The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-10-14
THIS A NATURAL RESULT
Operators Violate the Law, Believe
Themselves Above It.
SHAW is ANOTHER TRANSGREssOR.
0Iney Pictures Him Rushing 10 the Relief Of
III. Wall Street 6ambl RS. 0lney's
Great Speech at Democratic
Rannitnt in RoS.on
Banquet in Bosom,
(By the Associated Press.)

Boston. Oct. 11.-One of the features
of the present campaign was the dinner,
which the Democratic Club of Massachu
setts rendered tonight to Colonel William
A. CASTOR. the party candidate for Gov
ernor Over $50 party followers listened
to speeches by Richard Olney. former
Secretary of State; Charles S. Hamlin,
Josiah Quincy. John r. Thayer, Con-
II. Hollis, Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor in New Hampshire. and Colonel
CASTOR.
Undoubtedly the speech of the evening
was that delivered by Mr.. Olney, who
was cheered for some minutes when he
arose Many greeted him as the next
President.
Mr. Olney spoke. in part, as follows;
1.-The signs of the times are that under
the regime of the Republican party, and
through the national governments forty
years of partnership with the protected
industries we have come to a pass where
public officials as we'll as private citi-
zens seem themselves above the law
"Witness the jealous haste with which
the Treasury rushes to the relief of Wall
street spectators by novel and forced
construction of the National banking law
Witness the astonishing proceeding OF
the same department in it's instructions
TO subordinate officers respecting the
duties to be collected on coal. But the
generally lawless atmosphere in which
the protected Republican reign has en-
veloped us is even more strikingly illus
trated by the recent Presidential demon
stration upon the coal strike. There are
those who say that as the President dis
claimed any official duty or relation to
the matter he should not have interfered.
There is something to be said for that
view. Though his office is charged with
great function and invested with great
powers. the President is a constitutional
officer, whose sphere of action is strictly
limited by law
"Within that sphere he is we'll nigh
absolute-without he is legally impotent
When. therefore, he goes without it the
danger is that he may fail and be dehed,
and that his great office may lose pres
tige and power and thus be less capable
OF performing it's legitimate duties.
Inc ITeSfueHl, IOI SAdAhpIC, 10 ONA
representative with foreign powers. Will
it strengthen his hands that some half
a dozen private citizens are found snap
ping their fingers in his face? The Presi-
dents overture to the coal operators was
prompted by the best motives and should
have been treated with respectful con-
sideration. It should have been declined
courteously, even if firmly.
"But the opportunity to administer a
snub to the President was too tempting.
Accordingly he was not only treated as
a rash intermeddler; he was also lee
tured upon the law and facts of the case,
and to crown all. was notified that the
cause of the troubles was lawlessness,
which he was sarcastically invited to
suppress.
For sheer audacity this attitude of
the coal operators could hardly be
matched, and nothing could more strong
ly emphasize the disrepute into which
the law of the land has been brought by
long continued Republican domination.
yet, who are they who were so in
sistent upon the suppression of lawless-
ness in the mining regions? Why, the
most unblushng and persistent of law
breakers. For years they have defed
the law of Pennsylvania which forbids
common carriers engaging in the business
of mining. For years the have dis
eliminated between customers in the
freight charges on their railroads in vio-
lation of the Interstate commerce law.
For years they have unlawfully monopo-
lized inter- State commerce in violation
of the Sherman Antitrust Law.
Indeed, the very best excuse and ex-
PLANTATION of their astonishing attitude at
the Washington conference is that, hav-
ing violated so many laws for so long,
and so many times, they may rightfully
think they We're wholly immune from
either punishment or reproach.
ut is sometimes urged in extenuation
of the coal operators foolishly offensive
tone at the conference that they were
enraged at the recognition of labor
unions, and the presence by invitation of
their representative. If that be so, they
must be as Blind to the salient facts of
the era they are living in as they are
oblivious of legal obligations.
I'm these days of combination by CAPT