Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1906-05-10
CORNFlELD LAWYERS
President Seems to Lack Con-
stitutional Advisers.

President Seems to Lack Con-
stitutional Advisers.
AMATEUR STATESMEN AT HELM,
The Administration Trust Busting
Campaign Ends In Complete Fail
ure breakdown of Republican
Plan of Dealing With the Giant
Corporations.
If laundering is evidence of what
Senator Tillman calls "corntield law
yers," there is not much doubt that the
administration appointees of the de-
partment of Justice are fully up to that
standard. But perhaps the lawyers
are not SO much to blame as the presi-
dent, who set about the prosecution of
the beef trust in the most approved
style of the cornield jurist. The in
quiries of his agents mixed up
with criminal indictments that would
have done but scant credit to the man
with the hoe. The administration plan
for catching trust magnates was to
first get them ~contidentially to admit
they were robbers and then prosecute
them. The court decided that was not
a fair way to go about it. Any farmer
with ordinary common sense would
have known as much, fsut the admins
tration cornfield lawyers did not recog-
ni0e that we'll knowR maxim of the
law.
There is further evidence that the
administrations cornfield lawyers are
away off on their constitutional law,
for they advised the president that
congress could undertake the federal
regulation Of life insurance. The ju-
dietary committee Of the house of rep
resentatives reported unanimously that
such a law would he plainly %unconsti-
tutional.
The cornfield lawyer, if honest, has
his useful place i'll advising his neigh
lbors as to statute taw, but as consti-
tutional lawyer q farmer would not
hire him if involved in a serious case,
and he is entirely out Of place in the
councils Of the nation when intricate
constitutional questions are to be de-
cMed. The trouble with President
Roosevelt seems to- be that ali the good
constitutional lawyers who are Repub-
licans have been hired by the corpora
. lions and he has to be content with
those whom Senator Tillman dubs as OF
. the cornfield variety.
i If the president would rely upon the
advice of the great Democratic consti.
tutional lawyers who are free from
corporation faint it would ave him
endless modification and would indi
cate to the country that he was really
, intent on curbing the trusts and cor
porations.
1t has been agreed by the admins
tration that the attorney general must
take an appeal to the supreme court
. from the decision of Judge HumDhre!
declaring corporation officials cannot
be reached by the antitrust law who
have given information to the burea,
of corporations. So far the trust bust
ing campaign Of President Roosevelt
has all ended in smoke, and the trusts
and corporations are free to continue
their combinations in restraint of trade
Q to prevent competition and plumber
I the by charging unreason
able prices for their products. Presi
dent Roosevelt has been about five
years trying to curb the trusts Il thu
: only one disturbed SO far has been thu
Il Northern Securities company. Yet tina
corporation is still in existence. ant
it's constituent companies, the Grea.
Northern, the Northern Pacific and TIN
5 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy rail
a a roads, are one and all continuing tt
charge all the traffic will bear and ;
good deal more than the people using
those lines of transportation can wei
t afford. as they did before proceedings
were commenced against them.
What a ~travesty on genuine trus
bustingI
Democratic statesmen foretold this
; breakdown of the Republican plan o:
i dealing with the giant corporations
They advised that under the common
law such unlawful combinations coult
be prosecuted, and the supreme court:
e recent decision in the tobacco CASE
SHOWS l1ll lnC llcIlllllllullilS w lutllIt
may be compelled from the unwilling
lips Of trust mAgnatcs. But thai ad
vice was not adopted by the admins
= t%ration. perhaps because 1t was recon-
mendcd by Democrats who would thu:
share in the political advantage 1ha1
would accrue, but also because it was
not spectacular enough to fit the siren
i nous mood of the president.
If the decision of the lower court il
the beef trust case stands and the trust
magnatcs and their employees wh(
have given contidentially to Commits
! sioner Garfield or to his agents any in
formation cannot be prosecuted how
ever much they may have offended
against the law. the whole expensive
machinery Of the government breaks
down at the first attempt to run it.
If we had not been assured that tho
administration was hot foot and ardent
after the trust magnates and anxious
to put the criminal one in stripes. il
would be but fair to assume that all