a raoro effective detorrent to punish individuals as suggested, provided the punish ment fell on those really responsible for tho ofllonues and not on tho more subordinates, and provided the offenses were serious and not merely formal, and provided that the prosecu tions wero instituted with a reasonable hope of success. I have said this more than once, be cause I have been asked the question very fre quently. I entertain the opinion thus expressed and I think it is a sound and reasonable one." O IN ANOTHER newspaper interview Mr. Bona parte said: "If tho ground of complaint against the department is that it proposes to punish prominent and wealthy men of corpora tions having vast amounts of capital and en gaged in vory cxtensivo business, whon these are shown to have been wilful and persistent lawbreakers on a great scale and with grave injury to the purposes of the law, I must admit that these complaints are well founded. That is precisely what the department of justice is trying to do, and, while I remain its very un worthy head will continue to do so far as it t that tho only way to stop rebating is to jail tho offonders. A report was in general circulation through the financial district before the market opened that Secretary of State Root had at tended the conference at Mr. Morgan's office. Ho was in the city for a few hours on his way to Oyster Bay, but denied that he had visited Wall Street or taken part in any conference. Mr. Bacon, formerly a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., went into the Morgan offices as quietly as possible, and after a brief talk with J. P. Morgan, Jr., went into conference with the head of the banking house. They were joined by James Stillman, president of the Na tional City bank, and by two other financiers. To complete the conference the telephone was resorted to, as it was not deemed wise to have many of the financial magnates gather in person. Among those said to have been called on the telephone were Jacob Schiff, of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.; James Speyer, of Speyer & Co.; George F. Baker, president of the First National bank; John S. Kennedy, and possibly William Rocke feller. The report that Elihu Root had visited the Street was followed by one that he was about to resign from the cabinet unless the president did something to relieve the desperate straits in which the trusts find themselves." THE NEW YORK Journal of Commerce in its issue of August 20 declared that At torney General Bonaparte will soon retire, which would mean, of course, that Root - and Bacon had won out. The Journal of Commerce said: "According to important interests in this city, very close to the administration, the useful ness of Attorney General Bonaparte as a mem ber of tho president's cabinet has culminated. It is not expected that immediate retirement will result, for such action might be construed as a sign of weakening in the president's anti-trust policy a construction particularly distasteful to Mr. Roosevelt, since not the slightest justifica tion exists for It. But there is no question, ac cording to the excellent information obtained last evening, that the president is not only not in sympathy with the recent flippant and undig nified attitude and the atf least doubtful legal procedure displayed by the attorney general, but is in all respects opposed to them. The at torney general's policy, it is understood is con demned by all the president's most trusted ad visers, and there is excellent reason to believe some important changes in the cabinet would constitute a protest against executive indorse ment of Mr. Bonaparte's program. Secretary Root, for instance, is known to have expressed strong criticism of it, while Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon is also entirely out of sympathy with the attorney general's policy." t can. THE NEW YORK atmosphere has recently been full of all sorts of rumors, and these involved prospective changes in the president's cabinet owing to differences as to the adminis tration's policies. One New York dispatch says: "Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon rep resenting President Roosevelt, has been in con ference at the offices of J. P. Morgan, meeting Wall Street -financiers in a talk regarding 'the financial situation. Charles T,,' Birney, president f 4-1. n TrnlAl.A.il..!... rn. lliJ . 