Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1908-10-23
WHOLE NUMBER 1923.

II they had he!.eye1 AZ :a4 ia
against trusts and against persons
guilty of combining would be vigorous
iy enforced.
submit that by the test Of punish.
inS Ewbreakers and deterrius oilers
from violating the law-thr eternal
and true tcst-thc execution Of the
antitrust laws 10y the federal govern
nIent is failure; and that the exist
clcc and tiourishing condition of the
very trusts you hase prosecuted con.
'lncrs the people that the trusts ar,
superior TO law. or as Woodrow Viii
son. president Of rrincetCs university.
CAld last week:
The most striking fact about the
aoedal organization OF modern society
Is that the mCst conspicuous. the most
readily welded. and the most fur!uida-
bic power is not the power Of the gov.
crnmcnt, but the power Of capital. Men
OF our day IN England and America
have almost forgotten what it IS 10
fear the government. but have found
out what it is to fear the power OF
capital, to watch it with jealousy and
suspicion. and trace to il the source
II every open or hidden wrong"
l submit that the collection OF fines
from trusts aggregating million dol
lars. if you had collected so much.
which has not been done. would be no
punishment worth the name of pun
ishment TO the 2S1 trusts with an az
ErcEate capitalization of SG91244S.-
SIl.Uo. The tning prucct in trust
Prosecution is analogous To those fines
imposed by police Justice upon Der
t.,
These fines often operate as "A sliding
scale OF license laX-So may dollars
whenever the aroused moral sense OF
the community will no longer be silent
while the lawlesS dive debauches the
people. What the people wish to know
Is this: How many trusts have you
compelled 10 dssolve-in truth. and
not merely to officially dissolve. and
then continue to fix the price, as the
dissolved paper trlst has done? The
meat trust paid fine and soon put up
the prices OF all that men must eat by
some now -you-See-it and now yOu-dOn't
sleight OF hand that seems to escape
further prosecution while continuing to
levy tax upon all the people No
prosecution of the trusts Is effective
that Is not felt by the public In re-
heving them of trust imposition in
what they buy. Your department says
the paper trust was prosecuted and
dissolved, but the publishers know that
the mills in the trust have a combina-
ton now as injurious to them as before
your prosecution. You say you have
prosecuted the tobacco trust, but that
trust has put up the price Of the manu-.
factured product 1t sells and put down
at will tie price OF the raw material
1t buys from the farmer. You do not
claim. l believe, to have ever even In.
sttuted proceedings against the steel
trust, and only last year, in the teeth
OF the law. your department acQuiesced
III the complete monopoly of that giant
or trusts when IL took over the only
large company able to compete with
It In any line of production.
If your department In seven years
mas prosecuted nineteen civil and
twenty-five criminal cases, In which
no trust official has been jailed and no
trust robbing the people has been COM
PEELED to take Its grasp from the throat
or free competition while 223 new
trusts have been born during the Nc
kinley and Roosevelt Republican ad-
ministrations. how long at this rate Of
progress will 1t take the Republican
administration to stop the extortion of
2S1 trusts that fatten by taxing the
people! That Is the question that the
voters are propounding and 1t is a
question which the department Of JUS
ticc should answer.
am, SIR
Yours very respectfully.
tSignedI
JOSEPHCS DANIELS.
Chairman Press Bureau.