The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-18
AS LAWSON SEES TT.
He Feels Certain the President VIII
Knock Out the Standard.

rs LA thOOAN SL4EAS H.
He Feels Certain the President VIII
Knock Out the Standard.
Boston, Feb. 1s.-Discussing the move
against the Standard Oil company
Thomas w. Lawson says:
To my mind there is very little that
can be said on the subject of the COM
ing investigation of Standard Oil by
President Roosevelt-very little that
has not already been said from time to
time during the past 1000 years of mod
ern history.
1t is the old, old story of the great.
big, overgrown bully and his unchecked
career of brutality, stumbling up
against the inevitable snag-the victim
of his low. mean, cowardIy inhumanity,
and then the old story of the quick
sharp readjustment of the victims boot
to the bully's anatomy and then a closed
incident in history big fat grave
and headstone with an inscription:
Here lies another oppressor of the
people
p. S.-All who pass will kindly wa
ter the flowers with alkali''
No one should have any pity for the
Standard Oil in the mauling it is about
to receive at the hands of President
Roosevelt.
1t has had during the last twenty
five years more than its fair share of
warnings. Time and again when it has
been caught in the act of kicking its
victims into insensibility it has been
warned not TO 90 so again, only to again
be caught in that fragrant exhibition
until it really was sure that there was
no power on earth, in heaven or in the
other place which could mete it out fit
punishment. Standard Oil has sized up
our president through ''skeWed" glasses
from the start and now-well, now it
will have an opportunity of looking him
over at nearer range without any
glasses from the prisoners dock, and
unquestionably when it has got him
really sized up it will in it's usual cow
ardly way drop to its knees and enter
its old plea. I'VE really didn't know it
was loaded" but it surely will be too
late.
The American people are on the war
path, coming down the pike millions
strong, and the millions are rolling up
as they travel until they will present
such a solid front as they have never
before presented when they come to
their first stopping place-Standard Oil
1 think the American people, the
whole world, in fact. are going to have
their breath taken away by the speed
with which history will be made dur
ing the next few months. In my opin-
ion they will be somewhat dunn bfound-
ed at the ease with which this mon
ster STANDARD Oil" that they have
bred themselves into the now confirm
ed habit of thinking is invincible, will
go down before President Roosevelt's
big stick"
All we hear now is the whistle of the
wind, which it is making as he moved
it through the air preliminary to get
ting in his real thumps. l want to go
on record that the entire Standard Oil
outfit will be in about the same condi-
ton as the peddler's push cart which
has been struck by a motor car com
ing down hill at a mile a minute gait
after President Roosevelt finishes US
ing it for a punching bag, preparatory
to tackling it's many imitators.
You ask if I will assist in the coming
walloping it is to get. 1 viii hold my
+r sfrnr~f hra1 Or
from here to Washington the coolest
night in winter the moment receive a |
telephone call if necessary The publlc
have not yet got onto RooseVelts
work. When he notified the 26 Broad !
way gang shortly after election that
now that the people had elected him he I
was going to be a real president, they
began to lay their usual pipes 10 as
trick was to be done in the same cham |
Der. They knew all about his prepara-
tons in regard to the beer trust, re-
bates etc. and waited for him to walk
into their trap, and he, like the poor
he is. walked into it on sche-
dule time the other day; that is, he
walked into it as the boys say nit"
The senate cIinched with him on the |
treaty question, and as pretty trick
as Standard Oil has laid out for many
a dav was pulled off uccessfully-Suc-
emit They had it all rugged |
ror the strenuous, hot-headed gentle |
head and make an exhibition before the
which was to be their cue for |
locking horns with him and having fun
with him, and then-well then, they |
were to resume their Triumphant way. /
They had done the same thing for so
many years and there was no question |
in the minds of the large hated mag
mates at 26 Broadway that all would
be plain sailing afterwards-after the
president had made an ass of himself,
but. as I say. they have sized up Pres
ident Roosevelt from the start through
double lensed sskewed" glasses.
He, as we all now know, simply walk
ed around the pit they had dug and
covered with thin grass, and instead OF
on the question they want
ed him to deadlock on, he proceeded to
draw from his sleeve another of the
many pasteboards he has been slowing
away during the past two years, or
since 26 Broadway put him on their
blacklist that night when he gave the
Western Associated Press his now
famous dispatch. tell the people John
D. Rockefeller told me what I should
do and he never touched but one in six
stairs on his way to the street, and I
only used my left boot on him at that
This pasteboard happened to be mark
ed investigate Standard Oil" but it
could Just as well have been any one
Of a score of others-others equally eff
fective.
Poor STANDARD OIL. 1t broke the rec
ord going from the bottom OF the lad