The Topeka state journal., 1916-10-28

tariff commission and an industrial
commission; and they are now IN
rather impotent fashion feeling after
both. They have passed a child labor
law (Which is so drawn, however, that
it may be utterly ineffective) after
Mr.. Wilson had emphatically declared
against it. They champion a law
which will make the needed revival of
our shipping by private enterprise
more difficult than ever. Their tariff
law was working ruin to our industry
until the war created an outside tariff
more protective than any we have ever
previously had.
Wilson Both Sweet and Sour"
Mr.. Wilson has endeavored to satis-
fy both the professional pacifists and
the men desiring preparedness, by
persuading each side that he stood for
something the other did not want. He
is making a similar effort as regards
la Dor and business. The president is
astute and farsighted in his manage
ment of politicians for party and per-
sonal ends. He believes that the solid
south will vote for anything with the
Democratic label wholly without re-
gard to the principle involved. The
solid south is ultra but
inasmuch as in the south the negro
and the poor white laborer are both of
them unorganiZed, an appeal to the
class followers of trades unionism in
the north does not disturb Mr.. Will
sons power in the south. In conSe-
quence the Democratic party under
Mr.. Wilson's leadership seeks to de-
velop as a radical labor party in the
north, so as there to capitalize the Ia
Dor vote, while remaining reactionary
in the south, and endeavoring to reas-
sure the big money interests because
of what the south can do in national
matters. The result of such efforts
cannot be for the ultimate good of the
nation; but it is naturally attractive to
politicians who think only of the mo-
ment's success.
Promised Lower Living Cost.
We were prompted explicitly four
years ago in the Democratic platform,
and by the Democratic orators on the
stump, that they would destroy all
trusts by the utilization of the Sher-
man law, and q tariff for revenue only,
and would thereby lower prices and
the cost of living. But prices and the
cost of living have steadily gone up
and Mr.. Wilson has not invoked the
! sherman law against any big trust
The Sherman law is on the books. 1t
was a dead letter fourteen years ago.
1t became a live law only because of
the success of the Northern Securities
! suit This suit established the vitality
necessary principle that the national
government had complete control
/ over interstate business; but the es-
tablishment of this principle was
about all OF any real use that was
achieved under the Sherman law.
Great and important suits were won
under it prior to Mr.. Wilson's taking
office; but the poor effects, or rather,
/ on-effects. of these suits have shown
that the Sherman law offered no real
method of doing away with the evils
of corporate activities, while yet re-
! tanning what was good There must
be a totally different method of deal
ing with the problem.
Mr.. Wilson, before election, an
nounced that the trusts must be de-
stroyed by state action. AS governor
of New Jersey he secured the passage
of the seven little sisters bills, which
he asserted would put a stop to the
evils of the trusts. They have not
done so in even the smallest degree.
The evils of the corporate system in
the United States have been left abb
solutely unchanged and unremedied
by anything that Mr.. Wilson has done
4 either as governor of New Jersey OF
as president of the United States.