The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-13
PLENTY OF LAW

FEENf II Vt LAW
The statement in Judge Parker's
speech of acceptance, that there is
plenty of law in existence to smash
the trusts if it were fearlessly and
relentlessly enforced, has an interest
ing confirmation from the proceedings
in the United States court at Chicago
against the national association of re-
tail druggists. This organization CT
$500 dealers is declared In contempt
against depriving a dealer not a mem
Der of the association of his rights.
1t was charged that a wholesale house
had been obliged to refuse to sell him
supplies, and he has fought the asso-
citation for two years. The court has
sustained him, both by issuing an in
junction and by filming the association
for ignoring it. Thus this strictly
commercial combination finds itself in
have pronounced against it at every
opportunity.
Exactly the same thing is true Of
every combination against trade exist
ing in the United States. Great and
small, they are all illegal today; as lille
gal as if forty congresses had done
nothing else but legislate against
trusts and combinations for twenty
years. The old common law principle
simply supplements it and puts it in
statutory form. All that is needed is
to show the facts of a combination or
conspiracy in constraint of trade, and
|. it is Immediately outlawed judieially.
Facts show that what we need in this
country IS not more law, but better en-
forcement. The courts are all right. They
are unanimously and vigorously against
everything that looks like trust. No
instance can be quoted where the old
| rule against combinations has been set
] aside or weakened Courts are sim
ply waiting for cases to be brought be-
fore them and properly presented, IL
| order to mulct the offender. Does any,
body have any doubt about the facts in
the case Of the Standard Oil company,
!, or the beef. trust, or the paper trust,
1 Or the coal syndicate? Is not the gov
eminent of the United States equipped
with a department of commerce and
| supplied with funds for Investigating
| such cases and obtaining facts service
/ able as evidence? Is not the depart
1 ment of justice of the United States
competent to proceed upon such, testi-
mony, and are not the courts of the
United States openly and without ex-
1 ception arrayed against the monopolis-
| tic combination and simply waiting for
an opportunity to smash it?
1 In every state and in the nation. the
| people have been hoodwinked by dema-
gogues clamoring for ever more and
more law. Dishonest or disingenuous
| executives have turned their atten-
| ton away from the administrative and
judicial remedies, taking advantage of
this well known American weakness Of
| believing that an evil can be cured by
| law, and forever asking for the passage
of a new one instead of the enforce
| ment of an old one. If the department
| of justice in every state and in the ma
| ton, under explicit orders from the
! executive, should engage in pursuit
of illegal combinations, cite them be-
fore the courts and enforce judgment,
there would be as poor show for the
trusts as for any other class of Of
tenders.
Judge Parker was exactly right in
his position; and the great remedy of
the people for trade combinations is to
put into power man like this, whose
character and whose past, as well as
his utterances, are ample pledge that
he will save the people from oppression
by exhuming the unused remedies and
| applying them vigorously to the cases
which they so exactly fit.
If Indiana came honestly by its liter