The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-27
TALK. NOT DEEDS.

1t Is evident that the Republicans
are going to make the claim during
the campaign that they have practi-
cally settled the trust question. The
evidence of this is found in
Mr.. Roots keynote speech at Chi
cago and the Presidents reply to Mr..
Knoxs letter resigning the office of At
torney General.
Mr.. Root said: wherever the con-
stitutional power of the national gov
eminent reaches trusts are being prac-
tically regulated and curbed within
lawful bounds as they have never been
before, 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 effects of unlaw-
full combinations"
The President, in his letter to Mr..
Knox, synopsis of which was pub
lished in our dispatches Saturday,
said: Under you it has been literally
true that the mightiest and the hum
best in the land have had brought
AlOlliN ~ LilCills bildl CdNll OiiI VI tAi1A'A
was sure of the laws protection while
he did right, and that neither could
hope to defy the law if he did wrong"
1t would be interesting to know what
the Republican party has done in the
direction of crushing the trusts. As
far as we are informed the admins
tration has secured a decision against
only one trust, namely, the Northern
Securities Company. 1t did not be-
gin legal proceedings against that
company until a suit had been begun
against 1t by the states interested.
And after the decision was rendered
no steps were taken to punish those
who were shown to have been inter
ested in the unlawful combination for
the restraint of trade. And no steps
were taken against any other trust.
Have the beef trust, the coal trust,
the tobacco trust, the oil trust or the
sugar trust been interfered With? II
so when and how? Congress set apart
100000 a long time ago for the prose-
cution of trusts. Has any consider
able portion of that money been used
in the way intended? Representative
Gaines, of Tennessee, has taken the
trouble to find out what part of the
fund has been expended in suppress
ing trusts, and, in an interview the
other day, he said that Sl27.T3 had been
spent in investigating the beef trust
That trust has not changed its way
of doing business in the least. Nothing
whatever has been done in the direc-
ton of furnishing the members of this
or any other trust. 1t seems also that
$1,000 was spent in copying records in
the case of the Northern Securities
Company AS far as we are Informed
the foregoing amounts are all that have
been expended in prosecuting trusts.
Surely 1t cannot be claimed from this
showing that the Republican admins
tration has been persistent and vigilant
in suppressing trusts. 1t really looks
as if it had tried to avoid prosecuting
them. And that it has done no more
than it could possibly help in the d.
rection of prosecuting them is known
to every well-informed citizen.
Can it be said that the small dealer
is free to deal in trust goods? 1t GER
tainly cannot. 1t is asserted that only
last week, in Philadelphia, a tobacco
trust tried to run all other tobacco
goods out of that market by refusing
to sell to dealers except on pledge
that it would handle the trusts goods
exclusively.
No, the administration has done
practically nothing to protect the peo-
pie against trusts. The trusts are just
as greedy now as they ever We're and
they are greater and stronger. What
Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Knox have done
to suppress them and emancipate young
men who are anxious to go into bust
ness on their own account amounts to
practically nothing, and yet the Presi-
dent would like the country to believe
that he has virtually destroyed all of
the trusts, or, at least, has made them
harmless.