Los Angeles herald., 1905-04-14

1cials find that they are responsible
to principles and laws long in opera
tion among men. That some of them
have taken advantage of partial and
inequitable laws, while others have
either secretly or openly violated stat
utes, in order TO oppress the commun-
fly. is beyond question.
Some attempt has been made even
In high places to distinguish between
these trusts. As an election was corn-
Ing on at the time II may be assumed,
from the course taken, that the dad
trusts" were those against the party
In power or which might not be ln-
fluenced In It's favor, while the good
trusts" were favorable to it's interests
or amenable to influence or pressure.
Enforcement Of the Laws
However this may be the evils in
herent in these bodies may be reached
in two ways First, under the existing
statute and common law. Little has
been heard since the decision in the
beef trust case, about the impotence
of the law, as It exists today. to deal
with illegal combinations. And there
never was real doubt in the minds of
any student of the subject, for the
courts Of this country have never
shown indulgence to great wrongs
when the executive branch of the gov
ernment, either federal or state, has
done its duty.
But what has the executive authority
done? 1t has fumed and fused, 1t has
thundered in the index and failed to en-
force the law, except in a few cases.
At the instance of the attorney of
foreign railroad with branch in this
countrywide the representative of a
governor of state, it has very proper
" and legally broken up great rail-
read combination. Was 1t because of
satisfaction with having suppressed a
bad combination that a dozen others,
larger, more fragrant in their violation
of the law, each Of them affecting the
interests of ten times as many people,
have not been punished or even prose-
cuted? Is this the natural reward of
a good" trust?
A Significant Case
We have seen one department give a
character to a great and far-reaching
just as the legal branch of
the government started out to lay the
case of the same combination before
federal grand jury. Is this the way
OF the prosecutor who is earnest? In
instance, the managers of q |
great railroad, having admitted that
they have paid rebates, the government
some years after the fact has been
avowed, appoints special counsel to
Meanwhile the official in
power at the time and mainly RESPONSE
BILE for this admitted infraction of the
laws is now member of the presidents
Must we construe this to
mean that the trust which was once
good" has now become "bad"?
II ow to Deal With These Great Abuses
The plain truth is that there has
been no time during the past eight
years since the abuses alleged became
hagrant when they could not have
been eliminated Nothing has been so
much needed as rigid, honest, un-
enforcement of the law, both
civil and criminal. But instead of go
ing on with the enforcement of the law
against rebates by putting the railroad
officials responsible for them behind
prison bars precisely as we do other
their misconduct made an
excuse for further concentration of
power in the federal government.
1t is expected by the administration
and the railroad officials who openly
consent to the movement, as we'll as by
those who are ostensibly opposed to 1t,
that the people in their just indigna-
ton at the wrongs done to the many
for the benefit OF the few will lose
sight of the danger of so vast a CEN
tralization of power until 1t is too late
to check it. But we should never for
get that the safety of our institutions
is involved in every such movement,
and instead of submitting to it should
insist that when a trust or RAILROAD
has violated the criminal law the place
for the guilty official is in Jail or the
not in the cabinet or in
the board rooms of great railroads.
We do not defend or excuse any wrongs
but we must insist upon the truth of
the maxim that two wrongs do not
make a right.
A second effective way of dealing
with the trust proper is to take away
all tariff duties on articles made by
any great combination so long as 1t
the law or while it dlscrin-
mates in price against the American
customer In favor of tho foreigner.
The tariff is the fertile and nurs-
ing mother of all the abuses to be
found in these trusts. and yet, the
very moment the sacred subject is
mentioned, the President of the United
States draws a red herring across the