The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-05-09
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

w Cto uAA5IO SoAASSP0A~Se
Reporter.)
Washington. May 4.-Now comes
the discovery that Burdette D. Town
send, one of Mr.. Roosevelt's special
trust Investigators, was assigned, IN
1906, TO investigate the harvester
trust, and that he reported that 1t
was monopoly in every sense of the
word; that it was holding up farm
ers, receiving rebates from the steel
trust and railroads, and that the
trust was organized by George w.
Perkins, who is now financing the
Roosevelt campaign.
Mr.. Roosevelt said recently he
never had any reports suppressed.
But this report was suppressed. The
public. never heard of it. 1t died by
the chloroforming process, as re-
suit Of Mr.. Roosevelt's order to his
attorney general not to start suit
against the harvester trust.
While Mr. Roosevelt was protect
ing the harvester trust from prose-
cution by the federal government,
that organization was being driven
from Missouri, Oklahoma and other
states whose legal machinery was not
under the domination of Wall street.
The Townsend report showed that
the harvester trust controlled 80 per
cent of the total harvester industry
in this country, and stated that
"George w. Perkins conducted the
negotiations, and devised and exc
cuted the plan finally agreed upon"
"The most effective weapons en-
ployed by the harvester trust re-
ported Mr. Roosevelt's investigator,
"are of the invisible kind" 1t is
directly allied with that group of
Standard Oil and commercial ag-
gregations commonly known as the
steel trust, the coal trust, the rail-
road trust, the banking trust, etc.
Rebates, prices of raw materials, ex-
tending or refusal of banking credit,
can all be manipulated with a dis
eliminating favor which is murder
GUS to the competitors of the Inter-
national Harvester Company"
ton Theodore Roosevelt had on the
harvester trust when he instructed
his attorney general not to start
suit without letting him know, with
the consequence that suit was never
started.
Considering these facts is it any
wonder that George w. Perkins,
trust and director Of the illegal steel
trust, who might today be in the
penitentiary if Mr.. Roosevelt had
not given him immunity from prose-
cution, spent 81 a vote in New York
city in the hope of :gain placing Mr..
Roosevelt in the White House?
Express Trust is Immune.
The United States District Attor-
ney at Denver is prosecuting rail-
way mail clerk for carrying outside
the mails a mailable packet, not
first-class, for hire. The prosecution
is based on the law which makes it
illegal for any person engaged in
carrying mails to carry any letter or
packet for hire.
If the same district attorney had
read the next section of the same
law he would have found this:
whoever shall establish any private
express for the conveyance of letters
or packets, or in any manner pro-
vide for the conveyance of the same,
may be imprisoned for not more
than six months"
The express companies violate this
section of the law millions of times
every year, but no District Attorney
is prosecuting them.
They Are Not Worried.
Although the prospects for COM
plete democratic success in NOvem-
Der are becoming brighter each day,
it is observable that business, which
always keeps its eyes on the politi-
cal situation, is not in the least
alarmed. More and more it is be-
coming the sober opinion of onlook-
ers from the business world that
nothing is to be feared from the
overthrow of both republican fac
tons. For the first time in more
than a score of years, the socalled
Business Interests are not raising
the old, prediction cry of Demo
cratic success means business ruin
The stock market "bulls" never were
more optimistic than they are now.
Upward Goes the Price.
Along with about everything else
that the people use, the price of writ
ing paper has now hit the up grade.
The reason, of course, is the fact
That the mills nave all Deen OrSGlllZ-
ed into a trust, and this trust is over
capitalized to an extent probably
greater than any monopoly yet Or
ganized in this country. When the
American Writing Paper company
was formed, common stock was
piled on bonds, and preferred on the
common, until a mighty pile was
erected. On this great mass of
water, dividends must be paid, and
these dividends can be paid only by
the imposition, on the public, of in
crease prices. Competition having
been suppressed, the trust is now
free to charge what it pleases.
How "Dissolution'' Helps.
Standard Oil stock has increased
greatly in value since the recent
dissolution" decision of the United
States Supreme Court In the report
of prominent Wall street firm, is
sued recently, there is this signifi-
cent language: 'Whatever the ef-
feet the .dlssolution order had on
actual values, it is apparent that the
recent speculative activity in the
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