Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-07-28


the antitrust law by number Of cor
| porations the overissue OF stocks and
bonds on interstate railways for the
unlawful euriching OF directors anG
for the purpose Of concentrating con-
troll OF railways in one management,
all quickened the conscience OF the
people and brought on a moral awak-
ening among them that BODIED wel
for the future of the country.
WHAT ROOSEVELT HAS DONE.
The man who formulated the express
sion OF the popular conscience and who
LED the movement FOR practical reform
was Theodore Roosevelt, He laid down
the doctrine that the rich violator of
the law should be as amenable 10 re-
straint and punishment as the offender
without wealth and without influence,
ana ne proceeded by recommending leg
lsiation and directing executive action,
to make that principle good in actual
performance. He secured the pass &c
of the So-called rate bill, designed more
effectively to restrain excessive and
fix reasonable rates and 10 punish Sc
cret rebates ana Determinations which
had been general in the practise Of the
railroads and which had done much to
enable unlawful trusts to drive out oi
business their competitors. 1t ed
much closer supervision of railway
transactions and brought within the
operation of the same statute express
companies, sleeping car companies, fast
freight and refrigerator lines terminal
railroads and pipe lines and forbade
in future the combination of the trans
portadon and shipping business under
one control in order TO avoid undue
discrimination. President Roosevelt
directed suits TO be brought and prose
cutions to be instituted under the anti
against the most Powerful of the in
dustrial corporations. He pressed to
passage the pure food law and the meat
inspection law in the interest OF the
health of the public, clean business
methods and great ultimate benefit To
the trades themselves He recommend
ed the passage of a law which the Re-
publican convention has since specific
ally approved, restricting the future
issue of stocks and bonds by interstate
railways to such as may be authorized
by federal authority. He demonstrated
to the people by what he said, by
what he recommended to Congress. and
by what he did, the sincerity of his
efforts to command respect for the law
to secure equity of all before the law
and to save the country from the dam
gers of plutocratic government, to-
ward which we were fast tending. In
this work Mr.. Roosevelt has had the
support and sympathy of the Republi
can party and his chief hope of sue
cess in the present controversy must
rest upon the confidence which tho
people of the country have in the sin
cerity of the party's declaration in its
platform, that it intends to continue
the policies.
TO SECURE PROGRESS MADE.
President Roosevelt has set high the
standard of business morality The
railroad rate bill was more useful pos
sibly, in the immediate moral effect of
its passage than even in the legal ef-
feet of its very useful provisions. From
its enactment dates the voluntary
abandonment of the practise OF rebates
and determinations by the railroads
and the return by their managers to
obedience to law in the fixing of tariffs
The pure food and meat inspection laws
and the prosecutions directed by the
president under the antitrust law have
had similar moral effect in the gen
eral business community and il is now
common practise for the great indus
trial corporations to consult with the
law with view to keeping within its |
provisions. II has also had the effect of |
and encouraging small and |
companies so that they |
have been enabled to do profitable |
business.
But We should be blind to the ordin-
airy working of human nature If we do |
not recognize that the moral standards |
set by President Roosevelt will not
to be observed by those whom /
cpidity and n desire for financial |
power may tempt unless the requisite
is introduced into the law |
which shall in its practical operation |
maintain these standards ana secure |
the country against a departure from |
them
FUNCTION OF NEXT ADMINS
TRAITOR.
The chief function of the next add |
in my judgment is dis |
tinct from, and a progressive develop |
ment of what has been performed by |
ton OF the next administration is to |
perfect the machinery by which these |
may be maintained by which |
the law breaker may be promptly re-
strained and punished, but which shall |
operate with sufficient accuracy and |
dispatch TO interfere with the great |
business as little as possible, Such ma
chinery Is not now adequate. Under |
the present rate bill and under all It's |
the burden of the inter- |
state commerce commission in super |
vising and regulating the operation OF |
the railroads OF TINS country mas grown !
so heavy that II Is utterly impossible |
for chat tribunal to hear and dispose |
IN any reasonable time of the many |
queries and issues OF it's |
jurisdiction az an executive, directing |
body and its functions should be linn
tied to the quasi judicial investigation |
of complaints by individuals and by a
of the government charged |
with the executive business OF super
vi tho nr,prn ton a itIyu
There should be a classification OF |
that very small percentage of indus
trial corporations having power and |
TO effect Illegal restraints |
of trades and monopOlles, and logisla-
ton either inducing or compelling them |
to subject themselves TO registry ana |
to proper publicity regulations and SUI |
perYislon of the department. of COM |
mercs and labor.
WORK OF NEXT |
ADMINISTRATIONS,
The 6el3 covered by the Industrial |
and by railroads is so /
very extensive that the Interests of the /
public and the interests OF business |
concerned cannot be properly sub |
served except by reorganization of |
bureaus in the department OF CONE |
MERGE and labor, OF agriculture and |
the development Of Justice and "A
change In the jurisdiction of the in |
terstate commerce commission. II |
does not assist matters to prescribe |
new duties for the interstate COM |