The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-02-07
MESSAGE IS WARM
President Flags Corporations
That Defy Laws.
DENIES HE CAUSED PANIC
Attacks of Great Concerns on His Adj
ministration Are Vigorously Re-
peIled-Employers' Liability and
Abuses of Injunction Discussed.


Abuses of Injunction Discussed.
Washington.-In a message dealing
principally with the control of great
Corporations transmitted to congress
on Friday, the president flays what he
terms the law defylng trusts" in no
uncertain terms.
sage he urges the Immediate reenact-
ment of the employers liability law.
and for such legislation as will remedy
the abuxes of the injunction. He then
turns his attention to stock jo5bing
and other forms of high finance, and
says: f.,
Bile, but If possible, it is certainly de-
sirable. that in connection with meas
ures to restrain stock watering and
overcapitalization there should be
the. grosser forms of gambling in Sc
curities and commodities, such as
making large sales of what men do
not possess and 'cornering' the market.
1t would seem that the federal
government could at least act by
forbidding the use of the mails, tele-
gambling in stocks and futures, just
as it does in lottery transactions"
Mr.. Ripley and Relating.
Next President Roosevelt turns his
attention to rebating. submitting the
reply OF. the chief of the bureau of
corporations to statements made by
President Ripley of the Santa Fe rail
way. There is also a letter from Dis
trict Attorney Heney of San FRANCIS
general freight traffic manager to the
roads auditor, which Mr.. Heney and
the president say shows the utter
falsity of the plea of Ignorance made
the Standard Oil Company.
The president adds:
THE attacks by these great corpora
lions on the administrations actions
have been given wide circula ton
throughout the country, in the newspa
pers and otherwise, by those writer's
consciously. act as the representatives
of predatory wealth-of the wealth
accumulated on a giant scale by all
forms of iniquity, ranging from the
and unwholesome methods of crushing
out competition, and to defrauding the
ulation Of securities. Certain wealthy
men of this stamp. whose conduct
should be abhorrent to every man of
ordinarily decent conscience. and who
commit the hideous wrong OF teaching
our young men that phenomenal bust
ness success must ordinarily be based
on dishonesty. have during the last
have banded together to work for
reaction. Their endeavor is to over
throw and discredit all who honestly
additional legislation which would
check and restrain them and to secure
IL possible a freedom from all re-
straint which will permit every I'M
wishes unchecked provided he has
enough money"
Campaign of Lawbreakers.
Denying that the administration is en-
gagged in any. assault on property the
president continues:
There are ample material rewards for
those who serve with fidelity the mann
mon. OF unrighteousness; but they are
NIT their representatives, whether in
public life, in the press in the col
leges where their young men are taught
to preach and to practice that there is
one law Tor the rich and another for the
poor. The amount of money the repre-
gentatives of certain great moneyed in
by their recent publication broadcast
throughout the papers of this country,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, of huge
advertisements attacking with enven-
omed bitterness the administrations pol
icy of warning against successful dis
honesty, and by their circulation of pam
phlets and books prepared with the same
object; while they likewise push the cir
culation of the writings and speeches
of men who. whether because they are
misIed or because, seeing the light, they
yet are willing to sin against the light,
serve these their masters of great wealth
to the cost of the. plain people.
The books and pamphlets, the con
lie or private men to which I refer are
usually and especially in the interest
of the Standard Oil Trust and of certain
notorious railroad combinations, but they
also defend other individuals and cor
porations OF great wealth that have been
guilty of wrongdoing. 1t is only rarely
that the men responsible for the wrong
doing themselves speak or write. Nor
mally they hire others to do their bidding
or find others. who, will do it without hire.
From the railroad rate law to the pure
food law, every measure for, honesty in
business that has been passed during the
last six years has been opposed by these
men on its passage and in its admins
tration. with every resource that bitter
and INSCRIPTIONS craft could suggest
and the command of almost unlimited
money secure. But for the last year
bitterness upon the actual administration
of the law. especially through the depart
ment Of justice, but also through the
Interstate Commerce Commission and
the bureau of corporations"
Business" That Is Hurt.
The president at considerable length
defends his administration against the
charge that its policy was responsible
that the business that is hurt by the
movement for honesty is the kind Of
business which, in the long rum. 1t
pays the country to have hurt -,s.u.
Roosevelt says:
81 do not for n moment believe that
the actions of this ADMINISTRATION have
brought on business { lress; so far
as this is due to local and not world
wide causes. and TO the actions of any
particular individuals il is due to the
speculative folly and fragrant dishon-
esty of a few men of great wealth. who
seek to shield themselves from the eff
fects of their own wronSdoing by as
cribing its results to the actions Of
those who have sought to put n stop
to the wrongdoing But If il were true
that to cut out rottenness from the
body polite meant n momentary check
to an unhealthy seeming prosperity.
should not for one moment hesitate to
nut the knife to the corruption. On
behalf of all our people. on behalf no
less of the honest man OF means than
the honest man who earns each days
livelihood by that days sweat OF
his brow, IL is necessary to in
sist upon honesty in business and poll
tics alike, in all walks of life. in big
things and little things; upon Just and
fair dealings as between man and man"