The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-11-18

When Elihu Root as temporary
chairman of the Chicago convention
made the opening speech of the Re.
publican campaign, he especially held
up Tor gloriflcation the aggressiveness
OF the Roosevelt administration
against the trusts and declared there
isNno longer any serious complaint of
trust exactions." Now, surely Mr..
Root did not believe that his state.
ment was true, for the newspapers of
the country, which are mirrors of
public opinion, are constantly filled
with complaints about the way the
trusts are plundering the people, and
Mr.. Root is a great newspaper reader.
But defending the Republican party
and the Roosevelt administration
from1 their evident partially for
trusts was difficult job for even such
a rehowned special pleader as Mr..
Root. Nor was he satisfied to rest
his case there, but tried to prove it
by adding:
mo investment in lawful business
has been jeopardized, no fair and hon
est enterprise has been injured, but
II is certain that wherever the consti-
tutional power of the national gov
ernment reaches trusts are being
practically regulated and curbed with
in lawful bounds as they never have
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 effect of
unlawful combinations"
There, again, the facts do not agree
with Mr.. Root, for not one industrial
trust has been regulated and curbed
within lawful bounds by the Roose.
Welt administration. Only two prose-
of trusts have been COM
PMenced and only one of these was
against an industrial trust, and that
is still hanging fire in the courts, and
the trust in questionable Packers
Combine-shows no signs of being
regulated or curbed. The other trust
SAA~ AOd0 AACl SCI lids UGGu UT
dered dissolved by the courts, but is
still charging ''all the traffic will
bear and there is still no competi-
ton between the railroads that were
combined in the merger. The people
OF the Northwest, where the merged
railrQDds are located, are obliged to
pay Inc same freight and passenger
rates as before "the efficiency and
skill Of the department of justice" was
brought into play. These two cases
against the trusts is all the Roosevelt
administration has to boast Of and we
have the word of Mr.. Knox that there
will be no attempt "to run amuck"
against any other combinations.
The further boast of Mr.. Root that
Ne men of small capital are being
pNotected from the crushing effect OF
unlawful combinations will be news
to most of them.
The Washington Post, that cannot
be said to be prejudiced against the
Republican party, says: There is
nothing in the record to show that
the man of small capital is finding
any protection against the crushing
fleet of unlawful combinations"
\ A man of small capital, If he thinks
Fof elnbarking in the coal trade will
find the coal trust fixes the price and
rules for that business and most OF
the profits go to the trust.
An independent meat market owned
land operated by men who refuse to
deal with the beef trust and adhere
to prices fixed by the trust would be
forced to bankruptcy in shoyt order
~ any city of the country in which
? trust seeks to control business.
a Philadelphia and .other cities the
Tobacco trust is refusing to sell goods
to merchants who will not agree to
sell none but trust-made tt,baccos.
In fact, there has been nothing in the
commercial or industrial history of
the last year to indicate that the man
who wishes to engage in business has
any more protection from the trusts
thasn he has at any time since the era
Of | consolidation and com bination be-
gan.
We have noticed that the Depart
ment of Commerce and Labor and the
Department of Justice have a large
force of very expensive experts at
work running the beef combine to its
lair We are also informed by the
newspapers that Mr..
Mdtcalf, the new secretary of COM
nderce and labor, "have something up
their sleeve" and the Beef combine
should beware.
Why this extraordinary activity,
inst as the campaign is opening. il