The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-29
Do THE AMERICAN PEOPLE LOVE
TO BE HUMBUGGED?

Barnum always insisted that the
people was that they loved to hum
plugged. Was he right? The people
have limited Barnum's observation to
circuSes and amusements, holding that
the people love to be "humbugged' in
the things that relate to their amuse-
ments. Should the famous remark of
the great Snowman be limited at all?
Do the people love to be humbugged
i'm their religion and their politics and
their business as we'll as in their
recreations and pleasures?
AS to politics-the chief theme of
1904--do the people relish being hum
plugged? If SO, they are apt to get it
to their hearts content, for beginning
at Chicago the Republicans started
upon the biggest game of humbug-
gerry yet threatened to be unloaded.
The spokesman for the administration
in the National Convention, ex-Secre-
tary of War Elihu Root, noted at
torney for trusts, said:
wherever the constitutional power
of the national government reaches,
trusts are being practically regulated
and curbed within lawful bounds as
they have never been before, and the
men of small capital are finding in the
efficiency and skill of the national De-
partment of. Justice a protection they
never had before against the crushing
effects of unlawful combinations.
The practical American citizen, who
is not seeking to be "buncoed" will
be inclined to ask Mr.. Root to name
the trusts that are being practically
regulated and curbed within lawful
bounds AS only one trust-and that
not in operation-has been even dis
covered by the administration, the
whole game of bluff will be exposed.
1t was Governor Van SAINT, of Mime
sofa, who began the fieht on the pro-
jected transportation trust, and forced
the President to prosecute it. The Su-
preme Court ripped up that trust and
pointed the way for the administration
to proceed against the horde of trusts
that are robbing the people, where
upon Attorney General Knox fastened
We will not touch YOU" using the
words, '"The administration will not
run amuck," to give them assurance
of protection
The President, a prince of wind
TANNERS, evidently believes the
American people love to be hum
plugged, for in a letter to Mr.. Knox
published last week he said: "Under
you it has been literally true that
the mightiest and the humblest in
the land have had brought home to
them, that each one of them was sure
of the laws protection while he did
right, and that neither could hope
to defy the law if he did wrong"
There isn't a voter in America who
does not know that under Knox every
trust in existence has enjoyed immu-
nifty from the pain and penalties pre-
scribed by law, and that the laudation
of the President is another scene in
Barnum's play of "How We Humbug
The People,
Can Mr.. Roosevelt and his trust at
lOTleyS anu UlOSIdpileIS HuillUuS the
people of America in this year of
light? In some States the voters will
take no other pabulum, but they can
not fool the people of North Carolina
as the following plank in the State
Democratic platform shows:
For the past eight years the Repub-
lican party has been in complete con-
troll of the Federal Government in all
it's branches. During that time trusts
and monopolies have multiplied. They
have increased their eXtortions from
the people. They dominate the Re-
publican party and compel it to adj
minister the affairs of the Republic in
their selfish interest. We condemn
the President for his surrender to trust
influences and for his failure to en-
force the law against monopolies and
monopolists. Congress appropriated
$500, 100000 to employ special counsel
to enforce the laws against trusts In
twelve months he expended for such
purpose only one-twentieth of that
sum. In the midst of crime and havoc
committed by these wrong-doers. he
will not stop the viOlationi of statutes
enacted for the protection of the peo-
ple nor punish the criminals who
plumber them, although his attention
was called to the manner in which
the perpetrators might be punished by
recent decisions of the Supreme
Court