New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-06
ROOSEVELT AGAIN
ASSA|LS PRESIDENT
Continued from first page.

| his recommendation and have MIN make
| the investigation before any suit was
| undertaken. Mr. Taft, not once merely
but again and again, expressed his COM
plete acquiescence in this view :,
Mr.. Taft says have changed my nina
| about the antitrust law. He well knows
| that the position l take now IS preciseiy
the position | took again ana again IN
speeches and in messages TO Congress
while / was President. He was then IN
my Cabinet and repeatedly expressea
his approval Of what l thus SAID
Mr.. Taft says ] have said that the
anti trust law ought to be repealed. MI:
Taft well know that this Is not true. l
have always explicitly stated that IL
ought to be kept on the books ana reaiiy
enforced mot merely nominally eniorceu'
as has been done by Mr.. Taft III the
Standard Oil and tobacco trust cases.
against all trusts guilty OF anti-socla,
practices. but / have always SAID ana
now say that by itself the antitrust Ia"
will never solve the problem OF dealing
with the great corporations. and that 10
control the great industrial interstate
corporations we should have law AKIN
TO the present interstate commerce law
but without the mischievous Interstate
Commerce Court.
Mr. Taft says that J criticise MIN
because he prosecuted the standard Oh
and Tobacco companies TO the supreme
Court and got decisions there. Oh the
contrary. Mr.. Taft knows we'll that |
criticised him. not for having thus con-
tinued the prosecution OF the suits that
I had begun, but because. after he had
gotten these decisions, he then per-
mtted the Department OF Justice so 10
shape matters that the result was a
complete notification Of all the good re-
suits of hie suit.
His conduct in this respect is quite
incompat ible with any sincere purpose
really 10 enforce the antitrust law. AS
a result of his action, the stocks of the
CORPORATIONS in question rose greatly in
value. the rise In STANDARD oil stocks
being over 10000, 900. Mr. Taft can
hardly have failed TO notice that. fol-
loving his institution of suit against
the Harvester trust, Harvester stock
went up two points.
Evidently Wall Street has made UP
its mind that Mr.. Tsfts prosecutions are
fake prosecutions, whereas the bitter
hostility of wall Street to me shows
how lively Is its memory Of the fact
that my prosecutions were really prose-
cutions and hurt the persons prosecuted.
Colonel Roosevelt refers to the pending
investigation Of Judge Archibald, of the
Commerce Court, and asserts that the
Judge had been appointed to plscate a.
PENNSYLVANIA politician. although the al
legged unfitness for the Office of the ap-
pointee had already been called 10
President Tafts attention. The state
ment continues:
In Kentucky and Indiana, in New Z
IL Taf Irnourc |
we'll that the delegates elected for him |
represent barefaced frauds. He stands |
guilty of connivance at and condona- !
fion of these frauds; he stands guilty Of |
approving and encouraging fraud. which |
deprives the people Of their right to ex
press their will as TO who shall be nom |
mated.
In all these primaries and conventions |
I have stood for absolute honesty and |
fair play. Mr.. Taft had stood for crook |
ed Misrepresentation OF the will of the |
people.
As for the Lorimer case. the facts are |
these: fought Mr.. Lorimer hard and |
I'm the open for eighteen months. Origi- |
nally Mr.. Taft was secretly against Mr.. |
| orimer. As the Illinois primaries APP |
preached Mr.. Taft's opposition vanished. |
Almost all Of Mr.. Taft's followers in the |
Senate supported Mr.. Lorimer Mr.. Lori !
mer was the leading Taft worker In Iili- |
nois As long AS there was hope that |
Mr. Lorimer might carry the state for |
Mr. Taft Mr.. Taft kept silent about Mr.. !
I.orimer. But as soon as Illinois was |
lost Mr.. Taft rushed to Massachusetts, !
where there were no Lorimer votes, and |
repudiated Mr.. Iorimer.
Now, il was wrong for Mr.. Taft to |
keep silence about, and therefore really |
TO help. Mr.. Lorimer as long as Mr.. |
Lorimer could be of use TO Mr.. Taft. |
But It was not merely wrong. it was |
wrong in peculiarly mean way. after |
having thus endeavored 10 use him |
while he might help Mr.. Taft, to turn |
around ard for the first time openly |
condemn him when the chance for using |
him had vanished.