The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-28

nificant in this decision is that it IS not only a decided setback for the ad- minstration, and a rebuke to Judge Landis. but that it is a personal slap at the self-confidenee and assumption of Roosevelt himself. He has had much to say about regulating and suppress ing the trusts. and about bringing the great corporations to terms. Besides, he and his friends have pIumed and preened themselves ad museum over this decision of Judge Landis and held 1t up as q striking example of what the administrator could and would do to the whole octapus family if it's va- rious members failed to be good &C., cordins to their ideas of what is re- quired of them.
 We have read much unfavorable comment on the decision of Judge Landis. and it has been more than hint ed that the court was influenced from the White House in imposing such an unheard of penalty as was placed on Standard on. Be that as 1t may. Lam dis is 6 Federal judge and it has been plain that his action was highly pleas ing to the President. But the Court of Appeals is also a Federal Court. and the way 1t sat down on Rooseve1t's legal employe has given him several attacks of clustering hysteria. As The Eagle says, he has plainly indicated his resentment towards the higher court, and has more than intlmated that he will not submit to having him. self reversed in any such fashion. Just what he will do-exeept to bluster--is not yet apparent, but his friends should advise him to keep his neither garments on for the present.
 Among other off-hand opinions de- livered by the President in his wrath at what he evidently considers a hu- initiation put on himself, as we'll as on his administration. is his positive assertion that the reversal of the de- cision of the lower court does not in any way touch the merits of the case. except so far as the fine is concerned" 1" Not true" says The Eagle, with al- most brutal directness, which is char acteristic of it. and adds:
 On the contrary. discussion of sev- sral of the merits, so called, Is more or shown that the defendant had no guilty knowledge" being ignorant of the railroad eompany's failure to com imposed for every car. Instead of every shipment, thus increasing the counts far beyond the merits" Obviously. the President dictated the statement--it is
 Now, we are not putting up any ar sument for Standard oil. or trying to excuse or condons it's many sins of omission and commission. for there are many, as all are aware. The courts will probably untangle the whole busi- ness in their own way and In their own time. and we hope justice will be done both sides when 1t is finished. We have merely referred to the evident chagrin of the President at finding himself called down. and to the way one of the well-informed newspapers regards his bluster and threatenings.
 The President has brought down on himself some very severe criticism; not from emotional or blindly partisan critics. but from influential newspapers of the North and East which are noted for the calm and judicial tone of their continents. The New Haven Register is one of these. and 1t refers particu- lariy to Roosevelt's assertion that guilt of the defendant"--meaninK the Standard oil. This" says The Reg ister. "is not. technically. an instance of contempt of court. But 1t is an in- stance of the nasty and imprudent ex- pression of an opinion that is worth no more than many other private opin- ions, while the prominence of It's hold CT and deliverer makes the possibilities of its bad example tremendous. To take an opinion so diametrically oppo- site to that which the court has so circumstantially expressed does not show a proper respect for that or any other court. And on general prin- ciples to declare that there is abso- lutely no question of anything is something which the prudent and in formed man, who has studied we'll his metaphysics and learned well the les nan, of 1tfA aaos ra+ az
 We might copy much more of the same kind. from newspapers which have always treated Roosevelt with fairness and leniency. but the two we
 ave quoted from are fair examples of a number of others that we have