1 J ' in. tuvs .uwnoi'uuuner i ruBccompiHjy saiu laier A PAMPHLET relative to the $29,240,000 fine , has been circulated among the employes and stockholders of the Standard Oil trust. This document contains the statement made by President Mofflt, president of the Standard Oil company of Indiana, and a number of edi torial articles favorable to the company, taken from various subsidized newspapers. The note worthy feature of the pamphlet is as follows: "The directors of the Standard Oil company de sire to emphasize the assurance of the com pany's absolute innocence of wrongdoing in any of the prosecutions lately instituted against it in the federal courts. Particularly is this so in the Chicago & Alton railroad case made notor ious by the sensational fine of $29,240,000. It should be known as widely as possible that this is no case of rebate or discrimination, but simply of the legality of a freight rate. It should be known that that verdict was obtained by the government upon the most hair-splitting tech nicality, aided by the rigorous exclusion of evi dence that would have removed all presumption of guilt. If the judgment be allowed to stand the company will be forced to pay fifty times the" value of the oil for every carload carried over the Alton road during the two years at 1 jan open six-cent rate a rate used . over three (competing railroads for from ten to-fourteen ilhyears. The trial judge refused to allow nronf Mjjthat the six-cent rate was a legal rate. He tMtinsisted that eighteen cents was tlA nniv ici - .-j jfc' rate for oil when no one had even paid it and when it was authoritatively sworn that it did not apply to oil. To the higher courts we must look for that calm judgment which will rescue the rights of the citizen from the field of public clamor and from the domain of vindictive poli tics. So persistent and adroit has been the war fare waged with all the overpowering authority of the federal administration against the Stand ard Oil company that it has been manifestly diffi cult to get a fair hearing before the public or in a large portion of the press, the latter, to its great harm, swayed alike by socialistic outcry from below and political pressure from above. As proof of the latter it may be noted that in the president's message of May 4, 1906, attack was made on the Standard Oil company for tho purpose of forcing the passage of the bill re mitting the duty on denatured alcohol a meas ure in which the company was not interested. On May 17, 1906, the issue of Commissioner Garfield's report on petroleum transportation, a tissue of pld misrepresentations, was timed to influence the Hepburn rate bill then before con gress. On May 20, 1907, while Judge Landis had still under consideration the judgment in the Chicago and Alton case, Commissioner Smith's illogical and partisan report on pipe lines was made public. The commissioner's sec ond report on petroleum prices and profits a wholly false deduction from Incomplete facts was sent in advance to the press for publication on August 5 in the knowledge that Judge Landis would pronounce judgment August 3. Here surely is evidence of a combination in fluencing all sources of-public opinion, disturb ing the orderly disposition of justice, sanction ing in advance, and supporting when made, the most sensational opinions ana judgments hos tile' to the company. What motive underlies the campaign of defamation need not here be dis cussed, but for all- friends and foes, and it is reiterated that the Standard Oil company is carrying on a widespread business of great mo ment to the prosperity of the American people in absolute obedience to the soundest principles of" business and to the spirit and letter of the law. Attacks upon it of the kind described are aimed at the nation's industrial and mercantile life." v AT- THE LAYING of the corner stone of tho Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial monument at Provincetown, Mass., Mr. Roosevelt delivered an address which, it' had been said, was "feverishly awaited" by Wall Street. From this address these notable extracts are taken: "During the present trouble with the stock market I have, of course, received countless requests and sug gestions, public and private, that I should say or do something to ease the situation. There is a world-wide financial disturbance. It is felt in the bourses of Paris and Berlin and British consols are lower, while prices of railway securi ties have also depreciated. On the New York stock exchange the disturbance has been par ticularly severe, most of it, I believe to be due to matters not particularly confined to the Unjted States and to matters wholly unconnect ed with any governmental action, but It may well be thatrthe determination of the govern ment in which, gentlemen, it will not waver, to punish certain malefactors of great wealth, has been responsible for something of the troubles, at least to the extent of having caused these men to combine to bring about as much financial stress as they possibly can in order to discredit the policy of the government and there by to secure a reversal of that policy so that they may enjoy the fruits of their own evil doings. That they have misled many good" peo ple into believing that there' should be such reversal of policy is possible. If so, I am sorry, but it will not alter my attitude. Once for all, let me say that, as far as I am concerned, and for the eighteen months of my administration that remain, there will be no change in' the policy we have steadily pursued, nor let up in the effort to secure the honest observance of the law, for I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this governmentfp-the people through their governmental agentsr.or a few ruthless and determined men whose wealth, 'makes them particularly formidablo-r-bechusa 1 VA l. -JTi -,; tt-miiUis. ,Ui j - l. v- ,,Jta. Stm f.ir'iWSr rfjw , mATm