Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1904-01-07
PUBLICITY LAW
NOT ENOUGH FOR TRUST VIOLA.
TORS OF THE LAW.
The Crlmiaal Sections Of the Sherman Anti.
Trust Law Must Be Invoked. Yet. the Trust.
Busting Administration Fails to Use This e.
fective Weapon.

In an editorial entitled "rhe Trust Sit.
uation," the Atlanta Constitution says:
'There is strong reason to believe that
Mr.. Bryan was not so far from right when
he declared that the penltentiary yawned
for trust violators OF the Sherman anti.
trust law and the crimidal codes of state
and nation.''
After describing some of the methods
Of the trust mag ,ates, the Constitution
adds;
'The criminal phases of the trust ques-
tion-and those who have closely scan
ned the methods OF promotion and wreck
ing employed in the shipbuilding case
cannot but be aware that criminality is
as thick in it as Shippers in bad cheese
are yet to be given their deserts in a
criminal court"
Has the Constitution observed that
while the republican administration has
not employed the criminal clause of the
Sherman Law in its so-called fight yainst
the trusts neither Mr. Roosevelt nor any
OF his spokesman, on the rostrum or in
the editorial chair. have undertaken to
explain why the very powerful weapon
to be foun,: in the criminal indictment
has not been made use OF?
Newspaper dispatches say that the
Standard Oil trust intends to make Wig
orous fight against the proposition that
representatives of the bureau OF publici-
ty have the authority to investigate the
| affairs Of trust and just now in many
republican newspapers are found editori-
ais to the effect that the Standard Oil
trust magnates display considerable inn
pudence in their efforts to annul pro-
vision Of the law creating the department
OF commerce and labor. But is it in the
least surprising that these trust magnates
have supreme contempt for the social
ed publicity law, when we remember
how they have succeeded in ignoring the
criminal Cause o. the Sherman anti.
trust law?
Repeatedly, the democratic press has
directed attention to that clause, a clause
which is the chief feature of the Sherman
law. Repeatedly attention has been
called to the fact that no fort has been
made by the republican administration
to call to account, under the criminal
clause, these influential violators Of the
law. Repeatedly republican editors and
republican statesmen have been asked to
explain why the republican administra-
ton has not awaited itself Of the crimi.
nal clause. No republican has yet under
taken to make this explanation.
We have heard much of publicity,
publicity, publicity" and Mr.. Roosevelt
has pointed with pride to the law which
undertook to give to the department Of
commerce and labor the authority to in
quire into the affairs Of these great com
binations and yet MIR. Roosevelt seems
to have closed his eyes to the greatest
publicity law on the statute books. The
criminal indictment, vigorously and
courageously pushed, sends even the
wealthiest and most powerful of rogues
to their knees. For the purposes OF she'd
ding light in dark places, Of making pub
lie the secret schemes and the under
handed methods OF violators of law, the
criminal indictment possesses powers
greater than all the so-called publicity
provisions that could be written upon
the statute books,
To the ordinary man, criminal proceed.
ings would seem to be the simplest and
most effective. If Mr.. Roosevelt and his
associates have any good reason for ig.
noring that proceeding in their boasted
fight against the trusts, why do they not
take the people into their confidence al
least to the extent of explaining why nc
effort has been made to enforce the first
section Of the Sherman anti trust law