The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-08-22
TAFT DECLARES
HIS PRINCIPLES
War Secretary Discusses Ma
liOndl issues Under Aus
piOeS of the Buckeye
Republican Club.
RAILROADS, TRUSTS, TARIFF

tions-Stands With Roosevelt-Pays
His Respects to 6ryan-Favors a
Revision Of the Tariff After the
Election of 1908.
Columbus, o., Aug 20.-Hon. Viii
liam H. Taft, secretary of war, and one
of the most prominently mentioned
candidates for the Republican presi-
dental nomination, in a speech de-
livered last night under the auspices
OF the Buckeye Republican club of Co
lumbus, gave to the country what may
be regarded as the platform on which
he goes before the people.
Secretary Taft was invited to dis
cuss the national issues by the club,
which desired to tender him farewell
reception before his departure for the
Philippines. He responded with full
and frank presentation of his views
relative to the great questions of alb
sorblng national Importance. He made
clear his position relative to the rail
roads, the trusts, and the tariff, and
IN addition gave mastery exposition
OF what has been accomplished under
President RooSevelts administration.
In beginning his speech Secretary
Taft pointed out that there has been
quickening of the public conscience
In the midst of the general prosperity
fry haf nd,
for many abuses in industrial and po-
litical affairs. He then took up the
railroad question, describing the
abuses Of rate determinations and the
failure of the old interstate commerce
law to afford adequate remedy for
these abuses. This made necessary
the new rate bill. he said, and he pro-
ceeded then to tell what the new rate
law does, and to describe the opposi-
tion to its enactment Outraged public
opinion carried the bill, however. and
the opposition was able to muster only
seven negative votes in the house and
three in the senate Continuing, Sec
retary Taft said:
Opponents 5eittIe Rate Bill.
'The opponents Of the measure con-
tinue to denounce it, but now instead
of pointing out it's disastrous effect,
they say it is failure and that in the
year since its passage, it has not help
ed a single shipper. They insist that
the only effective and an all-suficient
law to regulate railways is the Elkins
act, passed in 1908, and that this is
shown by the fact that all the prose
CutiOns in which convictions have been
had against railway companies and
favored shippers in the last two years,
have been under the Elkins act, and
not under the rate bill Let us look
into the facts in regard to this allega-
tion. The chief prosecutions which
have been instituted have been crimin-
al indictments against the sugar trust
and the Standard Oil company and
certain railways and their agents and
officers for taking and giving secret
money rebates They could not have
been brought under the rate BILL be-
cause the acts prosecuted were COM
mitted before the passage of the rate
bill
1T is true that these prosecutions
were instituted under the Elkins act,
but it is also true that had the Elkins
bill never been passed, the same acts
could and doubtless would have been
prosecuted as giving and receiving
unjust determinations against the per-
sons committing them under the
amendment to the interstate COM
merCe act of 1889 which the Elkins law
supplanted. The Elkins law was really
an amendment to the interstate COM
merce act, enlarging and making more
effective the procedure for prosecuting
violations Of the prohibitions Of that
law and describing them in more COM
prehensive form. 1t gave greater lati, |
tude in respect Of the district where |
the Offense would be prosecuted and |
1t made the company necessarily re- |
sponsible in a fine for the act of its |
agents, without other proof of direct |
completely than the agency Under the |
1889 amendment, however, the indi- |
Viduals convicted could have been sent |
to the penitentiary whereas under the |
Elkins act, the punishment by i'm |
prisOnment was taken away while the |
fine was increased. The chief effect |
the Elkins law had on these particular |
prosecutions which have been given |
so much prominence, was to make it |
easier to convict the corporation and |
to increase its fine, but to save the |
guilty individual perpetrators from Inn |
prisonment.
Railroads Favored EIkins Bill.
1T is we'll understood that the Elkins |
bill was passed without opposition by, |
and with the full consent Of the rail. |
roads and that the chief reason for |
this was the elimination Of the peni- |
tentiary penalty for unjust discrimina- |
tions. The abolition of Imprisonment, |
as possible penalty, was unfortunate.
Experience has shown that a mere fine |
is generally not enough to deter a cor |
pOration from violation Of the law be- |
cause 1t then becomes a matter Of |
mere business speculation. The i'm |
prisonment Of two or three prominent |
officers Of railway company, or .
trust, engaged in giving or receiving
secret rebates, would have a greater
deterrent effect for the future than
millions in a fine
In the rate bill, congress amended
the Elkins bill and restored imprison-
ment as part Of the punishment for
secret rebates Had the rebating and
dishonest practices of the railroad
companies and the trusts been as
clearly known to congress and the
public when the ElkiHs bill was con-