Imperial Valley press., 1912-11-04

! a citizen. Mr.. Roosevelt seems entlrc
ly oblivious of the fact that it would
be difficult to preserve political inde-
| pendence under an industrial despot-
| ism
In the second place he cites the far
| cical dissolution of the Standard Oil
| Company as an illustration of what
would come under a return to compe-
tition. The Standard Oil Company was
not dissovled The ownership was not
changed. The monopoly is just as com
! plete now as it ever was and the higher
| prices are due to the fact that the
trusts which went through the so call ed
! dissolution are now protected by de-
| cision of the supreme court, sanctioned
/ by the president. Such enforcement Of
the law is a fraud and the fact that
| Roosevelt cites it as an illustration of
what would happen under a return to
competition shows that he does not un :
derstand the first principles of the
subject which he is discussing.
Then again he says: Don't you sup
pose those three fellows Morgan, Car
negie and Rockefeller) would agree on
prices and methods unofficially?"
1t is astounding that a candidate for
eral government powerless to prevent
these three fellows" from agreeing on
prices and methods. Is our government.
so helpless that, while it can prevent
three poor men from conspiring to rob
n house, it can not prevent three rich
men from conspiring to burglarize a
ration? Mr.. Roosevelt ought not to say
that we cannot prevent them; he ought
TO say that we have not prevented
them, and then he ought to explain
that we have not interfered with the
lusts for a very simple reason, name
ly, because the trusts have elected our
presidents, and Mr.. Roosevelt is one of
the presidents elected by the trusts
and no one has seemed more helpless
than he in protecting the public. All
we need in the White House is a pres
ident under no obligations to the trusts
"a president in sympathy with the
people and senate and house to sup
port him-then there will be no diff
Guilty in preventing those three fellows
or any other fellows from agreeing on
prices and methods.
One more reference to his words He
seems to base his opinions as to what
would happen if the steel trust were
broken up upon what he saw in one
plant which is competitor of the
steel trust. Poor, innocent Mr.. Roose
velti He judges what would happen
under competition by what he sees
row. Possibly the poor, struggling
competitor of the steel trust which NJ
observes was suffering from strangu-
lation The steel trust may have been
selling below cost in the competitors
market for the express purpose of driv
ing the competitor out of business
that is one of the methods that "those
three fellows" have been using. If
Mr. Roosevelt will, in the limelight of
a presidential campaign, defend the
steel trust, whose capitalization was
more than half water, what hope is
there of his protecting the people from
the trusts if he is elected?
Mr.. Roosevelts plan, as here out
lined, contemplates the establishment
of a legalized private monopoly. ana
as mere bignesS does not disturb him
he can have no objection to the merg-
ing and merging again of these big In
dustries until n few men control the
industrial world. He has evidently con-
vinced himself that these gigantic in
stitutiOns with their billions of dollars
of watered stock can be effectively reg
ulated by a bureau appointed by the
president, provided, of course, that Ii.
is the president But he cannot be
president always; and suppose he
should be succeeded by a man like Mr.
Taft. He commended Mr.. Taft after
a much more intimate acquaintance
with him than the people are able
have with presidential candidate. II
he gave us Mr.. Taft what may be
forced upon us when he is no longer
able to protect US? How can any
honest, earnest, well meaning man be-
lieve that it is safe to vest in a pres
ident the enormous power which he
proposes? How can any one doubt that
his plan would compel the trusts TO
enter actively into politics?
Mr.. Perkins is a defendant in suits
brought against two monopolies. He
is an object lesson. He shows us what
we may expect if the Roosevelt system
ever gets into operation. What chances
have the people to effectively regulate
a private monopoly when the monopoly
can afford to spend millions of dollars
to elect the man ii wants and thus
prevent regulation? The plan which
Mr., Roosevelt offers contains the germ
Of system more oppressive than any
landlord system of the old world