The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-30
Roosevelt's Policy.
 Present and Future

So far as I am advised Senator Knox of Pennsylvania, has not said anything about the Cortelyou case, but we can imagine what he thinks of it\ by, study of his arguments, as Attorhey- General in President Roosevelts cabi- net. in the famous Northern securities case In that litigation he contends that the Merger was illegal, and ought to be dissolved, because 1t was In It's power to restrain trade and extort ex- cessive freight rates, and 8 majority or the Supreme bench agreed with him and adjudged accordingly. Apply that logic and the courts opinion to the present attitude of MT. Cortelyou. and what do we have? MT. Cortelyou was appointed Secretary of Commerce and Labor in Mir. Roosevelt's Cabinet soon after that department was created. As Secretary, one of his duties was to make himself master of the secrets of certain great corporations, and espe- cially those corporations known as trusts. Let us suppose that he did his duty as a public official and made rigid investigations and thus possessed him self of knowledge the publication or which would be not only disadvantage ous, but seriously embarrassing to the trusts. -Y
 Who can deny that MT. Cortelyou was in position to intimidate and extort money from the great industrial mono polies with which to corrupt the cleo torate and thus secure the triumph Of ''the party of Great Moral 1deas? Who will say that in such a case his re- quest for contributions is not consider ed by the trusts both threat and command? However innocent MT. Cortelyou may be-so was the North ern Securities Company innocent-he Is in a position to levy blackmail with impunity and judged by the standard laid down by Mir. Knox, he should re- 0nt a divorce from politics. The greatest or the Romans remarked that 'Ceasar's wife must not only be virtuous, but she must be above suspicion
 The serious difficulty with the Re- publican party is that 1t deems itself so godly that it As indulgence to work inquity It Actually believes that 1t is given to it to do wrong that good may come of 1t. In it's philosophy the end justifes the means, and its political creed is that nothing Is bad that the Republican party favors and nothing is good that it opposes. In 1S76-77 it thought 1t patriotic to steal the Presi dency; in 1888, 1t thought it a duty to buy the election. And now it can see no impropriety in sending cabi- net minister, that was, and cabinet minister that is to be, into precincts to be employed to continue In power an administration whose duty 1t is to discipline and restrain monopoly!
 In his letter of acceptance Mir Roose- welt surrenders completely and abject- ly to the corporate monopolies MT. Cortelyou Is now soliciting" He re- cants all he had said, all he had be- lieved. all he had written, concerning the tariff. and stands pat" with Aid rich in the Senate and Dalzell in the House. Not only Is he zealous in the hut ha fa11 into the cant of government privilege and would not have tariff abuses re formed" by others than those who profit by the abuses, and therefore if stress of politics or deficiencies of revenues should force a .readjustment of our tax laws. tariff monopolies shall have the privilege of writing the Ire formers" into the tariff schedules, and that Is only a fulfillment of the Repub- Iican slogan-"the tariff must only be reformed by its friends" and thus the Steel Trust shall write the metal schedules. the Leather Trust the leath- CT schedules. the Cotton sprinners the taxes on cotton fabrics. the wool spin ners the taxes on woolen fabrics, the Lumber Trust the duties on lumber and so on, and so on. Just as the Shahs of ! Persia and the proconsuls of Rome levied tribute on conquered peoples do our favored monopolies write in our tariff laws the tribute they would levy on the producers and consumers of our | country.
 There never was a moment of it's ex-
 istence that the Republican party was a majority of the American people, and
 never one moment that 1t was anything
 other than a sectional party. It is at i once the slave and the master of mono
 polies, and grants so much of privilege | in the law for so many votes in the | college. Nobody has batter expressed | the Republican policy than did the late | John J. Ingalls, when he advised that the protected millionaires of Pittisburg
 be put on the fire and enough fat | fried out of them to buy the election | I don't know whether Mir Cortelyou has | fried any fat ouc of them or not; but as Secretary of Commerce and Labor | he had opportunity to prepare htmseli
 to become the most brilliant and most successful fat-fryer'' the Republican | party ever produced.
 The Republican national platform | contains this passage:
 We therefore favor Legislation whicl I will encourage and build up the Ameri- | can merchant marine, and we cordially approve the legislation of the last Con