The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-10
WHOSE DUTY is 1T?

The effective government of trust or
CARNATIONS will surely never come
from the maintenance of scolding
matches between politicians or news
papers of different schools. Secretary
Shaw's speech before the Massachu-
sets manufacturers is a decided i'm
provement on his initial performance
in the campaign; but it is in no sense
and to no degree a contribution to the
solution of the great problem which the
trusts represent. Nor does it any
sense or to any degree furnish any de-
Tense Of the attitude which the present
national administration occupies tow
ard and control of those organizations.
1t may be, in the view of the Pioneer
Press, that it is the most complete
and conclusive answer to the attacks
of the Democrats on that administra-
ton yet made. The plain truth is that
the speech leaves the Republican party
the same position in the controversy
as it has always occupied.
There is one point which Secretary
Shaw makes which is deserving of at
tention by those who do not regard the
subject as one merely of party politi-
cal controversy That is, that the
great difficulty in the way of the en-
forcement of the Sherman law is the
difficulty of producing proof of it's
violation.
Whatever is best to be done in the
present crisis the Sherman law rep
resents all there is in the way of an
effective instrument for the destruc-
ton of monopolistic corporations. How
has that instrument been used by those
in power at Washington for the pur-
pose of protecting the people? 1t was
used in the case of the Addison Pipe
company, and the operators of the Of
Tending corporation were declared by
the court to be in violation of the right
of the consumer to have a free mar
ket in the products of industry 1t was
used in the case of the trans Missouri
freight combination, and with success.
Evidence was forthcoming in those
cases. Where, did it come from? Why
is it not forthcoming in the cases of
the most notorious and monstrous of
the existing trusts? Whose duty is it,
if it is not the duty of the officials of
the department of justice, to secure
the necessary evidence?
Secretary Shaw talks idly Does the
Anthracite combination, which has held
the American people by the throat for
five months past, offend against the
Sherman law? Does it control the pri-
ces of anthracite in the market? Is it
able to prevent potential competition
in the article it handles? Is the evil
dence which will enable the courts to
answer these questions .affirmatively
hidden SO deep among the mysteries of
human life that all the power of the
United States is unable to unearth
any of it?
1t is mere effrontery to talk as Sec
rotary Shaw talks to nation of peo-
pie who are the victims of numerous
and far-reaching~ eonspiracies to force
the prices of their necessaries of life to
such figures as the limit of public en-
durance suggests. The trusts are here
Their prices involve public extortion in
every article in general use. Thev
have no competitors in business
They have strangled some of their
former competitors and bought off the
rest And yet one of the chief Off
Gals of the national government offers
the country an Illustration of the far
reaching beneficent influence welded
over the lives of the American people
from one end of the continent to the
other by the operations of the United
States steel monopoly! Is it too unrea-
sonable to characterize such conduct
as effrontery?
The existing national administration
has failed to discharge its duty toward
the American people in connection
with the trusts, and no explanation or
apology which it's representatives have
offered or are likely to offer can save
that administration from the resulting
consequences.