Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-08-09
WAS ROOSEVELT BUNCOED BY
HIGH FINANCIERS!

Was President Roosevelt buncoed
into permitting the Steel Trust to abb
sorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron1
Company and secure a virtual monoo-I
oily of the iron ore lands of the coun-I
try?
The impression is growing very
strong that. smart though the former
president is, he was hoodwinked and
lead into granting permission for a
presumably unlawful consolidation Of
competing interests, under the im-|
preston that only in this way could q
disastrous panic be ayerted.
Now that the facts have been large
ly brought to light. and the truth ell
the situation at that time ascertained,
it appears that if the Morgan inter-
ests had been so DESTROYS of prevent
ing a panic a little assistance from
them in a different way would have
been equally as effective as that in
yolyed in the taking over of the Ten
nessee company by its competitor.
For an outlay Of $29,0O0,OO0 the Steel
Trust gathered to itself ore lands and
other assets, the value of which ex-
peTts place at fully two hundred mil
lions of dollars. A loan of five or six
million dollars, it has been pointed
out, would have been adequate to hal e
brought about the safe and sound con-
ditions that, it is alleged, resulted
from the relief given by the absorp-
ton Of the Tennessee company.
The charge has been made that the
quasi-panic was engineered for the
express purpose of shaking this fruit
into the lap of the Steel~Trust, that il
was known that the brokerage house
that had borrowed extensively on the
Tennessee securities was in trouble, |
that the trouble was, to some degree
at least, the result of the forcing down
of the value of the Tennessee securit- |
les, and it has been more than intim-
mated that the whole scheme was
we'll laid to bring about a condition
Just such as was placed before Pres
ident Roosevelt.
The country as a whole is veryI
suspicious of the virtue of the acts
that lead to the absorption of the
Tennessee interests by the Steel Trust
1t established precedent that is re-
garded as obnoxious and highly dan
gerous. If at any time the great mon
ey interests maneuver to produce sim
liar conditions, with the view to an
other consolidation of competing in |
terests, with presidential sanction, |
there would seem to be nothing to pre-
vent them from doing so. 1t is use-I
less to say that they would not do 50 |
that they are too patriotic, too high
minded, too much devoted to the pub
lie interests, to manipulate markets to
establish conditions similar to those
existing when the Tennessee deal
was put through with Roosevelts openI
consent.
The Democrats in Congress hayeI
done well to open up this question
and proceed with a thorough inyesti-
cation. While it is disclaimed by all
interested parties that there was any
thing sinister in the underlying mo-
tives, or that conditions We're deliber-
ately created to force such a conso1i-
dation, it will be more than difficult to
remove from the public mind the idea
that this was merely another instance
of that High financing" of which the
country has seen so much in recent
years. 1t is almost incredible that
this country could have been threat
ened legitimately with a wide spread
and disastrous panic because a New
York brokerage house owed several
millions of dollars on Tennessee Iron
Company securities 1t is equally in
credible that the only way the great
Morgan and other consolidated money
interests could avert such financial
catastrophe was by the sale of the
Tennessee company to it's only COM
petitor