Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-05-09
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER

Now comes the discovery that Bur-
dette D. Townsend, one of Mr..
Roosevelt's special trust investiga-
tors, was assigned, in 1906, to in
vestlgate the harvester trust; and
that he reported that it was mono
poly in restraint of trade; that it
was holding up farmers; receiving
rebates from the railroads, and that
all the plans for the organization of
the trust had been drawn up and
executed by George w. Perkins
This report was suppressed. The
public never heard of it. 1t died by
the chloroforming process, in the Of
| fee of the Attorney General of the
United States, with the acquiescence
of Mr.. Roosevelt There is every in
dication that Mr.. Roosevelt person
| ally decreed the death of this report.
| It was Mr.. Roosevelt's direct order
to his attorney-general not to start
suit against the harvester trust, which
resulted in the suppression of the
| Townsend report, and the granting
of immunity from prosecution to the
harvester trust. While Roosevelt
was protecting the harvester trust
| from prosecution by the federal gov
| ernment, that organization was be-
ling tried, and was found guilty in
Missouri, Oklahoma and other States
whose legal machinery was not un-
der the domination of Wall street.
HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING
EXTRACTS FROM TOWNSEND
| REPORT
'sThe harvester trusts business has
been increased until to-day it con-
trolls 80 per cent. of the total bust
ness, and thus a single institution has
acquired a monopoly. Geo. w. Per-
kins conducted the negotiations, and
devised and executed the plan final
ly agreed upon The Rockefellers and
McCormick's own a majority of the
Icapital stock.
THE most effective weapons en-
p1oyed by the harvester trust are OF
the invisible kind. 1t is directly all
lied with that group of Standard Oil
and commercial aggregations COM
monty known as the steel trust, the
coal trust, the railroad trust, the
banking trust, etc. Rebates, prices
of raw material, extension or re
fusal of banking credit, can all be
manipulated with a discriminating
favor which is murderous to the
Icompetitors of the international Har-
yester Company
This, then is the kind of informa-
ton Theodore Roosevelt had on the
harvester trust when he instructed
lhis attorney general not to start
lsuit against the trust without letting
him know, with the consequence THAT
the suit was never started.
Il Considering these facts, is it any
wonder that George w. Perkins
organizer of the Illegal harvester
trust and director of the illegal steel
trust, who might today be in the
penitentiary if Mr. Roosevelt had
mot given him immunity from prose
cution, paid 81 for vote in New
lYork City in the hope of again plac-
| ing Mr.. Roosevelt in the White
House?
i EXPRESS TRUST is IMMUNE 3
The United States District Attor-
ney at Denver is prosecuting a rail
way mail clerk for carrying outside
the mails, mailable packet, moi
first-class, for hire. The prosecu-
tion is based on the law which makes
it illegal for any person engaged in
carrying mails to carry any letter OF
packet for hire.
4 If the same district attorney had
read the next section of the same
law he would have found this: Who
ever shall establish any private ex-
tpress for the conveyance of letters
or packets. or in any matter 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
lis prosecuting them.
THEY ARE NOT WORRIED
i Although the prospects for a com
3 plete Democratic success in Novem-
Iber are becoming brighter each day
J, lit is observable that Business, which
; always keeps it's eyes on the politi-
cal situation, is not in the leasi
; alarmed More and more it is be-
! coming the sober opinion of onlook-
lers from the business world that
] nothing is to be feared from ths