Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1903-01-30
ALL FALSE PRETENSE
REPUBLICAN ANTITRUST PRoPO'
SITION A HUMBUG.
Party Leaders Have No Intention OF
Protecting the People from Grasp
Ing Monopoly-simple Action That
Would Do Away With the Evil.

In the chorus of Republican PROPOSE
tons to regulate the trusts there Is
one dominant note-insincerity.
Every animadversion upon the
methods of lawless combinations Is
| qualified by timorous and profusely
apologize reputation Of any inten-
ton to disturb the peace and quiet OF
the supposititious useful and neces-
sary aggregations Of capital which are
assumed by obeying the laws. 1t is
case of good Lord, good devil! from
beginning to end.
1t is not worth while to analyze the
announcements of President Roose-
welt and Attorney General Knox, be.
cause neither of them contains any
thing that is new or anything that is
sincere.
Both of them deal in the same
dreary platitudes which are, reminis-
cent of the late Captain Bunsby. II
there are criminal and oppressive
trusts, then those trusts are wicked
and should be reprehended, and If
there is law to reach them, then that
law should be enforced. And as there
are many philanthropic and benef1cent
trusts we must be very careful not
to hurt their feelings. And the best
way to dispose of the whole thing is
to appoint Commission" and thank
God that we have got rid of bother
some proposition.
Such is the sum and substance of
the ponderous and pretentious deliver
ances Of the President and his minis
ter of justice. Both of them are the
most obvious Of false pretenses made
by men who have no convictions in
the matter under discussion and who
evade and ignore palpable and desir-
able means for dealing with the trust
iniquity.
Messrs. Roosevelt and Knox, being
men of ordinary intelligence, know
very well that the trust question could
be settled by two actions: First, the
enactment of law of five lines taking
the tariff off trust-made products, and,
second, the enforcement of a law
already enacted Furnishing discrimina.
ton in freight rates by interstate car
riers. Add to this the vigorous and
relentless criminal prosecution Of
trust criminals, and the trust problem
within six months would be as COM
pletely settled as is the question Of
slavery in southern states.
1t is, of course, idle to hope for any
such consummation. The man who
some eight or nine months ago was
designated by the captains of industry
and finance as unsafe" is now hailed
in Wall street as most wise. con-
sentative and temperate statesman
whose dutiful obedience to the wishes
of business interests" renders him
the only logical Republican candidate
for the Presidency in 1904.
The disposition of combative man
to attack aggregated insolence and
lawlessness has been weakened and
finally extinguished by the promptings
Of second-term ambition. Mr.. Roose-
welt, once the rough rider of politics,
is now as supple and complaisant to
those interests" which control his
party as any Of his subservient prede.
cessors in the white house.
From such man such pronounce
ment as that in his message comes
with fitness and appropriateness.
Nothing else was to have been expect.
cd. Wall street is directing the Re.
publican party again as it has done,
save during Mr.. Roosevelt's brief and
ineffective revolt, ever since the civil
war.