The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-25
"A MISPLACED SWITCH"
The Presidents Reckless Whitewash
 of Morton.

The Presidents Reckless Whitewash of Morton.
 New York Evening Post.
 At the very moment yesterday when
 the President was preaching to col | lege students the value to the coun- try of upright public service. he was destroying the worth of his words by
 publishing his opologia for Paul Nor | ton. Never in his whole career did the President put nis name to such a
 web of special pleadings, of casuisti- cal and Illogical arguments, as here appear, varied only by an irrelevant
 excursion into the affairs of the Equit-
 able Life Assurance society-as if to distract attention from the real de- fendant. The whole statement Is a
 most disheartening endorsement of a
 man who is by his own sworn testi-
 mony defiant law-breaker. On his
 part, MT. Morton seeks to explain Joc-
 ularly that 1t was against his express orders that the Santa Fe continued its
 Illegal Te6stes in SGfanSs of sors the
 of misplaced switch," as 1t were. We
 have to note a misplaced switcn of
 a more serious kind. No hostile critic than he has given himself by this extraordinary document. Coming as it does. after his action in the case
 of Mir. Loomis,, it ought to be apparent
 Presidents moral sense is not to be trusted whenever the conduct of a. personal friend is concerned.
 But the significance of the white
 RsSnRs is has mGds given h1a pedge es aer ter pledge to the country that Iawbreak-
 Iy dealt with at his hands, and in the
 case of the postoff1ce. grafters he
 showed how uncompromising he could
 be. Of late he has been filling the coun- try with his denunciations of those lawless railroad officials who have by means of favors in the matter of rates built up trusts and large corporations at the expense of the smaller shipper, allowed to get at the bad" trusts.
 Well, an opportunity was given to him.
 By sworn testimony before the inter proved beyond doubt that the Atchi- son, Topeka and santa Fe Railroad
 had illegally conspired with the Colo year 1902 to the end that by secret rebate the railroad should retain the iron corporation's business. At once. with a great flourish or trumpets, MT. vestigate this case, and to prove his absolute freedom from partisan bias 1 he appointed as special investigators two Democratic lawyers of the high est standing, ex-Attorney General Jud- son Harmon and Frederick N. Judson. These investigators quickly found that
 sThe laws had been violated by the traflc officers of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company and those of the Colorado Fuel and Iron
 Company The former have by the
 same acts violated the injunction in that case. The formal proof required 1 to punish them for contempt of court and also criminally, if 1t shall be thought best to do that. too. can be
 had only by judicial process. This Is ready to our hands in the above named case. The proof elicited before the
 master will also be vailable for crim- l inal proceedings against the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company and its officers
 They then appeal to the Attorney General for authority to prosecute those guilty officials. It is this per mission which has -heen- denied to them with the result that they have resigned in disgust
 It has been withheld from them primarily because Paul Morton. whose father sat in Cleveland's cabinet snext to Mir. Harmon, was one of the accused
 men. The President and his Attorney General seem to have decided, because
 of their. friendship for and belief in the good intentions of this ono man, that all the other guilty ohieiais of lthe two eomDanies shall escape prose-