The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-31

TAFT AS NEXT
PRESIDENT
War Secretary Places Panic
Blame on ExtraVagant
Money Waste.

oO01ON, O6C. ol.-J166IeQ Will
cheers as The next President of the
United States,'' a topic which he care
fully avoided in his own remarks, how
ever, Secretary of Wal William H.
Taft delivered his first public speech
since his world-circling tour last night
at the annual banquet of the Boston
Merchants Association at the Hotel
Somerset. The banquet closed a long
and day for the Secretary of
War.
A more notable gathering of proni-
nent and representative Boston bust
ness men has seldom been seen in Bos-
ton han that which greeted the Sec
rotary last night.
ton Merchants Association, presided
over the banquet, and in introducing
Secretary Taft President Jones said:
I'VE are favored his evening by the
presence of a man from the Middle
West, who has impressed us all with
his fitness for the most important po-
sition a great and powerful nation can
bestow, and In brief an official Of
great strength and wisdom. He has
recently put a girdle around the earth
as an ambassador of peace and good
will, visiting the great rulers of mighty
nations, and we want to hear him talk
to U.S."
Immediately a great cheer rose from
the assembly and as the Secretary of
War rose to open his speech all The
guests stood up with him and filled the
air with lo~ng-continued cheers.
Calls from many parts of the room
for Three cheers for Secretary Taft,
the next President of the United
States" were met with more tumultous
cheering.
The only reference made to the Presi-
dency, direct or indirect, by Secretary
Taft during the day was at the Elysium
Club, where, after the guests had been
invited to shake hands with 1.-THE next
President of the United States" Secre-
tary Taft responded: "It is a great de-
light for me to shake hands under con-
dition, but / want you to understand
that there is no guarantee in this con-
tract"
The Wal Secretary, after referring to
his New England ancestry, discussed
the different phases of the recent
financial trouble under the subject of
''The panic of 1907. its causes. it's prob
able effects, and the relation to 1t of
policies of the national administration"
Extravaganza in living, in wars and in
catastrophes led up, he held, to
breaches of trust, stock jobbing and
other violations OF law. Continuing he
said:
s'The railroads today are In a better
condition than they have ever been In
their history. Their gross receipts are
larger per capita of population than
ever before. But few of them have re-
UaANU- LAA-. MLuuAvA N.4- - AARrnrhnRU an
VI S3eh business has to be created by
IL ~iducing n new population.
AeaAeain, the balance OF trade is with
ss~aSniIlions sf gold that we with
XhOnG EUROPE In order to meet The
New York by the excess Of our exports
over our imports In the single month
OF October.
IAN these things point to the probability
Of a restoration Of confidence, and, after a
proper liquidation and an industrial depres-
sion of some months, to a assumption OF
business on a normal basis.
dition Of mind in which the suffering bust
ness men are left by the great strain and
trial. such suggestions should receive
marked attention and that the more def
nitely the personality Of the scapegoat
can be fixed, the more pleasure 1t gives
the Victims of the catastrophe.
This mental attitude of the business
community which I have described ay
likely TO be found after every financial
panic, is clearly present today. The eco
nomtc and political history Of the last
four yr~.s gives 1t a special Importance,
becap.~ q offers to certain elements in
the business and political community an
exceptional opportunity.
Let me invite Your attention to that
history. 1t Is that of a giant struggle be
tween the national administration and GER
tain powerful combinations In the financial
world. These combinations for lack of a
better name, are called trusts They en-
RaKP1 in different lines of manufacture
and production, and by assembling large
amounts of capital into one mass in a
particular line of business managed. by
artful and slk~ilful1y-devised but Illegal
methods of duress, to exclude competition
and monopolize the trade. They became
the dictators to great railroads. however
powerful, and by threatening a withdrawal
OF patronage secured unlawful and dis
eliminating rebates, greatly increasing
their profits, and still more completely
supervising competition.
sOFhe basis of their original success
and the maintenance of their power
was the violation of the Sherman anti-
trust law and the Interstate
law, and for n time both laws were
hut dead letters upon the statute books
of the United States.
1"The purpose of the administration
of Mr.. Roosevelt WINS to make those
men, however powerful and wealthy,
to know that the laws upon the statute
books were living things, and must be
ait was not proposed that the Iegitl-
mate enterprises that were carried on
with the capital of those men should
he destroyed. 1t WAS not proposed that
the foreign trade which Injured to the
beneft of the whole country should
be struck down; but 1t was determined
that those men who were making the
statutes "a dead letter should be sub
jecf to restraint by injunction pro-
cesses and punishment by Indictment
mot as a matter of revenge, not to
crafty the exercise of power, hut TO
eradicate Systematic Iawlessness from
our business system.
I'm this struggle the administration has
been greatly aided by the popular sym
pathy awakened by revelations as to
breaches of trust by the managers of
some Of the great insurance companies;
by revelations as to mismana cement of
the internal affairs of great railroad COM
panies; by the disclosure as to the enor-
nous amount Of rebates extorted from
the railroad companies by these trusts, and
by the cnnsclenceless stock jobblng and
over-issue of bonds and stocks shown TO