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Stanley of Kentucky Makes Hot Reply
Following Is a special dispatch from the Loiiis
Tillo Courier-Journal: Henderson, Ky., Sept. 1.
"Colonel Roosevelt Is spending much of his
time denouncing the recommendation of a com
mittee, which ho characterizes as 'mere sound
and fury,' " said Congressman A. 0. Stanley,
chairman of the committee Investigating the
United States Steel corporation, here tonight, in
answer to the strictures of Colonel Roosevelt in
his recent speech at St. Johnsbury, Vt. Con
gressman Stanley's statement continues in full
as follows:
"Ordinarily a candidate for president and a
former president could bo expected to find some
subject of 'pith and moment' to occupy his valu
able time and that of his auditors. But the
colonel is unique, as ho knows the great value
of 'sound and fury.' They have been his princi
pal assets during more than a decade of public
service, and 'sound and fury' more fury and
Iobs sound, as his voice grows hoarser and
chances slimmer, have characterized his last
furious political fiasco, stampede of the stall fed
bull moose, lately the property of the steel trust,
now exhibited by his devoted manager and muni
ficent provider, one George W. Perkins, of New
York.
"Says Colonel Roosevelt, 'the anti-trust law
by Itself can never in any shape or way solve the
problem of dealing with- the trusts.'
"If the Sherman anti-trust law had been a
complete and all-sufficient remedy the Stanley
committee would never have proposed to amend
It. What a pity the colonel did not discover
there was no value in the Sherman act when he
was president, and when his attorney generals
brought repeated suits under It to dissolve the
trusts, and his allies with 'much sound and fury'
proclaimed to the country that by this means
they were going to punish all the malefactors
of great wealth who were not 'friendly' or suffi
ciently liberal.
"During his entire incumbency in office Roose
velt never advocated but one amendment to the
Sherman act, the notorious Hepburn bill, and
this bill was actually written, every word and
very lino of it by B. H. Gary, chairman of
the board of directors of the United States Steel
corporation, and by Victor Morawetz and Francis
Lynd Stetson, its attorney.
"For the first time since the Sherman act was
written the Stanley committee has proposed
amendments with teeth in them, and which, if
enacted into law, will deprive tho colonel of
such valuable aideB as the chairman of the
finance committee of the steel corporation and
the heads of the harvester trust because these
laws, if enforced will find these gentlemen so
busy keeping their precious hides out of jail that
they will have no time running the politics of
the country or 'pulling fodder for the bull
moose.'
"Many of the ablest lawyers In congress
served upon the Stanley committee. With the
exception of a single provision in one of tho
bills tho recommendations of the majority were
Indorsed by democrats and republicans alike,
ihe legislation proposed by this committee has
met tho approval of the members of the inter
state commerce commission, and such jurists
as Louis D. Brandeis, of Boston, and. Robert R.
Reed of Now York.
"If it would add anything to the strength "of
these measures or give them additional favor
among tho more discerning and thoughtful of
American citizens I might add that at one timo
many of the measures proposed by the Stanley
committee were approved by Colonel Roosevelt
himself.
"When he was on tho stand m New York
I Interrogated him at some length as to the
propriety of tho ownership of common carriers
by industrials, and explained to him in soma
detail my plan for the separation of the busi
ness of mining and manufacturing, and at that
time, as the hearings will show, Colonel Roose
velt expressed his approval of the proposal.
It would be manifestly nnfair to Colonel
Roosevelt to expect him to maintain the same
opinion on any subject for as much as a year at
a time, and it has been twelve months since ha
kas appeared before the committee.
"A campaign and a campaigner, 'all sound
and fury and nothing else, does not require
consistency.
"The very recommendations which Roosevelt
klmself recently stamped with his unqualified
approval are the most vital and important made
ty he committee which he now attempts to dis
credit by bald assertion devoid of argument or
any attempt to analyze tho measures he con
demns. "The Stanley committee holds no brief for
tho Sherman act, and tho chairman of that
committee has repeatedly said that the Sher
man law of and by itself is not sufficient to
remedy existing evils. The fact that the law
has not been enforced by a republican adminis
tration is, however, no good reason for condemn
ing It. The Sherman act fearlessly and capably
enforced Ib a sword; Taft has struck only with
tho scabbard, and Roosevelt never attacked any
thing in his life except with a horn or a bass
drum.
"There's a pretty fair law against gambling
In New York, but It is not effective as enforced
by Becker. No statute against combination in
restraint of trade would ever bo a serious
menace to 'big business' so long as George W.
Perkins and Theodore Roosevelt have it in their
power to suppress investigations of the harvester
trust and authorized mergers by the steel cor
poration. "Colonel Roosevelt says, 'the democratic and
republican platforms uphold tho anti-trust law
as in itself a sufficient panacea.'
"Of course, the democratic platform does not
say anything of the kind. The democratic plat
form demands additional legislation strengthen
ing the law against trusts and monopolies, with
out impairing or destroying the authority of the
states or the jurisdiction of their courts. Tho
Stanley committee, in obedience to the will of
the democratic party as expressed at Baltimore
has recommended legislation supplementing the
anti-trust law, rendering it more drastic and
specific, and providing heavy fines and peniten
tiary sentences for those who violate Its pro
visions. "That committee has proposed to divorce
absolutely the business of mining and manufac
turing from that of transportation. One bill
forbidding such concerns as the United States
Steel corporation and tho International Harves
ter company from owning and operating rail
road and steamship lines or from receiving ter
minal allowances and divisions of rateB will, if
enacted Into law, cost these two concerns not
less than $60,000,000 a year, now obtained by
pernicious devices which are, in fact, if not in
law, naked rebates. Of course, such legislation is
not acceptable and was not expected to be ac
ceptable to the McCormicks, George W. Per
kins or Theodore Roosevelt.
