Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-06-25
FACTS ABOUT ROOSEVELT.
Items of Interest to the People Not
Being Published by the
Presidents bureau.

Some very shrewd. if INSCRIPTIONS,
newspaper work is being done by the
press agents who are booming Pres
Roosevelt for the 1904 nomina-
They are portraying him as a
heavyweight trust fighter who is
smashing the trusts right and left.
They tell the people that Wall street
is dead against Roosevelt and is
Matching all kinds of schemes to pre-
vent his denomination. They are
even inventing ingenious stories
about the ~postotfice frauds, scandals
and corruption, which they hope will
not only divert well-deserved blame
for this state of affairs from the
president, who has permitted it to go
for two years, but will make polit-
ical capital out of it for him. They
say some of the principal r~ascals of
the many who plundering the
post Office were conspiring to prevent
the presidents denomination next
year. In these simple and absurd
ways they expect to beguile the vot-
ing population of this country and,
according to their w assurances,
they are succeeding. Thus the Phil
adelphia Ledger of June 8 says:
"Unless all signs of the times be
unreliable no democratic candidate
for the presidency a defeat Roose-
welt, and similarly no democrat can
carry New York against him. The
representatives of the trusts, of any
and all vested interests are tinan-
cially powerful, and could swell t"
great proportions an anti-RooSeNelt
campaign fund, but in any contest
fought out to a conclus Of at the
polls between them and the plain
people of the country, they and their
campaign fund would cut but a sorry
figure. The plain people have the
votes, and they do not forget nor fail
to appreciate that in fighting his
winning fight against the trusts n
vested interests President Roosevelt
fought the plain peoples battles. and
they love him for doing ii and for
the enemies he made by doing it."
If these statements be true it is
certainly useless and foolish to hold
political conventions or elections
next year and, as Mr.. Roosevelt will
be entitled to two full terms on his
own account, the country can take u
political vacation until 1912. In fact,
sac ,,;nI+ %. wall 111nla nm nIlT minds
to accept the rough rider as the
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES" who will be-
come the dictator of the empire
which he was instrumental in sub
stituting for our late republic. But
are the statements true? What
winning fights against the trusts"
has the president made that have in
any way benefited the "plain peo-
ple?"
The president reputation as a
smasher of trusts rests largely upon
two court decisions obtained last
wear. The beef trust was enjoined
by the courts, and the Nor hern Sc
c~urities company, a railroad COM
bination. was declared Illegal in the
United States circuit court. In neither
case can any benefit to the plain
people" BE- detected eve by the aid
of the most powerful microscope.
Both of these trusts are continuing
to fix prices and rates that the peo-
pie must pay and it may be said,
right here, that no decision under the
Sherman law has resulted in perma-
nent benefit to the people. The net
result has been that the trusts have
changed their form, but not their sub
stance. No court decision has perma-
nently lowered prices OF rates or
taken the hands of the trusts out of
the pockets of the people. Nor is it
probable that court decisions will
ever remedy the evils of trusts while
we have high tariffs and other special
privileges which give monopoly pow
ers and encourage combinations and
trusts. We must somehow overcome
these monopoly privileges before we
can hope to get rid of the evils of
trusts. But the president has set his
face against any change in the trust
fattening tariff. He even stopped off,
on his recent stamping our, to help
strangle the poor little iowa idea"
which feebly declared that tariffs
which shelter trusts should come off.
To be perfectly fair we should
state both sides of the case-'the
president VS.. the trusts" The presi-
dent not only withdrew his indorse-
ment of the somewhat drastic Little
field antitrust bill, last winter, and
transferred his good will to the
amendment to the department of
bill, which promises moth
ing but uncertain publicity, but he
Endorsed and approved the Elkins
bill, which abolished the criminal
clause of the interstate commerce
act and leaves the great railroad
trust co%nspirators subject only to
small fines. With the penitentiary no
longer staring these criminals in the
face the railroads will continue to
! fix rates and pay any occasional fines,
as did the beef trust in Missouri,
after which it proceeded to put up
the price Of meats.
Nor is it certain that no democrat
can carry New York against Roose-
welt. The voters in New York know
Mr.. Roosevelt's history. They have
frequently been tricked by him. The
independent voters there, including
many democrats, elected him to the
legislature to fight the bosses and