The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-12

them,-whether better to secure the proper publicity. or better to guarantee the rights of shippers, or in any other direetion-this need will be met. It is now asserted that the common law, as developed, affords complete legal remedy against monopolies." But there is no common law of the United States Its rules can be enforced only by the state courts and officers. NO federal court or officer could take any action whatever under them. 1t was this fact, coupled with the inability Of the states to control trusts and mono polies, which led to the passage of the federal statutes known as the Sherman antitrust act and the interstate com- merce act; and it is only through the exercise of the powers conferred by these acts, and by the statutes of the last congress supplementing them, that the national government acquires any jurisdiction over the subject. To say that action against trusts and monopo- lies should be limited to the application Iof the common law is equivalent to saying that the national government should take no action whatever to reg ulate them.
 Undoubtedly, the multiplication of trusts and their increase in power has been largely due to the failure of off lcials charged with the duty of enfor- cling the law to take the necessary pro- cedure.' Such strieture upon the fail- ure of the officials of the national gov ernment to do their duty in this matter lis certainly not wholly undeserved as far as the administration preceding President McKfnley's is concerned; but lit has no application at all to republic lean administration. It is also undoubtr ledly true that what is most needed is "officials having both the disposition and the courage to enforce existing law" This is precisely the need that has been met by the consistent and steadily continued action of the depart rnent of justice under the present ad- iministration
 So far as the rights of the individual wage worker and the individual capi- talist are concerned, both as regards one another, as regards the public, and as regards organized capital and labor, the position of the administration has been so clear that there is no excuse for misrepresenting 1t, and no ground for opposing it unless misrepresented. Within the limits defined by the nation al constitution the national administra- ltion has sought to secure to each man the full enjoyment of his right to live his life and dispose of his property and his labor as he deems best, so long as l he wrongs no one else. It has shown in defective fashion that in erdeavoring to make good this guarantee, it treats all linen, rich or poor, whatever their creed, Itheir color, or their birthplace, as Estanding alike before the law. Under Jour form of government the sphere in (which the nation as distinguished from lthe state can act is narrowly circum- lscribed; but within that sphere all that Icould be done has been done. All lthinking men are aware of the restric- Ition upon the power of action of the na- ltional government in such matters. Being ourselves mindful of them; we Ihave been serupulously careful on the lone hand to be moderate in our promis- les, and on the other hand to keep these lpromises in letter and in spirit. Our loppenents have been hampered by no Isueh considerations. They have prom Iised, and many of them now promise, faction which they could by no possibili- lty take in the exercise of constitutional power, and which, if attempted would Ibring business to a standstill; they have used, and often now use, language lof wild invective and appeal to all the lbaser passions which tend to excite one lset of Americans against their fellow Americans; and yet whenever they have had power they have fittingly Supplemented this extravaganza of promise by absolute nullity in perfor- finance.
 All Men Are EquaI
 This government is based upon tht
 fundamental idea that each man, nt
 matter what his occupation, his race
 or his religious belief, is entitled to b, treated on his worth as a man. ant neither favored nor liscriminatet
 against because of any accident in hi position. Even here at home there is
 painful difficulty in the effort to realizt this ideal; and the attempt to secur lfrom other nations acknoWledg dgment ol lit sometimes encounter obstacles tha
 are well nigh insuperable; for ther
 are many nations which in the sloy
 procession of the ages have not ye Ereached that point where the principle
 which Americans regard as axiomati
 obtain any recognition whatever. On lof the chief difficulties arises in con
 nection with certain American citizen
 of foregn birth, or of particular creed
 who desire to travel abroad. Russia
 for instance, refuses to admit and pro
 tect Jews. Turkey refuses to admit an
 protect certain sects of Christians
 This government has consistently de
 manded equal protection abroad for a
 American citizens, whether native C
 naturalized, On March 27, 1899, Secre
 tary Hay sent letter of instruction
 to all the diplomatic and consular off
 cers of the United States, in which h said: This department does not dis
 criminate between native born and nat
 uralized citizens in according them pro ltection while they are abroad, equalit lof treatment being required by the law
 of the United States.' These orders t our agents abroad have been repeate again and again, and are treated as tn Fundamental rule of conduct laid dow , flor them, proceeding upon the theor T at