The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1909-11-18
OUTLINE OF PRESIDENT TAFTS ANNUAL MESSAGE.
Roosevelt Policies to Be Commended Congress and Corporations Chief
TOpCBeteF Antitrust Law Railroad Rate AntSOck Water.
ing Plan TO Be ReCGmmeRdcdCOnerVate Regarding MiSSiS
Spp--COmmiSSi0n Government Tor Alaska

Augusta, Ga The keynote OF
President Taft's message to the COM
Ing session of Congress will be this
statement:
This Administration was elected
on platform that we proposed to
carry out the policies of Theodore
Roosevelt. and we propose to keep
that promise
The President reserves to himself
the right to decide what those poll
cies are. He has said in public ad-
dresses that he. more than any other
man, perhaps. had been in position
TO know just what Roosevelt did or
did not believe.
Mr.. Roosevelt's chief policy" he
has said, was the determination to
make the great corporations OF the
country obey the law, and those cor
porations included the railroads and
the great industrial corporations that
do large industrial business and
that have shown Il tendency to mon
opoliZe that business and suppress
competition"
Mr.. Taft has indicated clearly
enough in his speeches what his mes
sage will be
1t will recommend an unusually
long program for Congress and one
that is likely to revive a good deal
of the hostility shown to the Roose-
7elt Administration on the score of
the railroad rate legislation.
That the President has been look
fng forward TO the possibility of seri-
Gus opposition within the ranks of
his own party is indicated by his re-
cent speeches.
Mr.. Taft will recommend 4 court
Of five members in order that when
the Interstate Commerce Commission
shall decide a rate is unreasonable a
reasonable rate may be made at once,
with no appeal on the part of the
railroads except to the Supreme
Court. This is to make the Hepburn
rate bill effective. He will point out
that the five judges, having no other
business before them, can not only
expedite legislation, but naturally
will become rate experts
There will be also a recommends
tion of tribunal that will pass on
how many bonds and how many
shares or stock every interstate rail-
road may issue, to prevent the water
Ing OF stock. At one time the Presi-
dent said: This is important, be-
cause when you water stock you only
do 1T to deceive people and get them
to ray more than the stock is worth -"
Further, Mr.. Taft said, it is wrong
because 1t builds a false foundation
on which to reckon what reasonable
freight rates are.
To further expedite the work of
making railroads obey the law, the
President will recommend a reorgani-
cation of the Bureau of Corporations
the Interstate Commerce Commission
and the Department of Justice that
the three may work progressively and
| not be stumbling over one another,
as they are under the present sys-
| TEN. But the resident will make it
clear that he Is not attacking corpor-
| ations that work legitimately. His
| own expression on that subject is:
I'VE could not get along without
corporations. They are a necessary
instrument in the business of the
| country. But as we give them priviI-
eyes, so they must recognize the re-
| sponsibility with which they exercise
power, and we must have the means
OF compelling them to recognize that
responsibility and to keep them with
| In the law"
The President will recommend an
! amendment TO the antitrust law that
he thinks will make it effective. The
present terms are so broad that in his
mind 1t is not enforceable, as it makes
no distinction between a reasonable
and an unreasonable restraint of trade
Ia difference that is recognized by
the common law. He will recommend
that the law be amended to narrow
and confine it to combinations and
conspiracies to suppress competition
and establish monopolies. and to leave
out the denunciations OF general re-
straints Of trade. He will not recon-
mend that labor unions be specifically