Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-06-23

lhonopollz1ng the grain and meat bust
ness 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
ana nave abandoned their combination.
me Northern Securities Co., which un-
aertook by combining in one owner
snip the capital stocks Of the Northern
Pacific and Great Northern railroads
to end traffic competition in the north
west, has been destroyed by a vigor-
Gus prosecution expedited and brought
10 speedy and effective conclusion
IN the supreme court under the act Of
February II, 1903. The attorney gen.
eral says:
Attack on Combinations.
Here. then, are four phases of the
attack on the combinations in restraint
OF trade and commerce - the rail-
road 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 preferential rates for rail
road sportation; the second to rail-
road traffic pooling; the third to a COM
olnatlon OF independent corporations
to NIX and maintain extortionate prices
for meats; and the fourth to corpor-
alton organized to merge into itself the
control of parallel and competing lines
OF railroad and to eliminate competi-
ton In their rates of transportation
Coal Carrying Roads.
THE right of the interstate COM
merce commission to compel the pro-
duction of books and papers has been
established by the judgment of the SUI
preme court in a suit against the coal
carrying roads. Other suits have been
brought and other indictments have
been found and other trusts have been
driven back within legal bounds. No
investm ent in lawful business has been
jeopardized, no fair and honest enter
prise has been injured; but it is GER
| tain that wherever the constitutional
power of the national government
reaches. trusts are being practically
regulated and curbed with lawful
bounds as they never have been before,
and the men of small capital are find
ing in the efficiency and skill of the
national department. of justice a pro-
| lection they never had before against
the crushing effect of unlawful COM
binations
| Homes for Thousands.
eve have at last reached a point
where the public wealth of farm land
which has seemed so inexhaustible is
nearly gone, and the problem of util-
izing the remainder for the building of
new homes has become Of vital import
ance
"The present administration has
dealt with this problem vigorously and
effectively. Great areas had been I'M
lawfully fenced in by men OF large
means, and the home-builder had been
excluded. Many of these unlawful ag-
! gressors have been compelled to re-
linquish their booty, and more than g..
| 100000 acres of land have been restor-
ed to the public. Extensive frauds In
procuring grants Of land, not for home.
steads but for speculation, have been
investigated and stopped, and the per.
petrators have been indicted and are
being actively prosecuted. A compe.
tent commission has been constituted
to examine into the defective working
of the existing laws, and to suggest
practical legislation to prevent further
abuse. That commission has reported
and bills adequate to accomplish the
purpose have been framed and are be-
fore congress. The further denunda'
ton Of forest areas, producing alter.
nate floods and dryness in our river val
legs, has been checked by the extension
of forest reserves which have been
brought to aggregate more than $4,000,
| <,f 1,1
irrigation of the vast arid regions form,
ing the chief part of our remaining
public domain, has been provided for
d by the national reclamation law of June
II, 1908. The execution of this law,