The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1907-05-17
DEMOCRATS WIRE the NRIEAIoRs.

WHOCkAiS WIKI TIT MIHAI0RS
Washington. d. G., May s. 1907
AS from Democratic initiative anc
aggressiveness grew the Roosevelt
administrations belated proceeding
against railroad combinations, the
beef trust, the Standard Oil and 9th.
er consolidated interests in restraint
Of trade, SO also has issued a sigma
victory for the government over the
national drug trust, with headquart-
ers at indianapolis, Ind Realizing
that further resistance would prove
futile, the drug trust has notified the
department OF justice Of its deter
minatlon 10 capitulate, and thereby
end a struggle which, under existing
circumstances, was bound to termin-
ate in a victory for the arrayed for
ces Of an aroused public sentiment.
While on the surface the subjuga-
ton OF the drug trust might appear
10 be a triumph for the department
Of justice, underneath is to be found
the real credit Of the accomplish
ment, which has its source on the
Democratic side Of the house of rep
resentatlVes Pursuing the investi-
CATION ever deeper, the genesis Of
the prosecution will be found to
have been with Representative Gil
lespie OF Texas, to whose energy
Justly belongs the credit for draw
ing the teeth of the national drug
trust.
Soon after the passage of the Gil
lespie resolution to investigate the
railroads, DR.. J. W. jennings, a
druggist of Washington City, in
formed Representative Gillespie that
he had been prosecuted by the ma
tional drug trust for several years,
and that fifteen months prior to his
appeal to him he had filed a com
plant with the department Of JUS
tice, charging the drug trust with
being an illegal combination in re-
straint of trade, in violation Of the
Sherman anti. trust law. DR.. Ien-
nings called attention also TO the fact
that the department Of justice had
not proceeded against the trust nor
given any notice, so far as he knew,
to his inquiries.
Representative Gillespie made
careful inquiry and, ascertaining
that DR., Jennings was thoroughly
reliable and responsible, and had
filed a petition with the department
of Justice, as he had claimed, the
representative then introduced a res
olution during the first session Of
the fifty-ninth congress calling upon
the department Of justice for the
facts in its possession tending to
show such an illegal conspiracy in
re straint of trade. This resolution
subsequently went before the judic-
larry committee Of the house, and up
on INJURY by the chairman of that
committee the department Of justice
acknowledged the possession OF facts
tending to establish the existence of
such a conspiracy
Representative Gillespie was as
sured that if his resolution was al
to rest the department of JUS
tice would move in the direction of
suppressing the drug trust. A short
while thereafter the department filed
suit against the national drug trust
and the recent notice of capitulation
given by its attorneys shows that
the trust has thrown up the sponge.
In a suit tried in Philadelphia
some time ago, it was developed that
national drug company had in
creased its yearly profits to the tune
Of 100000 900.
That the trust knew Of Represent
alive Gillespie and his hostile meth
DDS is vouchsafed by the Texas mem
Der, who states that during his cam
paign Of last summer to succeed
himself the trust had his district
plastered with circulars, sent out
from Chicago, denouncing him as an
agitator.