Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-09
War Secretary Defends Admins
tration's Policy Toward Cor
porations.
POINTS OUT FURRY CAUSE.
Declares Unrest Is Due to Chicanery
Of Certain Men and Not to
Roosevelt


Secretary Taft denied that the panic
was caused by the policy Of the nation
al administration, and attributed it
entirely to the contraction of loanable
capital and the exposure of breaches
of trust and corruption in the financial
world which, he said, had destroyed
confidence in the investor.
His speech was read from manu-
script, and not once did he deviate from
it or make any extemporaneous COM
ments upon his own opinions of gov
eminent policy. He declared that he is
opposed to government ownership of
railways and fayors control and regu-
lation by the national government of
huge combinations of capital.
After touching on the rapid expan-
sion of business which changed loan
able capital into investments less and
less convertible and thus caused fnan-
cfal stringency, he said:
1.-THE conclusion cannot be avoided that
the revelations of irregularity, breaches of
trust, stock jobbing overissues of stock,
violations of law, and lack of rigid State
or national supervision in the manage
ment of some of our largest insurance
companies, railroad companies. traction
companies and financial corporations
shocked investors and made them with
hold what little loanable capital remained
available
On the currency question the Secretary
said
1T is probable that the stringency
which reached its height on that dark
day of Oct. "a might, in part, have been
alleviated had we had a currency which
could automatically enlarge itself to meet
the tremendous demand of a day or a
week or a month while public confidence
was being restored.
THE national administration, together
with many of the large capitalists of New
York and elsewhere, put their shoulders
under the load and by various devices of
an unusual character have brought about
the present condition of gradually increas-
ing confidence"
Giant Struggle with Trusts.
Secretary Taft then turned his atten-
ton to the criticisms of President Roose-
welt in the recent depression. He invited
his audiences attention to the history of
"a giant struggle between the national
administration and certain powerful COM
binations in the financial world"
Continuing, he said:
''These combinations, for lack of a bet
ter name, are called trusts They en-
gagged in different lines of manufacture
and production, and by assembling large
amounts of capital into one mass in a
particular line of business managed by
artfu and skillfully devised, but illegal
methods of duress, to exclude competi-
ton and monopolize the trade.
'They became the dictators to great
railroads, however powerful, and by
threatening a withdrawal of patronage Sc
cured unlawful and discriminating re-
bates, greatly increasing their profits and
still more completely suppressing compe
tition.
THE basis of their original success and
the maintenance of their power was the
violation of the Sherman antitrust law
and the interstate commerce law, and for
a time both laws were but~dead letters
upon the statute books of the United
States.
THE purpose of the administration of
Mr. Roosevelt was to make those men,
however powerful and wealthy, to know
that the laws upon the statute books were
living things and must be obeyed.
1.-The fight made by the administration
has been a noteworthy one. And now,
after a victory has been won, after there
has been introduced into the hearts of
these trust managers and financial oppo-
nents Of the administration, the fear of
the law-the p.lnic comes on. The agents
and sympathizers and defenders of the
trusts rush forward to place the blame of
! the present conditions upon the admins
tration.
Let us examine the specifications of
our opponents now, made to show that the
administration is responsible.
"In the first place it is said that the
policy of the administration has been d.
rected for the last four years against or
ganized capital, and that it has thereby
frightened investors.
Only Law VioIntors Attacked.
81 deny it. The course of the admins
tration has been directed against such
organized capital as was violating the
statutes of the United States, and no
others.
THE President mas condemned the law
breakers He has convinced those who
have unlawfully accumulated enormous
powers and capital that they are not i'm
mune. He has put the fear of the law in
their hearts.
''They have been cute enough to at
tempt to protect themselves by giving the
impression that his action has been direct
ed against the whole business community.
Again, it is said that the rate bill. for
which the administration is responsible,
caused the present panic. Could anything
be more absurd? The object of the rate
bill was merely to bring the railroads I'M
der closer supervision of a tribunal which
could act upon complaints of individuals
suffering from their injustice.
The business men in the past have
sympathized with the effort to eradicate
from the business system of this country
the influence of those who have achieved
success by illegal methods. Is all this to
be changed by the panic?
rs it proposed because of it to repeal
the rate bill? Shall we dismiss the prose
cutions for violations of the antitrust
low? Shall we permit and encourage re-
bates and determinations by railways? Is
this the condition of sanity to which we
are invited to return? Shall we join in
ton for honesty and legality in business
as a youthful attempt at an alleged moral
regeneration of our business system?
NO panic, however severe, can make
wrong right. No man who sincerely be-
lieyed the administration right in its meas
ures to punish violations of law can now
be turned from the earnest support of that
policy to-day.
If the abuses of monopoly and discrim-
ination cannot be restrained: if the con-
centration of power made possible by such
abuses continues and increases, and it is
made manifest that under the system of
individualism and private property the ty-
ranny and opposition of an oligarchy OF
wealth cannot be avoided. then socialism
will triumph and the institution of pri-
vate property will perish
The Secretary held that the administra-
ton in showing that the dangers from in