Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

EDITORIAL PAGE The Supreme Court Versus the People The utter worthlessness, under existing conditions, of a civil suit in preventing the injury of trust oppression and punishing the evil of trust combination is shown in the decision of the supreme court in the Coal Trust case. Ten years after the evidence of the existence of the Coal Trust was first furnished to the government of the United States by my attorneys, a decision is finally secured from the supreme court of the United States confirming our contention that the anthracite railroads had combined to strangle competition and were operat ing as a combination in defiance of the Anti-Trust law. For ten years durjng the progress of this suit the coal roads have been able to maintain this combination, and during all that period to reap the millions of dollars of profit due to the extortion made possible by their illegal monopoly. At the end of ten years' litigation the attorneys for the people have failed to secure an injunction against the combination itself, whose existence was proved by the Temple Iron Company and the Coal Purchase contracts, and merely secure from the supreme court the termination of these particular agents of monopoly which were offered as evidences of the combination. There is no restoration of the money robbed from the people through the ten years’ continuance of this extortionate monopoly. There is no penalty imposed upon any of the railroad and financial magnates who created this illegal monopoly and robbed the people by means of it. Finally, there is no real relief provided for the future, as there is nothing in the decision of the supreme court, which will prevent the railroads and their coal companies from continuing to operate under some other form of monopolistic combination. They merely will not be allowed to continue to operate under the particular instrument of combination known as the Temple Iron Company and the particular instruments of oppression known as the Coal Purchase contracts. * The result of this decision, therefore, in the case of the Coal Trust will be as ineffective for the cause of the people and as ad vantageous to the cause of the Trusts as were the decisions in the Standard Oil and Tobacco cases. The individual component companies of these trusts may still proceed in harmony and in complete agreement to maintain prices to monopolize the market, to oppress the public and to pillage the individual consumer. This result is already evidenced by the rise in Reading stock, by the gleeful and congratulatory editorials in the Trust press and by the expression of complete satisfaction by Mr. Baer, head of the Coal Trust. In the issue of The New York Sun in which the Coal Trust decision was printed, an editorial appears which says of the de cision : “We think it brings to an end the legal attack upon the An thracite Railway Companies that has been in progress so long.’’ The New A ork Timos says: “The decision of the supreme court in the case of the Coal Combination shows that the court is still guided by its fortunate discovery of the light of reason.” President Baer says: “I have always been indifferent as to the 65 per cent contracts. As to the Temple Iron Company de cision, this is a matter of indifference.” Os all the above mentioned authorities, the ticker is the most reliable. It never lies and is seldom deceived. After the decree of the supreme court “dissolving” the Stand ard Oil Trust, the price of the stock rose from $674 to SI,OBO a share. After the decision in the Tobacco cases the price of the Tobacco Trust stock rose from $465 to $528 for each SIOO share. In the same way and in similar accurate appraisement of actual conditions, the ticker has jumped from 158 1-4 to 168 in Reading Company shares, registering an increase of $3,500,000 in the water ed stock of that corporation alone. And why not? I have said that the Temple Iron Company, which is so solemnly dissolved by the supreme court, was merely one of the instruments by which the Coal Combination effected some of its illegal purposes. But the Temple Iron Company was really more than that—or, rather, less than that. It was created for the definite purpose of strangling a competing railroad line and had performed its func tion. That railroad line has long since been eliminated from all possible competition with the trust. The dissolution, therefore, of the Temple Iron Company with out any injunction which affects the general combination of the coal-carrying railroads, is simply another one of those practical jokes which Mr. Taft's reactionary supreme court delights in per petrating upon the patient public. Since the supreme court decision pretending to dissolve the Standard Oil I rust, the price ot Standard Oil products has con tinually increased and the value of Standard Oil stocks has more than doubled. The people know this through their every day experience. The people know that this increase in Standard Oil prices ami increase in Standard Oil wealth are due to a certain plhyful sleight-of-hand peiiormance on the part ot the supreme court, which goes through the motions of dissolving a trust without dissolving it. just as Ching Ling Foo. the marvelous Chinese juggler, apparently causes your watch to dissolve into thin air ami then restores it to vour waist coat pocket, ticking just as regularly and faithfully and effectively’ as ever. The people know that the combination under which the Stand ard Oil Company now operates and which has been restored to their plethoric pocket by the legal jugglery of the supreme court is even better than ever, for it is a form of combination which has received the sanction ol the law—at least, as the law is interpreted by Mr. Taft s reactionary supreme court. The people know that the supreme court read into the law certain words that congress had not put into the law and had not. intended to have in the law and had even refused to allow in the law, just