Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-08-02

REPUBLICAN ACTIVITY AGAINST
THE TRUSTS A FARCE.
IF the Administration Had Enforced
Laws on the Statute Books Prior
10 1904 There Would Have
Been No Scandal.

In 1904 Judge Parker said. in his
letter of acceptance, substantially
that we had enough law to stop every
corporate abuse. The common law
was available for the use Of the state
authorities; and besides that there
were plenty of state statutes and
plenty of federal statutes. The Sher-
man antitrust law, and the interstate
commerce law had been on the statute
DOCKS for many years. But the presi-
dent, his cabinet officers and all the
Republican spell-binders loudly called
for new laws to enable the government
to curb the corporations.
The coal trust, the oil trust, the beef
trust and the railroads had been vio-
lating existing laws with the regu-
lar1ty and audacity that is born of COL
fusion with the officers of the law.
They were not at all hostile to Mr..
Roosevelt or his administration. They
furnished money to secure his re-
election. They evidently preferred the
making OF new laws, dictated by them
selves, to the enforcement of the old
laws made to punish their crimes and
check their ~rapacity. 90
All that has been done towards pros.
ecut1ng the trusts has been done un-
der those old laws. Some of the
western states forced the attorney
| general IN nrncnp,1tn tba NJo,+la,, O.
curltles company under the antitrust
and interstate commerce laws. And
according to Secretary Taft that prose
cution is the chief glory of the Roose.
welt administration, and it is prac-
tlcally the only act of the admins.
tration which reflects n credit upon
IL. The recent action of the inter.
state commerce commission against
the Oil trust and the railroads was
due to the Tillman-Gillespie resolu.
ton, which Roosevelt signed with ex.
press reluctance" That resolution
merely authorized the commission ia
institute Investigations looking to the
enforcement of the old laws; and II
was necessary only because the ad-
m~in1stration had not enforced those
laws except when compelled to do SC
by reason of exposures made by the
state authorities or by other instru-
mental1ties outside the department of
justice.
Why did not the president enforce
the law against the beef trust? His
s~ubordinates supplied that trust for
years with labels for its meat prod
ucts, certifying that each package. had
been lawfully inspected and that the
quality" of the contents was guar.
anteed" by the government of the
United States. How could such a GER
tlflcate have been given If the law was
not sufficient, when properly enforced,
to justify such a certificate? If the
certlhcate was a criminal fraud, the
administration was responsible for It.
Not until Upton Sinclair had exposed
the 1ntolerable practices of the pack
ers, and demonstrated that the law
had been violated by collision be-
tween the packers and the administra-
ton did the president issue his sensa-
tional message against the beef trust
The beef barons might truly say as
Rockefeller has said: Business
methods have nothing to do with it.
1t is all politics" They had the ad.
illustrations certificate of the pro-
priety Of their business methods and
Of their compliance with the law.
If the law had been enforced there
would have been no beef scandal, no
railroad scandals, no coal or oil scan
dals. no grain inspection scandals.
MI. Taft blundered, therefore, when
he said at Greensboro, on July 9,
that the president ''by act" as well
as by word, had manifested to the
people his determination to pursue
the middle, 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
record proves the contrary to be the
truth. Judge Parker has shown the
contrary to be the fact by citing the
record in all cases where there have
been prosecutions, all of which have
been under the old laws.