Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-12-31

every financial panic is clearly pres
snt today. The economic and politi-
cal history of the last few years
gives it especial Importance, because
It offers to certain elements in the
business and political community an
exceptional opportunity. Let me in
vite your attention to more history.
1t is that of a giant Struggle be-
tween the national administration
and certain powerful combinations
in the commercial world. These
combinations, for lack of better
name, are called trusts" They
engage in different lines of manu-
facture and production and by as
sembling large amounts of capital
into one mass in a particular line
of business, managed by artful and
skillfully-devised, but illegal, meth
DDS of duress, to exclude competi-
ton and monopolize the trade. They
became the dictators to great rail-
ways, however powerful, and by
their power and withdrawal of pat
ronage, secured unlawful and dis
eliminating rebates, greatly in
creasing their profits and still more
completely suppressing competition.
Managed with conspicuous business
ability, these trusts went into legiti-
mate trade and largely increased
our country's export. The profits
which they realized enabled them to
engage in other enterprises carried
on by legitimate methods until the
/ hold which they acquired in the
business community gave them po-
sition of vantage it seemed helpless
to combat The basis of their orig.
inal scheme and the maintenance Of
their power was the violation Of
the Sherman antitrust Jaw and the
interstate commerce law, and for 6
! time both laws were but dead laws
upon the statute books Of the Unit
ed States. - lF f.
Purpose Of Administration =
The purpose OF the administration
of President Roosevelt was to make
those men, however powerful
and wealthy, to know that the
laws upon the statute books wer,
living laws and must be 0beyed. i
was not proposed that the legiti
mate enterprises that were carried
on with the capital of those mer
should be destroyed. 1t was moi
proposed that the freight trade
which Injured to the benefit Of the
whole country should be strucl
down; but 1t was determined thai
those who were making the statutes
a dead letter should be subject t.
restraint by Injunction procesSe!
and punishment by indictment-no
as a matter of revenge, not to graft
fly the exercise of spower. but tt
eradicate systematic law1essnes!
from our system. In this struggl,
the administration has been great
ly aided by the popular sympath!
awakened by revelations as Il
breaches of trust by the managers o
some of the great insurance com
panies; by revelations as to misman
agement of the internal affairs o
great railroad companies; by tn,
disclosures as to the enormous
amount OF rebates extorted from tn,
railroad companies by those trusts
and the conscienceIess stock jobbini
and over issue of bonds and stock
shown to have occurred In the man
agement Of some of our big corpora
tions.
There was a moral awakening
among the people, and the hands o
the administration were held up IL
the work which 1t was doing. Or
the other hand, the men and the in
terests which were the subject o
attack were not idle. They hat
their enthusiastically and limo
cent. The guilty., of course, wished
to defeat the administration by any
means The innocent were those
who had become involved with trus'
magnates in legitimate bushes!
transactions and to whom the atti
tude of the administration seemed
ore of general opposition to the
whole business community.
Results of Moral Awakening
One of the great manifestations
one of the monuments in this mora
progress, was the passage of the
railroad rate bill 1t met the oppc