Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-06-22

| South, were indicted and have aban-
doned their combination. The North
ern Securities Company which under
took by combining in one ownership
the capital stocks of the Northern
Pacific and Great Northern Railroads
to end traffic competition in the North
west. has been destroyed by vigorous
prosecution expedited and brought to
Il speedy and effective conclusion In
the Supreme Court under the act of
February 18th, 1903. The Attorney
General says:
Here. then, are four phases of the
attack on the combinat tons i'm restraint
OF trade and commerce-the railroad
injunction suits, the cotton pool cases.
| the beef trust cases. and the Northern
Securities case. The first relates to
the monopoly produced by secret and
preferential rates for railroad trans
portation: the second to railroad traffic
pooling; the third to combination Of
Independent corporations to fix and
maintain extortionate prices for meats;
and the fourth to corporation organ
| lied to merge into itself the control of
parallel and competing lines of rail-
road and to eliminate competition in
their rates of transportation"
The right of the Interstate Commerce
Commission to compel the production
of books and papers has been estab-
lished by the judgment of the Supreme
| Court in a suit against the coal carry
| ing roads. Other suits have been
brought and other indictments have
been found and other trusts have been
| driven back within legal bounds. No
| investment in lawful business has been
| jcOpardiZed, no fair and honest enter
prise has been injured; but it is GER
| tain that wherever the constitutional
| power of the national government
| reaches, trusts are being practically
regulated and curbcd within lawful
! bounds as they never have been be-
| fore. and the men of small capital are
finding in the efficiency and skill of
| the national Department of Justice q
protection they never had before
against the crushing effect of unlaw-
full combinations.
| We have at last reached point
where the public wealth of farm land
which has seemed SO incxhaustible is
nearly gone, and the problem of utliz-
ing the remainder for the building of
1
| nortance.
| The present administration has dealt
with this problem vigorously and effec-
| lively. Great areas had been unlaw-
fully fenced in by men of large means
and the home-buildcr had been eX-
cluded. Many of these unlawful ag-
gressors have been compelled to relin-
uuish their booty, and more than 2,O0O,-
900 acres of land have been restored to
| the public. Extensive frauds in pro-
curing grants of land. not for home
steads but for speculation, have been
| investigated and stopped. and the
perpetrators have been indicted and
are being actively prosecuted. A COM
| petcnt commission has been consti-
| tuted to examine into the defective
| working Of the existing laws and to
| suggest practical legislation 10 prevent
| further abuse. That commission has
reported. and bills adequate to accom-
plish the purpose have been framed
| and arc before Congress. The further
| denurdation of forest areas. producing
| alternate floods and dryness in our
river valleys. has been checked by the
| extension of forest reserves, which
| have been brought to aggregate more
than G3000.C00 acres of land. The
reclamation by irrigation of the vast
| Grid regions forming the chief part of
| our remaining public domain, has been
| PROV ided for by the National Reclaim
| alton Law of June 18th. 1903. The exc
| cution of this law, without taxation
and by the application of the proceeds
of public land sales alone, through the
construction of storage reservoirs for
water, will make many millions of
acres of fertile lands available for
| settlement Over 10000 900 from these
| sources have been already received to
| the credit of the reclamation fund
| Over $4,000, COO acres of public lands in
| fourteen States and Territories have
been embraced in the siXty-sevcn pro-
jcctS which have been devised and are
under examination, and on eight Of
| these the work of actual construction
| has begun.
| The Postal service has been extended
and improved. It's revenues have in
| creased from s1600000O i'm 1895 to sos
| 100000 in 1899. and s144OO0,OoO in 1901.
In dealing with these vast sums, n few
cases of pcculation. trifling i'm amount
and by subordinate officers. have
occurred there as they occur in every
| business. Neither fear nor favor. nor
political or personal influence has
awaited to protect the wrongdocrs.
Their acts have been detected. invcsti-
gated. laid bare; they have been dis
| missed from their places. prosecuted
criminally, indicted. many of them
tried, and many of them convicted.
The abuses in the carriage of second
class mail matter have been remcdicd
The Rural Free Delivery has been
widely extended. 1t is wholly the
creation of Republican administration
The last Democratic Postmaster Cen
cral declared it impra BILE. The
first administration of Mckinley
proved tho contrary. At the beginning
of the fiscal year 1899 there were about
200 routes in operation. There are now
more than 25,0G0 routes, bringing
daily mail service to more than 120OO.-
COO of our people in rural communities.
cnlarging the circulation of the news
paper and the magazine. increasing
communication, and relieving the iso-
lation of life on the farm.