Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1904-06-29
SPEECH OF CHAIRMAN ROO?
Ex-Secretary of War Outlines the Accomplishments
of Nearly Forty Years of Republican Rule and
Forecasts the Issues of the Coming
Presidential Campaign.

enterprises which have legitimately
reduced the cost Of production, not to
abandon the place which our country
has o in the leadership of the in
ternational industrial world, not TO
strike down wealth with the result
of closing factories and mines, Of
turning the wage-worker idle in the
streets and .elyirs the farmer with.
out a market for what he grows. > "
CONGRESS CAN REGULATE.
81 believe that monopolies, unjust
determinations, which prevent or
cripple competition, fraudulent over
capitalization, and other evils in trust
organizations and practices which in
~Iuriously affect interstate trade, can
be prevented under the power of the
congress to regulate commerce with
foreign nations and among the sever
al states through regulations and re-
quirements operating directly upon
such commerce, the instrumentalities
thereof, and those engaged therein"
After long consideration, congress
passed three practical statutes: On
the 18th of February, 1908, ar act
to expedite hearings in suits in en-
forcement Of the antitrust act; on
The 14th of February, 1908, the act Of
creating a new department of COM
merce and labor with a bureau of cor
po%rations, having authority to secure
systematic information regarding the
organization and operation of corpor-
ations engaged in interstate CON-
merce; and on the 10Th of February,
1908, an act enlarging the powers of
the interstate commerce commission
and of the courts, 10 deal with secret
rebates in transportation charges,
which are the chief means by which
the trusts crush out their smaller
competitors.
FEDERAL SUITS BROUGHT.
The attorney general has gone on
in the same practical way, not to talk
about the trusts, but to proceed
against the trusts by law for their
regulation. In separate suits four
teen of the great railroads of the
country have been restrained by in
junction from giving illegal rebates
to the favored shippers, who by
means of them were driving out the
smaller shippers and monopolizing
the grain and meat business of the
country. The beef trust was put un
der injunction. The officers of the
railroads engaged in the cotton car
rying pool, affecting all that great in.
dustry of the south, were indicted
and have abandoned tins combination.
The Northern Securities company
which undertook by combining in one
ownership the capital stocks of the
Northern Pacific and Great Northern
railroads to end traffic competition In
the northwest, has been destroyed by
a vigorous prosecution expedited and
brought to a speedy and effective con
clusion in the supreme court. under
the act of February 18th, 1903. Tho
attorney general says:
Here, then, are four phases of the
attack on the combination in restraint
of trade and commerce-the railroad
injunction suits, the cotton pool cases
the beef trust cases, and the North
ern Securities case. The first relates
to the monopoly produced by secret
and preferential rates for railroad
transportation; the second to railroad
traffic pooling; the third to a comb.
nation of independent corporations to
fix and maintain extortionate prices
for meats, and the fourth to a cor.
poration organized to merge into IT,
self the control of parallel and com
peting lines of railroad and to elimi'
nate competition in their rates of
transportation"
EFFECT OF DECISIONS.
The right of the interstate COM
merce commission to compel the pro-
duction of books and papers has been
established by the judgment of the
supreme court in a suit against the
coal carrying roads. Other suits
have been brought and other indict,
ments have been found and other
trusts have been driven back within
legal bounds. No investment In law
full business has been jeopardized, nc
fair and honest enterprise has been
injured; but 1t is certain that wher
ever the constitutional power of the
national government reaches, trusts
are being practically regulated and
curbed within lawful bounds as they
never have been before and the mer
of small capital are finding in the
efficiency and skill of the national
department of justice a protection
they never had before against the
crushing effect of unlawful combina
lions.
We have at last reached a poinI
where the public wealth of farm lane
which has seemed so inexhaustible Is
nearly gone, and the problem of utll
izing the remainder for the building
Of new homes has become OF vital i'm
portance.
VIGOROUS ADMINISTRATION.
The present administration has
dealt with this problem vigorously ant
effectively. Great areas had been un
lawfully fenced in by men of large
means, and the h~ome.builder hat
been excluded. Many of these unlaw
ful aggressors have been compelled
to relinquish their booty, and more
than 1000, 900 acres of land have beer
restored to the public. Extensive
frauds in procuring grants of land
not for homesteads, but for specula
ton, have been investigated and stop
ped, and the perpetrators have beer
indicted and are being actively pros
ecuted. A competent commission hal
been constituted to examine into thu
defective working of the existing law
and to suggest practical Legislation
to prevent further abuse. That com
mission has reported, and bills ade
quate to accomplish the purpose hav'
been framed and are before congress
The further denundation of flores
areas, producing alternate floods an
dryness in our river valleys, has bee