The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-07-29


plainable on the grounds of political
expediency, since the trusts are to be
the mainstay Of the Republican cam
paign, and radical treatment of them
would be blunder from the Republi-
can standpoint. On this point, he
says:
THE chief difference between the
forms is the difference which has here
tofore been seen between the policies
of Mr.. Roosevelt and those which have
been advocated by Mr.. Bryan Mr..
Roosevelts policies have been progress
sive and regulative: Mr.. Bryan's de-
regulation of the business in which
evils have grown up so as to stamp out
the evils and permit the business to
continue. The tendency of Mr.. Bryan
proposals have generally been destruc-
tive of the business with respect to
which ne is demanding reform. Mr..
Roosevelt would compel the trusts to
conduct their business in lawful
manner and secure the benefits of their
operation and the maintenance of the
prosperity of the country of which they
are an important part while Mr.. Bry-
an would extirpate and destroy the en-
tire business in order to stamp out the
evils which they have practiced."
On this one point much of the vital
argument of the campaign will hinge
1t does not seem to have occurred to
Mr.. Taft that Roosevelts regulation"
so far mas been a distinguished failure.
beginning with the prosecution of the
beef trust. which was assessed a small
fine and enjoined from a combination
which is still in working order; a ''regu-
lation'' which ended in the Standard
Oil fine. as ludicrous a fizzle as ever
followed a much-heralded victory. APP
parently Mr.. Taft forgets the "regu-
lation" of the paper trust by injunc-
ton, regulation that brought the law
into contempt, mulcted the publishers
of the country in millions of dollars and
eliminated in the farcical investigation
of the trust by the special Cannon
Mann committee in congress. Nor does
he get the lesson of the recent prose-
cution of branch of this same trust
in which the members of the manila
and fibre combination pleaded guilty of
conspiracy and were fined $4,000 apiece,
about 1 per cent of their illegitimate
profits.
In the face of the facts. Mr.. Taft's
| Szf
regulation of the trusts by injunction
will not appeal to the voters who have
suffered with Impotence for years the
extortions of monopoly founded and
nourished by Republican tariff and
maintained with the connivance of a
Republican majority in congress.
On the all-infportant injunction queS-
ton as affecting labor, Judge Taft's
position is even clearer than the Chi
cago platform. He says the injunction
is the proper and sole remedy for
threatened injury by boycotts and
other labor troubles, although he
thinks the cases are rare where an in
junction In a labor dispute may prop
erly be issued without notice. He sug-
gests that a statute might be framed
which shall define with considerable
particularly and emphasize the excep-
tional character of cases In which re-
straining orders may issue without no.
tice." and he would have the order in
such cases terminate in short period.
during which notices could be served
and hearing had unless the defend
ant desired postponement. He is en-
tirely opposed to jury trials in cases
OF contempt where the contempt is in
direct, that is outside the presence of
the court: and in his view the Demo-
cratic plank on this subject is in
sidious attack on the authority of the
courts.
His dictum on this point is an at
tempt to revive the cry raised in 1896
and again in 1900 that the Democratic
party is opposed to proper support of
court authority. but the effort is I'M
likely to delude those who have read
the Denver platform or who remember
that Judge Parker was a domino ting
member or the committee on reSOlu-
tions which drafted the platform. The
difference between the two parties on
this point is that the Republicans
would continue conditions which per-
nit the abuse of the injunction, while
the Democrats would protect the citi-
zen from oppression by legal methods
which preclude exact justice.
The chief point on which Mr.. Taft
relies for his election is evidently the
appeal for a continuance of the Re
publicans In power on the plea that a
change would retard 1.-The return TO
prosperity and disturb settled bust
ness conditions. Ii is the old Let us
alone" plea Of the trusts. the men who
benefit by special privilege conferred
by the Republicans. 1t might have
originated with the steel trust. which
was so ably and conspicuously repre-
scented at Chicago; il has a touch of
Rockefeller I'm it. plaintive cry for
neace such as pickpOcket might raise