The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-10-10
THE COMPLETE CASE.

The testimony Of Col, Roosevelt be.
fore the committee Of the House of Rep
resentatives which has been investigat
ing the Steel Trust, is still discussed
in the magazines We find in the Amer
lean Review of Reviews for September
mention of this testimony which is
highly favoTable to Col, Roosevelt; and,
so far as it goes, that mention is right
and the position taken is sound. But
it does not go far enough, though say
ing that in Judging the incident 1t is
necessary to take ourselves back to the
dsy of the autumn of 1907 when the at
mosphcre Of fight and distrust surround
ed every effort toward betterment of the
panic conditions was electric, in order
to gauge the accuracy, the wisdom, or
non wisdom of such a step as the then
President took.
There can be no question of the sound
ness of this view. 1t is necessary, how
ever, in taking ourselves back and put
tipg before our minds the conditions
that existed at that time, TO consider all
when we have considered the necessity
which the then President, Mr. Roose
! welt, felt for immediate action, the rep
reservations made to him by Mc5srs.
Gary and Frick. which led to his com
| ing to the sudden conclusion he did, to
guarantee the Steel Trust against any
| prosecution by reason Of its violation
Of the antitrust law. we must take a
number of things into the account.
First of all, il must be recalled that
President Roosevelt had done a good deal
of wordy ''trust- busting himself that
year. He had warned the predatory in
terests that he might feel constrained
TO turn the mob loose upon them, and
that in his speech at Memphis, after
emerging from his two weeks fruitlcSs
bear hunt in Mississippi. he gave forth
| the widest whoop against the trusts
| that he had vet emitted. II must be
remembered that Messrs Gary and
! Frick, in representing the situation TO
| the then President Roosevelt. reminded
! him that the great menace was his own
! speeches. and that they were endeavor.
ing TO save the country from the effects
Of his rashness. They made their own
representations 10 Mr.. Roosevelt of the
terms upon which they would stand in
an endeavor TO quell the financial trou-
| BILE. They did not fail to let him un-
! derstand that they were doing this for
him, and that he was the man they
were helping out Of mole. They told
| him plainly that their purpose was TO
absorb the Tennessee Coal & Iron Conn
pany, but that they could not and
would not do that unless nc would in
sure them against prosecution for their
! violations Of the law. He gave them
that assurance, and they proceeded TO
make the combination OF the Steel Trust
/ complete
Messrs Gary and Frick how
ever, did not tell President Roosevelt
OF their own manipulation Of the stock
market in New York; they did not tell
him that they themselves had broken
! down the business confidence of the
/ street. and that it was their manjpula-
I tion that forced the run on the Knick-
| erbocker Trust Company, and on other
I concerns there which precipitated the
panic. and that they had done this 70
destroy the stock of the company they
wished 10 absorb. All this ne was in
/ ignorance Of; but was led By them TO
believe that il was his own speeches
nj i.. =
the only conceivable reason why Mr..
Roosevelt rs President could have taken
the extraordinary and iudefensbie step
of assuring men WHO plainly told him