Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-09-13
TAFT ON NATIONAL ISSUES.
The Great speech Delivered BY the
secretary in the Maine Campaign.

The speech delivered last week We1nes-
day at Bath, Me-, by the Hon. william
II. Taft, secretary Of war, was an i'm
portant one. Mr.. Taft is an able states
man and he covered the entire range Of
national issues in his speech. In regard
to the trusts hd said:
1t would be easy in listening to the
diatribS of n certain class of orators
TO gather the impression that all wealth
and all capital and all corporations are to
be condemned: whereas. when we look at
the matter straight in lie face we know
that the prosperity of the country and
the comfort that has been produced are
largely to be attributed to the assembling
of the savings of the many into corpor-
ate capital, so that they may be used to
establish and carry out the large enter
prlses for production, manufacture. and
transportation, without which the pros
perity which the country is now enjoying
would not have been attained.
Inc men who are to he trusted and
should be charged with the duty of curb
ing corporate and capitalistic abuses are
those who fully appreciate and value fair
~ and wisely the uses Of aggregate
wealth as capital, and recognize II as in
d'spensable to the prosperity Of the COM
munity and the pursuit of happiness by
the people. and yet who at the same time
fully recognize the evils OF the abuses
which have arisen Ivy It's misuse, and the
necessity for their correction.
ROOsEvELT's VIGOROUS ACTION.
The vigorous action which MIR. Roose-
welt has taken against trusts, through his
attorneys-gencral, Mcssrs Knox and
Moody, is already beginning to bear fruit.
The Paper trust and the Northern Securi-
ties trust have bc,n dissolved. The mere
prosecution and indictment of the Sugar
trust, of the Standard Oil trust, and Of
the Tobacco trust have led to changes
in the methods of those organizations,
and to an abandonment of some of the
more glaring determinations in rates and
prices which were the nstrumehtalities
for preserving monopoly. even before con-
viction has been effected or final judg-
ment pronounced againsl them. The fear
of the law has been put into the hearts
of the members of these great corpora
tons. and this has been due chiefly to the
courage the determination and the intense
interest OF Theodore Roosevelt In the Sc
curingof adequate legislation and its Wig
orous and executive enforcement.
The atti,ude which Mr.. Roosevelt took
with respect to the Northern Securities
case and his determination. to stamp as
illegal that attempt to put into the hands
OF one set of men two great parallel and
competing railways from Chicago TO the
Pacific coast. aroused the opposition of
powerful railroad interests in Wall street,
and had much TO do with the pressing of
Judge Parker for the democratic presi-
dental nomination., Mr.. Roosevelt is no
more popular in Wall street to-day thai
he was when the Northern Securities case
suit was instituted, and the reason Is, not
that he is opposed to. or Is cngageu in a
crusade against, corporate wealth. not
that he is opposed to the security that
capital must AVE in order that it may be
used to the advantage of the public and
the reasonable profit of it's owners. but
because he interposed real and practical
obstacles to its use in violation of law
to accomplish results which cannot inure
to the benefit of the public. The practi-
cal trust managers and benenciaries care
little for oratoricol deruncIatIon and vehe-
ment rhetoric. What they object TO is
efficient interference with their plans and
purposes.
THE REAL. ISSUE.
1t has been suggested at times, as il
1t We're 4 ground for criticising the Re-
publican party and the congressman who
now go back to their constituents for a
Judgment upon their course that they pro-
pose to make Mr.. Roosevelt the issue in
this campaign. They do propose to make
Mr.. Roosevelt the issue in this campaign.
because he is the issue; not in what he
has said but in what he has done and