The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1912-10-04
CURB OF TRUSTS
URGED BY Taft
Democratic Plan of Return to
Competition Shown WaStefuI.
TAFT'S ANTITRUST RECORD
More Prosecutions Under Sherman
Act During Three Years of His Ad.
minlstration than In Seven Years
Of Roosevelt - Sentiment Through
State Favors Regulation as Advo
Gated by Republicans.

State Favors Regulation as Advo
Gated by Republicans.
The attitude of the various eandi
dates and parties on the question OF
trusts is an important question. Mich.
igan voters are confronted with the
responsibility of choosing a group OF
men to handle the affairs of state and
nation. That prosperity has prevailed
the past four years cannot be gain
said Now comes a man who says he
is going to restore wasteful competi.
ton. He is going to abolish trusts.
How he is going to do it, he doesn't
say. But do you want him to try it?
Do you want him to attempt volcanic
measures which, in shaking the bust
ness interests Of this country, will
throw the nation into a panic? Can
you hope for anything short of finan.
cial disaster If the Democratic party
Is allowed to attempt the overthrow
of big business?
Sentiment throughout the state
seems to be crystallizing in favor of
the Republican party as election
draws near. Farmers are satisfied
with the prices they are getting for
their crops. The factories are run
ming full blast and paying higher
wages than ever before in the states
history. More men are being EN-
ployed. There is feeling of salts
faction with conditions as they are
now and the opinion is becoming
prevalent that Mr. Wilson's business
views turn out to be highly imprac-
teal on the field of commercial action.
There are good trusts and bad
trusts, and the people are beginning
to wonder if Mr.. Wilson's idea of
furnishing the innocent along with the
guilty is either justice or good bust
ness. Because some trusts take ad-
vantage of their power, are you going
to adopt the plan of returning to the
wasteful plan of competition or are
you going to force the culpable cor
porations to be good?
Now 1t Is q waste of time to argue
that the Republican party Is or isn't
responsible for trusts. The fact that
common sense In business has made
trusts Is too plain to need explana-
ton. 1t Is true that few who
haven't given the matter much
thought will tell you that the tariff
built the trusts and that the Repub-
ncan party is keeping the trusts in
tact. And because these people haven't
given the matter thought and investi-
CATION they are unable to explain why
great trusts have aourished in Great
Britain, where free trade Is in vogue
and where the Republican party
hasn't much to say about affairs.
1t Is a fairly well accepted theory
in economics nowadays that the best
plan for handling the trusts is to reg
ulate them and bring them under gov
ernment supervision. This policy is
the one adopted by the Republican
party. President Taft, OF judicial
mind. argues that inasmuch as tho
corporation Is a creature of the law,
the public ia therefore responsible for
corporate conduct Of business. While
Woodrow Wilson would arbitrarily
annihilate the big organizations and
restore competition in the world OF
big business, the Republican party
seeks through the Sherman antitrust
law, the Commerce court, the Inter
state Commerce Commission and the
Bureau of Corporations, to curb the
trusts, prevent the use of unjust
means in the sitting of competition
and the fixing of exorbitant prices.
Recent supreme court interpretations
of the Sherman law have made that
statute most effective one in keep
ing big business in control.
In charging the Republican party
with having very lately become allied
with the interests, Mr.. Roosevelt
with Mr.. Perkins, the Steel trust
and the Harvester trust behind
him in the present campaign, poses
as the great foe Of corporate
greed A comparison OF the par
tvs record during his administra-
ton and that of Mr.. Taft discloses
the rather interesting information
that during the third-termer's seven
years in office % indictments were re-
turned for violations of the Sherman
act, while in the three years OF Mr..
Taft's occupancy of the white house
40 indictments were returned. Dur.
ing that seven years Of Roosevelt
rule IS bills in equity were filed in
antitrust cases. In the first three
years of Mr.. Taft's administration %