The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-02-26

The President refers WITH very
strong feeling to the attacks that he
SAYS are being made on him through
newspapers and public speakers con-
trolled by the Standard Oil Trust and
other combinations and says the key
note of these attacks upon his eHorts
to secure honesty in business and
politics is that they are unnatural
and unwarranted, and business panic
is the penalty.
Like Plea Of Gambler.
The morality of such plea, he
says, is precisely as great as if made
on behalf of the men caught in a
gambling establishment raided by the
police and means that no EFFORT snould
be made to prevent g repetition OF the
insurance, banking and railroad scan
dals in New York, the Chicago and
Alton deal, the successful effort by
the Standard Oil people to crush out
every competitor and to establish a
monopoly which treats the public
with a contempt it deserves so long
as it permits men of such principles
to avow and act on them with I'M
punity.
The business" which is hurt by
the movement for honesty, the Pres
ident says, is the kind which in the
long run it pays the country to have
hurt: the kind which has tended to
make the name "high finance" a
term of scandal to which all honest
American men of business should join
in putting an end.
The opponents of the measures ne
champions, Mr.. Roosevelt says, single
out now one and now another for
special attack, as If the movement ne
is engaged in was purely economic.
This is not so, he says, for it is funda-
mentally an ethical movement and
one which must be persevered in until
the spirit which lies behind 1t SINKS
deep into the heart and conscience OF
the whole people. His purpose, he
declares, is to secure national honesty
in business and politics and equality
of opportunity for all, and he will not
be swayed from it by attacks on him.
Laws Will Be Enforced.
The laws, the President insists,
must in future be administered as
they are at present, justice being
meted out with an even hand to great
and small, rich and poor, weak and
strong. And he adds that there
should be no delay in supplementing
the laws now on the statute books
lth others he recommends.
Referring to the financial situation,
the President says there is a natural
tendency to feel gloomy and fright
ened at the outlook, but he declares
there is no justification for such a
feeling, as there is no nation so alb
solutely sure of success as ours, and
we must certainly succeed.
Not Responsible, He Says.
The President then disclaims any
responsibility for the business dis
tress, saying he does not believe for
a moment that any actions Of the
Administration brought it on. 1t was
due, he says, to the speculative folly
and fragrant dishonesty of few men
of great wealth, who seek to shield
themselves from the effect Of their
own wrongdoing by ascribing its re-
suits to the actions of those who have
tried to put stop to the wrongdolng.
But" says the President, IF 1t
were true that to cut out rottenness
from the body polite meant a mo-
mentary check to an unhealthy seem
ing prosperity, should not for mo-
ment hesitate to put the knife to the
corruption"
He advocates the immediate re-eR-
actment of the employers liability
law, limiting it's scope to interstate
employment to conform to the ruling
of the Supreme Court; urges legisla-
ton providing for compensation by
the Government and employers gen.
orally to all employees for injuries,
calls attention to the need Of some
action in connection with the abuse of
injunctions in labor cases by the
courts and warns men of property