Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-09-29
A DEFY TO MORGAN
President Roosevelt Tells the Trust
King He Is No Respector Of Per-
sons-Will Enforce Trust Law With
out Fear or Favor.

Chicago, Sept. ga Washington
special to the Inter- Ocean says:
II am neither bull nor a bear on
Morgan stocks. am president of the
United states and sworn to execute the
law. will proceed against you or any
Of your combinations as quickly as
would against striker, not because
I am opposed to either capital of labor,
except as either Of them is q vtolator
Of the laws Of the country"
This is the exact language used by
President Roosevelt in reply to the pro-
tests of J. Pierpont Morgan against
bringing suit against the Northern Sc
curities company. Mr.. Morgan had
come to Washington to tell the presi-
dent that Attorney General Knox had
made mistake and that the adminis-
tration was being used to bear the
stocks. President Roosevelt as
sumed the full responsibility for his
attorney generals action, and there
made the reply as printed above. 1t
was new experience for Mr.. Morgan
He had been sitting on a financial
throne in New York. about which
crowded the men of finance and busi-
ness, eager to have him take their
money and do with it as he willed. for
they believed that all Morgan touched
would be converted into gold. Other
men had tried to pool railroad inter
ests and the supreme court had said
it was unlawful. The attorney general
and the solicitor general of the United
States expressed the opinion that the
Northern Securities company was an
other plan for pooling the interests of
two great transcontinental railways.
The president directed them to proceed
and enforce the law. He did not hesi-
tate because the two most conspicuous
men in this combination We're J. Pier
pont Morgan and James j. Hill. He
knew they were the men who would be
made defendants in suit, but men
counted for little as against the law.
President Roosevelt looked to the en-
forcement of the law.
When he said this to Mr.. Morgan the
great financier was shocked. No other
man had ever talked to him with such
frankness, comparing him with a
striker who breaks the law. He went
back to New York convinced that The
odore Roosevelt was not qualified for
the presidency, and he began planning
to prevent the nomination of Roosevelt
in 1904. He has been at work on those
plans ever since. He wants a con-
servative president, who can have the
confidence of the business interests
of the country. Mr.. Morgan regards
and his combination as the
greatest factor in the business inter
ests, and if allowed to have his way, he
would increase their Importance before
the election in1904.
President Roosevelt has not sought to
interfere with Mr.. Morgan because of
business, or%personal, or political rea-
sons The offense he has given Mr..
Morgan is purely incidental, due to the
enforcement Of a United States stat
ute. The president has not changed
his attitude toward trusts. He has
never been "a trust buster" He ad-
mits that much of the antagonism to
trusts is wholly without warrant, and
and that the captains of industry
should not be hampered more than is
absolutely necessary for the public
good. But where a trust and its or
ganizers violate the letter and spirit of
the law, the president simply follows
his oath to execute law. This is the
head and front of the Presidents Offend
ing, as Mr.. Morgan regards his action
as offensive to himself.
Mr.. Morgan has done a number of
things to show his displeasure with the
president. AT his bidding, it is claimed
a number of newspapers in the east
have waged n campaign against the
Presidents policy regarding the trusts.
They have sought to prevent the en-
oorsement of the president for renomi-
nation. They have ridicdled his speech
es, and have tried to create the i'm
preston that there is strife in his cabi-
ret 1t is regarded as singular
that the papers which have
most criticised the president are the
same papers that discovered that Sec
retary Shaw is no longer satisfactory
to the president as a financial adviser.
Ii is asserted on good authority that
both campaigns against Roosevelt and
against Shaw originated in Wall street,
and not far from the office OF Mr.. Nor
gan