The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-28

mitted by one of the supposed competi- tors is an act of plain dishonesty.
 ''To support these misrepresentations by false affirmations in writing that the bids are submitted in good faith, and without fraud, collusion or connection with any other bidder, is a positive and deliber- ate fraud; the successful bidder in the competition is guilty of obtaining money by false pretenses; and the others have made themselves parties to a conspiracy clearly unlawful at the common law.
 Where, as in the case of the Boston Agreement, a number of the most im- portant manufacturers and dealers in structural steel in this country, including the American Bridge company, one of the constituent members of the United States Steel corporation, have combined together for the purpose of raising prices by means of collusive bids and false repre- sentatons, their conduct is not only re- poignant to common honesty, but is plain ly obnoxious to the federal statute known as the Sherman or antitrust law.
 "The commission believes that an eX- ample should be made of these men, and that the members of the Boston agree ment,' or at least all those who, in De- tober and November, 1905, entered in the fraudulent competitions for the Cove street draw span and the Brookline street bridge should be brought before fed eral grand jury for violation of the act of Congress of July ?, 1890. The three years limitation for participation in these transactions has not yet elapsed, and the evidence obtained by the commission Is so complete that there should be no diff culty in the governments securing conviction in this case"
 Submitted for Investigation.
 have submitted this report to the department of justice for thorough in vestigation and for action if action shall prove practicable.
 Surely such a state of affairs as that above set forth emphasizes the need of further federal legislation, not. merely because of the material benefits such legislation will secure but above all be- cause this federal action should be part, and a large part, of the campaign to waken our people as a whole to a lively and effective condemnation of the low standard of morality implied in such con- duct on the part of great business con cerns. The first duty of every man is to provide a livelihood for himself and for those dependent upon him; it is from every standpoint desirable that each of our citizens should endeavor by hard work ard honorable methods to secure for him and his such competence as will carry with it the opportunity to en- Joy in reasonable fashion the comforts and refinements of life; and, further more, the man of great business ability who obtains a fortune in upright fashion inevitably in so doing confers a benefit upon the community as a whole and is entitled to reward, to respect, and to ad- miraton. But among the many kinds of evil, social, industrial and political, which it is our duty as .I nation sternly to combat, there is none at the same time more base and more dangerous than the greed which treats the plain and simple rules of honesty with cynical con- tempt if they interfere with making a profit! and as a nation we cannot be held gultless if we condone such action. The man who breaches hatred of wealth honestly acquired, who ineulcates envy and jealously and slanderous ill will to- ward those of his fellows who by thrift, energy, and industry have become men of means, is a menace to tho community. But his counterpart in evil ic to be found in that particular kind of multimillonaire who is almost the least enviable, and is certainly one of the least admirable of all our citizens; a man of whom 1t has been well said that his face has grown hard and cruel while his body has grown soft; whose son is fool and his daugh- ter a foreign princess; whose nominal pleasures are at best those of a taste less and extravagant luxury, and whose real delight, whose real life work, is the accumulation and use of power in it's most sordid and least elevating form. In the chaos of an absolutely unrestricted commercial indiyidualism under modern conditions, this is type that becomes prominent as inevitably as the marauder baron became prominent in the physical chaos of the dark ages. We are striving for legislation to minimize the abuses which give this type its flourishing prom. thence, partly for the sake of what can be accomplished by the legislation it. self. and partly because the legislation marks our participation in a great and stern moral movement to bring our ideals and our conduct into measurable accord THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
 l The White House. April 27, 1908.