Hw7l'PHpP!PVP,
Trti" ww
reasons, bo mado to labor. It Is not hard to
understand that thoy insisted that, In tho samo
mcasuro making this concession there must, at
tho samo measure making this concession thero
must, at tho samo time, bo made a tremendous
concession to tho trusts. And finally it is not
astonishing, considering that Mr. Roosevelt is
a 'practical man,' that ho should consent to a
program which, on tho eve of a presidential
campaign, would, ho fondly imagined, reconcile
both labor and capital to tho republican party
and so go far toward assuring the election of
tho republican nominee for president this fall.
But it is doubtful indeed whether the president
will accomplish his full purpose. Tho trust? and
tho world of high finance, undoubtedly, will bo
placated. The years of stertorous 'trust bust
ing' that nover busted anything anyhow will bo
forgotten in return for this promise that all tho
crimes of tho trusts will bo forgiven and that
what was criminal yesterday, and is criminal
today, will bo made lawful tomorrow under tho
Hepburn bill. Every trust in tho country, and
ovory malefactor of great wealth who is inter
ested in tho trusts, In return for this surrender
to trust demands, will bo found this fall lined
up for tho republican nomineo, bo he Taft or
anothor. And this quito regardless of whether
tho Hepburn bill is passed or not. For it still
would amount, oven in defeat, to a republican
pledgo to tho trusts and a declaration of repub
lican policy. But labor, the more it studies the
situation, tho more will it bo aggrieved to find
its lntorests, its vital interests, tied up with sur
render to tho greed of tho trusts. And public
sontimont, that Is as much opposed to tho trust
ovil and as keenly allvo to the trust danger to
day as it was a year ago, needs only to become
thoroughly informed as to tho facts to unshrink
ingly condemn tho administration for what it
has dono in tho Hopburn bill. In the end tho
republican party, wo believe, will loso a great
deal more than tho railroads and trusts can
provide compensation for.
-O
RECENTLY Mr. Bryan received from the New
York Democratic club, atf invitation to
attend its banquet to bo given April 13. Ho
accepted the invitation. Later it was an
nounced by Now York newspapers that Mr.
Bryan was not expected to speak at tho, ban- '
.quot. Upon this announcement some of Mr.
Bryan's friends proceeded to arrange what was
called a "rival" banquet. Upon being informed
as to tho situation, Mr. Bryan wired to his
Now York friends that under no circumstances
would ho participate in a "rival" banquet and
later, to avoid embarrassment to any one, he
withdrow his accoptanco of the invitation to
attend the New York club banquet. Mr. Bryan
made public tho withdrawal of his invitation to
nowspaper correspondents while he was at Des
Moines, la. The Des Moines correspondent for
tho Associated Press says: "In view of tho
discussion -which had arisen as to whether the
Invitation was to make a speech or merely to
bo present, Mr. Bryan said that ho felt it would
bo embarrassing both to the club and to him
self to bo present in either capacity and there
fore ho wired President Fox of the club, yes
terday morning that ho withdrew his acceptance-
of the invitation. To be present he would
run tho risk of being called upon for an extem
poraneous speech and to refuse or to accept
would alike subject him to criticism and the
easiest solution was not to be present at all "
EVEN "UNCLE Joe" Cannon has been forced
to sit up and take notice of the rising
tide for tariff .revision. A Washington dispatch
under date of April 2 follows: "Speaker Can
non today introduced resolutions directing the
attorney general and tho secretary of commerce
and labor to Inform the house wh.at steps have
been taken by those departments to investigate
tho action of tho International Paper company
of Now York and other corporations supposed
to bo engaged in an effort to create a monopoly
in print paper. In a statement Mr Cannnn
said if tho claims of the publishers are co"rre?
