Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-10-08
FRIENDLY TO TRUSTS
TAFT TRUST RECORD EXPOSED
BY FRANCIS S. hiONNETT.

While Judge, Says EX-Attornev
General r1Onnett. TruSt-Fiahtjna
Attorney General on Soft Glove
Policies of Roosevelt,
CHICAGO, Oct. 6.-Francis S. Mon
nett, former attorney general of Ohio,
who has fought Standard Oil with a
vlgor and earnestness not surpassed
by any individual in the nation, is 60
ing to take the stump for BRYAN and
Kern. Al;~ough Il Republican for
years and elected to the office of at
torney general in Ohio by the party
of the Republican candidate for the
presidency, Mr. MOnnett will support
Bryan and Kern in this campaign.
The inveterate foe of Standard Oil
called at Democratic Headquarters to
arrange speaking dates in the states
of the Middle West, where he will
make vigorous campaign for the
Democratic national ticket from now
until the date of election.
While in Chicago, Mr.. Monnett
scored Judge Taft for his failure to
proceed against criminal trusts. He
based this conclusion on the public
record of the Republican candidate
for the presidency.
Mr.. Monnett said: What we want
in the White House is prosecutor
and not a judge. Mr.. Taft is honest
and has judicial temperaments, but
no initiative. He let the trust weeds
grow in his own front yard while he
was judge in Cincinnati. In nv
opinion he would do nothing to de-
stroy the trusts if elected president.
For twelve years he was a Judge or
the federal courts in Ohio, where the
mother of all trusts was growing I'D.
corrupting the state courts and the
Legislature, and he did nothing to pre-
vent it, although as judge instructing
grand juries he had more direct pow-
er that he would have had as presi-
dent. For fifteen years he has been
|
ran trusts; has wined and dined with
them.
In this respect he has not been
different from other federal Judges.
whom they overwhelm with social at
tentions-private cars, yacht trips,
HERALD FIVE 123456456
hunting trips, dinners, etc. Some
judges, like Judge Grosscup, have to
ask for them; others get them with
out. While Mr.. Taft was at the club,
the trust weeds grew up in his front
yard. He did nothing to cut them
down, and his record gives me good
ground for predicting that he would
do nothing as president"
Mr.. Monnett stated that while on
the bench Mr.. Taft always had at
his command at least two federal
grand juries and that it was his
sworn duty to prosecute every crime
of which he was cognizant. In such
capacity, Mr.. Monnett said, he had
more power to down trusts that Presi-
dent Roosevelt had at the White
House. He charged him, however,
with having dissolved the Addison
steel pipe trust and then with hav-
ing permitted it's reorganization un-
der the name of the U. S. Cast Iron
Pipe Co., and finally it's merger into
the steel trust. This steel trust was
formed under his very nose out of
the wreck of the Addison Company.
said Mr.. Monnett, yet he never lifted
a finger"
Mr.. Monnett then declared there
was law enough in the land but the
trouble was nobody was enforcing it.
Taking the present Standard Oil case
as an example, he said that federal
injunction could be secured in sixty
days against the operation of the
trust, and that federal indictments of
its owners could be secured any day
by presenting the evidence before a
grand jury.
1t wouldn't take any more effort
than it does to run down a man who
makes lead nickels or the freckle.
faced boy who knocks the stuffing
out of the mail box, he said. "Why
don't they indict under the evidence
already taken in st. Louis? The
weakness is in the executive depart-
ment. Roosevelt does not draw the
rein taut and will not do so until the
cart is crowded upon his heels.'
The Burrows mill was closed down
yesterday for want of logs, the con-
tinued dry weather causing such low
water in the logging streams as to
create a temporary shortage at the
mills.