The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-01-28

The Independent, ". Z.
Mr. Roosevelt stands for fair play. or all
the qualities that have commended him to the
people there is none more attractive to the av-
erage American than his love for common jus
tice.
$50 far as in my power lies I shall see to it
no more"
These were his last words to the public before
the November election. He is living up to
them.
He sees the rules Of fair play grossly violated
in the abuse Of tariff protection, in the work Of
great common carriers, in the management and
the business Of huge industrial corporations.
He asks that Congress shall join him in apply
ing remedies and insisting upon square deal.
In some directions Congress moves slowly. It
will eventually act upon his recommendations,
because be will continue to press for action,
and because the people, who like fair play,
will assist in making the pressure irresistible.
It is not the whole tariff that he seeks to
have revised, but certain parts Of it in which
the signs Of square deal are now conspicuous
ly absent. In the opinion of many, all the
schedules of the tariff law are unjust. Those
who hold this opinion are minority. A large
majority are convinced, we believe, that there
is rank injustice in some Of the tariff duties.
A&<o@ a. ~-4@ Aot<1 " AASAA AAo0G@NCls 4OAto
to see revised.
Certain manufacturers have asked for and
have obtained high duties for the protection of
their industries. Competition in the home
market, they said, would surely reduce prices
aud prevent extortiOn Then, sheltered behind
the tariff wall, they have combined to kill
competition and have exacted from the people
(who gave them the protection) all that the
duties would permit. This was not square
deal: At the same time they have sold their
products ct much lower prices to the foreigners
against whom they had asked their own people
to defend them This is not fair play.
Examples2 They are many. Steel rails at
S28 in the United States for years past and
sold abroad at S2i, and even at SIC. Steel
plates for ships, $50 here lat the mill, sold by
the same manufacturers to shipbuilders in Bel
fast for S24, delivered. and to other shipbuild-
ers at Newcastle for $22-sold abroad at this
discount by directors who were asking Con-
gress for ship subsidies because the cost of
making steel ships was lower in Belfast and
Newcastle than in New York and Philadelphia.
Who will say that such transactions, and a
host Of others as to which proof is available,
together with the accompanying extortion
practiced here at home, are in accord with the
rules of fair play and common Justice? Who
will assert that Mr. Roosevelt is not right in
asking that duties thus abused shall be revised
What do they protect except extortion and
stock initiation and m0nopoly?
Is there square deal in the gross injustice
of railway rebates2 For many years, 10 plain
violation of law, such discrimination has serv-
ed to Cypress or ruin many for the enrichment
of few. It has built up huge monopolies
upon the wrecks of honest and competitive en-
terprises. A few enormous fortunes and much
hardship and misery are the fruit of it. There
is nothing in the history Of trade more unjust
or contemplate than some of the secret agree
ments between greedy and conscienceless man.
ufacturers and the great railways, agreements
that bound the railway not only to carry for
the great shipper at q rate less by 70 per cent.
than the rate exacted from the little one, but
also to pay the favored shipper two-thirds of
the money received from bis weak competitor,
who saw ruin approaching without knowing
the foul cause fit.
Much injustice of this kind can be concealed.
Sometimes it comes to light, as il has in the
last few weeks. We see how the freight rates for
coal and salt, for example, were used unjustly
and unlawfully on the Atchison road for the
profit OF certain persons and the disadvantage
or ruin of others. We see how the private car
lines and side tracks serve to disguise rebates
and create monopoly. Old methods, common
ly supposed to be outlawed. are used again by
private car lines whose contracts bind railway
companies not only to discriminate but even
to play the spy upon their other shippers, re-
porting the time and the destination of their
shipments in order that their great and grasp
ing competitor may steal away their market.
1t is by such practices, by injustice and
wrong, and not by fair competition or by the
economies of combination, that small BUSH
nesses have been crushed and monopolies made
and wealth concentrated. It is difficult to find
evidence of a square deal in any part of the
process. Naturally the proof of all this wrong,
shown by official reports and indicated by oc-
casional chance disclosures of compacts that
are easily concealed, excites the indignation of
q man like Mr.. Roosevelt and compels him to
insist upon reform.
Allied to these evils and abuses are others as
ISOLATED with the recent growth of great in
dustrial corporations, growth in large meas
ure dependent upon and stimulated by tariff
injustice and railway rate Discrimination. Here
again the President seeks to obtain q square
ti0ns to Federal supervision and restraint that
shall compel due regard for the rules of fair
play in capitalization, promotion and Compel
tive distribution of product. He may not be
convinced that Mr.. Garfieid's Federal LICENSEES
the best device for securing such supervision,
but he desires that reasonable restraint shall
be applied in some way. The opposition
which bis railway and tariff policy has en-
countered will tend to stimulate his inquiries
in this direction.
"a square deal for every man." Believing
that he would strive with all his energy to en-
force the principles of square dealing, the peo-
pie gave Mr. Roosevelt an unprecedented and
enormous plurality. Their confidence was not
misplaced. But there must be new laws, and
honest and competent men must be employed
to enforce both the new and the old ones. The
President should have the earnest support of
the people now and hereafter, as he had it at
the polls in November. That support can be
given in many ways, but most effectively by
means OF their influence upon the men who
represent them in Congress.