The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-06-22
rhree Practical statutes.

| 18th of February, 1908, an act to expe-
| dite hearings in suits in enforcement of
| the Antitrust Act on the 14th of
February. 1908, the act creating a new
| Department of Commerce and Labor
with a Bureau of Corporations. having
| authority to secure Systematic informa-
| ton regarding the organization and
| operation of corporations engaged in
| interstate commerce.: and on the 10Th
| of February, 1898, an act charging the
powers of the Interstate Commerce
| Commission and of the courts, to deal
| with secret rebates In transportation
charges, which are the chief means by
which the trusts crush out their small
err competitors.
The Attorney General has gone on in
| the same practical way, not to talk
about the trusts, but to proceed against
| the trusts by law for their regulation
| In separate suits fourteen of the great
| railroads OF the country have been re-
| strained by injunction from giving ille-
gal rebates to the favored shippers who
| by means of them were driving out the
smaller shippers and monopolizing the
grain and meat business of the coun-
| try. The beef trust was put under in
junction. The officers of the railroads
! engaged in the cotton carrying pool,
affecting all that great industry of the
South. were indicted and have abandon
| ed their combination. The Northern
| Securities Company which undertook
| by combining in one ownership the CAP
| ital stocks of the Northern Pacific and
! Great Northern Railroads to end traf-
| f1c competition in the Northwest has
| been destroyed by q vigorous prosecu-
4 ton expedited and brought to 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 combinations in 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 pre-
| ferential rates for railroad transpor
tation; the SECOND TO railroad traffic
| pooling; the third to a combination of
| independent corporations to fix and
maintain extortionate prices for meats:
and the fourth to a corporation organ
| parallel and competing lines of railroad
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 established
by the Judgment of the Supreme Court
In suit against the coal carrying
roads Other suits have been bought
and other indictments have been found
and other trusts have been driven back
within legal bounds. No investment in
lawful business has been jeopardlzed,
no fair and honest enterprise has been
injured; but it is certain that wherever
the constitutional power of the national
government reaches. trusts are being
practically regulated and curbed within
lawful bounds as they never have been
before, and the men of small capital are
finding in the efficiency and skill of the
national Department of Justice a pro-
lection they never had before against
the crushing effect of unlawful combi-
We have at last reached a point
where the public wealth of
farm land which has seemed SO mex
haustible Is nearly gone. and the prob
hn fN.1n g.
building of new homes has become of
vital Importance.
Land Restored to Public.
The present administration has dealt
with this problem vigorously and effec-
lively Great areas had been unlaw-
fulIy fenced In by men of large means,
and the home-builder had been exclud-
ed. Many OF these unlawful aggressors
have been compelled to relinquish their
booty. and more than 2.000, 900 acres of
land have been restored to the public,
Extensive frauds in procuring grants of
land, not for homesteads. bur for spec
stopped, and the perpetrators have
been indicted and are being actively
prosecuted. A competent comm .ssion
has been constituted to examine into
the defective working of the existing
laws and to suggest practical legisla-
ton to prevent further abuse. That
commission has reported, and bills
adequate to accomplish the purpose
have been framed and are before Con-
gress The further denundation of for
est areas, producing alternate foods
and dryness in our river valleys, has
been checked by the extension of forest
reserves, which have been brought TO
aggregate more than SO. 700, 900 acres of
land. The reclamation by irrigation of
the vast arid regions forming the chief
part of our remaining public domain
has been provided for by the National
Reclamation Law of June 18th, 1903
The execution of this law, without tax
alton ard by the application of the pro-
ceeds of public land sales alone.
through the construction of storage
reservoirs for water, will make many
millions of acres of fertile lands avail
able for settlement over $20,0O0,0Go
from these sources have been already
received to the credit of the reelama-
ton fund. over 33. 900, 900 acres of pub
lie lands in fourteen States and Terri
tories have been embraced In the sixty
seven projects which have been devised
and are under examination, and on
eight of these the work of actual con-
struction has begun.
The postal service has been extended
and improved. Its revenues have In
creased from $76,000.000 in 1895 to $685.
600, 900 in 1899. and Sl44, 000. 900 in 1904.
In dealing with these vast sums, a
few cases of peculation, trifing In
amount and by subordinate officers,
have occurred there as they occur in
every business. Neither fear nor
favor, nor political or personal infu-
ence has aYailed to protect the wrong
doors. Their acts have been detected,
Investigated, laid bare; they have been
dismissed from their places, prose-
cuted criminally, indicted, many of
them tried and many of them con-
victed. The abuses in the carriage of
second class mail matter have been
remedied. The rural free delivery has
been widely extended. 1t is wholly
the creation of Republican administra-
ton. The last Democratic Postmaster
General declared it impracticable. The
first administration of Mckinley prov
ed the contrary. At the beginning of
the fiscal year 1899 there were about
200 routes in operation there are now
more than $4,000 routes, bringing d
daily mail service to more than H.
900, 900 of our people in rural com
muntties. charging the circulation of
the newspaper and the magazine. in
creasng communication. and relieving
the isolation of life on the farm.
Department of Agriculture
The Department of Agriculture has
been brought to point of efficiency |
and practical benefit never before |
known. The oleOmargarine act of |
May 9, 1902. now sustained in the |
Supreme Court, and the act of July 1st |
1902 to prevent the false branding of |
food and dairy products--protect farm |
ers against fraudulent limitations. The |
act of February End. 1908. enables the |
Secretary of Agriculture to prevent the |
spread of contagious and infectious |
diseases of live stock. Rigid inspec- |
ton has protected our cattle against |
infection from abroad. and has estab- |
lished the highest credit for our meat |
product in the markets of the world. |
The earth has been seached for |
weapons with which to fight the enc |
mics that destroy the growing crops. |
An insect brought from near the Great |
w oh he Co TDu