The Saint Paul globe., 1904-10-24

ligious press resents the charge, denies,
defends and cententediy drifts with the
party current. The public conscience is
asleep.
Yet We are a moral people Do we not
uphold the right and condemn the
wrong? Then why is the voice of remon-
strance silent? It is wrong, it is fiagi-
tious, it is an affront to the moral sense
Of the nation that the Republican ma
uonal committee should fill its cam
palgn chest with money contributed by
dent by act and utterance has led the
country to believe it was his purpose to
punish for violations of law. 1t is shock
ing that the president should have ap-
pointed to- collect this campaign fund
that member of his cabinet with whom
was lodged the power to compel the
trusts and corporations to make him
privy to those secrets of their organiza-
ton and methods of doing business that
would serve as the basis of proceedings
against them by the federal prosecuting
ofdcef. 1t is indecent it is a degradation
OF high Office, that a. senator of the
United States. senator of controlling
influence over the fortunes of bills affect
ing the interests of corporations subject
to federal regulation should make the
rounds of the Wall street offices of the
great trusts asking and receiving money
to pay the election expenses of Mr..
Roosevelt. To protest Solemnly that no
pledges are given, that all contributions
are voluntary. is trif1ing with human in
teIilgence. The sending of Chairman Cor
telyou and Senator Aldrich upon this err
rand is in itself an act OF such clear sig
nificance that explanation and comment
would be superfiuous. The trusts un-
derstand it perfectly.
What an appalling chain of presumptive
evidencei First the president. in many
of the government shall be employed to
check 5encroachment upon the rights OF
the people by great combinations of CAPT
tai; and in one notable instance he does
nF7l1a fIkA fa6a 4r Ia-f
great cOnlbination-the Northern Securi-
ties company. The men of1the trusts and
comblnatlons are furious, they are in ter
for disturbing the industries and check
ing the prosperity of the country. There
is another turn of the screw. The de-
partment of commerce is created, the
presidents private secretary is installed
at its head with the key to the chamber of
corporation secrets in his pocket. The
trusts and combinations rally and charge
the presidents attorney general and i'm
pound him in the senate. But the Roose-
velt tide rises resistlessly.J He is nomi-
mated. He appoints Cortelyou campaign
stantly there is a truce, there is peace,
there Is an offensive and defensive al
lance. The embattled millions of the
trusts are swiftly marshaled in support
of the candidate against whose impend-
ing nomination they so lately fought and
protested. He no longer threatens. they
II.
enough to damn any Democratic candidate
for the presidency that has ever taken
the field since the Republican party first
came into power? Why does it not damn
evidence is misleading The presumption
of a calculated. deliberate plan formed
and executed by the president to ''fry the
fat out of the trusts is unfounded There
is another. more sinister. explanation.
But why do these shameless procedures
evoke no popular protest2 Why do poll
ticians grin, press and pulpit condone,
and the people give little heed? 1t is be-
cause this quadriennial auction is a fa-
miliar Spectacle The vice of issuing
charters of special privilege and granting
indulgenees to favored interests in con-
sideration of big campaign contributions
Is no longer hideous. The people as a
whole endure it, and the Republican half
of them somewhat eagerly embrace it.
because ever since the emotions and pas
siens engefdered by the civil war spent
their force this has been the accepted
Republican method of carrying ON cam
paign. The protected interests have un-
derStood that by custom and prescription
they are expected to provide an enor-
nous campaign fund in exchange for the
privilege of guiding the pen that writes
the tariff schedules affecting their busi-
ness. The moral distinction between the
act of manufa cturer of iron and steel
or a domestic producer Of hides who
sends check for ten OF fifty or hun
dred thousand dollars to the Republican
after repairs to Washington to dictate a
section of the tariff bill to the ways and
means committee, and the act Of the
president of a combination of competing
railroads opera ting in restraint of
trade" who sends to the committee. his
companys check for one hundred or
five hundred thousand dollars, meaning
and intending the acceptance of the
check TO be pledge binding the admin
istration not to asSaH his business mo-
nopoly through the courts. is quite too
fine to be drawn. 1t is simply new con-
dition that confronts us-a condition Gre
ated by the discovery of unexpected po-
tencies in the antitrust act of 1890. In
the old days the corporations gave freely
extortion- upon the American consumer
under the shelter of high customs duties;
now the great combinations that nave
grown up on every hand pay still more
freely, much more heavily, for the spe-
cial privilege Of being permitted without
molestation to charge monopoly prices
for every kind of public service.
The spectacle, we have said, is per
fectIy familiar AS old stories may lose
their power to charm. SO old shames and
scandals cease to affront. James b. Fos-
ter, president of the Republican League
of the United States in 1888, wrote
famous letter protesting that 'tthe man
ufacturers of Pennsylvania, who are
more highly protected than anybody else
and who make large fortunes every year
when times are prosperous, practically
give nothing toward the maintenance of
the ascendancy of the Republican par
ty'' '.If / had my way about II, he
ragged 'I would put the manufacturers
of Pennsylvania under the fire and fry
all the fat out of them" 1t was in that
campaign of 1888 that William w. Dud-
lev treasurer of the national Republican
committee. said in a letter of instructions
to the campaign workers: Divide the
fleaters into blocks of five, and put a
trusted man with necessary funds In
charge of these fiVeS, and make him re-
sponSible that none get away and that all
vote our ticket That shows how well
the Republican national committee knew
of the manufacturers. Were the American
people shocked by these disclosures in the
campaign of 1888? Manifestly not, for
they elected Benjamin Harrison. the
beneficiary of these vicious and corrupt
ing methods The methods of the present
Roosevelt campaign are in very serious
degree more corrupting, more abhorrent.
Yet the Republicans profess to be certain
that their candidate will be chosen. They
know that the people will not balk at
Cortelyou will not be shocked by any
thing Aldrich may do. They have grown
used to seeing the presidency bought
with the funds of corporations. to seeing
the powers of the government farmed
out to the providers of campa ign funds
That is why the public is Indifferent. the
voters unconcerned.
What is the true relation of President
Roosevelt to the so-caIled trusts and
combinations? We have intimated our
disbelief in the theory that he has delib-
erately used the executive authority to
bring them under his control in order TO
extort campaign money from them