New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-10
MIR. Wilson's Apparent Change OF
Attitude Toward Business VIII
Soon Undergo an Acid Test.

,ude toward business seems to have undergone u"
rsdicsl change Psychoogicay speaking Nv
back. tracking as hurriedly as only rev u"'' 49,
no ,ras ordering full speed ahead. BUSINESS NV"
,,bo road his uncompromising speech 10 'ne
oi,i. Editorial Association on June - must nave
r,,hhod tboir ewes when they noticed the statement
IN Yesterdays Washington dispatches that AFTER
oonterring with n delegation Of Chicago business
men. who urged him to amend the lu'erS'"'e ....
commission bill and drop ali the other antitrust
hills Mr.. Wilson declared that tine conference nav
heep mutually instructive and heIpIul'
What has suddenly driven the PRESIDENT 10 '"'Ao
tho affectonate advances 10 business lhen WIN
which the Warburg appeals and the exchanges VIII
tho Chicago delegation bubble over Coinciueh''9
with them the newspapers report the secession OF
Democratic Congressman from Colorado whoie-
sale desertions from the iarty IN Loulsl"na anu
grave disaffecton oil through the Middle west
Colonel Roosevelt has threatened to attack WIZ
sonism all along the line-itS domestic FAILURES Dc
we'll as its international bundering' Does MI
Wilson too. think that the time has come 10 cut
avvev from the excuses Of what has come 10 pe
known As wisconsin. Who can tellE just TWO
yeeks ago he was saying to the Virginia editors
that business would have to take its medicine
whether it liked to take it or not. knowing eA-
actlv what business needed he and the Democratic
leaders had prepared programme of additional
antitrust legislation which would mean certain
Justice TO the man engaged in business The
only choice open to business was that "sooer anu
sensible programme now Completed or another
long period Of agitation The poor business man
had 10 accept what the President and Congress hau
agreed on-including all the crudities, antiquities
a nd eim-fam provisions of the Clayton bill-or e1-
meet a still more unpleasant and lingering punish
ment.
Now Mr. Wilson is calling on the Democratic
party 10 line itself up the side of business ana
sending Chicago business men TO the Capitol 10
persuade the Senate to cut the foohShnesS ana
film fam out Of the Wilson-O. ia antitrust
measures. II is Il remarkable exhibition OF aGlIe
political reimbursement. For the sake of harassed
business and suffering industry we hope that 1t -
genuine and that it will bear genuine fruits.
Fortunately there is at hand an acid test Of the
Presidents new professions. He excused himself
TO his Chicago visitors for a proving the compro-
misses with Mr. Gompers written into the Clayton
hill on the ground that they were intended merely
to legslize the existence and operations Of labor
is point Of dispute between him and the follow
ers of Gompers. the latter maintaining that the
COMPROMISES are intended to exempt labor union
lists from the operations OF the Sherman law. If
the Clayton bill should be passe. in its present
form the courts would have to decide whether
Mr. Wilson had outwitted Mr. Gompers or Mr.
Gompers had outwitted Mr.. Wilson.
But in the case OF the sundry civil appropra
ton bill now in conference there is no dispute
about the license given to union labor-a license
to which business men and all other classes Of
producers Disseminated against rightly object
The sundry civil bill fatty forbids the OF
money appropriated in it in the prosecution of
union sborers and organizations Of farmers for
violations Of the Sherman law. The language Of
the exemption is as clear its intent is vicious
Mr. Wilson is on record as cOndemning the eXemp
ton as ndefensble in principle. Yet he signed
the last sundry civil appropriation BILL which con
tanned similar exemption
What will he do now? Will he make good on
his own conscientious belief and on his new pro
LESSONS OF friendship for business by vetoinG the
sundry civil bill? Or will he hedge and faer
again and let the Gompers element in Congress
have its way? Words will not count in such an
emergency The President will have to stand or
fall by what he does TO prove the sincerity Of his
change OF heart and his solicitude for a square
deal all around, even for the long submerged man
Of business.