Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1903-09-25
Washington Letter

ginning to strike about In places close
to the throne. Beavers, who has Civ
On himself up voluntarily after the
police seemed to be unable to get him,
has had Postmaster General Payne
subpoenaed to appear as witness in
the case. and the p. NJ. g. promptly
repudiates the subpoena and refused
to appear: He says he is sick. and
must perforce spend a few weeks down
at Virginia Hot Springs to recuper-
ate his health. He probably knows
too much Of the doings of the private
secretary, Mr. 81. Fl. Rand, in con-
nection with Beavers and Machen's
industry in the .sgraf:ing game in the
Post Office Department, and does not
desire to be questioned under oath.
In fact, he Is doing all he can In his
power to stop the publicity of details
Of the Post Office department scandals
and now he gives it out that the end
is in sight and that there will be moth
ing more doing after the first of o.
tober. He knows full we'll that there
are too many members of Congress and
republican leaders mixed up in ti?4
matter who must protect the loot-ra,
and some of them too much dread n
Investigation to allow the matter to
proceed furher. Such competent
machine politician as the P. NJ. e.
knows that the republican party can
not receive any more such hard
knocks as it has received by even a
small part of the scandal thus exposed
to public view, and survive the treat
ment. How the republican party
leaders are praying that something
will turn up to distract the minds of
the public from the nasty mess. See
how the Beirut incident was seized
upon to take the minds of the people
from the scandals cropping out in the
administration of the affairs Of gov
eminent. The Panama Cansl affair is
also being used to get the minds of
the people from the rottenness of the
departments as administered by the
republican party, but all in vain.
Those little incidents are but the won
der Of the hour, and the minds of
the people wander back to their NUT
tons, the scandals in the departments
at Washington. Like Banquo's ghost,
they will not down, but return with
perplexing persistency to plague an
administration that is rotten to the
core. The people have specific for
this cancer on the body politics..if they
will 30 to the polls and administer it.
1t is up to them.
The trusts are still in the saddle.
The anthracite coal trust is advanc-
ing the price Of coal again, though it
Is reported to have mined and stored
some million Of tons more than can be
sold this year, and yet this trust has
such a monopoly that it can put mp
prices as it pleases. The meat trust
also files notice that it intends to raise
the price of it's products to a level
more in accord with the times and
permissive of the garnering of larger
profits. Congress, last winter, when
the coal trust was live issue, appro-
priated q special fund Of $500, 600 for
Department Of Justice to use to PROS
ecute. trusts. Congress also provided
fonr number of assistant Attorney
Generals t, prepare cases against the
trusts. Many months have elapsed
since this money and those attorneys
were placed at the disposal Of the ad-
ministration, but no action has be-
gun. There are on file with the After
ney Generals more than one case
against trusts, prepared by private
enterprise, such as the cases aaginst
the coal trusts prepared by William
R. Hearst, and the case against the
tobacco trust has been on file for over
two years, but it has reposed in
pigeion- hole in the department, and
even the extra money and and extra
help have been unable to drag it into
court.
There seems to be nothing that can
stop this Unsuitable greed of bloated
fruits, except business depression.
That with its resultant reduction in
the peoples purchasing power, will
prove the only effective means to bring
prices down again to reasonable linn
it, SO Icing as the republican party
remains in the saddle. So far as leg
islature and courts are concerned, they
are, apparently, unable or unwilling
to do anything to protect the consum-
ers. Antitrust laws passed by the
w-givers are, as rule, promptly
neatly knocked out by the judges, who
seem to be exceedingly anxious to pro-
tect what they consider the censtitu-
tional rights of corporations. Did you
ever hear of the constitutional rights
of an individual2 Never in your life.