Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-10-21
Special washington Correspondence.

Special Washington Correspondence.
WASHINGTON, D. c., October 90
Some hint Of the administrations atti-
tude toward trusts and of the possible
stand Of the Republican party on the
trust question may be found, it is be-
lieved here, in the u~tterances of Comp,
troller of the Currency Dawes, at Bos-
ton, on the topic of trade combinations.
Mr.. Dawes took advance ground in ia
vor of federal regulation of trusts, de-
claring that Congress alone could deal
adequately with the evils of trade
monopolies. But Congress IS fettered
by the constitution, and its powers In
this regard are limited. Mr.. Dawes was
therefore unable to suggest any tangi-
BILE legislation outside an amendment
TO the interstate commerce law giving
the interstate m commission
power to prevent discrimination in rail-
road rates. This, then, is the bait
which the Republicans intend to throw
out to catch antitrust sentiment.
That Republican legislation would
never proceed farther than this is obvi-
Gus. No party dependent on vested in
LC1C6lS Jill IN D1OACJ POh01 / 0NCS
do anything that will injure the source
of sinews of war; and the record of the
Republican party of late years is one OF
subserviency to great industrial and
financial interests. The talk about
reaching trusts by preventing railway
discrimination, therefore, is merely de-
signed
TO LULL THE PUBLIC
into h~opefulness that the administra-
ton has some remedy for trust evils
that it will apply if given another four
years in which to do it. This is the
present extent of the Republican anti
trust movement.
Great things are expected by the
administration from the industrial
commissions investigation into trusts.
So far the inquiry has been conducted
without showing any considerable en-
ergy in probing trust evils to the bot
tom. About the only fact of value
thus far elected is the close relation be-
tween trusts and the tariff, brought out
in the examination Of Havemeyer, of
the sugar trust, and Reid, of the tin
+, plate trust. President Reid virtually
confessed that his concern could not ex-
ISL al Dill W1llOuL lAC
er, it will be recalled, thought the tariff
the mother of trusts. These state
ments will be conveniently overlooked
when it comes to framing the next
Republican national platform.
The Presidents return from his west
ern stumping tour has started the Cos
sops to inventing prospective topics for
his annual message. That this docu-
ment will be an epoch-making one, as
some of the gossips would phrase it,
is exceedingly dubious. Mckinley is
not given to that sort of thing. Wit
ness his last annual message, an
ALMOST COMPLETE BLANK
as to the matters regarding which Con-
gress and the country had a right to
expect wisdom and information. Wit
ness the equally blank and perfunctory
message transmitting the peace treaty
to the Senate. The indications are
that affairs in all the colonies will be
In such a tangled shape by the time
Congress opens that McKinley's wis
dom will be so unequal to the task of
making adequate recommendations that
he will be glad to hand over the entire
subject of expansion to Congress for
solution. If his message does not fol-
low some such line as this it will be
because the President has in him some
hitherto unscspected mental qualities.
The expansionists ought to lose no
time in sending the National Associa-
ton of Manufacturers some facts re-
garding the future Importance of Ma
Mia as an "entrepot' for the Chinese
fradn for that hodv cpamc no have on
tirely overlooked the availability of our
new possession as a trading port. It
has backed an organization known as
the Shanghai Warehouse Association,
which will undertake to market Amer
lean goods in China, thus making
Shanghai an "~entrepot" to the neglect
of Manila. Thus have the manufac-
turers dealt a backhanded blow at the
asirations of the exansionists with re-
spect t. Manila. They ought to be