The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-28
PRAISE MIR. ROOSEVELT

PRAISE MIR. ROOSEVELT ST. PAUL CLUB CELEBRATES PREsI- DENTS BIRTHDAY. 
 President stickney of the Great vest
 ern Railway DeIfvers . Remarka-
 ble Speech on Subject of Freight
 Rates.
 S.. Paul. Minn.. Oct. z7.-President Rooseyelt's forty-seventh birthday was celebrated in St. Paul by the original Roosevelt Club this evening through the medium of 8 banquet in the large dining room of the Ryan Hotel, at which over four hundred covers were laid for enthusiastic admirers of Theo- dore Rc osevelt, who, in the language of Governor Cummins of Iowa, was in one sense .'the man of the hour."
 After the banquet, President Hugh Habit, of the Roosevelt Club, intro duced Justice Jaggard. of the Minnesota Supre me Court, as toastmaster. President A. B. Stickncy. of the Great Western Railway, speaking on the sub- ject of the President and railroads, said in part:
 Tt is we'll known that ever since competitive railw avs have existed the actual co mpetitive rates have been made by the rebate system. . The rebate Is the offspring Of com petition and Is never paid except on competitive business. It probably | originated with the railways. "The ir genuity W hich is now exercised | by both railways and their customers I to maintain the secrecy of rebates can | he illustrated better than described Since the injunctions were issued-and | the ttrlors of the law are considered l immin.nt-I have been toid-1 do not youch for it's truth. although nave seen what purr orts to be copy Of the contract between shippers ana the routing agency. of cases where young men from so-called routing agencies in New York make periodical trips through the western cities leaving not only bank checks but packages of ac- tual money without notes or comment | upon certain merchants desks' taxing no voucher or receipts,
 | "Curiovsly, when these packages are counted they are found to be exactly a certain per centage supposed to be | 25 per mt of the freight of which the merc hants have paid certain railway company since the last previous visit of the young man who thus distributes hundreds of thousands or doiIars an- | nua1ly."
 President Sticxney explained how 1t | was the big shipper and not the rail- road who was responsible for the re- hate. He explained how the big flour mills of Minneapolis put the small the rebate system and later how, through the milting-in-transit scheme, the outside miliers turned the tables on ths Minneapolis millers.
 He continucd:
 "Stating the gist of the law In a nut shell, the railway companies have an absolute mcnoply and under the law fix the price upon that which they alone can produce and which every living man must consume (railway transpor- tation) and the law makes 1t ! misde- meanor for the consumer to kick. Is that square deal? Theodore Roosevelt says 1t is not a square deal Governor Cummings, who is here to- might, says 1t is not square deal, and every fair-minded nan will say 1t Is not | a square deal.
 Tt is wrong in principle. but as long as there are many competitive rail- ways 1t is of little practical importance, enforced. But, in twenty years. possi- bly in ten years, there will be few if any competitive railways. and 1t there fore becomes important while we can, to establish the correct principle in the law.
 mission can be a disinterested board of larbitvators, while at the same time 1t Is | en1azed in the prosecution of the case at bar Hence. if the recomm andation of the Pi esident Is adopted, the arbitra- tion commission, which should be ap- pointed for the purpose f arbitratfng disuutes in respect to rates. should not be charged with the executive duty of enfol cing the provisions of he law or of their own decisions. Like justices of the Supreme Court. their office should not be subordinate to or sub Af nt Ar hra government, and they should hold their offices curing life and good behavior, removable from office only by impeach- ment snd conviction"
 Governor Cummins, speaking on the topic of the President, briefly sketched President Roosevelt's career in puolic office and continued:
 "If we are happy in the character of our leader. we are not less so in the history of our party. The advances to
 n higher civilization, to better laws, to national greatness-are It's advances
 The material growth and development
 which have led us to a higher point than has ever been attained by any } other rstion, are the products of it's
 policies and It's administrations
 ''It is not enough however. to con
 template merely what has been done.
 Tn these days of vast enterprise, of un-
 heard of accumulation of wealth in a
 single man or combination of men, wren the laws of the land can be used
 to foster ard protect selfish interest 1t Is natural that the recurrence of the
 seasons that the rich and powerful
 should ettempt to fasten themselves upon the dominant party and to use 1t as an Instrument to promote their wei
 fare against the common welfare. It will! require all the virtue of the olden
 iays and all the strength of modern
 cha,acter to resist the aggressicns.
 There is a benumbing spirit which
 seems tc be fascinating some of the
 members of our party and that has found expr ressions in the phraseology of the gam mbler-'stand pat I predict
 that If the party meets disaster and downfall there will be floating over it's
 reading colums this miserable maxim .stand pat If 1t Is victorious
 and triumphant, as I believe 1t will be- the flag that will lead It's gallant hosts
 into ths future will bear another motto l an inspiring phrese move on.'
 'I have heard 1t said that its high statesmarship to construct and main
 tain a system through which our own
 people are made to pay higher price
 for our own manufactures than the ) same manufactures sold by the same producers command in foreign markets I would vary the phraseolcgy. It Is 2 , high crime to defend a tariff duty tha' l has such a result.
 "I au a protectionist born and bre'