The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-08-22
ROOSEVELT AND EDMUNDs.

ten the former great Senator from YER
mont, Hon. George +, Edmunds. We
in Utah have a specially Keen remem-
brance of him, and that memory, so
far ss the most Of us is concerned, is
both pleasant and grateful. 1t
ought to be so with all the people, as
his efforts were directed toward remov-
ing a blot which was heavy handi-
cap upon the commonwealth as a
whole
Mr.. Edmunds is brought into the
limelight by reason of letter which
| he addressed to the New York Even.
ing Post reviewing tho present politi'
cal campaign and showing that the
great opportunity for the enforcement
of the ANTITRUST law was lost when the
Presidents who were in Office at the
time succeeding the passage Of that
law failed to enforce it. At that time
there was very little of the comblna.
tion and trust monopolies that have
grown to such enormous proportions
since. AS Senator La Toilette says,
when Roosevelt went into office, these
trusts had capitalization Of some
$4,000, 100000. On the expiration of
his service as President, that captain
zation had grown ten fold.
Senator Edmunds was the real au
thor of the antitrust law that went
under the name of Sherman. 1t was
called the Sherman law because Shcr-
man was chairman of the committee
which reported it,; but Senator Ed
munds wrote the law practically in its
entirety dis il stands. In his recent
letter Mr.. Edmunds says that, Had
the earlier Presidents Nc
Kinley and Roosevelt-been as active
as Taft has been in enforcement of the
antitrust law Of 1890, many Of the
most iniduitous monopolies would
never have been born And MAX
ing this sentiment specifically apple
able TO Colonel Roosevelt, Mr.. Ed
munds continues: ''To put the execu-
ton of the Sherman law again into the
hands Of gentleman who did not
when he had the opportunity obey that
command, would result, in my opinion,
in the law falling into state of what
the late President Cleveland in re-
spect of another subject once called
'innocuous desuetude. If the people
wish for that they will vote for the
third-term candidate Further pur-
suing his subject, Mr.. Edmunds wrote;
e'I cannot conceive of situation that
might arise in which Mr.. Roosevelt
would do otherwise than he did in his
last administration when he permitted
the United States Steel Corporation
to absorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron
Company for almost nothing in COM
plete defiance of the law, and when
again he deliberately instructed his
Attorney-General to drop the suit
against the Harvester Trust monopoly,
whose haneful influence has for many
years been felt by every farmer in our
great West
This was so sharp and forceful an
attack that Roosevelt could not re-
sist his usual mendacious vitupera
tive outburst against 1t. HIS reply Is
that Mr. EdmuDds finds "cvery great
malefactor is his friend;' that "every
crooked corporation will follow his
lead;n that "with his eyes open he has
become the apologist for scoundrels; -
that "his proposal is in the inter
est Of every great corrupt organl-
zation;" that ''he is in thorough ac-
cord with Rockefeller and that cit
= oth nG hat
are for Taft" All this imputed to
the author Of the antitrust law
Surely Roosevelt is a monomaniac on
this question. To attack in this
fashion and impute friendship for
trusts to the very man OF all others
who has done most against trusts
and combinations by drafting the great
law against them, is sv absurd that
one might afford to laugh at it were
it not SO serious question. The un-
restrained volubility of vindictivc
speech thus INDUCED in by Colonel
Roosevelt without regard to fairness,
to consistency, TO reason, or to TACT,
and without any respect for station,
character. or eminent service, is some
thing so moustrous that it has never
been before known In American public
life. 1t seems that all that any one
has to do is to bring forward a few
pertinent facts and show some logic,
reason, and true. knowledge Of public
affairs, TO open the vials OF Roosevelt s
wrath and invoke upon himself
food of billingsgate such as has been
known heretofore only in the slums, but
has never until this year invaded the
public life and public discussion Of the
United States. 1t is to be hoped that
when Colonel Roosevelt is given his
quietus by the American voters, as is
sure to be done at the November cleo
ton, this sort of outrageous campaign
ing will be as dead as the one is politi-
cally who introduced it.
A GRUESOME SPECTACLE.
There have been some references in
Al. IL, 4. Il