Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1920-01-07

VA0111NO YIN, II. IL 1uAuh
Meat Victory May Be Nominal" is the
heading of long article in the New
York Journal of Commerce dealing
with the government and packer
agreement said to dissolve the pack
ing trust.
Those who have noted the effects of
previous dissolutions of trusts and the
details of this agreement will prob
ably agree with the financiers. The
stock of Wilson & Co. went up several
points when the decision was made
public.
Basil Manly, investigator for the
federal trade commission, shows the
packers as gaining the following
points, which we might contrast with
nominal gains for the public:
1. An escape from criminal 1ndict-
ments and possible conviction.
2. Weakening of the case filed
against them by the wholesale grocers
in the interstate commerce commits
sion charging unfair discrimination
in rates through the use of refrigera-
tor cars.
3. Weakening of the proposed leg
fslation embodied in the Kenyon-Ken-
drick bills.
4. Weakening of the cases filed by
the federal trade commission under
antitrust acts, involving more than
30 corporations recently acquired by
the packers.
3. An apparent acquiescence by the
government in the dissolution plans
previously begun by the packers,
which merely transferred their "unre-
lated" interests, such as groceries,
leather and other products, to sepa.
rate companies.
6. A better public feeling toward
the packers, engendered by the hope
that the present surrender is sincere.
Some hold that the acknowledg.
ment of the wrongs to the public
previously denied is an important
moral victory over the packers, but it
is difficult to see what this amounts to
since the packers can now escape
prosecution and conviction.
=
RAIL RETURN OPPOSED.
Two hundred thousand copies of his
extension Of remarks, showing that
the return of the railroads to private
hands will mean Is per cent higher
railroad rates, are being circulated
over the country by Representative
James II. Sinclair of North Dakota.
railroad workers are applying for
these speeches in large quantities, and
are circulating them in lodge meetings
in the railroad towns. The pamphlet
carries an argument for two years de.
lay OF the return of the railroads, as
made by Interstate Commerce Com
missioner Woolley before the Amer
lean Academy of Political and Social
Science at Philadelphia in October.
PRoHI9'TIoNIsTs HIT ROOT,
43eware Of offending the AntiSaloon
league! 1t has long memory and a
sharp tongue. *
A press article sent out from New
York by this organization refers to
the fact that Elihu Root has taken the
job of overthrowing the prohibition
amendment to the federal Constitu-
ton for the liquor interests. They
quote church papers to prove that
Charles E. Hughes refused a fee Of
$15O,OOO to undertake this case. and
that Mr.. Taft refused to accept it.
even with a signed blank check to
cover his own fee.
Mr.. Root consented to serve them. -
says the statements. Either he did
not know the law and advise them
correctly in the war prohibition case
or else he and his legal associates were
willing to take money from desper:
ate discredited traffic before it COM
pletely disintegrates! = This
is the man whom the liquor sympa-
thizing Republican machine managers
OF New York have tentatively selected
to sound the keynote at the unofficial
Republican state convention this win.
ter and to head the delegation from
New York as spokesman for practic-
ally one tenth of the delegates to the
national convention which will select
candidate for president. The in
f1uence OF a president upon the en-
forcement of the law can hardly be
overestimated." -
BUTLER ALSO EMBARRASSED. :
Nicholas Murray Butler, who has
emerged as candidate for some kind
OF Tory nomination for the presidency
OF the United States, is another shin.
ing mark for the darts of the drys.