the manufacturers of paper are subject to pen-
nU f aS? Ule trUBt' can b0 dissoved In tho
United States court. In reply to a question as
to tho purpose of the resolution, Sneaker On n
non said: 'The duty on print paper is flf?een
P.Qr C?noLad valom and has been the samo
since 1890 under tho McKinley law, the WlfroS
law and the Dingley law, covering a period of
eighteen years. It is claimed that tho price has
been advanced within tho last few months large
ly, more than equal to the duty. The mihi h
of the United States represented bj Herman M
The Commoner
der, claim that tho manufacturers of wood pulp
and print paper havo by agreement and combin
ation, oven covering arrangements with Canadian
manufacturers, arbitrarily limited tho production
and advanced tho price of print paper. If tho
claim of tho publishers is correct the manufac
turers of print paper are subject to penalty, the
trust can be dissolved and enjoined by proceed
ings in equity in any of the United States courts
where they or any of them can be found, and
if tho claim of the publishers is correct the ad
vance in price is not due to the duty, but results
from the illegal trust and combinations. If the
small duty were repealed it would not interfere
with the illegal trust agreement. The object
of the two resolutions is to, ascertain: First,
what investigation the department of commerce
and labor through the bureau of corporations
has made, if any, touching on tho premises.
Secondly, to ascertain what steps have been
taken by the department of justice, if any, to
investigate touching the promises and if thero
is reason to believe that the law has been vio
lated or is being violated, what steps are being
taken to enforce the same.' Later in the day
Representative Champ Clark of Missouri de
nounced Speaker Cannon and the twelve repub
lican members of the committee on ways and
means for persisting in their refusal to bring
in a bill placing wood pulp and white print paper
on tho free list. ' He said that the republican
editors" and publishers, 'if they were worth the
powder and shot to kill them,' would lash the
speaker, Chairman Payne and the other repub
licans of the committee. 'If they don't do it,'
ho exclaimed, 'they ought to hold their peace
and vote for us in November.' "
O
DURING THE same session of the house, Mr.
Llttlefleld of Maine raised a point of order
and there was stricken from the agricultural
appropriation bill a paragraph authoriz
ing an inquiry into the subject of the best meth
ods for making paper. Mr. Littlefield's action
was denounced by Mr. Hitchcock of Nebraska,
who declared that the refusal to authorize that
Inquiry was not only a notification to the news
papers that the republicans did not propose to
reduce the tariff and compel the paper trust to
reduce its price, but also that they stood against
any effort to discover if any methods or pro
cesses of making paper could be found."
npHE WALL Street Journal, a publication very
JL friendly to the Taft candidacy, says:
Granting that Taft and Bryan are the opposing
candidates, what would be the likely issue of
such a contest? Against Taft are to be counted,
first, the effects of panic and depression, which
always hurt tho party in power, represented by
Mr. Taft; second, much factional bitterness with
in tho republican party in several of the most
important states, including Secretary Taft's own
state of Ohio; third, certain decisions rendered
by Mr. Taft when ho was a United States judge
and which wore objectionable to leaders of or
ganized labor; an.d fourth, the antagonism of
some. of tho strongest financial interests which'
are opposed to Roosevelt and regard Mr Taft
as simply standing for the Roosevelt idea In
Mr. Taft's favor are to be counted President
Roosevelt's great popularity throughout the
larger part of the country; second, Mr Taft's
own personal strength and engaging personalitv
and remarkable public record; and third the
fact that William R. Hearst is evidently deter
mined to .nominate a third ticket which whilo
drawing somewhat from the republican vote
would nevertheless cut most deeply into the
Bryan column and serve materially to weaken
his candidacy." weaicen
T OSEPH HOWARD, Jr., the veteran newspaper
O man of 'New York, -died age sevontv-fi
years, at his New York City anarC? a
writer in tho New York World '''Jo
Howard served brilliantly in nearly every ca
pacity on one or another nowspaper; ho had been
war correspondent, he had been dramatic critfo
Occasionally he wandered into the lStuVe fleld"
Ho was president of the New York pX S
at one time. He became a journalist hi hJm
dent. . In I860 ho happened b in vn "
Mass., during a big strike. He Wr0te an7 no'
count of it and sent it to the New York SwST
then edited by Henry J. Raymond wl me,S'
York and became a member of the Time?' staff!
