Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-08-20
Washington Bureau Of
The Ottumwa Courier
Washineton p q AUGUST 10

Washington Bureau of
The Ottumwa Courier.
Washington, D. c., August 10.
Much talk is being INDUCED in just
at present. prompted by the disturbed
state of the stock market and the
semi-panic that mas apparently seized
upon many financiers, of reassur-
ance from the administration and Of
cessation Of the anti-railroad and
|anti-corporation activity in which the
government is engaging
Officials here profess not to know
whether the President has any utter
ance Of reinsurance which he intends
to issue but SO far as any cessation
IN the enforcement of the laws against
rebating is concerned or any stop
ping Of the efforts to enforce the Sher-
man antitrust law. there are no symp-
toms Of either of these things. On the
contrary the Impression given out by
Attorney General Bonaparte is that
the administration intends to go
ahead on the lines 1t has begun and to
seeks to enforce the laws vigorously
More than that, Mr. Bonaparte intl-
mates strongly there will be criminal
prosecutions Of trust magnates who
have offended the laws if conviction
seems reasonably certain. He denies
the Department of Justice has recent
ly accelerated Its pace against the
trusts and monopolies or that 1t is con-
templating campaign of unusual
lvigor. His assertion is that the De
partment of Justice has been long
moving ahead steadily in the direction
of compelling the enforcement of the
antitrust and anti-rebating laws, that
| 1t intends to keep on doing so and
that any idea that it has lately exhib-
tied unusual energy is unfounded.
The tone of Attorney General Bona
parte, along with various develop
ments here, appear to make it certain
that the rest of President Rooseyelt's
administration Is to be characterized
by an energy in the enforcement of
trust and railroad laws and in the eff
forts to get legislation that will still
| further strengthen the hands of the
government even greater than the
| vlgor he has exhibited as to these
matters in the past. That the Presi-
dent should become less active than
! he has been in railroad and trust af-
fairs is an idea for which there
appears not the slightest warrant. The
President and the men around him
have been engaged for years in gath
ering ammunition and in perfecting
weapons to force the railroads and
trusts to obey the laws and there can
be no doubt they are much better
armed for the struggle than they were
a few years ago. To talk of less
vigorous policy of law enforcement
now, could only mean that the Presi-
dent had become convinced that to
enforce the law meant financial ruin
for large share of the country. or
that the effort to enforce the law was
unsuccessful The Bureau Of Cor
porations through its agents has col
ilected vast mass Of information rela-
tive to big corporate affairs that has
been of great service to the govern
ment in its prosecutions under the
Sherman law and the Elkins law.
The government officials have acquir.
ed familiarity with the consideration
Of trust, corporation and railroad af-
fairs that they did not possess in the
earliest stages of the efforts of the
/ Roosevelt administration to deal vigor.
ously with the combination and the
carriers. The Department Of Justice
| is beginning to get valuable expert
ence and to gather around 1t expe&-
enced prosecutors on trust and rail
road matters Now energy and vigor
has been injected into the Interior De-
partment with reference to the en-
forcement of the public land laws so
as to check great railroads in their
exploitation of great mineral properi-
ties on the public domain. And the
interstate commerce commission
through it's accounting division and it's
inquiry into the intercorporate rela-
lions between the railroads and other
corporations has ELECTED information
calculated to make rebating more diff
cult and the tracig of rebating opera
lions by the government more easy.
Probably still more important public
sentiment has been greatly aroused
and there is not much doubt 1t is nav
ing the effect of making it more easy
for the government to get convictions
and stiff sentences than it was in for
mer years.
In other words, if the President
wants to enforce these laws regardless
of the consequences to the violators,
there can be no question he is in bet
ter position to secure enforcement
now than he ever was so far as means
of enforcement are concerned Under
the circumstances, it is hardly to be
expected he will desist without a
thorough trial Of what these laws anil
such new ones as he can
get to strengthen them will
accomplish. All indications are
that the President has no
thought Of desisting. On the con-
trary, for some months to come the
government will probably bend its
energies as 1t has never done before
against any great corporate concern
| in the attempt to crush the Standard
Oil monopoly. 1t is realized that to
accomplish this would work moral
effect for the enforcement of the Sher-
man law and In way of demonstration
that no combination or monopoly is
above the government that would have