The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-09-16
President Taft and the Trusts

ito the penitentiary for pursuing a.
course in business competition which
the ordinary man did not regard as
immoral or Criminal before the pas
sage of the act.
Consistent Course in prosecution Of
the Law.
think | may affirm without con-
tradiction that the prosecution of all
persons reported to the department of
justice to have violated the antitrust
law has been carried on in this adj
ministration without fear or favor, and
that everyone who has violated it, no
matter how permanent or how great
his influence, has been brought before
the bar of the court either in civil or
terminal suit to answer the charge.
1t Is the custom of those who find
(, it to their political interest to do so,
| to sheer at, as innocuous, the DEGREES
against the American Tobacco Com
pany and the Standard Oil Company,
and the administration is condemned
| in the Democratic Platform for con-
isenting to compromise in the Stand
ard Oil case. There was no comprom-
| Use. The Standard Oil decree was en-
tered by the circuit court, and then
| by the supreme court, on the prayer
of the government contained in the
ioriginal bill filed in a previous admin
listration. The decree in the tobacco
case was reached after a full discus
sion and entered by the circuit court,
consisting of four circuit judges, as
proper decree, and the government
refused to appeal from it because it
did not feel that it had grounds upon
which to base such an appeal. Both
DEGREES are working well. Both de-
crees have introduced competition,
| the one into branches of the tobacco
business and the other into branches
OF the oil business They have not
lreintroduced ruinous competition, but
they have affected certain prices in
such way as to show the presence
OF real competition. The division OF
the two trusts by the DEGREES into sew
eral companies was not expected to
show immediate radical changes in
i the business. II may take some years
to show all the benefits Of the disso-
luton, but, the limitations of the de-
crees in those two cases are so spe-
Icifc as to make altogether impossible
a resumption of the old combination
against which the DEGREES were en-
tered. Even if experience shall show
the DEGREES to be inadequate, full op-
Iportunity in future litigation will be
lsfforded to supply the defects.
The contest has been a long one.
/ For years the rule laid down in the
statute was ignored and laughed at
but the power of courts of justice
pursuing quietly the law and enforc-
ling it whenever opportunity arose
has finally convinced the business
public that the antitrust law means
!, something, and that the policy Of the
administration in enforcing it means
som ething. A number of these com
:. binations illegally organized and main
tanned are now coming forward, ad
: hitting their illegality and seeking {
decree of dissolution. Injunction ant
settlement They are quite prepared
! to square with that policy, provided j
J be definitely understood that it bs
). impartially enforced and that securit.
: shall attend compliance with the law
i NY belief is that these DEGREES mari
= the beginning of a new era in indus
: trial development; that what tn
-lgreat corporations of the countr.
i now desire is not what they manifest
: ifectly did twenty years ago, to wit
i TO obtain monopoly in each business
i but it is to maintain large enoug
: Iplant to secure the greatest econom
i in production on the one hand and t
I avoid the danger Of the threats Q
I prosecution and disturbance of thel
i business on the other. 1t will be tn
!, work Of the highest craftsmanship t
e secure these ends, and the Republ
S can party. if given the power, will az
t complish it.