The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-06-29
A REAL TRUST


the Standard Oil company has been
started in good faith and will be car
ried through to the bitter end The
allegation is that this corporation ex-
lists in violation of the antitrust laws
of the United States and of the deci-
sions rendered under that law against
monopolies. The bill asks that the
company be dissolved and it's assets
distributed by the receiver among it's
stockholders after outstanding debts
have been paid
If the attorney general of the United
States does his duty, he will at once
intervene in this action on behalf of
the federal government and see that
watch with much interest the attitude
of Mr.. Moody, and trust that he will
signalize the beginning of his new Job
by an act SO distinctly in harmony with
public opinion and so consonant with
the real interests of the people If he
does not do SO, if he permits this action
to go forward without the powerful as
sistance and counsel Of the federal au-
thoritieS, he cannot escape suspicion Of
sympathy with the defendant corpora
ton.
What is sauce for the goose is sauce
for the gander. Attorney General Knox
and President Roosevelt have commit
ted their party and the government
which it controls to a fixed policy. and
the supreme court Of the United States
has filed authority for them to go
ahead. They have received blank COM
missions to proceed against combina-
tons of capital everywhere engaged in
interstate commerce in restraint of
trade. Now we all know that if there
is a combination on earth which an
swers this description it is the Stand
ard Oil company.
This is a combination engaged in
business in every state and territory in
the Union. 1t is combination which
has obtained its present powerful po-
sition by the most ruthless methods.
1t has bought legislatures. bulldozed in
dividuals and parties, crushed and
wrecked competition and defied state
law. 1t was brought to book in Ohio
and forthwith changed to New Jersey.
seeking for more complaisant host.
1t fills every item of the description of
monopoly, and it has committed every
sin charged against the most atrocious
Of trusts. If any one thinks that the
talk against the Standard Oil company
is mere defamation, if any one fancies
our words are too severe, let him read
the history of this combination by Miss
Tarbell as published in McClure's mag
azine, and he will understand that not
one-half the truth has been said.
If the Sherman antitrust act applies
to any conceivable iniquity or corpor
ate monstrosity, it applies to this.
There was originally and still is. even
in the minds of members of the SUI
preme court, grave doubt whether
that law applies to railroad corpora
tiens. There is doubt in the mind of no
man that it applies to industrials. It
was meant for just such lawbreakers
as the Standard Oil company. It COW
ers the ground and it fills the bill. Yet
not finger has been raised by the ma
tional administration to bring under it's
terms and within its prohibitions and
penalties the most egregious of all the
trusts. 1t has been left for private in
itiative to start this proceeding.
Let us now see where the federal
government will array itself Will it
stand aloof from this action and there
by confess itself hypocrite and fore
sworn? Will it, as the slightest sense
of duty must oblige it to do, become an
active partner and promoter Of the suit
to bring the Standard Oil people to
book? The eye of the country is upon
the administration just now, and it win
be judged in the campaign to follow nv
its fidelity or it's falsity to the preten-
sions of hostility to combinations of
capital that have filed it's mouth for
so large portion of the past year.
The spirit of prophecy was strong