Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1912-08-21
LaFoIIette on Roosevelt.

. p. "a
A majority Of the people Of Kan
diyohi county voted in favor Of La
Toilette for president at the spring
primaries. They will therefore be in
terested in his views Of the utteran-
.ces of Roosevelt in his confession Of
faith. Says LaFollette:
"While Roosevelt deals with pro-
gressive principles in general terms,
he does not go to the real rock Of the
existing evils. He is silent on the
thousands of millions Of over capi-
talization in the railroads and indus
trial combinations. This silence is
enforced because he is on record for
fastening all Of this fraudulent CAPT.
talization upon the people as per-
petual tax. He dare not take any
other position. To do so, he knows
would forfeit the financial backing of
Perkins and his Steel Trust associ-
ates, Mccormick and his friends in
the Harvester Trust. This is a mill
stone about Roosevelt's neck and Of
itself makes him impossible as can
didate Of real progressive move
ment. It forces him into a tortuous
and shifty course Of reasoning upon
the high cost Of living. The same
thing is true when it comes to the
valuation Of the physical properties
Of the railroads. He has already
taken the position that there is no
DISQUALIFICATION in the great rail-
roads Of the country. If this is true
then railroad rates which have been
unjustly increased, adding enormous
ly to the cost Of living, cannot be re-
duced at all, and yet within ten years
the mileage Of the railroads has only
increased % per cent, while the gross
earnings for the same period have
increased "a per cent and the net
earnings 100 per cent.
"Roosevelt places the responsible
| ity Of the high cost Of living upon
"middlemen' It is very important
in this country that there should be
| closer connection between the farmer
and the consumer and that co-opera-
tive marketing and bargaining should
be encouraged. But that the tariff
and the trusts should be held exempt
from blame for the high cost Of iv-
ing and the burden put upon the COM
mission merchants is the Roosevelt
way. He knows that the principal
trust growth of the country was I'M
der his administration and due to his
fast and loose policy in dealing with
the great combinations. And he
knows that he did nothing during the
seven years that he was President
to force a reduction of the high
Dingley duties behind which the
trusts were raising prices day by day
So he is driven to find some other
excuse for the extortionate charges
imposed upon the people for all the
necessaries Of life, and he so cites
the high price Of farm products in
proof Of his contention that the tar
if has little effect on prices, but he
does not call attention to the fact
that most farm products are trust
controlled. Neither the farmer mol
the middleman, if by that is meant
the small distributor and buyer, are
getting rich. It is the men who have
the monopoly control Of these pro-
ducts who are making dishones
swollen fortunes. The combination
Of which Mr.. Morgan is the head
which constitutes the money power
which holds the business of the coun-
try by the throat, is ignored by Mr.
Roosevelt. He ought to know upon
whom responsibility for the panic of
1907 really rests. It occurred dur
ing his administration and he was
quite intimately associated VII h
some Of the gentlemen who knew a
great deal about it."
1 u