The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-05

try, one of Pennsylvania's most eqni,
 nent sons--the present Senator, anC
 then Attorney-General, Knox-that the
 new departure was begun. Events
 have moved fast during the last fiv, years, and it is curious to look back a
 the extreme bitterness which not mere
 " the spokesmen and representatives
 ol organized wealth, but many most
 excellent conservative people then felt
 as sto the action of Mir. Knox and ot
 tho administration.
 Many of the greatest flnanciers of this country were certain that MT
 knoxs Northern Securities suit if
 won, would plunge Us into the worst panic We had ever seen. They de-
 nounced as indictment to anarchy. as an apology for socialism, the advocacy of policies that either have now be-
 come law or are in fair way of becom.
 ing law; and yet these same policies. SC far from representing either anarchy or socialism, were in reality the anti ldotes to anarchy, the antidotes to so- clalsfn. To exercise a constantly in- creasing and constantly more efficient supervision and control over the great common carriers of the country pre-
 vents all necessity for seriously consid- ering such a project as the govern ment ownership of railroads--a policy
 which would be evil in it's results from every standpoint.
 A similar extension of the national power to oversee and secure correct be- hgVier in the management of all great
 corporations engaged'in interstate bus mess will in similar fashion render far more stable the present system lby do- ing away with those grave abuses which are not only evil in themselves but are also evil because they furnish an excuse for agitators to inflame we'll meaning people against all forms of
 property, and to commit the country to schemes of wild, would-be remedy which would work infinitely more harm than the disease itself The government ought not to conduct the busniess of the country; but it ought to regulate it so that it shall be con- dueted in the interest of the public
 Perhaps the best justification of the course which in the national govern ment we have been pursuing in the past few years, and which we intend steadily and progressively to pursue in the future, is that it is condemned with almost equal rancor alike by the reactionaries-ti1e Bourbons-on one side, and by the wild apostles of unrest m tba nthar 1N11a rao o+io,,o,,v 4. 1.. terly angry because we have deprived him of that portion of his power which he misuses to the public hurt; the agi tator Is angered for various reasons. including among others the fact thai by remedying the abuses we have de- prfved him of the fulcrum of real grievance, which alone renders the lev CT of irrational agitation formidable.
 We have actually accomplished much. But we have not accomplished all, nor anything like all, that we feel must be accomplished. We shall not halt we shall steadily follow the path we have marked out, executing the laws we have succeeded in putting upon the statute books with absolute impartialit8 as between man and man. and unresting in our endeavor to strengthen and supplement these by further laws which shall enable us in more efficient and more summary fash ion to achieve the ends we have in view.
 During the last few years congress has had to deal with such vitally irn- portant questions as providing for the building of the Panama Canal. inau- the vast system of national irrigation in the states of the great plains and the Rocky Mountains, pro- viding for a Pacific cable and So forth. Yet in addition to these tasks, some of which are of stupendous importance. congress has taken giant strides along the path of government regulation and control of corporations; the interstate- law has been made effective in radical and far-reaching fashion, re- bates have been stopt, pure food law has been past proper supervision of themeat-packing business provided, and the Bureau of Corporations estab- lished-a bureau which has already done great good, and which can and should be given a constantly increasing functional power.
 The work of legislation has been no more important than the work done by the Department of Justice in executing the laws, not only against corporations and individuals who have broken the antitrust or anti-state commerce law, but against those who have been en- gagged in land frauds. Scores of suits, 1 civh and criminal, have been success fully undertaken against offenders of all kinds-many of them against the | most formidable and wealthy oonbina -ions in the lands in some the conbi 1 nations have been dissolved, in some | 1eavy fines have been imposed, insev- eTal eases the chief offenders have been 
 It behooves us Americans to look ahead and plan out the right kind of a as that which we intend to develop from these wonderful new con