Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-09-08
ROOSEVELT
THE ISSUE
9EeRETARY DECLARES THAT
PRESIDENTS WAR ON TRUSTS
is SOLE ISSUE
POLICY UP TO VOTERS
Great Need of Republican Congress to
Help In Forwarding the Flight
Against the Combinations of Capital
--Asks Endorsement.

Bath, Me-, Sept, 6.-Secretary of War
Taft, in political address here last
night, declared that the sole issue in
the congressional campaign is Presi-
dent Roosevelt and his fight to destroy
illegal trusts.
If the voters of the United States ap-
prove the war on the illegal trusts they
will elect republican congress to up
-heldeth Presidents policy.
II they do not approve of the fight
on the TRUSTS they will elect demo-
cratic congress.
Secretary Taft reviewed the history
of the struggle between the people and
the trusts from the passage of the
Sherman antitrust law in 1890 down
to and including the present admins
tration of Theodore Roosevelt he
showed that President Roosevelt's pro-
gram was only half completed and that
he has pending in the federal courts
sixteen prosecutions against the trusts
and more than sixty for violations of
the interstate commerce law. He said
In part:
Campaign Question.
my Fellow Citizens;
II propoce this evening to Invite your
attention chiefly to a subject that has
very important bearing upon the is
sue presented to you in this cam
paign, whether you shall return a re-
publican or democratic house of rep
resentatiVes. refer to the evils arising
from the misuse and abuse of the pow
erful instrumentalities which the free
opportunity to organize and combine
capital has placed in the hands of the
comparatively few So widespread
have these evils become that the pub
lie has demanded remedies by legisla-
ton to restrain them and to regulate
and supervise more carefully in future
the exercise of the mighty means of
good and evil which organized capital
has proven to be.
Wealth Used As Capital.
TN the discussion of this subject, it
is well for us to begin with the prem
Use that wealth used as capital for the
production of commodities and conven-
fences essential to the life and comfort
OF the people is one of the chief means
by which people can be uplifted In
their pursuit of happiness. 1t would
be easy In listening to the datrbes of
a certain class of orators to gather the
impression that all wealth and all cap
ital and all corporations are to be con-
demned; whereas when we look at the
matter straight in the face we know
that the prosperity of this country and
the comfort that has been produced
are largely to be attributed to the as
sembling of the savings of the many
Into corporate capital, so that it may
be used to establish and carry out the
large enterprises for production, manu-
facture and transportation, without
which the prosperity which the coun-
try is now enjoying would not have
been attained. We must keep con-
stantly in mind that any step taken,
having effect generally to discourage
corporate enterprises and the savings
Of earnings for the purpose of estab-
fishing and operating them, would fall
with greater weight of suffering upon
the poor, the wage Garner, the small
dealer, and the salaried man, than up
On the owner Of capital and the man
ager of corporate enterprises
Increase in Earnings of Labor.
THE enormous increase in the BUSH
ness of this country and the wealth.
earning capacity is shown by the sta
bureau of the capital invested, the
products made, and the wages paid in
the manufacturing industries of the
United States. The capital invested in
creased from nine billions of dollars,
more than forty per cent, to nearly
thirteen billions of dollars. The value
of the products increased from eleven
billion five hundred million to fifteen
billion dollars, or a gain of thirty per
rent. With respect to the wage Garner,
lille there We're 16 per cent more men
ployed in 1905 than in 1900, the
ount paid in wages was 80 per cent
ter in 1905. This shows that while
capitalists in the manufacturing