The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-26
THosE TRUsT PRosECUTIoNs.

An effective answer to Colonel Roose-
velt's charges that the interests and
| not the people have been benefited by
the prosecutions of trusts by the Taft
administration, has been made by
George w. Wickersham, the attorney
general who has so successfully pressed
these suits Incidentally Mr.. Wicker
sham shows that the decision in the
Standard Oil case embodied all the
points sought against the trusts by
Frank B. Kellogg, who was appointed
by Mr.. Roosevelt, when he was presi-
dent, as special counsel in the suits
against the trusts. Mr.. Wickersham's
answer follows:
In Colonel Roosevelt's rejoinder %
nv statement comparing the antitrust
prosecutions of his administration with
those of the present, he again convent
emily overlooks the fact that the decree
i'm the Standard Oil case accomplished
precisely what his attorney general
and Frank B. Kellogg, the able lawyer
whom he retained as special assistant
to conduct that prosecution, set out 10
accomplish. If he will pause long
enough in his denunciations to reao
what Mr.. Kellogg said in his article In
h., will learn that Mr.. Kellogg there
recorded his matured conclusion that'
in his opinion, the decree in the Stanu-
ard Oil case accomplished everything
that it is possible to accomplish under
the Sherman act and, again, that the
decree went further than any decree
has ever gone in any court under the
Sherman act
THAT statement may be true of that
decree when it was entered. The de-
cree in the case of the American To-
bacco combination went still farther.
Mr.. 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 to say that
man who was threatened with the loss
of both his legs received with satisfac-
ton the information that only one was
to be cut off
IF the test of success or otherwise
in the administration of the Sherman
law is to be the market prices of the
stocks of the distributed concerns after
a decree of disintegration, what con-
clusion would be drawn from the facts
III the Northern Securities case, the sole
and only complete accomplishment |
under the Sherman law during the |
Roosevelt administration?
"As a matter of fact, the market |
prices of the stocks of both the North
ern Pacific and the Great Northern rail-
road companies increased greatly after |
the distribution which followed the cod
clusion of the supreme court in the case |
and the Union Pacific interests after |
such dissolution sold the Northern Pa
cific shares which they received at a |
profit of about 500, 900, O00-according to
the testimony in the governments suit |
against the Southern and Union Pac- |
ific companies.
But Colonel Roosevelt answers the |
inference which might be drawn from |
that fact-just as a similar inference in |
the cases of the Standard Oil and To- |
bacco combinations is answered-by |
saying: We brooks up the combination.
That is what was accomplished with |
and a number of others
prosecuted during this administration.
Mr. Frank B. Kellogg's article from
which 1 have quoted, was written at a |
time when he was supporting Colonel
tiaI nomination at the hands of the Re-
publican party, and therefore it cannot |
be regarded as coming from a source
unfriendly to him. He completely an
swers all the contentious put forward
by Col. Roosevelt to minimize the effect
OF that decision. I seriously commend
the perusal of the article to the col
onel.''
In giving out the statement, Mr..
said that one thing had
been overlooked by Colonel Roosevelt,
and that was that not a single big cor
poration had organized under the Taft
administration. He said the colonel
would continue to slough over
the question as he did many others, and
that if he did make a reply it would
be in generalities and not specific.
The attorney general said he won
dered why the people did not see the
humor of Mr.. Roosevelt's relations
with George w. Perkins and Boss"
Finn. He said the coIoneFs explana-
ten of his Affiliations with George w.
Perkins was one of the most humor-
Gus spots in the history of American
politics.