Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1906-08-02
But POLITICS
Belated Move Of the President
Against Trusts.
THE TAFT CLAIM PUNOTURED

II the Administration Had Enforced
Existing Laws Prior to 1901 There
Would Have Been No Scandals.
Judge ParI<cr's Claim That Exist
ing Laws Were Ample to Prosecute
Trusts Fully Justified.
In 1904 Judge Parker said in his let
ter of acceptance, substantially, that
we had enough law to stop every cor
porate abuse. The common law was
available for the use Of the state au-
thorities, and besides that there were
plenty Of state statutes and plenty of
federal statutes. The Sherman anti
rust law and the interstate commerce
law had been OF the statute books for
many years. But the president, his
cabinet officers and all the Republican
sp%ellbinders loudly called for new laws
corporations.
The coal trust, the oil trust, the beef
trust and the railroads had been violat-
Ing existing laws with the regularity
md audacity that are born of collision
with the officers OF the law. They were
not at all hostile to Mr.. Roosevelt or
bis administration. They furnished
money to secure his reelection. They
evidently preferred the making Of new
laws, dictated by themselves, to the
enforcement of the old laws made to
punish their crimes and check their
rapacity.
All that has been lone toward prose-
cutting the trusts has been done under
those Old laws. Some of the western
states forced the attorney general to
prosecute the Northern Securities COM
pany under the antitrust and inter
state commerce laws. And according
to Secretary Taft that prosecution is
the chief glory of the Roosevelt admin
lstration, and it is practically the only
act of the administration which reflects
my credit upon it. The recent action
Of the interstate commerce commission
ngainst the oil trust and the railroads
was due to the Tillman-Gillespie reso-
luton, which Roosevelt signed with ex-
press reluctance" That resolution
merely authorized the commission to
Institute Investigations looking to the
enforcement of the old laws, and it
was necessary only because the adj
ministration had not enforced those
laws except when compelled to do SO
by reason of exposures made by the
state authorities or by other instru-
49, ~ o,,+r;IN 41,n dana r{1,,l M of
justice.
1t was known that the railroads and
the oil and coal trusts had been VIC.
lating the law. The letters Of Govern.
or Dawson of West Virginia and Ger:
tain independent coal operators read
in the senate by Mr.. Tillman proved
that the department of justice could not
be depended upon to investigate condi.
tons and enforce existing laws. Why
did the president wait until Governor
Dawson had been forced to appeal tC
q Democratic senator for help against
the railroad and coal combine before he
made his feint of attacking the oil
trust? Rockefeller very properly says
of this new spasm Of virtue: "BuSi.
ness methods have nothing to do with
it. 1t is all politics." So far as Roose
welt is concerned, it is certainly nothing
but politics.
Why did not the president enforce the
law against the beef trust? His subor
dinates supplied that trust for years
with labels for its meat products, Ger
tifying that each package had beer
lawfully inspected and that the quail
ity Of the contents was guaranteed by
the government Of the United States
How could such a certificate have beer
given if the law was not sufficient
when properly enforced, to Justify sucl
a certificate? If the certificate was
criminal fraud, the administration was
responsible for it. Not until Upton Sin
clair had exposed the intolerable prac
tees of the packers and demonstrated
that the law had been violated by col
fusion between the packers and the ad.
ministration did the president issue his
sensational message against the beet
trust. The beef barons might truly say
as Rockefeller has said: Cuisines
uetllOuS nave uOtulIlS W uO Will IL. IL
is all politics." They had the admins
tration's certificate of the propriety of
their business methods and of theil
compliance with the law.
If the law had been enforced, there
would have been no beef scandal. DC
railroad scandals, no coal or Oil scan.
dals, no grain inspection scandals. The
very existence of these scandals, arts.
ing as they do from long standing vic.
lations of the old laws referred to by
Judge Parker in 1904, proves that the
administration has been either inetti
Gent OF else particeps criminis in al
this scandalous business and that its
p~retense of righteous indignation is al
politics."
MI. Taft Numbered, therefore, when
he said at Greensboro, on July 8, that
the president ''by act as we'll as by
word had manifested to the people
his determination to pursue the mid
die, just and impartial course by which
the rich and the poor should enjoy
the equal protection and suffer the
equal and just enforcement OF the
laws" This is "all politics" The
racord provnc thn contrary TO be the