The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1911-11-23
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Washington Correspond
ent of The Times.

ent of The Times.
BY Clyd II Tavenner.
Washington, Nov. 28.-Why is til
Wickersham suit against the Stet
Trust one in equity instead of GRIN
inal prosecution?
The Sherman antitrust law carrie
a provision by which guilty trus
magnates may be sent to Jail. If it
possible to dissolve the Steel trus
under the Sherman law-and Pres
dent Taft and Attorney General Wick
ersham boast that it is easy to dis
solve every illegal combine in tn
land under this statute-why are nc
the men who organized and direc
these illegal monopolles equally liabl
to successful prosecution?
With the fact admitted that it wa
in r. P. Morgan's library that TIL
steel trust conspiracy was developed
that it was he who sent Gary ane
Prick to "see" President Roosevelt
about the Tennessee Coal and lror
Co. merger, and that Morgan receiv'
ed $29, 100000 in clear profit for his
part in the organization work, il
would appear to the lay mind that
Morgan is just as liable to prosecu-
ton for having organized an illegal
monopoly as said monopoly is liable
to dissolution for being in existence in
violation of the law.
"Guilt is Personal"
The American public is about con-
WINGED that trust magnates care little
or nothing about "suits,," as long as
they are directed against corporations
and not individuals, and especially if
the government trust buster" is to
be former trust attorney and
member of a political party whose
campaign funds were supplied by the
very trust he proposes to dissolve.
Relating by railroads could not be
stopped until the offense was made a
penitentiary one. When that was
done, rebating was stopped.
A remote possibility of having to
"dissolve' under plan which they
themselves can stipulate, (see SUI
preme Courts acceptance of the to-
bacco trusts reorganization plans), or
the threat of a fine against the trust
instead of individuals, has time and
again proven an insufficient deter
ment to trust magnates who see an
opportunity to make millions Of dol
lars annually by disregarding the
law.
There is one thing that trust mag
mates are afraid of, and apparently
one thing only. That is the peniten-
tiary.
When an attorney general can be
found who will enforce the only fea-
ture of the Sherman law that will
cause trust magnates to really obey
the law, and not until then, will the
public be justified in expecting relief
from trust oppression and the subse-
quent high prices.
What the People Pay.
The people Of the United States
pay a subsidy, in artificially high
prices, to the wool industry, of at
least $lO4, 100000 a year, according
to the calculations of Hon. Oscar w.
Underwood of Alabama, chairman of
the Ways and Means Committee of
the House of Representatives.
1.-THE Payne-Aldrich tax Of 81 cents
per yard, to say nothing of any in
crease in tax as it passes to the job
Der, makes not less than a $lO4, OOO,-
900 paid each year to substitute the
wool industry of America, says Mr..
Underwood. "Now, the entire du-
lies actually paid the United States on
all imports of woolens and worsteds ,
in 1910, amounted to less than $751;
SOC, 900, which means that of the
k1O4, 600, 600 extorted from the con-
sumers of woolens nearly $50, OOO,-
700 went to the wool interests.
us it fair or just or right to MAIN
ain these enormous taxes. unduly to
Foster the business of less than one
fourth of one per cent of the people
md to require ninety-nine and three
Fourths per cent to stagger under this
enormous burden? l for one do not
believe the American people will JUS.
|ify the President in his veto of the
wool schedule. |:
Tobacco Trust Still Trust.
In the opinion of many students of
l. - A. = |