The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-10-19
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
(By Clyde H. Tavenner, special
Washington correspondent of The
Reporter.) ~


Reporter.) "
Washington, Oct. 14.-President
Taft is demanding to know with great
bravado, what single case of COM
bination in restraint of trade which
ought to be condemned could not be
reached under the Supreme courts
int probation Of the Antitrust law
in the Standard Oil and Tobacco
trust cases.
There are few who care to take
issue with the President. The aver
age man believes that the trusts
could be reached" if the govern
ment would set out in good faith to
reach them.
The vital issue is not whether the
trusts could be reached. The real
important question is: Why is it that
not single guilty trust magnate
has ever been sent to jail, or even
called to the bar of justice? The an
swer is that the government does not
send trust magnates to jail nor con-
troll the trusts because the trusts
control the standpat republican ma
chine, and for fourteen years the
standpat republican machine, in rec
ognition of campaign fund donations
and other favors, has permitted spec
ial privilege to name the man to be
in charge of the prosecuting ma
chinery of the government.
The present attorney general is
George w. Wickersham, whose last
act before taking charge of the gov
eminent prosecuting machinery was
to draw down his share of hand
III Low firm, NV "a
sugar trust. When a movement was
started to bring about COMPRESSION
al investigation of the sugar trust,
Mr.. Wickersham headed it off by hav-
ing President Taft send a message
to congress advising against the in
vestigation on the ground that it
might give immunity to the men
higher up and otherwise embarass
the administration. Although the
trust practically admitted having
stolen over 100000 from the gov
eminent by returning it after the
crime was discovered, not a single
one of the trust magnates into whose
pockets the 100000 would have
gone had not the theft been discover
ed, was called to the bar of justice,
much less punished. Mr.. Wicker
sham permitted an underling secre-
tary and a few dock hands to alone
stand the vengeance of the law.
When American sugar interests pur-
chased vast tracts of rich sugar lands
in the Philippines in violation of the
law, Mr.. Wickersham again came to
the rescue with an opinion UNFOLDING
the sale.
Mr.. Wickersham is now posing as
the great trust buster. He pretends
business, and some of he trusts pre-
tend that they take his threats SER
iously. But the record of the at
torney general is not one that gives
the people any reason to hope for en-
forcement of the law against GRIM
inal trusts or guilty trust magnates.
The first thing Mr.. Wickersham did
upon taking office was to drop i'm
portant suits against members of the
beef trust. His explanation was that
he didn't believe the trust officials
meant to do wrong.
The extent of Wall streets great
fear of Mr. Wickersham as a prose-
cutor of trust magnates is indicated
by the remark of J. P. Morgan, who,
when he was asked by newspaper
man what he thought of the Attor-
ney Generals great antitrust speech
which had been deliverd more than
week previous, replied: 81 don't
think anything about it, because l
haven't read it"
What the Farmer Gets.
B. F. Yoakum, president of the
Frisco railroad, has had table of
figures prepared, showing how much
the farmer gets for products sold in
New York in one year, and how much
the New York consumer pays for
those same products. Here are the
figures:
Farmer Consumer
gets pays
Eggs IS 1860 $ 2s,75o,ooo
Rice -. 1,334,O00 3,191, 900
Cabbage. 1926, 900 9,125,0O0
Onions. 1000 S,212,OO0
Milk -. 22,912,O00 4S,SS0,0O0
Potatoes 3,425,000 60,0O0,000
Meat and
poultry >. 19,427,0 900 491 100000 |
On the average the farmer gets "A |