The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-31

rency is not arranged so as 10 permit it's volume to be increased temporarily to counteract the sudden drain of money by the hoarding in a panic. It is prob able that when the stringencyA reached it's height on that dark day of October 24, might in part have been alleviated had we had a currency which could au- tomatically enlarge itself to meet the tre- mendous demand of day or a week or month. while public confidence was being restored. The national admins tration together with many of the large capitalists of New York and elsewhere put their shoulders under the load and by various devices of an unusual char acter, have brought about the present condition of gradually increasing conf dence.
 Consequences Not Bad. "The injurious consequences to follow from this panic are not likely to be so long drawn out or to result in such dis astrous industrial depression as the panic of 1893 or the panic of 1873 and this for the reason that the conditions of the country make it so much easier to re- sume business s~gradually, to accumulate capital and then to renew the enterprises which lad to be abandoned for lack of it. In the first place, we have a solid currency with no suggestion now of a de- parture from the gold standard. In 1893 the pressure 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- pent finances now are in excellent con- dition and we have a large surplus. Our farming communities in the west today are not under the weight of mortgages and of debt which distressed 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 been taken into the hands of receivers and immense amounts were ex- pended by receivers, displacing and de- stroying the invested securities in order to put the 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 are about to settle for the hundreds of millions of gold that we withdrew from Europe in order to meet the de- mand for money In the markets in New York by the excess of our exports over our imports in the single month of Oc- tober.
 Giant Struggle.
 "All these things point to the prob- ability of a restoration of confidence and after proper liquidation and an in- dustrial depression of some months the resumption of business on a normal basis. The economic and political history of the last four years give 1t special im- portance, because it offers to certain ele- ments In the business and political com munity an exceptional opportunity Let me invite your attention to that history. It Is that of a giant struggle between the national administration and certain powerful combinations in the financial world. These combinations for lack of better name are called trusts" They are engaged 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 skilfully devised, but illegal methods of duress, to exclude competi- tion and monopoiZe the trade. They be- came the dictators to great railroads and by threatening a withdrawal of patron age secured unlawful and discriminating rebates. greatly increasing their profits and still more completely suppressing competition.
 Managed with conspicuous businex&. ability the trusts went into legitimd{&' foreign trade and largely increased oiff country's exports. The profits which they realized enabled them to engage in other enterprises carried on by legitimate meth ods until the hold which they acquired fin the business community gave them a position of vantage hopeless to combat. The basis of their original success and the maintenance of their power was the violation of the Sherman antitrust law and the interstate commerce law and for time both laws were dead letters upon the statute books of thu Unised States The purpose of the administration of Mir roosevelt was to make those men hav- ing power and wealth to know that the laws upon statute books were living to- gether and must be obeyed It was not proposed that the legitimate enterprises that were carried on with the capital of those men should be destroyed It was not proposed that the foreign trade which inured to the benefit of the whole country should be struck down; but if was de termined. that those who were making the statutes dead letter should be suh 1ect to restraint by injunction processes and punishment by indictment. not as a ihatter or revenge, not to gratify the ex- erclse Of power, but to separate svs tematic lawlessness from our business system.
 Moral Awakening.
 There was a moral awakening among the people and the hands of the admin lstration were held up in the work in which 1t was done. On the other hand the men and interests which were tbe subject of attack were not idle. Tbev had their partisans. guilty and innocent The guilty, of course. wished to defeat the administration by any means The innocent were these who had become in- volved with trust magnates in Legitimate business transactions and to whom tbe attitude of the administration seemed one or general opposition to the whole bus mess community.
 one or the great manifestations one of the monuments in this moral progress was the passage of the raiE road rate bill. It met the opposition Of many of the railroads, not because they were in sympathy with the trusts. Tor l think they In many respects had been more sinned against than shining but because they resented that close control, that rigid supervision which the public demanded in view of the pos abilities which the disclosures as 10 their past transactions revealed The hght made by the administration has been noteworthy one. And now, after a victory has been won, after there has been introduced into the hearts of all men, and especially of these leaders these trust managers and financial op ponents of the administration, the fear of the law, the panic comes on The trust magnates solidly entrench ed with great financial resources. are not the ones who suffer the most of it. It Is the men whc have had no such unlaw- ful or fruitful method of making money, the great body of business men and wage earners This is the feature of the panic that arouses our atten- tion and sympathy.
 The agents and sympathizers and