The Washington times., 1912-08-21
TRUST BUSTING OF
TAFT OFFICIALS IS
HOTLY DEFENDED
Wickersham Declares Disso-
luton Was Not Welcom-
ed by Combines.

Vigorous reply is made by Attorney
General Wickeraham to the charge of
former President Roosevelt that the
trust busting" of the Taft Administra-
ton is of a kind welcomed by the
trusts. The Attorney General declares
that the Department of Justice under
President Taft has achieved the exact
ends which the former President and
| his legal advisers started out to ac-
| complish.
Mr.. Wickersham says:
I'm Colonel Roosevelt's Tejoinder to
my statement comparing the antitrust
prosecutions of his Administration with
those of the present he again convent
emily overlooks the fact that the de-
cree in the Standard Oil case accom-
plished precisely what his Attorney
General, and Frank y. Kellogg. the
able lawyer whom he retained as spe-
cial ASSISTANT to conduct that prosecu-
tion. SCI cut to accomplish
Quotes Praise of Decree.
If he will pause long enough in his
denunciation to read what MIR. Kellogs
said in his article in the Review OF
Reviews for June. 1912, he will learn
that Mr.. Kellogg there recorded his
matured conclusion that, in his opinion,
the decree in the Standard Oil case
accomplished everything that it is pos
| sible to accomplish under the Sherman
act
And again, that the decree wen;
| further than any decree has ever gone
in any court under the Sherman act.
That statement was true of that decree
when II was entered. The decree in the
case of the American Tobacco combi-
nation went still further.
MIR. Roosevelt's statement that these
| DEGREES have been received with salts
faction by the trusts - either straight
trusts or crooked trusts-is about as
truthful as it would be SO say that a
man who was threatened with the loss
OF both his legs received with satisfac.
tioE the information that only one was
to be cut of.
Value of Stocks Raised.
IF the test of success or otherwise ir
the administration of the Sherman Law
is to be the market prices of the stocks
OF the distributed concerns after a de.
cree of disinte grafton, what conclusion
would be drawn from the acts in the
Northern Securities case, the sole and
only complete accomplishment under the
Sherman law during the Roosevelt Ad
ministration.
"As a matter of fact, the market price!
or the stocks of both the Northern Pa
cific and the Great Northern Railroad
Companies increased greatly after the
distribution which followed the decision
IF the Supreme Court in that case anC
the Union Pacific interests after suCi
dissolution sold the Northern Pacih
shares which they received at a prof
of about S63 0O, O,O00-acCording to the tes
, timony in the Government suit agains
the Southern Pacific and Union Pacih,
Companies.
No Unfriendly Source.
But Colonel Roosevelt answers th
inference which might be drawn from
that fact, just as a similar inference ii
the casts of the Standard Oil and To
bacco combinations is answered, by say
, ing:
I've broke up the combination
That is what was accomplished witt
the standard Oil, Tobacco, and Powde
combinations. and a number of other
, prosecuted during this Administration.
Frank b. Kellogg's article, from
which l have quoted, was written at
| time when he was supporting Colone
: Roosevelt's candidacy for the Presiden
/ | tlal nomination at the hands OF the Re
, publican party, and, therefore, can no
: | tie regarded as coming from a sourc
unfriendly to him. He completely an
l swers all the contentious put forward b
| Colonel Roosevelt to minimize the effeC
: of that decision. ! seriously commen
r the perusal of the article to the colonel.