Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-02-20
A SIGNIFICANT BANQUET
Supreme Court and Trust Mag
mates Dine With President.
PASSING OF THE TRUST BUSTER.

The Reported Opposition of Wall
street to President Roosevelt Re-
futed-COrpOratiOn Magnates and
Trust MiIIiOnaires Enjoy White
House Hospitality.
The evidence has at last come out
that all the talk of President RooSe-
velt's opposition to the trusts and Wall
street was sheer political buncOmbe.
The list of guests present at the White
House at the dinner on Jan. % in hon
or of the supreme court included y. j.
Cassatt, president of the PennSylva-
mia railroad; James Stillman, presi-
dent of the First National bank Of
New York and head of the Rockefeller
banking syndicate; William L. Draper,
head of the cotton machinery trust;
Representative Littauer, charged with
illegal profits from army glove con-
tracts; Norman =. Ream, director of
the steel trust, besides other great
financial magnates and corporation
attorneys. AS these great banquets
are in the public eye and are exploit
ed in the society columns of the news
papers, the invitation to the trusts and
IulIlIOudlIeS S4lONS DldlllIN ludl
all the talk about their being opposed
to the nomination and election of
Roosevelt is but an endeavOr to capti-
vate the plain people" with the idea
that the Republican candidate is OPP
posed to the trusts and will stay their
eXtortiOn. The president of the United
States, like other people, does not in
vite guests with whom he does not
wish to associate or with whom he is
not on the most friendly terms. The
state banquet to the supreme court is
one of the great events of the Wash
ington social season, and to be invited
to meet the chief justice and his asSO-
ciates is considered a great honor and
much sought after. The guests are
carefully selected and with premedita-
ton. 1t is therefore strangely Signifi
cant that the president should select
the head of the great Rockefeller syn
dictate and one of the leading members
Of the Morgan steel trust to meet the
judges who have an important trust
case now under consideration and
would, if the administration was real
" opposed to the trusts, have these
very men on trial for conspiracy i'll
President Roosevelt may have had in
thus bringing the judiciary in touch
with the trusts, he has most certainly
served notice on the voters that he is
on the most friendly terms with the
great corporation interests and the
most important members of the Wall
street crowd and the money power.
Those Republican newspapers that
have been attempting to fool the people
into believing that they had a trust
buster in the White House will soon
have to be singing n new song, the
burden of which will be that the great
financial interests of the country are
united in support of the party and its
nominee. who alone will conserve the
great business interests. The eXigen-
cieS Of the campaign may require this
open alliance between President ROoSe-
welt and the trusts that the campaign
Golfers may be filled. without which
the wheels of the Republican chariot
would drag heavily and the voice of
their SpellbinderS be hushed. The trusts
are still in the saddle and looking for
ward to another long lease of prospect
ty if Mr.. Roosevelt is elected president
of the United States.