Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-03-21
Contest in Congress Expected
Over Administration Trust Policy

formulate it into law Here they
seem to insist on getting along with
out the university people. 1t seems
strange.
President Roosevelt brought in the
college professors, the academic pub
licists, the managers Of great inter-
ests, the heads of labor organizations,
and consulted them all. 1t was the
adaptation of the European idea to
American statescraft. Thus far it has
not at all pleased congress. Congress
inclines to sheer at the assumption Of
the doctrinaires. 1t is distinctly pre-
| JUDGED, right at the start, against the
proposed measure for this reason
| The opponents of the measure are
already branding it as surrender to
the interests They insist that the
bill would pull all the teeth of the
Sherman law, remove all the terror
which law violation now superinduces
and open the way to an era Of gigan-
tic combination of combinations, such
as has not been dreamed Of thus far.
| They point out that the Northern
Securities decision under the Sherman
act probably prevented a continuation
of the policy Of railroad combinations.
which would presently have placed all
the railroads in the country into two
Or three groups; which might sooner
or later have consolidated them into
one group They urge that this means
ultimately government ownership, and
that this is the very thing most hos
tile to the American idea With the
law smiling instead of frowning on the
benevolent combinations, the way
might reasonably be opened once
more for Mr.. Hartman, say to carry
| forward to realization his dream Of
railroad empire extensive enough to
make him the master of the way
throughout the whole country. Like
wise, industrials of overpowering
might such as exist in copper and
steel and rubber and lumber, might
go on expanding till they would have
taken in everything and made them
selves secure against possibility Of
competition.
Possibility of magnificent filibus-
ter against such legislation already
looms above the horizon which bounds
the legislative landscape. If neces-
sary, the democrats and group of
the republicans, In the senate can
be expected to make the utmost eyer-
tions to prevent such an enactment
The discussion will be one succession
Of campaign speeches. Every effort
will be bent by the democrats to maxi
ing the administration appear to have
surrendered to the forces Of reaction,
or else to have yielded to the leader
ship which leads toward socialism
1t is expected that the administra-
ton measure will be presented in the
house by Representative Hepburn,
and in the senate the chances are that
Senator Knox will be asked to assume
fathership of it. 1t is not known how
far the Pennsylvania has been APP
prised of the purposes and details Of
the measure. To become sponsor and
manager for it would be advantageous
to him as a presidential aspirant, to
the extent that it would make him
plainly the accepted spokesman of the
president in the upper chamber. To
have the bill introduced in one house
by the representative Of an agricul-
tural district in the west, and in the
other by a corporation lawyer from
, Pittsburg, would be expected to give
it character as a piece of sincere and
earnest legislative effort But that
, the bill will have a stormy career, and
be vastly reorganized before 1t be-
/ comes law, is not doubted by any who
i have studied the congressional atti-
tude toward it,
]. C. Welliver.