Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-07-28
R0OSEVELT'S POLITICAL
HEIR IS TAFT, ACCORDING
TO ACCEPTANCE SPEECH


of the transportation and shipping
business under one control in order
To avoid discrimination.
Marked by Activity.
President Roosevelt directed suits
to be brought and prosecutions to be
instituted under the antitrust law, to
enforce its provisions against the
most powerful of the Industrial cor
porations. He pressed TO passage the
pure food law and the meat inspection
law in the interest of the health of
the public, clean business methods
and great ultimate benefit to the
trades themselves. He recommended
the passage of law, which the re-
publican convention has since specifi-
cally approved, restricting the future
issue of stocks and bonds by inter
state railways to such as may be au-
thoriZed by federal authority. He
demonstrated TO the people by what
he said by what he recommended to
congress, and by what he did, the sin
cerity of his efforts to command re-
spCct for the law. to secure equality
of all before the law, and to save the
country from the dangers of pluto
cratic government, toward which we
were fast tending. In this work Mr..
Roosevelt has had the support and
sympathy of the republican party. and
lits chief hope of success in the pres
| ent controversy must rest on the con-
| fidence which the people of the coun-
trY have in the sincerity of the party's
| declaration in its platform, that it in
tends to continue his policies.
Set High Standards.
"Mr. Roosevelt has set high the
standard of business morality and
obedience TO law. The railroad rate
| bill was more useful possibly in the
! immediate moral effect of its passage
than even in the legal effect of its
very useful provisions. From its en-
actment dates the voluntary abandon
| ment of the practice of rebates and
determinations by the railroads and
| the return of their managers to obedi-
ence 10 law in the fixing of tariffs
| The pure food and meat inspection
laws and the prosecutions directed by
the president under the antitrust law
ihave had similar moral effect in the
general business community and have
made it now the common practice for
| the great industrial corporations to
| consult the law with a view TO keeping
within its provisions. 1t has also had
the effect of protecting and encourag-
| ing smaller competitive companies SO
that they have been enabled to do a
profitable business.
| But we should be blind to the or
binary working of human nature if we
| did not recognize that the moral stand
! ards set by President Roosevelt will
not continue to be observed by those
whom cupidity and a desire for finan.
cha. power may tempt. unless the req.
uisite machinery is introduced into the
law which shall in its practical opera
ton maintain these standards and Sc
cure the country against a departure
from them.
Now to Complete and Perfect.
''The chief function of the next ad
ministration, in my judgment, is dis
tinct from, and a progressive develop
ment of that which has been perform
ed by President Roosevelt The chief
function of the next administration is
to complete and perfect the machinery
by which these standards may be main
tanned, by which the lawbreakers may
be promptly restrained and punished
but which shall operate with sufficient
accuracy and dispatch to interfere
with legitimate business as little as
possible. Such machinery is not now
adequate. Under the present rate bill
and under all its amendments, the bur
den of the interstate commerce com
mission in supervising and regulating
the operation of the railroads of thi:
country has grown SO heavy that it i:
utterly impossible for that tribunal t.
| hear and dispose, in any reasonable
| time of the many complaints, queries
and issues that are brought before i
for decision. 1t ought to be relieved
| Of its jurisdiction as an executive, Iii
| recting body, and its functions shoulC
be limited to the quasi-judicial investi
gatidh of complaints by individual
and by department of the govern
4 ment charged with the executive bust
\ ness of supervising the operation o
Y railways
XII should be Classification.
Ri "There should be a classification o
y that very small percentage of indus
X trial corporations having power AM
y lOpportunity to effect illegal restraint
ri of trade and monopOlies, and legisla
Y ton either inducing or compelling
Y them to subject themselves to registr
4 and to proper publicity regulations AM
X supervision of the department of com
Y merce and labor.
Isl Another suggestion in respect t
4 subordinate and ancillary machiner
y necessary to carry out republican po
x icies is that of the Incorporation undo
v national law or the licensing by ne
X tional license or enforced registry c
u companies engaged in interstate trade
N The fact Is that nearly all corporation
Z doing commercial business are Ell