Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-05-06
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Correspondence to the Herald
from the Nations Capital.

SuUJ0CGS Says, OOCldllSIu Is oil luUCl-
lectual force, working through the
minds E(of men in masses, and
shaping public opinion. When
employers throttle workingmen you
find this socialistic force active
among workingmen. When some
employers secure exceptional adj
vantages and by forming trusts
throttle other employers the social
istic force begins to influence the
employing class. When trusts
grow SO powerful as to hold state
at their mercy. and the fact that
they are doing it is patent, the So
cialistic forces gives us impulse to
opinion and socialistic remedies are
vociferously demanded and prompt
ly applied" This is true because
all men incline to extremes. De-
monstrate an evil in the existing
system and the majority are i'm
mediately ready to listen to the
radical who advocates a complete
overthrow of the prevalent order.
It is a farseeing appreciation of
these facts that led President Roose-
welt to insist on the necessity of
remedying the evils which are so
apparent under the present system.
He has seen, apparently far in adj
vance of his contemporaries, that
the uncontrolled rapacity of the
railroads must inevitably lead to
socialism in a more or less ag-
gravated form; that the greed of
the trusts would send men to the
opposite extreme, where they would
seek to ignore the rights of pro-
perty and destroy the results which
mon have gained by years of leg
itimate industry. The all import
ant question of the present is Twill
other leaders of the Republican
party have the sagacity to perceive
the significance of the growth of
socialism and will they, so perceiv-
ing, lay the axe to the root of the
evil by eradicating those abuses
which are not the product of but
excrescenes on a Republican form
Of government. That proper con-
troll of capital, of industry and Of
transportation companies constitute
the correct and the only legitimate
and just antidote for radicalism in
all it's forms is the gospel of
Theodore Roosevelt. Will the in
telligent people of the United States
uphold his hands .or will they .scoff
at his proposed reforms and turn
deaf ear to his warning-until it is
too late?
A striking example of the deter
mination Of sthe.Opeople to take
things in their own hands once they
become aroused is furnished by
Chicago's vote for municipal owner
ship of the city railway companies.
For years the people suffered every
sort of oppression from the ''Rail-
way Boss" Yerkes. DThey suffered
in patience but apparently they
were doingsssmuch thinking. Now
they have determined to assume
control of the railways themselves.
So it will be with the lgreat railway
systems of 'the country if the
dominant party fails to exercise
proper control over the Ltransporta-
ton industry.
Walker D. Hines who appeared
before the Senate Interstate Com
merce committee representing the
Atlantic coast railway lines, main
tanned that the existing law was all
sufficient to correct railway evils if
it were properly enforced. There
is no doubt that the Interstate Com
merce committees enforcement of
the anti-rebate law has been lax,
but it is well known that there are
many forms of rebates which are
without the scope of that statute.
When the seven hundred dele
gates to the International Railway
Congress meet in Washington, next
month, some interesting facts re-
garding state owned and operated
railroads are likely to come out,
despite the fact that the proceed
ings will be conducted in French
and no reporters will be admitted.
A society at Tomsk, western
Siberia, recently resolved that "all