The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-10-26
INTERESTS OF
BIG BUSINESS
REGISTERS WASHINGTON COR.
RESPONDENT REVIEWS BUsI-
NESS CONDITIONS
Mr.. WICkERSHAM IS ON THE WATCH
Attorney General of the United States
Has His Eagle Eye on Big Trusts
and Other Interests

The Registers Washington CORE
%spondent writes us the following in.
teresting letter this week, reviewing
conditions as they exist in the capital
and down on Wall Street."
The antics of the American Tobacco
Company are being carefully watched
by the Department of Justice, and
there seems no probability that the
eagle eye" Of Attorney General Wick.
ersham will fail to detect any neatly
concealed loopholes in the arrange
ments of the officials of the tobacco
trust to evade the mandates of the
no concealing the fact that chaos
reigns in the affairs of the Princes of
honor the greatest Magi of Persia,
the juggling game has been carried
out. But no feasible plan has yet
been brought forward for dissolution,
and it is doubtful If the order Of the
Supreme Court will be carried out
without resulting in further legal en-
tanglements and consequent litiga-
ton. The difficulty is that the Ameri-
can Tobacco Company is in a large
measure the result of magnificent"
high financing, and in an adjustment
of ownership the holders of common
stock and preferred stock must be
considered. Likewise there are bond
holders, and every other conceivable
kinds Of ownership-and in a SHOW
down" such as that Of the present
instance, it seems quite impossible to
care for every interest without a good
deal of difficulty. The Company is
evidently ~endeavoring to maintain all
its old powers, and this attempt will
not be tolerated by the government.
Perchance there may be a sequel to
the tobacco trust story, fully as i'm
portant to the American public and
our policies of government, as was
the original ase
American Sugar Investigation.
When Congress provided for an in
vestigation of the so-called Sugar
Trust, it delegated the task to a COM
mittee, a portion of the membership
of which vas made up of a class whose
chief occupation for several years has
been to foment public feeling, and to
impress upon the public minds the
evils Of "the trusts" To prove that
the sugar interests were the worst
offenders, the Committee decided to
employ expert accountants and inves-
tigators, who would build a case 80
strong that Congress would be COM
PEELED to recognize the splendid SER
vice of its members to whom had been
entrusted the great task of busting
the great trust that had come into
%disrepute through criminal manipula-
tons Of weights. There was gloom,
however, in the ranks Of the Commit
teemen a few days ago, when the
country was flooded with the news
that the accountants and experts, en-
ployed by the Committee, had reported
to the Congressman that there is no
trust" Evidently the newspaper
scare-heads furnish the first news to
the Congressman as to what their en-
ployees had been about, and while
New York and Washington immedi-
ately perceived that an attempt had
been made to put one over" on the
Committee, yet as a matter OF fact it
is perhaps fortunate that the experts"
told their story sc early in the day,
as it will likely result in the Con-
gressmen giving more careful personal
attention to affairs concerning sugar,
with a result that may not prove
pleasant to the men, or interests, or
whoever it may have been, that at
tempted to convey the impression to
the country that a Committee OF Con-
gress, had found" that there was mo
sugar trust" Attempts have been
persistently made from Wall street to
show that the recent rise in sugar
was due entirely to a shortage In
sugar crops, and foreign manipulations
Of the market. The American sugar
interests, according to several chap
tiers Of press report that have flooded
the country. have been entirely limo
cent. They protest, and profess. as
emphaticalIy as in the days when the
government was engaged in sending