The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-04-12

Chicago, Ill. - Attorney General
George w. Wickersham delivered a
defense of the first year of the Taft
Administration in speech before the
Hamilton Club here in the gold room
of the Congress Hotel.
Mr.. Wickersham' S speech had been
approved by the President and was
therefore the next thing to an utter
ance by Mr.. Taft himself.
He made what Is practically a pre-
diction that the Tobacco and Stand
ard Oil suits will be decided by the
Supreme Court in favor of the Gov
eminent and announced additional
suits against corporations for viola
ton of the Sherman act and further
announced "the determined policy of
the Government to attack all special
privileges and undue preferences,
whether obtained by illegal combina-
tons, by bribing public officials, by
rebates or special advantages in trans
portation or by any other method"
Mr.. Wickersham reviewed in detail
the accomplishments of the Taft Adj
ministration, declaring in effect that
no other administration could point
to a brighter record in the same pc
Rod An interesting part of his
speech, however, from political
standpoint was what he had to say of
the insurgents who have combated
President Taft's legislative program.
He mentioned no one by name, but
there seemed to be little doubt that
Cummins, Dolliver, La Toilette and
others in the Senate who have fought
the Taft measures were included with
in the scope of his condemnation.
The Attorney General declared that
1t is time now for Republicans to
choose either for or against the Presi-
dent of the United States and the Re-
publican party, and added that If
they can't make a positive choice it is
up-to them to retire from the Repub-
lican party
Il speak to an assembly of loyal
Republicans" said the Attorney Gen
eral Il am sure / voice your thought
when I say that the time of running
with the hare and hunting with the
hounds is over, and every one must
choose whether or not he is for the
President and the Republican party.
He that hath no stomach to fight let
him depart Treason has ever con-
sisted in giving aid and comfort to the
enemy. If any one wishes to join the
Democratic party let him do so. But
let him not claim to be Republican
and in and out of season work to de-
feat Republican measures and to sub
vert the influence of the Republican
President"
1t would be strained analogy, the
thought. to liken
too closely the task confronting the
administration of President Taft with
the work of reconstruction following
the Civil War 1.-THE terms which
General Grant had advised General
Lee would be acceptable" he said,
however, were as simple and con-
elusive as those which nearly half
century later President Taft offered
TO the managers of great trusts and
monopolies." He added:
On this anniversary of the peace of
Appomattox the mind naturally
turns to many points of similarity in
the conditions prevailing in these two
different epochs. The danger from
armed resistance to constituted au-
thority is open and manifest. and is
met by simple obvious methods. The
danger to free institutions arising
from the concentration of vast wealth
and great power in few hands is far
more insidious than that arising from
open revolt against government, and
the methods by which these dangers
may be met and averted are less OBJ
vious and more subject to misunder-
standing than the work of resisting
force by force.
The daily work of endeayoring to
carry on the great and increasingly
complex business of government with
put perpetual turmoil and commotion,
but none the less efficiently and ade-
quately, is far less attractive to spec
taeular imagination, and can only be
done by men who are content to en-
dure Misrepresentation and misinter-
probation of their acts, and to look
to the future, rather than to the pres
emit, for vindication of their motives
and justification of their deeds.
The administration of President
Taft has been in Office a little more
than year. That it has accom-
plished much in that time is album
dainty attested by the volume of
criticism and by the increasing We
hemence of attacks upon it.
But it certainly has been it's fixed
purpose since the enactment of the
Sherman law, in 1890, to prevent the
perversion of laws of corporate or
ganization through intercorporate
stockholdings to the accomplishment
of schemes of monopoly.
These organizations present the
most obnoxious form where they con-
troll subjects of such vital Importance
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