Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-08
TRUSTS READY
L TO STAB
+ TEDDY
MILLIONAIRE CORPORATIONS
ARE READY TO PLUNGE THE
KNIFE INTO SECOND TERM
ASPIRATIONS.

q storm is brewing winch threatens 10
sweep Republcanism from its bearings
and divide it's forces from Maine to, Cal
ifornia.
President Roosevelt is the storm-center.
BY forcing the trust issue into the first
place among the debatable questions of
the political campaign, he has MORALLY
offended j. p. Morgan and Thomas G.
Platt. They have sought, both by per-
suasion and by threats to dissuade him
from adverting the control of trusts by
federal legislation, and he has ignored
them. He has been given to understand
that If he insists upon telling the people
that trusts can be made subservient to
law, he may have to fight for the presi-
dency in 1904.
He has replied that his attitude toward
the trusts was taken without thought of
its political effect. but because he believed
ii to be right and that he intends to MAIN
tain it regardless of his own political flu
ture.
Trusts Have Gun Loaded.
Open expression OF the powerful antag-
onisms that the president has aroused by
his trust policy has been. confined until
now to the scarcely yelled attacks upon 1t
and him which have appeared in the trust
organs among the Republican newspapers.
The first gun of the Republican anti
Roosevelt campaign is being loaded and
shotted ready to be fired when the Repub-
lican State convention meets in Saratoga
Senator Platt and the financiers whom
he represents propose to deny to the pres
ident in the state platform the endorse
ment for the presidential nomination in
1904 that has been accorded him by the
Republican state conventions of Califor-
MIA, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Iowa and
Delaware. They intend to go further and
withhold from him the support of the par
ty organization in his own state, by shut
fling over the trust question with few
glittering generalities and thus leaving
him to fight his battles alone.
This plan to place the president in the
position of being at variance with his par
ty, will not go unchallenged. Among the
delegates to the Republican state conven-
ton will be men who cannot be made to
stand idly by while a slight is being put
upon him. The purpose 10 defend him by
every means in their power and 1t is GER
tain that no victory will be won over him
by default,
All Depends on Saratoga.
Whether the president shall be sustained
or overridden at Saratoga depends upon
the attitude taken in the convention by
Governor Odell, whose attitude toward the
president has been generally antagonistic.
While it is generally understood among
Republicans in this state that the governs
or is opposed to the Endorsement OF Mr..
Roosevelt for the nomination in 1904, and
that he desires the trust issue to be sub
ordinated in the platform, he has not
vet definitely shown his hand. His allu-
sions to the trusts in his speeches to the
farmers have been confined to the bear
ing of state laws upon combinations OF
industry. and he has declared the status
now on the books to be sufficient to meet
the situation.
What he has said in regard to the ma
tional aspect of the trust question has
been general and not specific. That the
governor has power to force an endorse
ment of the president and his policies IN
the state convention, even against the
wishes of Senator Plat and Mr.. Morgan,
is not doubted. The possession Of this
power places him in difficult situation
and which renders the manner in which
he viii exercise it predetermined.
me outlook for the coming election in
the state is of such a character that the
governor feels that his own chances or
reelection may be imperilled II he OF
tends either Senator Platt and the inter-
ests which he represents OF the rlehus
of the president.
Mr.. Roosevelt will not ask Senator Platt
To favor his endorsement in the conven-
ton. He does not regard 1t as fitting that
the president should make such request.
The demand will be made, however, by his
friends and 1t will be coupled with a
warning that the occupant Of the white
house cannot be ignored even 10 please
Mr. Morgan, without creating danger OF
the wreck of the Republican machine re-
sponsible for the, affront. Should threat
ened contest over the endorsement involve
the acrimony that now seems inevitable
~ The trust defenders carry out their plan,
the breach in the party ranks could not
be confined TO New York state. 1t Will
Ill he
for the president or for the trusts, with
results to the party fortunes that cannot
be predicted -,
when the president began to outline his
plan for dealing with harmful monopo-
lies in his New England tour the trust
leaders told him that unless he abandoned
his proposition he would bring disaster
uDon the party. They assured him that his
ideas were impracticable. and that nothing
could be done by legislation to curb the
trusts without causing the ruin Of bust
ness interests and threatening the con-
tinuance of prosperity, which, they told
him. should be put forward as the leading
issue of the campaign.
Mr.. Roosevelt replied that sincere ef-
fort must be made to regulate monopohes
and to destroy their evils by the passage
OF laws If il was really impossible to
reach them in this way, he insisted that
the fact must be demonstrated, and that
IL could be demonstrated only by an nom
est trial He pointed out that he was not
seeking to destroy the trusts, but to rem
der them harmless, and he continued to
elucidate his plan in his speeches.
President Won't Recant.
Finding him intractable, the president
opponents in his trust policy made it
clear to him after his return to Oyster
Bay that he was seriously endangering
his chances of nomination by refusing to
be guided by them. To this the president
answered that If by recanting he could
make certain Of the nomination, while to
continue as he had begun would absolute
~ prevent him from becoming the candi-
Date, he would nevertheless refuse to re-
| cant.
With a full knowledge Of the possible
/ consequences to himself, he sarted on his
southern tour, determined to follow his
| own convictions and leaving the country
/ to Judge between him and his adverse
| ries. He has delivered his challenge, and
| the state convention will show whether
IL has been accepted.
As the date for the republican state
| convention approaches, IL is evident that
| any idea of Governor Odelrs denomination
| is equivalent to an election, is folly. He
| will be secretly and openly opposed all
| through the campaign By powerful inter-
! ests he has antagOnized, such as men
identified with local charities and with
canal legislation.
The announced determination of Mr..
Plat to load the ticket with George r.