The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-08-02
JUG-HANDLE JUSTICE.


Under the above title the San Fran
cisco Examiner prints the very sensi BILE
editorial on the Interstate commerce and
Antitrust laws which we give below, as
it covers the entire situation:
s'The leaders of the railroad strikers
throughout the country have been and
are being prosecuted for conspiracies in
restraint of trade, under the interstate
commerce and antitrust laws. The
railroad corporations have sent their at
torneys into court to assist the govern
ment in this work.
''The laws under which these men are
being prosecuted were passed to protect
part of railroad companies and the mil
li0naires of the manufacturing trusts.
Nobody dreamed at the time of their
enactment that they would or could be
used in the interest of corporations and
capitalists against their workmen. But
that could have been approved if the
statutes had been consistently enforced
against the rich culprits they were
meant to restrain. 1t is notorious, how
ever, that the government has been as
lax in enforcing them against the rich,
for whom they were intended, as it has
been swift to turn them against the
poor, whom their trainers never had in
mind. The railroads which have en-
ployed their attorneys in prosecuting
commerce antitrust laws have been and
are openly and hagrantly, and shame
lessly violating those statutes at their
own convenience, and nothing has been
done toward bringing them to justice.
"The interstate commerce act pro-
Vides that all charges for transportation
shall be reasonable and just; that no
common carrier engaged in interstate
commerce shall discriminate between
patrons directly or Indirectly, by any
special rate, rebate, drawback or other
device; that every such carrier shall
afford all reasonable facilities for the in
terchange of traffic with other lines;
transportation for shorter than longer
distance over the same line and in the
same direction; that all pooling of
freights shall be unlawful, and each day
of such pooling shall constitute sepa-
rate offense; that common carries shall
keep full freight and passenger tariffs
for public inspection, and various other
things of a similar nature. The rail-
roads utterly ignore this law, except
when it suits their purposes to obey it.
Only yesterday the news was published,
as a matter quite in ordinary course,
that the Southern Pacific has issued a
notice in Chicago informing other lines
that the boycott against the Sante Fe,
which has been in effect for six months,
was off. This boycott was glaring vio-
lation of the interstate commerce law,
but Attorney General Olney apparently
never heard of it.
fThe antitrust law was passed in
1890, under the Harrison administra-
tion, for the avowed purpose of suppress
ing such huge combinations of capital
as the sugar, whisky, and Standard oil
trusts. Attorney-General Miller, Presi-
dent Harrison's law partner, first tried
the formidable weapon on an associa-
tion of bobbin manufacturers in New
Hampshire. A grand jury rejected his
evidence, and then he began proceedings
against the whisky trust on indictments
so defective that the federal courts
threw them out with contempt. The
second of these indictments, according
to Judge Kicks, "did not charge the
commission of crime under the stat
ute, or under any statute of the United
States" and he added that it was '.sig-
niicant in what it omits to charge
When the house of representatives
asked the encouragement what he had
done about the great anthracite trust,
Mr.. Miller replied that he had no infor-
nation about the existence of such a
combination, although one of his associ-
ates in the cabinet was said to have
cleaned up 81 100000 from the deal.
"Under the present administration the
course of affairs has. been similar. At
torney- General Olney began mild at
tack some time ago upon an association
of druggists in st. Loeis, but the sugar
trust, the steel rail trust and all the
other gigantic combinations against
which the law was particularly directed
have been unscathed.
''That is why. in viewing the remark
able efficiency of the new anti-conspir-
acy laws against strikers, many citizens
whose sympathies are all with the strict
enforcement of law believe that labor is
not getting far show. When Have
meyer, Huntington and Egan are in the
dock the public will view with equanim-
itv and punishment that may he legally