The newspaper., 1908-10-30

the interests of the people demand,
would the number Of trusts have null
tplied SO rapidly? Not only would
the trusts doing business have been
put out of business. but men would
not have put money into new trusts
II they had believed that the law
against trusts and against persons
guilty of combining would be vigorous
ly enforced.
l submit that by the test of punish
Ing lawbreakers and deterring others
from violating the law-the eternal
and true test-the execution of the
antitrust laws by the federal govern
ment Is failure; and that the exist
ence and tloGrishing condition of the
very trusts you have prosecuted con-
vinces the people that the trusts are
superior to law, or as Woodrow VIII
son. president of Princeton university.
said last week:
Ihe most striking fact about the
actual organization of modern society
is that the most conspicuous, the most
readily welded, and the most formida-
bic power is not the power of the gov.
ernment, but the power of capital. Men
OF our day in England and America
have almost forgotten what 1t is to
fear the government, but have found
49, "hat ~ 10 " lear lue power OIL
capital, to watch it with jealousy and
suspicion, and trace to it the source
Hf every open or hidden wrong"
submit that the collection OF fines
from trusts aggregating a million dol
iars, if you had collected SO much.
which has not been done, would be no
punishment worth the name of pun
ishment TO the 2s7 trusts with an ag-
gregate capitalization OF S6,912. AS
Sol.oO. The fining process in trust
prosecution is analogous to those fines
imposed by police justice upon per-
sons keeping Illegal resorts In towns.
hese hnes often operate as sliding
scale OF license lax-so may dollars
whenever the aroused moral sense of
the community will no longer be silent
while the lawless dive debauches the
people. What the people wish to know
Is thls; How many trusts have You |
compelled TO dissolve-in truth. and
not merely TO officially dissolve, and
then continue to fix the price, as the I
dissolved paper trust has done? The !
meat trust paid fine and soon put up
the prices OF all that men must eat by
some w-you-see-it- and -now-y
sleight OF band that seems TO escape
iurther prosecution while continuing TO
levy tax upon all the people. No
that Is not felt by the public in re-
lieving them of trust imposition "A
" hat they buy. Your department saws
The paper trust was prosecuted and
. dissolved. but the publishers know that
The mills In the trust have a combine
lon now as injurious 10 them as before
your prosecution. You say you hnye
prosecuted the tobacco trust. but that
trust has put up the price OF the manu.
lacfured product IL sells and put down
II VIII tie price OF the raw material
4 buys from the farmer. You do not
rIaim. l believe. TO have ever even In.
'tituted proceedings against the steel
rust. and only last year. in the teeth
'f the law. your department acquiesced
u the complete monopoly Of that giant
'f trusts when II took over the only
arge company able TO compefe with
i~IIed 70 take IYs grasp fron tie tnfo3t
of free competition while 223 new
trusts have been born during the Nc
Kinley and Roosevelt Republican ad-
mlnisira tions. how long at this rate "
progress will IL take the Republican
TO stop the extortion OF
2s7 trusts that fatten by taxing the
peoplef That is the question that the
voters are propounding and IL is
question which the department Of jus
tice should answer.
am. sir
Yours very respectfully.
lSignedl
IOSEPHrS DANIELS.
Chairman Press Bureau