The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-02-28

Nonpartisan league endeavor to lead
the people to believe that there is nc
such an organization as Big Biz.
Sometime ago we showed our read
ers the part which Terrible Turk
Teddy Roosevelt played in the motor
ious Tennessee Steal" Following is
House Report No. 1927, 62nd Congress
which substantiates our former state
ment: "As to the contention that the
President and Steel Corporation pre-
vented "a general industrial smash
up it is stoutly maintained by Colonel
Roosevelt and by Judge Gary that the
advantage in the 's%weetening' Of Grant
B. Schley's obligations-that is the
substitution Of steel bonds for Ten
nessee Coal & Iron stock in about six
or eve million out Of thirty eight
million dollars of loans-prevented
the most disasterous panic of recent
times. Colonel Roosevelt, when be-
fore his committee, graphically des-
Icribes the terrific financial cataclysm
in which he played so conspicuous a
part.
How a panic which had persistently
resisted the combined efforts of the
Federal Government and John D.
Rockefeller and J. p Morgan & Co.,
and remained in undated fury after
Morgan and Rockefeller had turned
loose $50, OOO, 900 and the Federal
treasury $25,OOO,OOO more should sud-
denly be stilled by this manipulation
Of Grant B. Shley's loans has not been
explained either by Mr.. Roosevelt or
by any other witness. Yet it is ur-
gently maintained that the panic con-
tinued prior to this magical scoop Of
| securities and that the instant the
Steel Corporation acquired the Ten
| nessee Coal & Iron Company's stock
it subsidized instantly and permanent
~.
That Colonel Roosevelt distinctly
heard ominous rumblings in Wall ST.,
at the time he consented to this re-
markable merger cannot be doubted.
In the light Of subsequent events, it
is equally certain that it was the re-
ceding and not an approaching storm
which disturbed him. In an editorial
on June Z, 1911, published in the New
York World it was clearly demon
strated that the panic was over prior
to the interview between Colonel
Roosevelt and the representatives Of
the Steel corporation.
Up until the time of this interview,
the Steel Corporation owed it's success
and it's permanency to the power and
the skill of the fnanciers who had
created and the iron masters who
had directed it's operations. Since
that time it's dominance has been due
in no small measure to the sudden, i'll
considered, and arbitrary fiat of the
Chief executive.
The Presidents refusal to interfere
was an absolute warrant to proceed.
A suggestion from him to the Attor-
ney General was equivalent to a
command; and upon a refusal of the
Attorney General to act, the corpora
ton was immune. This is admitted by
Col. Roosevelt and he unhesitatingly
assumes full responsibility in the
matter If the Steel Corporation
could have absorbed the Tennessee
Coal & Iron Co. without a semblance
of injury to the steel industry or
without violation of existing law, it
would not have been necessary for
Judge Gary and MI Prick, on a spec
ial car "rigged' up at midnight, to
make that hurried run to Washington
or to confer with the President be-
fore breakfast. If the merger was in
violation of the law it is equally clear
that the President had nc right to
condone or encourage it's violation, or
to prevent the Attorney General from
performing his duty, eve though the
prosperity of a dozen bankers in New
York had depended upon it, much less
the fate of a single stock broker,
whose reckless transactions had in
volved him in financial disaster" Now
then, gentle reader, what do you think
of the blustly Colonel? Not quite so
dlGl-Dlk DlA Oh 1C LA1SAS w, ~
true patriot is one who has the inter-
ests of his entire country at heart n
not merely the interests Of the Big
Biz clique. Consequently we question
the Colonel's. claim that he is a pa
triot, if he is n then he is Of the
shoot mouth brand. We venture to
assert that his followers are not thos
who are seeking democracy. What
Roosevelt and his Big Biz clique
wish to do is to force militarism on
us after this war. It shall not be
done, for the American people are
fighting to abolishJ m~ilitarism and not
for the adoption Of it.
Wiffit, plugged nickle editor of the
Minot Messenger, week before last,
assumed the role of a detective. Yes,
a real Hawkshaw. But before he got
thru with the ease he was floundering
around like a spring chicken whose
head had just been disconnected from