Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-17
cRAwFIsH1NG

nRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. under
pressure of the New York stock
Il exchange, has caused it to be
known that the government will cease
its prosecution of the great trusts, and
that he is to deliver a public speech
on Tuesday next at Provincetown,
be known that trusts have been suf-
ficiently punished to serve the purpose
of the government, and in the inter-
ests of the money power the prosecu-
tion of others will not be pushed. This
position will be fortified by a speech
at Columbus, Ohio,9 on Monday next,
in which, as spokesman for the admin
istration, he will announce a limitation
of hostilities against the trusts of the
country, restricting action to attacks
on the vicious lawbreakers.
That the administration could be
tied in knot by a slump in stocks
resulting from vigorous execution of
the antitrust laws, even its political
enemies were 10th to believe, yet here
is the fact in cold type. The prompt
punishment of Standard Oil and the
clipping of the wings of railroads, to-
gether with the unwise boast of At
torney General Bonaparte that he
would put some of the big trust
magnates in JAIL combined to drive
stocks in corporations down, and a
posse of financiers hurriedly wait on
~. d HI a
from England, obtain the desired state
ment a week before it will be uttered
in public, and, presto, the stock market
is relievedl There is no secrecy; all
is open and above board-all but the
real animus behind it.
If any Democratic journal, north or
south, had published such a story as
being among the remote possibilities,
a week ago, the whole country would
arise in the Republican press and call
it vile and slanderous lie. framed
to fit campaign purposes.
There is no question of the need or
the legality of the antitrust prosecu-
tions; no charge of undue discrimina
of those under ban by the government;
no question of popular approval of the
good work done and to be done; Moth
ing in this wide world but that the
stock market is become panicky as a
result of the prosecutions and the
United States government must forego
its legitimate and plain duty and let
up on the trusts.
What a pitiful spectacle the hasty
gathering of Root, Meyer, Taft and
the financiers' agents with President
Roosevelt at his home on Tuesday last
cuts, now that the cat is out of the bag
Where is the "big stick" of the out
ragged law now? IT is transformed into
an Aladdin's lamp at the call Of the
Stillmans, Schiffs, Seligmans, Rookie
fellers and Morgans, and all the boast
ed power of it's wielder goes to stay
up falling stock market, and law
enforcement must be sidetracked.
1t is true a weak stock market, just
at the threshold of a presidential cam
paign, and one made so by the vigi-
lance and labors of the party in power,
is not safe proposition with which
to seek a continuation of that power;
and as the sinews of war must come
from the moneyed contingent of the
party it is the part of wisdom-from
a party standpoint-to hedge and keep
the stock market buoyant, or the Re-
publican party may lack it's best friend
when the political battle is on.
But what of the plain ethics of the
case? Was it buncombe when the
wires heralded to the world that the
"big stick" was raised to strike ali
who were guilty? Was it a presidential
mental reservation that this should lasi
only till the stock market was affected
The Herald sums up this gross breach
of faith with the people to be a con.
temptible side step from plain duty, a
the beck of fnanciers who hold a buoy
ant stock market to be greater thar
an honest government, and as a bic
for favors to come when the campaign
opens. We cannot accept the sophisn
that the financial welfare of the natiol
rests on confidence in the high grad
securities which have been attacked
under the antitrust law, and hold tina
equal and exact justice to rich anC
poor should be meted out, no matte
how it affects the stock market.
How quickly the big stick is trans