Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-06-30

war with Spain. BY the Acts OF
March 2nd, 1901, and April 18th, 1902,
the country has been wholly relieved
of that annual burden of over one
hundred million dollars; and the fur
ther accumulation of a surplus which
was constantly withdrawing the mon
ey of the country from circulation has
been prevented by the reduction of
| taxation.
Between the Both of June, 1900, and
the first of June. 1904, our treasury
! department collected in revenues the
enormous sum of $2,2O3,000,000 and
expended $2,02S000,000, leaving us
with surplus of over $170,000,000
after paying the s5O,OOO,OOO for the
Panama Canal and loaning $4,600.000
| to the st. Louis Exposition. EXclud-
ing those two extraordinary payments,
which are investments from past sur
plus and not expenditures of current
increase, the surplus for this year will
be the reasonable amount of about
| S12000,000.
Four years ago the regulation by
! law of the great corporate combina-
tions called trusts" stood substan-
TALLY where is was when the Sher-
man antitrust act of 1890 was passed.
Our republican administration has
! taken up the subject in a practical
sensible way as business rather
than political question, saying what
! it really meant, and doing what lay
at its hand to be done to accomplish
effective regulation.
The attorney general has gone on in
| l.
! about the trusts, but to proceed
1 against the trusts by law for their
regulation. In separate suits fourteen
of the great railroads of the country
have been restrained by injunction
from giving illegal rebates to the ia
vored 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 under injunction. The
officers of the railroads engaged in
the cotton carrying pool, affecting all
that great industry of the south, were
indicted and have abandoned their
combination. The Northern Securi-
ties Company which undertook by
combining in one ownership the CAPT
tai stocks of the Northern Pacific and
Great Northern railroads to end traf-
fic competition in the northwest, has
been destroyed by a vigorous prose
cution expedited and brought to a
speedy and effective conclusion in the
supreme court under the act of Feb
ruary 18th, 1908.
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 carry 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 jeopardiZed, no fair and honest
enterprise has been injured
We have at last reached a point
where the public wealth of farm land
which has seemed so inexhaustible
is nearly gone. and the problem OF
utilizing the remainder for the build
ing of new homes has become of vital
importance.
The present administration has
dealt with this problem vigorously
and effectively. Great areas had been
unlawfully fenced in by men of large
means, and the home builder had
been excluded Many of these unlaw-
full aggressors have been compelled
: to relinqush their booty, and more
than 1000, GOO acres of land have been
restored to the public. Extensive
, frauds in procuring grants of land
| not for hOmesteads but for specula-
ton, have been investigated and
J stopped, and the perpetrators have
been indicted and are being actively
, prosecuted. A competent commission
{ has been constituted to examine into
the defective working of the existing
{ laws and to suggest practical legis
, lation to prevent further abuse. THAI
commission has reported, and bills
adequate to accomplish the purpose
have been framed and are before con
gress.
, The postal service has been extend
ed and improved. It's revenues have
, increased from $76,O00,O0O in 1S9;
, to 95,000,00O in 1899, and $144, 4,000,00(
T in 1904. In dealing with these vas
sums, a few cases of peculation
= trifling in amount and by subordinate
! officers, have occurred there as they
occur in every business. Neither fea
4 nor favor, nor political or persona
I influence has availed to protect The
/ wrongdoers. Their acts have beeI
detected, investigated, laid bare; the.
( have been dismissed from theil
1 places, prosecuted criminally, indict
= ed, many of them tried, and many o
- them convicted The abuses III tn,
j. carriage of second-class mail matte
@ have been remedied.
y We have brought our navy to higl
= state of efficiency and have exercised
i both army and navy in the method
: of seacoast defense. The joint arm
! and navy board has been bringing tn
d two services together in good under
: standing and the common study of tn
Ii strategy, the preparation and the co
operation which will make the-l ei
l. fective in time of need.
It The a.. first administration of Nc
l. Kiuley fought and won the war wit