Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-06-21

We're driving out the smaller shippers
m~onopolizing the grain and meat
business Of the country. The beef
trust was put under injunction, The
Officers of the railroads engaged in
! the cotton carrying pool, affecting all
that great industry of the south, were
indicted and have abandoned their
combinations The Northern Secnri.
ties Company which undertook by
combining In n ownership the CAPT,
tai stock of the Northern Pacific and
Great Northern Railroads to end traf,
fic competition in the Northwest, has
been destroyed by a vigorous prosecu.
tion expedited and brought 10 a speedy
and effective conclusion in the Su,
preme Court under the act of February
11th, 1909. 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 cases. The first relates to
the monopoly produced by secret and
preferential rates for railroad trans
portation, the second to railroad traf-
fic pooling; the third to a combination
of independent corporations to fix and
maintain extortionate prices for meats ,
and the fourth 70 a corporation orga,
nized to merge into itself the control
of parallel and competing lines Of RAIL
road 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 estab-
lished by the Judgment Of the Supreme
Court in a suit against the coal car
rying roads. Other suits have been
brought and other mdictments have
been found and other trusts have been
driven back within legal bounds. No
investment In lawful business has
been jeopardized, no fair and honest
enterprise has ben injured: but tits
certain that wherever the constitutio-
nal power of the national government
reaches, trusts are being practically
regulated and curbed within lawful
bounds as they never have been be-
fore, and the men of small capital are
finding in the efficiency and skill Of
the national Department Of Justice a
protection they never had before
against the crushing effect OF unlaw-
full combinations.
We have at last reached a point
where the public wealth of farm land
which has seemed so inexhaustible
Is nearly gone. and the problemEof
utilizing the remainder for the build-
ing OF new homes has become Of vital
importance
The present administration has
dealt with this problem vigorously and
effectively. Great had been un.
lawfully fenced in By men of large
means, and the home builder had been
excluded. Many OF these unlawful az
gressors have been compelled to re-
linquish their booty, and more than
1000, 900 acres of land have been re-
stored to the public. Extensive frauds
In procuring grants Of land. not Tor
homesteads but for speculation, have
been Investigated ami stopped, and
the perpetrators have been Indicted
and are being actively prosecuted. A,
competent commission has been con-
stituted to examine into the defective
working OF the existing laws and 70
suggest practical legislation TO pre-
vent further abuse. That commission
has reported, and bills adequate to ac-f
complish the purpose have been franz
cd and are before congress. The FUR
ther d~enundation OF forest areas, pro-
alternate floods aud dryness IN
our river valleys. has been checked by
the extension of forest reserves. which
been brought to aggregate 0
than G3.0O0, 600 acres Of land The
reclamation BY irrigation 81 the vast
arid regions forming the chief part Of
Dur remaining public domain, has been
provided for by the national reclama-
lion law Of June IL, 1908. The execu
lion OF this law. without taxation and
BY the application Of the proceeds Of
public land sales alone, through the
construction Of storage reservoirs for
will make millions of acres Of
'ertile lands available for settlement
Dyer s20. 900 900 from these sources
been already received to the
.redit of the reclamation fund. over
81, 900, 600 acres OF public lands In
states and territories have
been embraced in the ~sixty.seven