The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-01-09
FIGHT FOR HONESTY
To GO ON, SAYS TAFT.
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 of War William III. Taft,
IN his first public speech since his tour
of the world, discussed, before the Bos-
ton Merchants Association the other
n ght, ''The Panic of 1907
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 extempsraneous 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 finan-
ciai stringency, he said:
''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 ne of our largest insurance
companies, railroad companies. traction
companies and financial corporations
l.
hold what little loanable capital remained
available
On the currency question the Secretary
said:
at is probable that the stringency
which reached its height on that dark
day of Oct. "a might. in part, have been
aiIeviated 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.
1.-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-
tion 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
s1Thosa cou,l inationc for lacL of q hot
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
particular line of business managed by
artful 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
q 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
zine fight made by the administration
has been a noteworthy one. And now,
after a victory has been won, after there
has been introduced INFO the hearts of
these trust managers and financial oppo-
nents of the administration, the fear of
the law-the panic 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 di-
re-ted for the last four years against or
ranized capital, and that it has thereby
frightened investors
Only Law violators Attacked.
.I deny it. The course of the admins
tration has been directed against such
eryanized capital as was violating the
statutes of the United States, and no
otherR
sThe President mas condemned The law
breakers. He has convinced those who
have unlawfuly accumulated enormous
oowers and capital that they are not inn
mune. lie has put the fear of the law in
their hearts.
.sThey have been cute enough to at
sempt to protect themselves by giving the
IMPRESSION that his action has been direct
ed against the whole business community
again, il 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.
1.-The business men in the past have
synDathized 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 20
be changed by the panic?
as 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
the sheer at the fight of the administra
tion 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-
Heved 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-
nation cannot be restrained; if the con-
eentration of power made possible by such