The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1904-07-29
PROSECUTING TRUSTS.
No Results to Consumers From
Steps SO Far Taken.
COMBINES USEFUL III CAMPAIGNS

evidence Against Them Might BE
Held as a c7ub-ThiN Method Has
Been Successful on Previous Occa-
siOns.
The exposure CT The anthracite coal
trust metho,.s through the inyestlga-
ton by tn interest IT, commerce com
mission shows exactly what is claimed
by the Democrats hat there is Il con
spiracy in constrdint Of trade between
the railroads anu the coal companies.
This mAestig;ttion has not been car
ried On y the administration, but by a
suit al la" commenced by j Democrat
Of national reputation Who when the
coal trust REUSED t. exhibit its books
carried the case to tao supreme court
OF the United .tates. which decided
against the tr;iSt.
This victory for the people shows
what President Roosevelt and Attor-
ney General Knox N .@ht have done to
curb athe trusts If they had in good
faith,4lcsired to 90 So Instead Of pros
ecuttng the trusts under the criminal
section of the antitrust law half
hearted equity proceeding for an in
junction against the beef gust is the
only legal step that has been taken
against the industrial trusts to punish
or restrain them.
The beef trust barOns have paid no
more attention to the injunction than
if it had never been issued and still
control not only the principal cattle
markets, but dictate the price of meat.
The lower branch of congress under
the whip and spur of popular indfgna-
ton ordered the department Of com
merce and labor to investigate the cat
stle and beef combines, but although
weeks have passed and no doubt Sec
rotary Cortelyou is ardently pressing
the investigation, it does not appear to
have had any deterrent effect upon the
rapacity Of the combine. 1t may be
that the arduouS labors Of Mr.. Cortel-
you in aiding President Roosevelt to
arrange the details Of the coming Re-
publican campaign have prevented Ell
ther of them from paying much atten-
ton to curbing trust, which even the
administration admits is a bad one
It has been suggested that the rea
son President Roosevelt has selected
Secretary COrtelyou to manage his
campaign was that the evidence he
has obtained against the trusts could
hn afIy tn mn tn
down." to the great advantage of the
Republican campaign fund. That
would be no new plan, for it is charged
that Congressman Babcock threatened
the steel trust with antagOnistic legis-
lation unless that giant combine made
a donation to the campaign fund Of
1902, when it was much needed.
If the coal trust. the beef trust and
the other reputed bad trusts had been
persistently proceeded against by the
administration and results obtained
by forcing them to sell their products
at reasonable prices the suggestion Of
their connecting with the campaign
fund in lieu of prosecution would have
no weight. But the fact that no trust
or combine has been exposed by the
administration and that a private citi-
zen has had to bear all the expense of
forcing the evidence Of the manipula-
tons of the coal trust into public view
certainly allows a sinister construction
to be put upon the lack of energy in
prosecuting the trusts by President
Roosevelt and his department Of JUS
tice