The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-04
EAvoRs FOR FRIENDS

all the charges that can be brought
legitimateIy against the Republican
party as at present administered, none
is so damning as this. 1t is bad enough
TO be the servant of capital; to buy AID
sell favors; to legislate so that trust
may charge the home consumer SO per
cent more for its product than it sells
for abroad. But it is an eviler thing,
one more abhorrent to the common
conscience, one designated by an uglier
term in business life and in the cata-
logue of crimes of which the law takes
cognizanee, to enforce laws or leave
them unenforced for private or party
advantage.
This is the system that has honey
combed the cities of the country with
effenses, and is summed up in the sin
gle eloquent word, graft" The ma
tional government offers an enormously
wider and more dangerous field for it's
exercise. The abuses and scandals I'M
covered or covered up by the various
departments are trif1es when compared
with this. For if the federal law is but
puppet for partisans to play with, and
if the pure administration of justice can
be corrupted at the behest of any man,
then the republic is indeed nearing the
reefs.
We do not see how any dispassionate
or impartial man can avoid the con-
clusion that the national administration
is guilty. 1t started out years ago,
from motives that we need not now at
tempt to analyze, with the avowed pur-
pose of ascertaining the rights of COM
within the severest scrutiny of the law.
With singular acuteness it selected for
its first pursuit one enterprise whose
practical purpose was benefcent. No
man and no community had ever suf-
fered by one penny through the organi
cation of the Northern Securities COM
pany. The plain reason of its being
was transportation scheme the great
est that has ever been projected; one
of enormous benefit to the common
wealths affected, one of immense ad-
vantage, one important to the whole
world. That it was builder of traffic
and a creator of markets, a CONNER
cial undertaking of the greatest mind
suit All the power of the nation was
exercised in this prosecution; and the
reason given was that this was not a
selected and isolated case, but that the
government must know the extent of
It's power in order that, if authorized, it
might fall upon other combinations of
capital that were depressing instead of
benefting the people, and smite them
to the dust.
The explanation did not explain, but
let that pass. What followed? Before
the echoes of the case had begun to die
away, the government explained
through its legal adviser and represent
ative that nobody need feel alarmed. 1t
was going to use its power with mod
Grafton and discrimination; by which
the suspicious man began to think that
II meant to reward friend and punish
an enemy wherever it could, with an
eye fixed closely on the approaching
campaign. But those who still believed
in the sincerity of the administration
thought otherwise and declared that it
would soon get after the trusts.
What has happened? There is omi-
nous silence and inaction all along the
line. The coal trust. combination al
ways illegal and perfectly vulnerable
will with every fireside in the country,
. The beef trust, making the price OF
meat dear to the consumer and that of
cattle low to the ranchman, has heard
no huntsman's horn behind it. Not q
combination anywhere in the country
Z Of those that are real oppressors of the
!. poor has suffered or has feared. In
some mysterious, silent fashion theil
souls We're comforted.
Look at concurrent events. The lega
representative Of the government. who
made this fight and was thus armed
for others. disappeared from the cab
met. Another man had been selected
for senator from Pennsylvania, but the
: Republican machine said it must be
j. Knox, and Knox it was. And this was
done by men who know the Pennsyl-
vania railroad as their master and feed
out of its hand. Evidence was col
lected against another great railroad
system, and presently representative
Of it appears in cabinet position