The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1906-08-04
Is MERE PRETENSE.
REPUBLICAN ACTIVITY AGAINST
THE TRUSTS A FARCE.
II the Administration Had Enforced
Laws on the Statute Books Prior
d 1904 There Would Have
Been No Scandal.

In I9O4 Judge Parker said, in hi
letter OF acceptance, substantial,
that we had enough law to stop ever,
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
mar antitrust law, and the interstate
aw had been on the statute
DOCKS for many years. But the presi-
dent, his cabinet officers and all the
Republican spell-binders loudly called
Tor new laws to enable the government
TO curb the corporations.
The coal trust, the oil trust, the beef
trust and the railroads had been VIC
latlng existing laws with the regu-
larlty audacity that is born of COL
fusion with the officers Of the law.
Ihey 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
avs made to punish their crimes and
check their ~rapacity.
All that has been done towards pros
ecuting the trusts has been done I'M
der those old laws. Some Of the
western states forced the attorney
general to prosecute the Northern Sc
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-
tically the only act of the admins.
tration which reflects any credit upon
II. The recent action of the inter-
state commerce commission against
the oil trust and the railroads was
luz TO the Tillman-Gillespie resolu-
ton, 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 1t
was necessary only because the ad-
mln1stration had not enforced those
laws except when compelled to do so
~ VI CApOOulCS IudUG NY luc
state authorities or by other instru-
mentalities outside the department of
Why did not the president enforce
the law against the beef trust? His.
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
States. How could such a GER
tifcate have been given if the law was
not sufficient, when properly enforced.
to justify such a certificate? If the
was a criminal fraud, the
administration was responsible for it.
Not until Upton Sinclair had exposed
he intolerable practices of the pack
'rs, and demonstrated that the law
lad beer violated by collision be-
Ween the packers and the administra-
ion did the president issue his sensa-
1onal message against the beef trust.
me beef barons might truly say as
rockefeller has said: Business
Methods have nothing to do with ii.
t is all politics." They had the adj. J.,
nlnlstration's certificate of the pro-
'riety of their business methods and 3,
I their compliance with the law. :
If the law had been enforced there s
'ould have been no beef scandal. no i
abroad scandals, no coal or oil scan t
ais, no grain inspection scandals. q
he very existence of these scandals. t
rising as they do from l~ong-standing 2
iolations Of the old laws REFERRED to Q
Y Judge Parker in 1904, proves that v
ne administration has been either in s
1icient, or else particeps criminis, in c
this scandalous business, and that b
s pretense Of righteous indignation n
"all politics." +,
Mr.. Taft b%lundered, therefore, when O
> said at Greensboro, on July 9,
lat the president "by act" az we'll c,
by word, had manifested to the d
his determination to pursue I,
10 middle, just and impartial course
which the rich and the poor should 4,
Joy the equal protection, and suffer m
g equal and just enforcement of the f.
VS." This is call politics." The w
cord proves the contrary to be the re
nth. Judge Parker has shown the 10
ntrary to be the fact by citing the r.
cord in all cases where there have in
en- prosecutions, all of which have
en- under the old laws.