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 13
In May, 1864, Mr. Howard wrote the celebrated
bogus proclamation, in which President Lincoln
was represented as calling for more volunteers
He was Imprisoned for this by the government
In Fort Lafayette, remaining there fourteen
weeks, when his friends, among whom was
Henry, Ward Beecher, obtained his release. A
week later he was made official recorder at tho
headquarters of the Department of the East
General Dix commanding. Mr. Howard had been
attached to most of the New York newspapers
during his long and sometimes exciting career;
he was editor of the old Star. He retained his
office in the American Tract Society building.
Nassau street, until a week ago. Recently ho
had been writing a political letter for a syndi
cate of newspapers."
THIS INTERESTING dispatch was carried by
the Associated Press under date of Wash
ington, March 30: "Senator Foraker obtained
leave to withdraw from the senate flies a paper
introduced by him on Wednesday last and print
ed as a public document, and the order carried
with it the suppression of all printed copies of
the paper. His introduction of the -paper last
week and the withdrawal contained no intima
tion of the sensational character of the docu
ment. It was written in long hand, closely
written and hard to read. Prof. Elliott had
submitted records of Pelagic sealing several
times and they had always been printed as
public documents. Therefore when Senator For
aker was asked to have the alleged 'official rec
ord' printed he made the request in the usual
form and did not take the trouble to read it.
Today he made apologies to VicePresident Fair
banks and several senators. It was not until
the paper came out in printed form today that
its character became known. It was found to
reflect upon the integrity of the presiding officer
of the senate and upon measures of the senate.
It transgressed one of the established rules of
both houses and caused a sensation of no small
magnitude. Passing over thirty years of the
'official record,' Professor Elliot dealt with the
work of the , Anglo-American joint high commis
sion in connection with the sealing question, and
told of an argument madj by Mr. Fairbanks in
opposition to filing bills before the committeo
on foreign relations in 1902-03, which tie was a
member of. The paragraph is taken from the
report: 'The statement of Senator FatVbanks
was an untruth in every respect a square and
wholesale fabrication on his part to defeat the
pending bill. Under the circumstances his col
leagues could. not dispute his false report; there
fore they took no action on this bill at his re
quest.' "
DEMOCRATS in the house will make a sturdy
fight for free wood pulp. A Washington
dispatch to the New York World says: "Rep
resentative Sulzer, of New York, introduced a
bill to put Wood pulp and white paper on the
free list. This is about the fiftieth measure of
the kind sent in at this session, but it is impor
tant because it is one which the minority will
insist on having passed. Representative Stevens
of Minnesota, introduced a bill of almost iden
tical wording some time ago, and it was pigeon
holed. Many demands were made for its resur
rection, but Chairman Payne, of the commit
tee on ways and means, merely smiled. So did
the speaker. John Sharp Williams decided that
it was about time for the minority to begin fili
bustering and force the republicans to do some
thing. Just how much 'Uncle Joe' likes tho
program was demonstrated this afternoon, when
Williams demanded the yeas and nays on a mo
tion to adjourn. It caused the spuaker to paw
the air and hammer the desk loud and long; also
to have a close call on a hot dinner? Mr. Wat
kins, of Georgia, in demanding the immediate
removal of the duty on wood pulp, with a cor
responding reduction upon paper made from
wood pulp, said that the newspaper was one
of the main civilizing agencies of the tforld,
and m this country 'sheds light in fifteen million
homes, and that while today the newspaper in
dustry is working in harmony with organized
iaoor, its operating expenses are higher be
cause union labor is more expensive than un
organized labor was a few years ago. There ia
a tariff on everything that goes to make a news
paper, and it is purely and simply a donation to
MhvaPrfJSUSt wd a tax on fe newspapers and
other printing interests of the country. The
newspapers have been patient and forbearing
S? nnlBf6rlfs' If the Ytoment contin-
w,i?0 ?et?letm?nopolldf " bid re
well to state rights, to individual liberty, to tha
