The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-04
BUYING THE PRESIDENT.
How Roosevelt is Compromised by Cor
 telyOu.

How Roosevelt Is Compromised by Cor New York Times.
 Grover Cleveland would have been impeached by. his partisan opponents | had he even upon single occaSlop stopped to practices so tainted with public immortality as those which Pres- ident Roosevelt consents shall be em- ployed in behalf of bis candidacy, not once. not in d few eases merely, put continuously, all the time, and as de-
 liberated campaign policy. It cannot be said of the activities of Senator
 Nelson w. Aldrich in soliciting and collecting Republican campaign tundS that they. directly duplicate the Presi-
 dent. Mir. Aldrich is recognized as
 the most influential representative or
 the trusts in the United States Senate
 He understands what they want. he
 assures the officers of a grea: industrial
 or railroad combination that check to
 the order of the Republican National
 Committee will secure immunity from
 Executive molestation under the anti
 trust law or otherwise, the objects of
 his solicitations must judge for them
 selves whether he will be able to keep
 his covenant after March f. 1905. The
 pledge or assurance, whatever It may
 have been, that he gave to the chief
 men of the tobacco trust when he
 called for their contribution was eTt-
 dently kept only in part. SThe treas
 
 stamps upon boxes containing imported cigars has been modified. not rescinded- The independent domestic cigar manu-
 lecturers gained their point as to the position of the stamp. the trust its point as to the color thereof. To be sure, Senator Aldrich may reply 10 ac- cusations of bad faith that this was a special case; that the President was forced to turn an assenting ear to the demands of the Independent cigar nan ufacturers because or their control ever
 many thousands of voters. a condition not at all likely to arise in the case of
 any other industrial combination.
 Nevertheless. the trusts can in no wise be sure that the promise of the Sena-
 tor will be fulfilled by the President They may elect MT. Roosevelt and too late discover that they have put their
 own destroyer in the White House.
 The matter which here concerns the public is. that the men of the trusts think and believe that they are buying not the Presidency, but the President.
 Senator Aldrich encourages that bc;isf.
 President Roosevelt permits it to be formed and entertained.
 Very different, immeasurably moro scandalous, is the case of George K.
 Cortelyou, who was Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor in,
 him against the protests of the party
 chiefs made Chairman of the Republi-
 can National Committee. Within tho Department of Commerce there Is q Bureau OI 1OEpOTdttOHSs WHICH IS nus
 thorized and empowered to inquire in-
 to the affairs Of corporations doing an interstate business and to pry out
 their secrets. The act creating tEls bureau Is an extension and continuance of the policy which dictated the enact-
 ment of the antitrust law of ISgo. Conceivably the public welfare may be promoted by rigorous Federal super vision of corporations. But no man could have the hardihood to assert that any other than private and political ends are served when the chief of the Department which has become the GUS todlan of corporation secrets Is put at the head of the partisan committee
 whose principal function is to collect campaign contributions which come chiefly from great corporations.
 That mans moral sensibilities must be not merely blunted but plotted out who would fail to see that the assurr- tion of these functions by Mir. Cortel7 you Is a public scandal a national dis grace. The disgrace Is in the truesL sense national. since 1t involves the head of the nation whose creature agent and personal representative is the offender in question. Mir. Hay and
 Mir. Root have extoIled the Republican party as "a party fit to govern" Would they at the bar of public opinion de- fend the sending out of MT. Corteiyou as a collector of campaign funds. Mir. Cortelyou who has just come from one public office which gave him large ot- 1cial power over great corporations. dIlu WhOt u ls btileNEus WAA1 lCtdTn to | the Presidents cabinet as the iacum- bent of another office having still moro | important and intimate dealings with the chief corporations of the country? Concrete instances are more impress
 sive than statements of general princl-
 pie. Here is one; Chalrmap Cortel- | you goes to one of the Of vs of a | large corporation, and inforn. him that
 the Republican National Committee ex- | poets substantial contribution frCm | his company. The officer in question | is surprised he is not of Mir. Roose- | Velt's party; neither he nCr his cOrpo- | ration has been accustomed to meddle ! with politics; he asks for time to think | 1t over. In the solitude of his office i his thoughts run ip this wise: l do not want to give money to the Repub- ! lican National Committee. But l am l trustee of the interests of the stock | holders of this corporation. I may | soon have to appear before this man | as representative of my corporation
 In matter affecting its business. as to
 which he YAll have. If not onclal dis