The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-31
TAFT SCORES
 THE DEMOCRATS
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but of actual money to be used In the transaction of the day--a very diI- ferent question, though of course clese- ly related. It would seem that our system of currency is not arranged so as to permit its volume to be increased temporarily to .counteract the sudden drain of money by the hoarding In panic. It is probable that when the stringency reached it's height on that dark day of october 24. might in part have been, alleviated, had we had currency which could automatically en- large itself to meet the treme ndous demand of day or a week or a month. while public confidence was being restored The national administration together with many of the large capi- talists of New York and elsewhere put there shoulders under the load and by various devices of an unusual character have brought about the present condition of gradually increas- ing confidence.
 The Injurious consequences to fol- low from this panic are not likely to be so long drawn out or to result In such disastrous industrial depression as the panic of 1893 or the panic of 1875 and this is the reason that the condi- tions of the country makes 1t so much easier to resume business gradually 10 anu lntH tO it- new the enterprises which had to be abandoned for lack of it. In the first place we nave solid currency with no suggestion now of a departure from the gold standard. In 1SY3, the pres sure for free silver was on, and the threat of national repudiation had much to do with the delay in the re- turn to prosperous times. Our govern ment finances now are in excellent an1 loxr Inw plus. Our farming communities in the West today are not under the weight of mortgages and of debt wiAch dis tressed them in 1893 and 1873. They are prosperous and wealthy.
 Again the railroads which make up large part of the wealth of this country are on a much more solid foundation than they were in 1893 Then many of them had to be taken into the hands of receivers and i'm mense amounts expended by means ot receivers certificates, displacing and destroying the value of vested securi- ties in order to put roads in a safe } and income earning condition. The railroads today are in a better physical condition than they have ever been in their history.
 Again the balance of trade is with us. We were about to settle for the hundred millions of gold that we with i. drew from Europe, in order to meet the demand for money in the mark cts in New York by the excess of our ex- ports over our imports in the single . month of October.
 Restoration of Confidence.
 : "All these things point to the prob. ability of restoration of confidencs and after proper liquidation and ar industrial depression of some months to resumption of business on a nor. nal basis The economic and politica history of the last four years gives ii special importance, because it offers tt certain clements in the business anC political community an exceptional op. portunity. Let me invite your atten. tfon to that history. It is that of giant struggle between the national ad ministratfon and certain powerful com binations in the financial worlds. Thes, combinations for lack of a better nam, are called trusts" They are engaged in different lines of manufacture anC production and by assembling larg, amounts of capital into one mass in particular line of business managed b, artful and skilfully devised but illega methods of duress. to exclude competi ton and monolize the trade. they be came the dictators to great railroad and by threatening a withdrawal O patronage secured unlawful and dis crimnating rebates, greatly increasing their profits and still more completel. suppressing competition.
 Managed with conspicuous business ability. these trusts went into legiti hate foreign trade and largely in creased our country's exports. Tn profits which they realized enable, them to engage in other enterprise carried on by legitimate methods unti the hold which they acquired in tn business community gave them a posi- ton of vantage. 1t seemed hopeless t combat. The basis of theire origina success and the maintenance of thei power was the violation of the Sher man antitrust law and the interstat commerce law and for a time both law were dead letters upon the statut books The purpose of the argumen of MT. Roosevelt was to make thos men, however powerful and wealth } to know that the laws upon the stat ute books were living together an must be obeyed. It was not propose that the legitimate enterprises tha were carried on with the capital O those men should be destroyed. It wa not proposed that the foreign trad which inured to the benefit of tn whole country should be struck down but it was determined that those wh were making the statutes a dead lette should be subject to restraint by in Junction processes and punishment b indictment, not as a matter of revenu, not to gratify the exercise of powe ! but to eradicate systematic lawlessnes from our business system.
 "There was moral awakenin