"The committee has done more and has
offered more bills prohibiting any officer, direc
tor or employe of any company engaged in the
business of manufacturing railroad rails, cars
or other equipment of any kind from acting as
officer, director or employe of any railroad
purchasing such supplies.
"It has offered bills excluding from interstate -commerce
all corporations, companies or asso
ciations whose stock is held by some other
corporation or which hold tho stock of other cor
porations, all corporations dealing in their own
stock, and of overcapitalized corporations, pro
viding that the president or some other respon
sible officer of such company shall prepare and
verify under oath a statement that the corpora
tion is not guilty of any of these things and
that this statement shall be filed with the bureau
of corporations. Any person swearing falsely
to such a statement can be prosecuted for per
jury; the corporation offending subject to heavy
fine; and the guilty officers or directors to long
terms of penal servitude.
"Colonel Roosevelt has not the hardihood to
denounce these measures except in general
terms, or to oppose specifically any one of them.
It is silly and ridiculous to claim that the trusts
are aided by taking from them the control of
public highways which they have prostituted to
private gain and for the plundering of the pub
lic generally. How is the steel corporation to
be helped by permitting It to gamble in its own
securities with $175,000,000 held in cash for
that purpose; play a brace game upon the pub
lic investing in its securities, and a skin game
upon the public purchasing Its wares? The
trouble with Colonel Roosevelt is that the laws
proposed by the Stanley committee punish most
severely those trusts which he perfected while
president, and which are now financing and
boosting him for president.
"Colonel Roosevelt can not misrepresent or
simply scoff at the sober and carefully considered
recommendations of this committee; they have
occupied columns in the greatest Journals in
Europe and America; they have bee seriously
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3g
considered and fiercely assailed by the very Wall
street interests now dictating his policies and
financing his campaign. They have been in
dorsed by that portion of tho press most repre
sentative of the best interests of the plain people
by members of the interstate commerce com
mission, by such eminent jurists as Louis D
Brandeis, of Boston, and Robert R. Reed of
New York. They have deserved and received
the commendation of a democratic congress
and what is more they will not bo side-tracked
by the machinations of George W. Perkins, or
silenced by the truculent and boisterous fuimi
nations of Theodore Roosevelt."
i
Some Half Forgotten History
Washington dispatch to the Philadelphia Public
Ledger: Washington, Sept. 3. A bit of half
forgotten history that may play an important
part in the sweeping inquiry whioh the United
States senate is to make into pecuniary contribu
tions and expenditures in the national political
campaigns has been recalled by a paragraph in
the letter written by Colonel Roosevelt to Sena
tor Clapp, of Minnesota.
As in the case of the Standard Oil contribu
tions to the republican national campaign fund
of 1904, when Colonel Roosevelt was a candi
date for president, a question of veracity is in
volved. In this phase of the matter, however,
there are eight men living who will be able to
testify as to the truth of a charge made anony
mously at that time, and now acknowledged by
Colonel Roosevelt to have been sanctioned by
himself, that John D. Rockefeller had virtually
demanded by telegraph of certain senators that
they must prevent the enactment of anti-trust
legislation pending in congress.
In addition to Mr. Rockefeller, the living
men who doubtless will be called on by the
senate committee of investigation to answer
Colonel Roosevelt's charges of nearly a decade
ago are Nelson W. Aldrich, ex-senator from
Rhode Island; Eugene Hale, ex-senator from
Maine; John Kean, ex-senator from New Jersey;
Chauncey M. Depew, ex-senator from New York;
Henry Cabot Lodge, senator from Massachusetts,
whom Colonel Roosevelt has said was one of
his two most intimate friends; Knute Nelson,
senator from Minnesota, and John W. Spooner,
ex-senator from Wisconsin and now an attorney
in New York,
All of these men were members of the federal
senate at the time the allegation was printed
in newspapers that Mr. Rockefeller had endeav
ored to have them prevent anti-trust legislation.
Other men mentioned then as having received
the alleged Rockefeller telegram were Senators
William B. Allison, of Iowa; Orville H. Piatt, of
Connecticut, and Stephen B. Elkins, of West Vir
ginia. These three are dead.
All ten of the senators named in the publi
cations at the time were republicans.
This is the paragraph of Colonel Roosevelt's
recent letter to Senator Clapp that may afford
the basis for one of the lines of inquiry by the
Clapp committee into trust contributions to the
presidential campaign of 1904:
"Tne newspapers at the time of the passage
?nAo bureau of corporations bills, in February,
1903, contained full accounts of my publications
of the telegrams from Standard Oil people pro
testing against the bill. I, of course, at that
time had rather heated arguments with a num
ber of upholders of tho Standard Oil people in
this matter, but I have forgotten the details of
them. All I know is that I got the bill through
and it was largely the publication I gave to these
telegrams that enabled me thus to get It
through."
The resolution of inquiry adopted by tho
senate Is regarded as broad enough to cover tho
allegation now acknowledged by Colonel Roose
velt to have been instigated by him. Under tho
terms of the resolution the committee on privi
leges and elections Is authorized and directed
to Investigate fully into all statements and
questions of fact referred to In tho state
ment of personal privilege made by the senator
from Pennsylvania, Mr. Penrose."
As Senator Penrose's statement dealt with his
relations with the Standard Oil company, tho
resolution is comprehensive enough to permit
the committee to seek the facts as to Colonel
Roosevelt's assertion that the head of the Stand
s' ,x VL comPany communicated directly with
united States senators, with the purpose, of kill
ing one of Colonel Roosevelt's pet pieces of legis
lation. An additional reason for inquiry Is found, how
ever, in the action of Colonel Roosevelt In calling
attention to the alleged Rockefeller telegram
in his formal communication to the chairman oi
V.
JM