Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1904-02-10
FROM WASHINGTON
Special Correspondence of the CounrKR.



tai at the present time is the so
called Foraker bill, which aims to
relieve the trusts and the mergers
of any control or limitation by the
government, and is everywhere re-
garded as administration bid for
the support of the great corpora
tions in the coming presidential
election. This bill shows the lack
of sincerity on the part of tie Re
publican party in their alleged
fight against the trusts as does
nothing else that has come to the
surface lately. The administra-
ton has been active in getting be-
fore the people of the country and
touting itself as an antitrust adj
ministration, tellingin fiaring head
lines in the good Republican
papers how the Acknowledgement
was going TO smash the trusts to
smithereens. 1t would like TO get
the people to believe that it in
tended TO do something for them in
the way of trust busting, but so
far in has only worked with its
mouth and has done nothing in the
courts of the country, notwith-
standing the fact that an appro-
priation of a half million dollars
has been made for the special pur-
pose of prosecuting the trusts.
The fund has not been used and
will not be, for that purpose.
More similes, drawn from the nat
iOnal game of poker, that fit the
political situation, have lately been
coined, most of them by the re-
doubtable Mark Hanna, that at any
period in the political history of
the country. The one than fits the
present situation in the politics of
the nation is that the present play
of the Republican party is huge
bluff, " so far as it intends to wipe
out the criminal trusts of the coun-
try.
Senator Foraker, besides being
the Ohio manager of the Presi-
dents campaign for election to
succeed himself. is, with the Hon.
Henry Cabot Lodge, his spokes-
man in the Senate of the United
States, and no man who knows
how things are done in Washing
considers that there would be the
remotest possibility of Senator
Foraker Offering such bill with
out the Presidents direction.
Following, as it did, the visit to
Washington of the trust magnates,
whose mergers and combines are
menaced under the Sherman law.
the Northern Securities merger,
now fighting for life in the Su-
preme Court, and the coal trust,
brought to bay by the suit started
by William Randolph Hearst before
the Interstate Commerce CommisS-
ion-the significance of Senator
Foraker's effort becomes manifest.
Not in years has anything hap
pened to bring j. u. Morgan, III.
&. Frick, j. w. Gates, President
Cassatt of the Pennsylvania Rail
road, and President SGllman, of
the National City Bank, all to
Washington together. The pres
ence of Cassat and Stiilman' at the
White House dinner emphasized
the view of the situation that the
Foraker Bill was the administra-
tiOn's tender in exchange for the
help of the trusts in the next cleo
tion. Not in n generation has a
bill been introduced in Congress
provoked such a feeling of alarm
and indignation as this has done.
Coming at time when the people
are marshalling all that is left to
them of power to check the power
of the rapacious combinations, and
when the worst of these are under
fire, the proposition to undo all
that has been done for the protec-
tion of the country against these
predatory organizations, the For
aker Bill is doubly alarming, and
the fact that it is presented by the
spokesman of the President inten-
SITES the feeling of dismay.
The comments of the Democrats
in the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives indicate how clearly
the danger is realized and how
unanimous is the condemnation of
the measure among those on whom
will fall the burden of the fight TO
prevent the enactment of this
measure into law. The Foraker
proposition is regarded as a throw
inc aside on tho mart of tho Ra-