Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-05-09
President TAFT
Continued From Page One.)

nLOlULNl Ill
| Continued From Page One.)
trust and the Harvester trust and con-
trasted that with the attitude of his
own administration which has filed suits
against both. Although he carefully ex-
planned that he did not wish to charge
Mr.. Roosevelt with ANYTHING improper
the president reviewed in some detail
the circumstances under which the
Roosevelt administration decided not to
institute proceedings against these
trusts or against any of the Morgan
interests" The president said that
George w. Perkins, director "of the
Harvester trust and of the Steel trust
was instrumental in preventing the
prosecutions in the Roosevelt days, and
then went on to say: "Mr. Perkins
is one of the chief contributors to Mr..
Roosevelts present financial fund. Now
| want to ask you, what do you think
Mr.. Roosevelt would say of me if l
had not prosecuted the Steel trust and
the Harvester trust and it appeared
subsequently that Mr. Perkins was a
large contributor to a special fund ex-
pended for my use? Well, what does
he do on the face of that? He charges
me with being in control of the spec
ial interests, with these facts staring
him in the face. I don't infer from
these facts anything improper. On the
contrary, I don't believe there is any,
thing improper, but l do say to him
who is so prolific in his suggestion Of
suspicion and so easy in his charges Of
improper motives that for him now,
with the evidence before the public, to
charge me with being an agent of
the special interests, takes that auda-
cious courage | still believe him to
have"
Why Prices Advanced.
Replying to the statement that de-
crees of the supreme court in the
Standard Oil and American Tobacco
company cases, were really of benefit
to those trusts and that the Taft ad-
ministration's prosecution of them
had been Intellectual because oil
gone tip and the stock of both compa-
MES had gone up, President Taft told
why he believed these resulted from ma
tural economic causes.
They say oil has gone up and they
say the stock of these constituent COM
panies has gone up" said Mr.. Taft. 1T
is true that they have gone up and
why? Because in the dissolution the
facts had to come out, and the stock
holders who were holding stock down
low had to reveal to the public gener-
ally that it had great deal more mon
ey in those companies than the public
had known. Secondly, they say that
oil has gone up. Well, it has, and
crude oil has gone up, too, and why?
Because under the Standard Oil COM
pany as it was they could control pur-
chase of crude oil and they kept the
crude oil down. I know what I am
talking about, because I had to ap-
prove contracts down in the Indian
Territory with respect to oil. The price
went down, suppressed by the Stand
ard Oil, so that we did not know what
to do with those Indian lands. Now,
because competition has come about
and people are bidding for that oil,
crude oil has gone up and the price
of oil generally has gone up. But you
can not get everything. If you have
a trust, you may have cheapness, but
you will have absolute control; but if
you do not have trust you will have
competition, sometimes you will have
cheapness and sometimes it will be
high. l would rather have competition
and have it high and low instead of
being in the hands and control and grip
of soulless monopoly.
"Then about the tobacco business
They say that decree is a sham. WE'LL
what is the effect of it? Don't you re-
member out in Kentucky they hal
night riders and they tore up tobacco
plants. They killed people and they
drove them off of their farms in Or
der to reduce the supply of hurley to-
bacco because they could not get any
price for it, and that was because the
Tobacco trust went IN there and bought
what they wanted and paid the price
they wanted. Now. what is the result
of the tobacco decree? Why hurley to
bacco has gone up under the COMPETE
tons that have come in there by the
various companies in which this tobac-
co trust has been divided. Burley TO-
bacco has never been so high. You
talk to the Kentucky farmers ana ask
them whether they do not approve the
decree in the tobacco trust"
With Whom the Bosses Stood.
answering the Roosevelt charge Of
a Taft alliance with bosses, the presi-
dent criticized his predecessor for at
tempting to inject into a national CAM
paign questions which properly concern
the states, and with which president
has no direct concern.
Mr.. Roosevelt said I was not only
in favor of an aristocracy or an OIL
garchy, but he said that I was in favor
of an oligarchy of bosses, that I sp-
proved that kind of government and |
made the issue, the people against the
bosses and that all the bosses were for