New-York tribune., 1903-04-04
THE PRESIDENT ON THE TRUSTS.


The Presidents speech in Milwaukee yester@
day will satisfy neither the demagogues who
are bowling against great corporations simply
because they are great corporations. nor the
money makers who consider any law outrage
Gus which interferes with any OF their money
making plans however dangerous they may be
TO the general welfare. To those. however, who
believe in progress and recognize the necessi-
ties OF modern business. and at the same time
believe in the doctrine of equal rights. it will
be most gratifying in its expressions OF sane
and conservative but earnest and answering
purpose to deal with the evils of trusts The
extremists on both sides are full of wrath. To
ono the President seems dangerous man. The
other charges that he is just playing with the
subject The Presidents words would en-
tighten both if they were really open 10 convlc-
ton and ready to deal fairly with the question
He reviews what the administration has done
10 restrict the operations Of monopolies, and
the showing is ample proof Of earnestness to
do all that the law allows 10 protect the people
from oppression. The Attorney General has
begun fourteen suits against Western railroads
TO enforce the antitrust and interstate COM
nerce laws He is engaged in litigation against
the proposed Great Northern and Northern Pa
cific merger He has restrained the formation
of the projected beef trust by perpetual injunc-
tiOns 10 prevent the packers from combining
and agreeing upon prices for selling their prod
ucts outside the States in which they are pre-
pared for market He has broken up the pool
ing arrangement of the Southern railroads
which interfered with the free shipment of cot
ton and has also broken up the combination
which was raising the price of salt on the Pa
cific Coast These look like determined and
practical methods for suppressing such trust
evils as are amenable 10 federal law. The
legislation of the last Congress is also shown TO
have been practical in its scope and likely to be
effective in its oneration It will secure infor-
nation about the operations Of trusts, and 1t
will make possible the stoppage of that favorit-
ism and rate discrimination by the aid Of which
some of our most offensive monOpolies have
been built up. If a free hand can he secured
to the individual business man that he shall
have fair chance i'm the market with his great
rival the worst evil Of trusts will have been
met and there is really little more that reason
able antitrust people can ask from the govern
ment 1t cannot change the laws of nature or
forbid a large corporation to profit by the econ
omies of wholesale business. but It can see that
before the law and AZ the hands Of public ser
vice corporations ali men shall have the same
chance.
And what reasonable trust man can object TO
this? Who can deny either the wisdom or the
moderation of the doctrine laid down by the
President in these words:
It is clear that corporations created for quasi
public purposes, clothed for that reason with
the ultimate power Of the State TO take private
property against the will of the owner, hold
their corporate powers carriers in trust for
the fairly impartial service Of all the public
Favoritism in the use of such powers, unjustly
enrichng some and unjustly impoverishing 9TH
ers discriminating in favor Of some places and
7zr t11eTG fG nal lnS
principles of justice.
Yet the prevention of such abuses is the main
objective of antitrust legislation, which some
profess TO think so dangerous. The evil OF
secret rebates and drawbacks is so thoroughly
intrenched, and has been so long endured, that
some men who have grown rich by that sort of
highway robbery act as though they thought 1t
was a vested right protected by the consttu-
tion-that ii their privilege, If they were
smart or powerful enough, not only TO get a
better rate than a competing neighbor, but
likewise put into their own pocket part Of the
freight charges extorted from his Break up
such practices. and trusts will lose half their
menacing power; and no man who fairly faces
the question can say that the machinery Of the
government ought not to be employed in break
ing them up.