Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1908-10-16
.B0|'hAPA / ELUSIVE
Fails to Furnish Correct lnfor.
nation Asked by Josephus
Daniels.
ATTY. GENERAL Is DIPLOMATIC
Hikes Up the Prosecutions Under
Antitrust Law.

40E1V1QB OuOOT C00 EtGpuOlC00
Administration Prosecutions
Slow -:.Department of jus.
tice Answer Awaited.
Chicago, Oct. 9.-(special.)-Jos
phus Daniels, chairman Of the pub
lcity bureau at Democratic national
headquarters, recently wrote letter
to Attorney General Bonaparte, in
which he asked for information show
ing the character and extent Of suits
instituted by the federal government
against the trusts. Mr.. Bonaparte.
made reply in very lengthy letter,
but was careful not to give the infor-
nation requested. Mr.. Daniels has
forwarded second letter to the At
torney General which Is reproduced
herewith:
Hon. G. ]. Bonaparte, United States
Attorney General.
My Dear Sir:-I am in receipt Of
your letter Of Oct. I'd. On the Goth
day Of September I wrote you and
asked for statement showing how
many Of the 287 trusts doing business
in the United States had been prose-
cuted by the department Of justice,
the amount Of fines collected, etc. In
your answer you do not furnish the
information desired. The inquiry was
specifically directed to the action
taken with reference to the 287 trusts
named. Instead Of furnishing that in
formation, you mix up the prosecu-
lions under the Sherman antitrust
law with the prosecutions Of railroads
and individuals under other acts. No
question was asked as to proceedings
against railroads or other corpora
lions except the we'll known and rec
ognized trusts that are daily, by vio-
lating the law, taking from the mouth
Of labor the bread it has earned" The
public is we'll aware that a number
of railroads have been fined for giving
rebates. That law ought to be en-
forced, even though your department
refused to prosecute the admitted vio-
lations Of the law by railroad Off
cfal who received an immunity bath
and was given a place in the cabinet;
and those two able attorneys, Hon.
Judson Harmon and Hon. Frederick
N. Judson, who had been employed to
prosecute, refused to continue with
your department when it would not
permit them to prosecute the con-
fessedly guilty secretary Of the navy
as we'll as the lesser railroad officials
who had nearly all given rebates.
Having failed to furnish the specific
information requested, and wishing to
have statement Of exactly what has
been done to prevent the extortions
and to end the existence Of the trusts,
I am forced to ask you, emitting all
prosecutions against railroads and
other legal corporations, the following
questions:
l. How many Of the 2S7 trusts, CIV
Ing the names, doing business in the
United States, have been prosecuted
by the present administration?
2. How many Of these trusts, NAM
ing them separately, have been fined,
and the separate amounts?
3. After trust has been fined,
what other steps have been taken to
prevent its continuing it's illegal prac-
tees for which it was forced to pay
the penalty?
4. How many Of the officials of
these 297 trusts have been criminallJ
prosecuted, and how many have been
convicted and the term Of imprison-
ment, giving the names Of each per-
con who has been imprisoned for vio-
lating the law?
In your letter, In which you mix
up the prosecution Of railroads and
other legal corporations with the trusts
which exist in defiance Of law, you
take occasion to contrast the record
Of the Roosevelt administration with
the four preceding Administrations. In
AhA
your letter, It appears that Mr.. Har-
r1son prosecuted seven trusts under
the sherman antitrust law; Mr.. Cleve-
Land, nine; MI: Mckinley, three, and
the present Administration, nineteen
: civil and twenty-five criminal cases.
You include the eases against the beef
and meat trusts where the government
: wen these important suits. Has the
meat trust gone cut Of business, and
have the people obtained the relief
from high prices which they had 4
right to expect and for which reason
they demanded the prosecution Of that
trust7 An examination Of the twenty
i've cases you say have been prose
cuted crtminally shows that in no sin
gle case has any violation Of the law
been followed b. imprisonment.
Do You believe that the men who
operate the trusts to their enrichment
BY systematic robbery, enjoyed by i'm
munity from imprisonment, will ever
be deferred by the methods 20 far en-
ployed BY the department Of tustice7
A long 40 the meat trust can pay a
small llne and collect it an hundred
times over the next day, by putting
up the price Of what it sells, when
do you think that trust will quit
charging prices that put necessary
food out Of the reach Of the poor? The
spectacle Of few Of the predator,
wealth, in convict garb-as the law
contemplated-would do more in one
week to break up the trust evil than
Ill the prosecutions inau4urated.
By giving the comparison Of the rec
ord Of the Roosevelt administration in
the matter of prosecutions az con-
! trasted with the records Of Cleveland,
Mckinley and Harrison you invite 1
comparison Of the records Of these ad-
ministrations as to trusts Carefully
, compiled statistics show that trusts
An}, To-