Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1903-04-22
FROM WASHINGTON
Correspondence OF the CouRIER.
Washington, April 21.


the recent decision of the United
States Circuit Court on the North
ern securities merger case which
dissolved that great railroad com
bine and gave some vitality and
force % the Sherman antitrust law.
They are pointing to this decision
rs great triumph of this Repub-
lican Administration, and claim
that the party As making good all
its promises TO fight the trusts of
the country. 1t would be interest
ing for some of these Republican
claquers to point out to an expect
ant people the tangible gain to the
public of this decision. In the
final test the Supreme Court may
p reverse the decision of the lower
court, but even i'm case it affirms il
where is the benefit TO the people
who travel over the roads in ques-
ton or use them for the transpor-
tatiOn of their goodsl The inten-
ton of the government in institut-
ing this suit was to abolish a mer-
ger of competing lines of railroads
and thus prevent rates being raised
beyond a reasonable figure. Under
the terms of the decision the stock
of the Great Northern Pacific and
Burlington railroads will be re-
turned by the merger company to
their original owners, and this will
still leave the roads i'm the control
of Mr.. Hill and Mr.. Morgan and
their friends, and il is certain that
they will agree to maintain the
present rates, merger or no merger.
The truth of the matter is that the
combine took place several years
ago when Mr.. Hill and his friends
obtained control of the stock of
the Northern Pacific and the mer-
ger company was organized simply
TO cinch the combine and prevent
any one from bursting it by a bold
move in Wall Street in getting
hold of majority of the stock in
any one of the roads. The entire
interest of the people of the
states through which these roads
run lies in the reaSonableneSs of
passenger and freight rates, and
is not finally affected by the mer-
ger decision. Ii still rests with
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion as il has for years before. 1t
is useless, therefore, To make the
people who are the customers of
above railroads believe that they
have gained a great victory, when
i'm fact they gained nothing.
Some of the rOttenness of the
Republican Administration of the
Post Office Department is at last
coming to light. The investigation
has only just begun, but il has gone
far enough To let us see that this
will be the biggest scandal ever
unearthed in any department of
the national government until the
Democrats get in control and take
n look at the books in the War and
Navy departments. and the things
that were done there during the
war with Spain in connection with
the purchase of supplies for the
army and the purchase of vessels
for GOLFERS and for the transpor-
tation of troops. When this inves-
tigation into the doings of several
bureaux of the Post Office Depart
was ordered by the Postmaster
General, he did not expect to find
anything worse than few irregu-
larities, and which could be easily
remedied, but he comes back here
from pleasure trip and finds an
enormous scandal being turned>up
to the gaze of the public, and he is
badly scared. He talks very
bravely about continuing the inves-
tigation and allowing no guilty
man to escape, but he would be
glad to shut it off right now. If
he does not and goes the full limit,
then we may expect to see some of
the pets of the administration wear
ing stripes. This game of graft
and peculation has been going on
for several years. When Senator
Hanna inaugurated the most stu
pendous campaign of bribery and
corruption in 1895 ever before at
tempted, one of his most active
lieutenants was Perry Hearth.
He was rewarded for his peculiar
services by being appointed First
Assistant Postmaster General.
He, in turn, selected others who