Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1909-12-01
AT THE NATIONS CAPITAL.
Items Of Timely Interest Concerning
Public Affairs From Our Special
Representative at Wash.
ingtOn.


Standard Oil company is a combin-l
alton in restraint of trade and must
be dissolved, the effect will be ire
mendous on the operating methods
of other great commercial and in
dustrial combinations. When At
tOrney General Wickersham was in
formed of the decision he expressed
great qualification and Immediately
announced that it was lone of the
most important ever rendered in this
country" 1t seems quite apparent
that If number of corporations all
responsive to one authority yet each
by virtue of it's nominal individuality
relieving that authority from respon-
sibility, are to be deemed combina-
tions in restraint of trade, the meth
DDS of many of the largest combina-
tions In the country must be con-
siderably altered in order to be legal.
The Standard Oil company has just
ly been considered the pioneer in
the construction of legal devices to
control trade without being open to
serious attack in the courts under
the monopoly provisions of the Sher-
man act. If the constructors of the
Standard Oil company, with their
efficiency born of long practice, have
been unable to make that corpora
ton immune from technical viola
tfons of the law. 1t is not thought
likely that their imitators have been
more successful in hedging them.
selves about with legal defenses. 1T
Is expected that on the appeal of
this case the Supreme Court will
lay down a clear and definite rule
OF law, which without hampering or
impeding commerce, will define
specifically the bounds within which
the so-called trusts must operate If
they are to do business in the United
States. President Taft's attorney
general Is not hunting trusts with a.
brass band but he is showing quiet
determination to enforce the law, re-
CARELESS OF power or station.
1t is extremely pleasing to note
that Army engineers are entering
with spirit into President Taft's de-
termined policy of retrenchment I'M
government expenditures. The Sc
rious manner in which they have
received his instructions on this
point is we'll illustrated in the an
nouncement that the fortified arti-
apeake Bay, which President advo-I
Gated in his Norfolk speech, can
probably be completed at a cost of
not to exceed $3,0O0,OOO instead of
100000 as was at first estimat-
ed. The. construction of such an is
land was first recommended by thel
Taft board in 1906 According toI
advices from Washington 1t is to be-
placed on what is known as "middleI
ground" about midway betweenI
Cape Charles and Cape Henry where
it's guns would command the five
mile channel of navigable water
which constitutes the only entranceI
to the Chesapeake and which is not
now protected by Notifications. I'll
is now proposed to construct a for
LITIGATION similar to that on Ell FraileI
which, it will be recalled, will con-
sist OF comparatively small enclos-
ure surrounded by wall of concrete
forty feet thick and containing twol
steel turrets each housing two Al
inch guns. There will also be four
6-inch guns. The use of the turretI
effects material economy of space
over the disappearing gun with prac-
tically no engineering difficulties as
there is hard sand some seventeen
feet below the surface. 1t is pre-
dicted that substantial appropria-
tons will soon be made for this high
ly essential fertilization which will
constitute the sole protection to the
entrance of Chesapeake Bay and is
indispensable to the defense of
Washington, Baltimore, Norfolk and
Richmond.
The Department of Justice under
the direction of Attorney General
Wickersham has started an investi-I
CATION of the recent merger OF theI
American Telephone and Telegraph
company and the Western Union.
According to reports from Washing
ton he has directed number of
his field agents to make every effort
in the production of evidence which
tends to show that the merger will
have the effect of restraining trade
and furnish the grounds for sue
cetssful prosecution under the Sher-
man antitrust law. He has already
much available data on this subject.
During the last session of Congress
the Senate ordered an investigation
of the great telephone companies and
the reports which had come from
many sections of the country that
these huge concerns were absorbing
all the small companies and forming
a giant combination. Herbert Knox
Smith, chief of the Bureau of Cor
porations, was put in charge OF the
work and it is reported that he is
ready to present his evidence to
Congress at the coming session. The
attorney general will make an early
decision as to whether the recent
merger was a violation of the anti
trust law. He has been informed
that not only does the merger in
clude the two companies mentioned
but that the Postal Telegraph COM
pany is also involved. A prosecution
of these three companies would bel
a task second only to that OF bring
ing the Standard Oil company intol
court.
The movement for uniform motor
laws throughout the United States
is daily gaining strength through
the activities of the various automo-
bile associations in the country Thlsl
question will be- one of the most
important under discussion at thel
annual meeting of the American
Automobile Association to be held
at Washington in January. 1t Is not
believed that exactly similar laws
l.. Ill ~ IN