The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-09-12


Ln popular government such as ours
no policy is irrevocably settled by law
unless the people keep IN control of the,
men who believe in that
policy as a matter Of deep-rooted-c con-
Viction. Laws can always be revoked.
II IS the spirit and the purpose of those
responsible for their enactment and adj
ministration which must be fixed and
Interchangeable. II Is idle TO say that
the monetary standard of the nation is
irrevocably fixed SO long as the party
which at the last election cast approx
mately 46 per cent of the total vote,
refuses TO put In ms platform any
statement that the question is settled.
A determination to remain silent can
not be accepted as equivalent TO re-
cantation. Until our opponents as
party explicitly adopt the views which
we hold and upon which we have acted
aud are acting, Ia the matter of a
sound currency. the only real way to-
keep the question from becoming un-
settled is TO keep the Republican party
i'm power.
What 1--WE" Have Done.
As for what our opponents say in
reference to capitdl and labor, individ-
ual or corporate, here again all we
what we have actually done, and to
say that If continued in power we shall
continue to carry out the policy we
have been pursuing, and 10 execute the
laws as resolutely and fearlessly IN the
future as we have executed them IN
the past. In my speech Of acceptance
l said:
ave recognize the organization of
capital and the organization OF LABOR
as natural outcomes of our industrial
system. Each kind of organization Is
to be favored so long as it acts III a
spirit Of Justice and of regard Tor the
rights of others. Each is to be granted
the full protection of the law. ana each
in turn is 10 be held 70 strict opedl-
ence TO the law; for no man IS ABOVE
it and no man below It, The humOless
individual is to haze his rights safe
guarded as scrupuiously as those OF
the strongest organization, for each is
10 receive justice. no more and no less.
The problems with which we nave 70.
deal in our modern Industrial ana So
eial life are manifold; but the spirit IN.
which il is necessary to approach their
solution is simply the spirit of honesty
of courage, and common sense.
Have Never Beeen Enforced.
The action of the attorney general
in enforcing the antitrust and inter-
state commerce laws. and the action or
the last congress in charging the scope
of the interstate commerce law, and IN
creating the department Of commerce
and labor. with bureau of corpora
tons, have for the first time opened a
chance for the national government 10
deal intelligcntly and adequately with
the questions affecting society. whether
for good or for evil because of the &C
emulation of capital in great corpora =
tions. and because of the new relations
caused thereby. These laws are now
being administered with entire efticien-
cy: and as, in their workings, need Is
shown for appointment or addition TO
thenl-whether better to secure the
proper publicity. or better to guarantee
the rights of shippers. or in any other
direction-this need viii be met. II is
now asserted that the common law
as developed, affords a complete legal
remedy against monopOlies." But there
is no common law of the United States.
Its rules can be enforced only by the
state courts and officers. NO federal
court or officer could take any action
whatever under them. 1t was this fact.
coupled with the inability Of the states
TO control trusts and menopolies, which
led 10 the passage of the federal stat
utes known as the Sherman antitrust
act and the interstate commerce act;
and il is only through the exercise of
the powers conferred by these acts
and BY the statutes of the last con-
gress experimenting them. that the ma
tional government Acquires any jars-
dfctiou over the subject. To say that
action against trusts and monopolfeS
should be limited to the application of
the common law is equivalent to say
ing that the national government
should take no action whatever to reg
ulate them.
Sir Oracle Again.
Undoubtedly. the multiplication OF
trusts and their increase in power has
been largely due TO the failure Of
officials charged with the duty OF en-
forcing the law to take the necessary
procedure" such structure upon the
failure of the officials of the national
government 20 do their duty in this
matter is certainly not wholly unde-
served as far as the administration
preceding President Mckinley's is con-
ccrned: but Il has no application at all
10 Republican administration 1t is
also undoubtedly true that What is
most needed is officials having both
the disposition and the courage to en-
force existing law" This is precisely
the need that has been met by the con-
sistent and steadily continued action
of the department OF justice under the
present administration.
So far as the rights of the individual
wage-worker and .;he individual capt
talist are concerned, both as regards
one another, as regards the public, and
as regards organized capital and labor,
the position Of the administration has
been so clear that there is no excuse
II
for opposing it unless misrepresented.
Within the limits defined by the ma
tiOnal constitution the national admin
istTatiOn has sought to secure to each
man the full enjoyment of his right to
live his life and dispose Of his property
and his labor as he deems best. so
long as he wrongs no one else. IL has
shown in effective fashion that in en-
deavoring TO make good this guar
antee, il treats all men, rich and poor,
whatever their creed. their color. or
their birthplace, as standing alike be-
fore the law. Under our form of gov
eminent the sphere in which the ma
ton as distinguished from the state
can act Is narrowly circumscribed; but
within that sphere all that could be
done has been done. All thinking men
are aware OF the restrictions upon the
power OF action Of the national govern
ment in such matters. Being ourselves
mindful of them. we have been scru-
pulously careful on the one hand to be
moderate I'm our promises, and on the
other hand to keep these promises in
letter and IN spirit. Our opponents
have been hampered by no such con-
sideratiOns. They have promised. and
many Of them now promise, action
which they could by no possibility take
in the exercise OF constitutional power
and which, If attempted, would bring
business to a standstill; they have
used. and often now use language Of
wild invective and appeal TO all the
baser passions which tend to excite one
set of Americans against their fellow
Americans: and yet whenever they