New-York tribune., 1906-07-13
WHAT NIGHT RAVB BEEN.

Ex-Judge Alton b. Parker takes exception to
a passage In Secretary Taft's recent speech at
Greensboro, n c., in which the Republican
party's substantial achievements in checking the
abuses of corporate power were contrasted with
the Democratic partys record OF yolubility in
promise and poverty in performance. Secretary
Taft had doubtless in mind the claim now COM
placently made by Democratic statesmen that
President Roosevelt in urging legislation to
strengthen federal control Of corporations doing
an interstate business and In bringing suits
against offenders under the antitrust and inter
state commerce acts was only borrowing and ap-
plying Democratic policies. To emphasize the
hOllowness of this claim he had only to call at
tention TO the attitude of the two parties toward
trust regulation i'm the last Presidential cam
pagn and TO ask his auditors TO ponder how
much would have been done if Mr.. Parker had
been elected and had acted on his theory that
the common law supplied all that was neces-
'saTy for the suppression of trusts and the
abolition Of rebates" Ex-Judge Parker now
says that he held in 1904 that "the common law
and existing statutes were sufficient to cure
all trust evils and that everything accomplished
since 1904 has been accomplished by applying
legal remedies then available.
The inference intended TO be drawn from this
statement is that with Mr.. Parker as Presi-
dent the nation would have made as certain
and substantial progress toward eradicating
corporate malpractices as it has made under
President Roosevelt. Yet we think that only a
very small minority OF the voters in this cOun-
try would assent to such a conclusion. The
history Of the Presidential campaign OF 1904 is
still fresh in the public memory. No impression
of the Democratic candidates attitude was more
general or better established than that he IA
vOred a negative and let-alOne policy in dealing
with combinations in industry and transpOrta-
tion He made his fight for nomination on
reactiOnary platform. This platform, adopted
by the New York State Convention in the spring
of 1904, harked back to the narrOwest cOncep-
tiOns Of Jeffersonianism. 1t suggested that the
states should assume the task of protecting the
individual from the extortions of lawbreaking
trusts. and frowned on the idea that the federal
government should exert to the full its inherent
powers Of regulation. as it had just eXerted
them in attacking and annulling the Northern
Securities merger. 1t accepted the JeffersOnian
theory OF EdisSez fGire in government, and
wanted to preserve to corporations that free
dom of action and immunity from restraint
which Jefferson meant TO give only to the Op-
pressed and Overgoverned individual.
MFR. Bryan attacked Judge Parker and opposed
his nomination on the ground that he repre-
sented reactionary tendencies and could not be
e2ptCUeu 10 SSlupdlLllLc Will leSISldIlNS Oh du-
minStTative efforts to curb the trusts. Several
hundred thousand Democrats accepted Mr..
Bryan's view and helped to swell the enormous
Rcosevelt-F Fairbanks majority. 1t will he
hard to persuade these Democrats as it will be
to persuade the country generally that Judge
Parker as President would have used 1.-The COM
mon law and existing statutes" TO repress the
activities Of trusts with the vigOr shown under
the Roosevelt administration. Democratic sue
cess two years ago would have been viewed,
indeed, as a mandate 10 conservatism" and the
Antitrust law would have been as cheerfully
abandoned as imperative" as it was under the
second Cleveland administration. That a rail
road rate bill could have passed Congress with
Judge Parker in the White House is barely
thinkable. for as late as April, 1905, the excan-
didate for President deplOring further
concentration of power in the federal govern
"ment' as an evil more calamitOus than rebates
and Overcharges. History it might have been
must be written subject to error. But we think
the American public guessed right when it re-
fused TO see in Judge Parker an adequate inter
prefer of it's views on the trust issue or
effective agent In clipping the powers of malev
Olent and oppressive combinations.