Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-18
RESULTS Of Strike
The Attitude of the Company
Presidents Has Crystalized
Public Sentiment
ATTENTION FOCUSED

Strike Has been Of Distinct Value in
Bringing Out the Workings Of One
dents Message to the Next Congress
Is Awaited With Intense Interest.
Washington, Oct IS That anti trust
have been advanced ten years, is the
opinion expressed by such veterans in
pubic life as Senator'S George q. Vest
and Matthew Stanley Quay. Both are
aonser ,a,ive and worldly wise, and both
have mad long experience in matters
Legislative. This opinion is shared by
President Roosevelt, and, in fact, by
almost every public man in Washing
ION. Members of the interstate COM
merce commission believe that the gov
ernme1t regulation fol which they
stand, and for which, III larger measure,
they have worked assiduously, will now
be vastly easier TO secure from con-
gress Political economists with lean
ing toward socialism say that they have
gained much in tins demonstration of
the necessity for a stronger govern
'nent control, and the government OWL
ershlp OF natural nionopolies, particu-
larry the railroad companies. Public
attention has been centered upon the
worklliss OF one trust, and the public has
seen compelled to w1tatss a spectacle
of arrogance and greed such as no one
believed possible.
President Roosevelt knows that there
are times when pubic sentiment Is
awake and ready for action, ard he be-
lieves that this is one OF those favorable
iunctLres. Congress Viii hear from HIM
this winter on the subject of this and
other trusts, and and ii may be PFC
dicted with safety that the matter VIII
not lie dropped until ;nere have been
results
From a purely political view point
President Roosevelts settlement of the
coal strike must be regarded as a very
able move. 1t was a bold one. whatever
else it was. He was creating precedent.
No man in the white house ever before
has assumed to intervene in an indus
trial dispute. Cleveland's participation
in the trouble OF 1894 was along the line
Of official duty in executing the laws
for preserving order. He did not con-
Germ himself with the industrial con-.
troversy, and made no attempt to set
= IL. 4 ~ n To- 0fh ico
Welt did not profess to be acting in his
official capacity, except in so far as his
Office enabled him to voice what SEEM
ed to him demand of the people. But
his action gave an official and definite
expression to an overwhelming public
sentiment. and the people to whom he
spoke were compelled to listen. 1t was
a case Of vox populi with vengeance.
Without the support of public opinion
he could have accomplished nothing. As
1T was the public Endorsed him unani-
mously, and, in the outcome, the pub
lie is grateful for his services. He might
have shirked. He could have pleaded
lack Of authority. and in so doing he
could have earned the everlasting graft
tude of the coal barons and the j. Pier
pont Morgans, big and little. all over
the country. But Roosevelt is not the
Sinking kind, and nothing could be
more characteristic than this indiffer-
ence to conventionalities. 1t was moth
ing to him that no previous president
had ever taken such step. he did not
inquire into the custom or etiquette
applicable to this sort of an occasion.
Ete looked only for what he believed
was the right and having made h1mself
sure Of that he went ahead. No one
can accuse him of indulging in the
spectacular; it was not sham battle
or "grandstand" play. 1t was really
a test of power between vested wealth
as represented by Morgan & co. and
on the other hand, public opinion, the
voice of the people who spoke thru the
president of the United States.
It has puzzled a good many to under
gtand soM shrewo, successful, worldly
wise men such as the presidents OF the
coal carrying railroads are supposed TO
be, and undoubtedly are, could do
and say the foolish things and
deliberately court the oisapproNal of the
public at large, and the inevitable at
lacks thru state ana NATIONAL legisla-
lures.
The whole thing will be easier to uli-
ierstat.d II attention is sept on j. Pier
mont Morgan. The halt dozen railroad
oresidants are fgufeheals. Morgan
controls The railroads and them. He
las dictated the poIicj from the begin
nlns. Part OF the time ne has chosen
10 keep in the background When there
was any dalnning TO take he has been
quite willing to put it up to the railroad
presidents. He has told the public that
ne was quite helpless, he would gladly
do something and was even planning t.
bring n snip load of coal from Europe.
lie regretted that the railroad presl-
dents We're such obstinate gentlemen,
and h;nted .hat he would labor with
see the error of their Ways.
But when 1t came to d more agreeable
role--Whcn it came TO the stage of Of
fering arbitration iol a certain plausi-
bic sort) and DONG something THAT
might iGad to a settlement of the strike
-tlen your uncle Pref pont was right to
the front. He quite forgot about having
no influence with the coal operators,
and came trooping ai5hg IN his private
car Cor rather Baer's) and had a nice
public Chat With tie president. There
was hardly a. pretensG OF keeping UP
the fiction that the coal load presidents
were the real peoplc, and he only a
sympathetic on-looMei.
THE MOOSE HUNT is OFF.
The pres;denf Can Not Accent Min.