The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-17
"The Trusts, the People, and the Square Deal' Pub
 lished Yesterday
MUST REDUCE ORDER
 FROM PRESENT CHAOS
Ex-President Advocates an Adminis- trative Bureau to Have Con- trol Over all Interstate
 Interests

New York. November 16.-Recent litiga-
 ton and legislation to regulate the trusts
 is discussed and remedy to meet the
 present situation is suggested by Theo- | dore Roosevelt, entitled The Trusts the
 People and The Square Deal,' published
 today in The Outlook
 "The suit against the Steel trust by
 the government" MT. Roosevelt begins,
 '.has brought vvidly before our people
 the necessity for reducing the order of
 chaotic government policy as regards bus | iness."
 He concludes with the following recom-
 mendation:
 "The national government exercises
 control over interstate commerce rail- ways and it can in similar fashion through an appropriate governmental body exercise control over all industrial organ
 izations engaged in interstate commerce. | This control should be exercised not by
 the courts but by an administrative bu-
 reau or board such as the bureau of cor porations or the interstate commerce com.
 mission, for the court cannot with ad-
 vantage permanently perform executive
 and administrative functions"
 Before taking up his general theme MT Roosevelt pauses to deny that the rep
 resentative of the Steel company mis- ad
 him while he was President. Referring
 to the suit against the Steel trust, he
 says:
 The Steel Suit
 "One of the grounds for the suit is the
 acquisition by the Steel corporation of | the Tennessee Coal. Iron and Railroad
 company and it has been alleged on
 the authority of the government officials engaged in carrying on the suit that as
 regards this transaction, I was misled
 by the reports by the Steel corporation
 and that the facts were not accurately or truthfuiy laid before me This state- ment is not correct. I believed at the 1 time that the facts in the case were as
 represented to me on behalf of the Steel I corporation and my further Knowledge
 has convinced me that this was true. believed at the time that the repre-
 sentatives of the Steel corporation told
 me the truth as to the change that would
 be worked in the percentage of the bus mess which the proposed acquisition would | give the Steel corporation, and further l inquiry has convinced me that they did so l .I was not misled
 sThe representatives of the Steel cor l poration told me the truth as to what | effect the action at that time would be
 and any statement that l was misled or l that the representatives of the Steel cor
 poration did not thus tell me the truth
 as to the facts in the case is itself not l r accordance with the truth. l "It has been alleged that the pur- chase by the Steel corporation of the property of the Tennessee Coal and Iron company gave the Steel corpora tion practically a monopoly of the 1 southern ores-that is of the iron ores south of the Potomac and the Ohio. My l information which l have every reason. to believe is accurate and not success fully to be challenged, is that of these southern iron ores the Steel corpora
 tion has, Including the property gained l from the Tennessee Coal and Iron com pany, less than 20 per cent. perhaps not over Is per cent. This is a very much smaller percentage than the per
 centage it holds of the Lake Superior | ores which even after the surrender of the Hill lease will be slightly over | 50 per cent.
 | According to my view. therefore, and unless, which l do not believe pos sible, these figures can be successfully | challenged the acquisition of the Ten nessee Coal and Iron company'S ores | gards making the Steel corporation a monopoly. The showing as to the per centage of reduction of all kinds of steel ingots and steel castings in the United States by the Steel corporation | and by all other manufacturers respec- | lively makes an even stronger case It makes the case even stronger than 1t was in my testimony before the in vestigating committee. for [ was scrup- ulously careful to make any statement l that erred if at all against my own position"
 Suits Inadequate
 Returning to the main subject, MT. | Roosevelt continued:
 ITO attempt to meet the whole prob lem not by administrative government action, but by succession of law suits | is hopeless from the standpoint of | working out a permanently satisfactory solution. Moreover the results sought | to be achieved are achieved only in ex- tremely insufficient and fragmentary measure by breaking up all big cor porations. whether they have behaved well or i'll into a number of little cor porations which 1t is perfectly certain will be largely and perhaps altogether under the same control. Such action is | harsh and mischievious If the corpor- | ation is guilty of nothing except it's size and whereas in the case of the Stand ard oil and especially the tobacco trust | the corporation has been guilty of im- moral and anti-social practices. there | is need for far more drastic and thor ough going action than any that has ! been taken under the recent decree of | the supreme court. In the case of the tobacco trust, for instance. the settle- ment in the circuit court, in which the representatives of the government seemed inclined to concur. practically leaves all of the companies still sub stantially under the control of es or | iginal defendants Such a result is l llamentable from the standpoint of jus tice. The. decision of the circuit court. I if allowed to stand. means that the to- bacco trust has merely been obliged to change its clothes. that none of tie real offenders have received any real pun | ishmcnt.
 Surely miscarriage of justice is not too strong term to apply to such result when considered in connection with what
 the supreme court said of this trust. "'rhe effort to prohibit all combins-
 tlcns. good or bad Is bound to fail, and ought to fail, when made, it merely l means that some ot the first combinations are not checked. and that honest busl- | L. ..f, r.1