The sun., 1908-10-14
BONApARTE COUNTS TIE bag
TELLS JOSEPHUS DANIELS
WHAT HE HAS DONE.

POPtyssix Suits Started by Department Of
Justice Undet Roosevelt and Nine
teen Have Been euceessful-Slx
Failures --'Ehe Rest Are Pendins.
WASHINGTON. Dot. i3.-lttorney- Cen
eral Bonaparte made m extended reply
to-day TO the letter Of the Hon. Josephus
Daniels, chairman OF the press bureau
OF the Democratic national committee,
iu which Mr.. Daniels requested that
Attorney-G General Bona oarte furnish par
tlculars Of the elleged activity OF the
present Administration In prosecuting
trusts.
Mr.. Bonaparte's reply follows:
WARRINGTON, d. c., Oct. Is, 1908.
Hon. Josephus DaRiafs. ohdirman Press
Bureau Democratic National Committee,
Chicago, H.:
Ny DEAR SIR: Your long letter OF the
9Th instant was long in reaching me. You
complain that mix up prosecutions under
the act generally known as the Sherman
snti-trust law" with those to enforce other
statutes. IL is the Congress. not ], which
has mixed" them. When Congress placed
$500 900 at the disposai Of this Department
this money was appropriated tsl stat. pit 1.
D. e02) to enforce the provisions OF.
s"The act entitled an Act to regulate COM
merce' approved February 4, 1887, and al
acts amendatory thereof or supplemental
thereto. and of the act entitled An act to
urotect trade and commerce against un-
lawful restraints and monopolies,' approved
duly 2, 1890. and all acts amendatory there
OF or supplemental thereto, and sections
70. "A, rs and 20 OF the act entitled An
act to reduce taxation, to provide revenue
for the Government and other purposes
approved August 81. 1894. -apd all those
statutes with subsequent amendments have
always bean regarded by every one except
yourself as parts OF the legislation directed
against restraint Of interstate trade and IN
lawful monopolies.
However. thai may satisfy your laudable
deslrs to learn what proceedings, civil and
criminal, have been instituted under the
sherman law alone since It's enactment In
1850 sm happy to inform you that there
have been in all sl1fy-fve such proceedings.
ffty-six while Republicans and nine while
Democrats were in power: forty-six since
Mr. Roosevelt became President In Septem-
Der, 1901. and nineteen during the preceding
OF the ten proceedings commenced under
Presidents Harrison and Mckinley Ave were
concluded successfully and Ave unsuccess-
fully: Of the nine instituted under President
Cleveland fve were successful and four un-
snccessful; Of the forty-six initiated under
President Roosevelt nineteen have ended
IN success and six In failure and twenty-one
are still pending. No fines were inflicted In
criminal proceedings under any previous
Administration, but under President Roose-
welt the fines imposed have aggregated
i7.0O0.
OF the Democratic administration resistance
10 the petition of Eugene v. Debs for writ
OF habeas corpus. Il Is to be noted that five
ont OF nine proceedings under Democratic
rule were directed against labor organiza-
tions and their leaders: under Republican
rule there have been in all three such pro-
ceedings out Of hfty-six.
You seem 10 labor under the erroneous
impression that In prosecutions under the
Sherman law corporations can be summarily
fined and individuals imprisoned merely
because some organization Of which they
are supposed to form part Is put down an a
trust in some publication: IL would be quite
as reasonable TO punish @ man as q counter
feiter of United States notes merely be-
cause he was entered in directory among
engra avers and printers.
It In not a crime under any existing
Federal statute for corporation or part
nership or man to prosper and do large
business any more than 1t Is a crime to have
skill enough to COPY vignettes and apply
o0lored inks.
Id any one is shown by legal evidence
10 have initiated the national currency OF
te have entered into a com bnation or con-
spiracy in restraint Of interstate or foreign
trade, in either case he can be and ought
70 be punished. but 1t Is about as sensible
to complain that the Department OF Justice
hssnt prosecuted all OF your 267 trusts
eae II would be TO charge me with neglect
OF duty becauoe not one engraver in 10000
has been convicted of counterfeiting.
The legislation OF which the so-called
sherman antitrust law forms a part
does not aim to make rich men poor; its
authors understood. although some people
may not now understand. that 10 do this
would only make poor men poorer; they
sought rather TO make rich men obey the
law 90 that poor men might have a fair
chance to grow rich. My Department
has administered these laws as it found
them, in their letter and in their spirit;
when you say II -aeauiesced" last year In
some action taken by the steel trust "in
the teeth Of the law you speak words
without knowledge,
do not know and during my term Of
Office have never known Of any such action
by the corporation OF cluster of corporat tions
to which you refer and, as did not and
do not know Of 1t, could not and did not
-aequiesce- In It; u You or anybody else
will show me now producible legal proof
establishing that the steel trust or anybody
eiss has committeda crime under the Sher-
man law or .any other Federal statute.
will do al can to bring the cuiprtt to JUS
tice.
remain, sir. yours very respectfully
and truly, cHARLEs j. BoHAPARTE.
Attorney-G eneraL