The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1905-05-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.

Theodore Roosevelt, the War Lord, /"
of whom we heard so much in the days
of the last campaign, has declared war.
But it is not against another Nation seek
ing to maintain amicable relations with
the United States but against corporate
interests which threaten the welfare of
the American people. 1t is not the army
or navy, or any other form of "big Stick"
which this President whom his opponents
declare to be spelling for fight" pro-
poses to use on the corporations, but the
powerful weapon of public education. In
cidenta1ly, it is not the Democratic ora
tors and stump speakers who are now
condemning Theodore Roosevelt for his
Revolutionary theories but the man
ayers of those corporate interests over
which he maintains that "the Govern
ment should exercise a supervisory and
regulatory function"
~
OF the fact that the President has de-
clared war there can be no doubt. One
has only to circulate among the groups OF
railroad men, delegates to the Inter
national Railway Congress, gathered in
every hotel in Washington, to appreciate
how bitter the war is to be, how intense
is the indignation of the great captains of
interstate commerce because a s'revolu-
tionary politician, as they term the
President, should attempt to control them.
Generally speaking, the railway managers
of the United States are masterful men,
accustomed to command and to being
obeyed, like the Centurian of the Scrip
lures, and the mere suggestion that they
or their methods should be made the sub
iect of federal control fills them with in
dignation. For years they have been
laboriously working to establish the SEN
timent, if not the belief, that the railroads
of the country are private property to be
administered solely for the benefit of their
stockholders. Now the President has
announced in terms so clear that no one
can misunderstood them that this is not
the case; that the railroads, receiving
their charters from the state; acquiring
their rights of way by supreme exer-
else of sovereignty, an exercise which
permits them to condemn and take pos
session of private property, giving the
owner fair remuneration therefor, but
taking it whether he cares TO sell or not;
and controlling the highways of COM
.merce, are public property and must be
administered primarily for the benefit of
the public. Such action on the part of
the President has aroused the most in
tense indignation on the part of the rail.
way men and they are preparing to resist
the purposes of the President to the bitter
end. That the end will be bitter no man
can doubt. for the propaganda is one cal
culated to enlist the sympathy of every
unpreiudiced American and when con-
Quoted by SO honest aud fearless leader
as Theodore Roosevelt there can be no
doubt of the result.
~
Just after the news of the Presidents
Denver speech reached Washington, and
when The railway men were at the fever
heat of indignation, just after Secretary
Taft had enunciated at the railway BAN
quet the Presidents policy, the President
scored another victory. He received at
Chicago a delegation from the striking
teamsters who came to protest against
the possible sending of federal troops to
that city to maintain order. The Pres
ident's reply was not temporizing with
the situation, not an offer to arbitrate as
some had feared it might be, but plain.
fatherly admonition to observe the law,
refrain from violence and render unnec-
essary an appeal for federal troops. Mr..
Roosevelt did not mince his words. "In
every effort of Mayor Dunno to preserve
order. he told the strikers, ITO see that
the laws are obeyed and that order is
preserved, he has the hearty support of
the President of the United States, and in
my Judgment he should have that of every
good citizen of the United States" and
later, discussing the strike situation at
the Iroquois Club Of Chicago. the Presi-
dent expressly declared that in all con-
tests with mob violence, ''if ever the need
arises, back of the city stands the State
and back of the State stands the Nation. T"
~
In view of these bold words. of his
manly, fearless attitude toward those
lawbreakers who claimed to represent
labor, how could the capitalists iucite
criticism of the President when in the
same breath, almost. he declared the
necessity of curbing the greed of capital
and of controlling, in the interests of the
great American people, those great high
ways of commerce along which run the
ironed ways commonly termed railroads
In his remarks to labor the spirit of the