The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1911-10-09
The Daily Star Mirror carries the United Pres.
Association Service.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1911.
TAFT'S RECORD AGAINST THE
UBIQUITOUS TRUSTS.

UBIQUITOUS TRUSTS.
Boise Statesman If deeds speal
louder than words, then the acts o
President Taft in the trust smash
ing line are greater than all of thu
volumes of speeches uttered by al
of his predecessors since the Sherman
law was passed, 20 years ago. The
aggregate number of trusts that have
been smashed during Taft's admins
tration is actually wonderful. Theil
individual and collective power is
stupendous, when the capital behind
them is summed up.
History will name Roosevelt as the
Great Agitator. 1t will call Taft the
Great Performer. Roosevelt talked
He awakened the people to wrongs
He was a sort of Public Conscience
But Taft has gone ahead and quietly
but effectively done what Roosevelt
talked about doing but what he could
not accomplish within his tenure of
office.
Let the facts, simple, plain and un-
adorned, speak for themselves from
the record in black and white. What
do we find?
There are the tobacco trust and
Standard Oil cases. These cases were
won on every ponit. Not only have
these trusts been dissolved, but they
are permanently enjoined from re-
organizing.
Then there are actually in the
courts, the powder trust case and the
case against the sugar trust, in both
of which government victory is as
sured beyond the slightest doubt.
There are the beef trust cases in
Chicago, where the individual officers
and heads are under criminal indict-
ment; the electrical trust cases, in
which the terrified defendants have
already submitted to a court order so
that they may escape the penitentiary;
the towage trust, which controlled the
shipping on the Great lakes, and
which cannot escape dissolution and
probable Jail sentences for it's heads.
Neither can the shipping trust, which
is also being proceeded against.
The turpentine trust cases are as
good as disposed of; the responsible
heads have been sentenced to prison,
but have made final appeal to the
supreme court.
Then there is the case of the south
ern grocers' combine and that of the
lumber trust, in which six different
groups of indictments have been re-
turned; and the bath tub trust, which
also is both a civil and criminal pro-
ceeding.
Then there is the kindling wood
trust, and the careful investigator
must not omit the publishers trust,
because their periodical clearing
house arrangement is claimed to be
as clear a violation of the Sherman
antitrust law as any he knows of.
Then there is the anthracite coal
rust, the Reading case, and the
5uothern Pacific merger.
Every one of these cases is being |
pushed, and nearly every one of them |
las been begun since President Taft
ook office!
Then there is the United Shoe |
Machinery trust, the heads of which
lave been criminally indicted. 1t is
ather different from the others, be-
ause there was no original merger
II combination of competing com
'eting companies. But Mr.. Wicker
ham says that case shows clear
of trade and also comes I'M
er the monopoly clause.
In the preparation of the case
gainst the United Shoe Machinery
rust, the department Of justice came
cross many irregularities in the pat
Mt office in Washington, and it was
hown that the patent laws, which
re meant to protect and encourage
le genius of inventors, had come to
e prevented and were being used by s
lis criminal trust as tool to create (
monopoly. 4. ns. a
Attorney Wickersham says that he /
INSIDERS that the patent office t