The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-22
ROOSEVELT MAPS OUT
 A SPECIAL MESSAGE.

by the conviction of their officials and also those of large industrial corpora tions. for utter disregard of the laws of the nation and the state. When these things are considered no one can express surprise that the confidence of the people would be shaken, To you, Mir. President, we accord the credit due for compelling a respect for the law by the great and the small alike.
 We believe that your work toward business morality win be remembered as milestone, not only in the devel- opment of this country's business mor- als. but as A milestone in the progress of the world.
 We believe the business integrity of the average merchant in this coun- try is of higher standard than In any other; we therefore appreciate and commend all the more your fearless activity which has resulted In raising the standard, and we realize that no greater service has ever been rendered our country.
 No great good has ever been ac- complished In any times without some suffering in consequence, but we now urge you to consider with extreme pa- tience the unusual conditions that pre- vail, and while abandoning no express ed principle to adjust your executive actions to the ~requireme of this bus mess timidity.
 We ask you. Mir. President, to in- dicate to the Congress the corrective measures you deem it necessary to take. We believe that the first step towards resumption of normal business conditions can be taken by the Con- gress in response to explicit recom- mendations by the executive"
 subcommittee, consisting of Messrs. Hall, Wacker, Smith and Top ping, called on the President at the executive off1ce this morning ana were
 informed by the President that he would probably communicate to Con- gress next week explicit recommenda- tions concerning the legislation needed.
 The President, Senator Aldrich and Representative Payne of New York. Dalzell of Pennsylvania, and Hepburn of Iowa, participated in the conference today. The chief subject considered was tariff revision, bt there will be other conferences at which other ques- tions will be taken up in detail. An agreement was reached between the president and the leaders of the house and senate in favor of a declar-
 ation for revision of the tartn at a special session to be held after March
 4. 1909. It was decided that the best
 manner in which the prepare for the lGHlbldLlOn 1H lO HdNC AANOSNAeso1AOAA9 conducted by the ways and means com
 mittee of the house and the finance
 committee of the senate. These in- estsgations will not be in the form of hearings, but experts will be called in to assist the committee In prepar- ing data. The plan is opposel to the appointment of tariff commission such as is proposed in the Beveridge and La Follettee bills.
 .s~. ~Vr~~GGtAA f0 the sherman antitrust b;lls-were discussed briefly. The president said that bill l presented providing for the legalizins Of traffic agreements between railroads He called attention to the fact thai | labor organisations had been expect
 ed to agree Co such legislation in re. turn,i for provision exempting them from the operations of the law. The legislators present were not ready tc assent to the demands made by labol in their bill of grievances recently submitted to congress and on that ac- count urged that 1t would be inadvis- able to attempt any revision of the Sherman law at th;s time. It is said that the president, while not actually rejecting 1t. was not disposed to agree with the advice given him.
 Traffic Agreements.
 He declared that 1t was but justice to the railroads to permit traffic agreements under proper restrictions and control by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and said that no inter- ests would be injured by such legisla- tion. He was not impressed by the statement made to him that labor
 would regard this as extending bene- fits to railroads and withholding them from unions.
 The President was told flatly that such a course at this time would be
 bad politics for the majority party to play. On the statement that it was not certain that labor had rejected | unalterably the proposals for an agree ment under which some of the benefits | would accrue to organized labor the
 subject went over until such time as the President shall be ready to present | hIs bill in concrete form Messrs | Aldrich, Dalzell and Payne said that they might be of different opinion upon
 seeing the bill.
 Representative Hepburn talked over with the President the terms of the
 bill amending the antitrust law as | 1t has been modified since labor's attitude become hostile to the general
 scheme urged by the civic federation
 MT. Hepburn will introduce the bill ir
 the House probably Wednesday,.