The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1908-01-09

awakened by revelations as TO u,-o,,..-
of trust by the managers OF some of tho
great insurance companies:- by revela-
| tiOns as to mismanagement OF the inter-
| nal affairs of great railroad companies;
| by the disclosure as to the enormous
amount of rebates extorted from the
railroad companies by these trusts, and
| by the constituencies stock jObbing and
overissue of bonds and stocks shown to
have occurred i'm the management of
some of our great corporations.
There was a moral awakening among
| the people and the hands of the admin
| istration were he'd up I'm the work which
| It Was doing. On the other hand, the
| men and the interests which were the
| subject Of attack were not idle. They
| had their participants, guilty and inno-
cent.
The guilty. OF course. wished to defeat
the administration by any means. The
innocent were those who had become In
volved with trust magnates in legitimate
| business transactions and to whom the
| attitude of the administration seemed
one general opposition to the whole busi-
ness community.
Method In Attacks.
One of the great manifestations, one of
| the monuments in this moral progress,
| was the passage of the railroad rate bill.
| 1t met the opposition of many of the
| railroads. not because they were In sym
| pathy with the trusts, for | think they,
| I'm 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 possibilities which the dis
| closure as to their past transactions re-
| vealed. The fight made by the admins
tration has been noteworthy one. And
| now after victory has been won, after
| there has been introduced into the hearts
| of all men. and especially of these lead
| erS these trust managers and financial
| opponents of the administration, the fear
| of the law, the panic comes on. The
trust magnates, soldly intrenched with
| great financial resources, are not the
| ones who suffer the most from it. 1t Is
the men who have not such unlawful or
fruitful method of making money.
The agents and sympath2ers and de-
| tenders of the trusts and others innocent
but mistaken, now rush forward to place
the blame of the present conditions upon
the administration. They seek to use
the panic as an argument for giving up
the moral victory which has been won.
| Apparently they would take a retro
grading step back to the conditions
which existed five and six and ten years
ago, when, unhampered by statute law,
the trusts were building the financial
hulwark behind which they are now
fighting They rely upon the soreness
and the mental strain and suffering
through which all the honest business
men of the community have had to pass
as a golden opportunity for driving home
| their attacks upon the administration
and for paralyZing the onward move
ment toward the supremacy of the law.
| Lawbreakers Alone Condemned.
l have set forth what | believe to be
the real explanation of the panic. Let
us examine tho specifications of our op-
| ponentS now made to show that the ad-
ministration IS responsible. In the first
place it is said that the policy of the
| administration has been directed for the
last four years against organized capital,
and that it has thereby frightened in
vestors | deny it, The course of the
administration has been directed against
such organized capital as was violating
| the statutes of the United States and no
| others 1t had every consideration and
| desire to assist organized capital which
was engaged in legitimate business 1t
| is true that the execution of the policy
| of the administration has involved the
bringing to the light of public criticism
| the violation of the law by influential and
| powerful corporations and their proseCu-
|
national and state tribunals there have
been revealed as | have already said,
breaches of trust, stock jObbing, over
issue of stocks and mismanagement of
some of our largest corporations.
They have properly been severely con-
demned by all including the president.
Knowledge of these things doubtless af-
fected our credit in Europe and FASTENED
| the panic; but those who are morally
| Ia hn
guilty managers. not those who in the
course of their official duty have made
| known to the business world the facts
| and commented on them.
1t is said that the administration has
arraigned the whole business community
as dishonest. | deny it.
The president has condemned the law
breakers. He Las convinced those who
have unlawful!y accumulated enormous
powers and capital that they are not i'm
mune He has put the fear of the law
into their hearts. They have been acute
enough to attempt to protect themselves
by giving the impression that his action
has been directed against the whole bus
mess community 1t is true that the
business men of our community, as a
whole, are honest and their methods are
sound The president has never said
J otherwise Indeed, it is chiefly in the
|
business men that he has made his fight
for lawful business methods.
HoIIowness In Cry.
| Again, it is said that the rate bill, for
which the administration is responsible,
caused the present panic. Could anything
| be more absurd? The object of the rate
i bill was merely to bring the railroads
| under closer supervision of tribunal
which could act upon complaints of indi-
| Viduals suffering from their injustice.
| The immediate effect of Its passage was
| the voluntary reduction of rates Sub
sequently under normal circumstances,
| iustifying it. the rates of the railways
| generally were increased.
4 The continuance of the abuses of the
railway management were made by the
rate bill much more difficult but the
rate bill has not had the slightest effect
upon the legitimate busines earnings OF
| the railways. The utter hOlowneSs In
the cry that the rate bill caused the
| panic is seen in the fact that those who
now venture to advance this proposition
have been for more than a year contend
Ing that the rate bill was a humbug and
fraud because 1t had no effect what
ever because it had given promise of a
reduction of rates and no reduction of
rates followed.
Then state legislation against railroads
is pointed as a cause for shrinkage in
the value of the stocks and for the
panic Mr.. Roosevelt and the national
administration are not responsible for
this 1t was occasioned by the same rev.
elations of lawlessness and discrmina-
tion in railway management that made
the federal rate bill 81 necessity. If the
state measures have been too drastic the
cause of the injustice is not with the
national government.
Instead of making a panic, the national
policy of ending the lawlessness of cor
poratiOnS in interstate commerce and of
taking away their power of issuing,
without supervision. stocks and bonds,
will produce Il change in their manage