The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1908-08-25

strict enforcement of that law, and
the Republican party has been ex
planning year after year why it was
impossible to enforce it. Instead o1
being wholesome instrument for
good" it has been almost useless, sc
far as the protection of the public is
/ concerned, for the trusts have grown
in number, in strength, and in AFRO
gance, at the very time when the Re
publican party was boasting of its
enforcement of the law. The steel
trust was formed Immediately after
the election of 1900, and a promi-
nent Republican said, in a speech
soon after, that it might have pre-
vented Republican victory if it had
been formed before the election.
Most of the trusts have never been
disturbed, and those that have been
prosecuted have not had their busi-
ness seriously interrupted. The Pres
ident has done something toward the
enforcement of the law, but not near
ly enough, and the Republican lead
ers have thwarted him at every point.
Finally the President became so ex-
asperated that he sent to congress
message which shocked Republican
leaders by the fierceness of its de-
nunciation of the predatory interests.
The very convention that spoke in
it's platform of the administration as
"a wise and fearless one," was COM
posed largely of the senators and
members of congress who boldly op-
posed every effort to free the people
from the clutches of the favor-seek-
ing corporations.
The Republican platform says that
experience has shown that the effect
iveness of the antitrust law could
be strengthened by amendments which
will give the federal government
greater supervision and control over
agement of those interstate commerce
corporations which have the power
and opportunities to affect monopo-
lies. That is all. No pointing out of
remedies; no outlining of plan for
more effective egislation-simply
general statement that promises no
thing in particular. And Mr.. Taft's
speech of acceptance is even weaker
than the platform. He gives no evi-
dence of having studied the question
or of comprehending the iniquities
of a monopoly. You look in vain in
his notification speech for any sign
of Indignation at what the trusts
have been doing Or for evidence of
zeal III lHtlT pIoSSCullOh ne AdS, loi
several years, been the intimate Off
cfal companion of the President, but
he has caught none of the fire which
the President manifested in his mes
sage of last January.
If, in the presence of an aroused
people, and in the heat of campaign,
the Republican party contents itself
with colorless platform on this sub
ject, what can we expect in the way
of activity when the exigencies of
the campaign are passed? If, when
Mr.. Taft is appealing to the Rocse-
welt Republicans, his discussion of
the subject is so lifeless and his man
ner so apologetic and apathetic, what
or in the enforcement of the law or
tional remedies?
In his speech delivered about
yearf ago announcing his candidacy
Mr.. Taft suggested that the present
law be so amended as to permit 'rea-
sonable" restraint of trade. Such an
would be as absurd as
an amendment to the law against bur-
glary limiting the law to cases in
which more than two burglars enter
ed the house at one time Or took
more than half they found. In his no
tificfiation speech he suggests nation
tif1cation speech he suggests nation
would make conditions worse because
without adding to the power of con-
gress to prevent monopolies it would
deprive the states of the power to
protect their own people.
Now, let me contrast the Demo
cratic platform with the Republican
platform Nowhere is the difference
in hn TO, Of nartiac
noticeable; nowhere is the difference
in the method of dealing with ques-
tions more manifest. Our platform
says:
"a private monopoly is indefensi-
BILE and intolerable. We therefore IA
vor the vigorous enforcement of the
criminal law against guilty trust mag
mates and officials, and demand the
enactment of such additional legisla-
ton as may be necessary to make 1t
impossible for a private monopoly
to exist in the United States. Among
the additional remedies, we specify
three: First, law preventing du-
plication of directors among compet-
ing corporations; second, a license
system which will, without abridging
the right of each state to create cor
porations, or its right to regulate as
it will foreign corporations doing bu-
siness within its limits, make it nee
essary for a manufacturing or trad
ing corporation engaged in interstate
commerce to take out a federal license
before it shall be permitted to con-
troll as much as twenty-five per cent
of the product in which it deals, the
license to protect the public from
watered stock and to prohibit the
control by such corporation of more
than fifty per cent of the total am
cunt Of any product consumed in the
United States; and, third, q law com
pelling such licensed corporations to
sell to all purchasers in all parts OF