as Ching Ling Foo takes out of your hat certain hard boiled eggs and rolls of ribbon and rabbits that you had never put in your hat and never intended to have in vour’hat and never ex pected to see come out of your hat; and the audience laughs at your surprise and embarrassment just exactly in the wav that the trusts laugh at the people. Owing to such supreme court jugglery in the Standard Oil ease, a monopoly more oppressive than ever continues to exist, because the monopoly can now be maintained and its acts of oppression and extorhon committed without fear of legal consequences; inasmuch as th., monopoly m its present form has secured the approval and indorsement of the supreme court. the rt'T ’‘ie Tobacco Trust, the cost of o ' thllS h iat trUSt * ucreus " d « lld value of securities that rust has enormously advanced, because that monopoly, too The Atlanta Georgian is now operating under a charter from the supreme court to plunder the people without fear of punishment. In the same way nothing has really been done to dissolve the Coal Combination, and the people may expect no more relief from this lat.-st Coal Trust decision than they secured from the Oil Trust decision ami the Tobacco Trust decision and the other humorously styled ■■anti-trust” decisions rendered by Mr. Taft’s reactionary supreme court. The price of coal will continue high and will go higher. The combination of the coal roads will continue to be a monopoly aud will become constantly a more and more oppressive and extortion ate monopoly. I he monopoly will continue to operate in disregard of the inter ests of the people and in defiance of the will of the people as long as Mr. Taft s reactionary supreme court, continues to render decisions resulting in the protection of trusts and the perpetuation of monop olistic extortion and oppression. I he farcical dissolution of the Temple Iron Company, an insti tution which had already served its purpose of strangling competi tion and was no longer of essential value to the Coal Trust, is an ev idenee ot the indifference with which the supreme court regards the people s interests and of the contempt with which it regards the people's intelligence. 1 he attorneys for the people could be content with no such empty’ and insufficient act as a dissolution of certain agencies of the trust, offered as evidence of the combination. The attorneys for the people asked for genuine relief for the people, for a permanent in junction against the continuance of the oppressive combination which the Temple Iron Company and the Coal Purchase contracts proved to exist. It was proven that the coal railroads owned their own mines in the coal district, and that the coal railroads deliberately killed the competition of rival coal mines by means of discriminating trans portation charges. It was shown that the railroads refused to compete with each other in freight rates, so that there was no relief to the coal pro ducers and shippers from universal rate oppression and discrimi nation. It. was shown that rhe attempt to build a rival railroad to secure relief from this destructive oppression and discrimination had been killed by the joint efforts of the six Coal Trust railroads united for this purpose in the Temple Iron Company. It was shown that, the railroads, through coal-selling compa nies which they owned, maintained uniform high rates in New York and other distributing centers, were responsible for the high price of coal and prevented any reduction of price through oppression. It was shown that these railroads established the selling price of coal through price circulars issued by every railroad at the same time and with the same provisions. It was proven that these railroads compelled coal to be sold at these fixed prices by blacklisting all coal merchants who did not adhere to these fixed prices. It was proven that these acts of trust oppression were so crim inal in their character that the agents of the coal companies who attended the meetings authorizing these acts were registered on the minutes not by their names, but by numbers, like convicts in the penitentiary. It. was proven that in such ways the coal dealers were con trolled and the coal mine owners were forced one by one to sell out to or combine with the coal railroads. It was proven that the Reading Railroad, by obtaining posses sion of the coal mines within its territory and then by absorbing the New Jersey Central, grew to control 63 per cent of the total coal product in t he coal mining district. •It. has shown that these railroads and the coal they controlled, in combination with the other coal roads and the coal they con trolled, established practically an absolute monopoly of .the coal produced, delivered and sold throughout the area covered by these roads. 1 his whole combination is the thing which is oppressive to the coal consumer, and which exists in defiance of the intentions of con gress as expressed in the Sherman Anti-Trust law, and yet this whole combination is allowed to remain in existence under the de cision. The supreme court itself recognizes and admits the exist ence ot the combination and the oppressive acts of the combination. Ihe decision says: ‘ This combination of the defendants through the Temple Iron Company was effective. The New York. Wyo ming and Western railroad was successfully STRANGLED, and the monopoly of the transportation collectively held by the de fondant carrier companies was maintained. 1 he combination by 7 means of the Temple Iron Company still exists. It has been and still is an efficient agency for the collective activities of the defendant carriers for the purpose, of preventing competition in the transportation and sale of coal in other states.” Yet. what is the result? The existence of a combination to “STRANGLE” competition and which existed and still exists for the purpose of “STRAN GLING” competition, is admitted. But under the dispensation of the supreme court the combina tion is not enjoined, as the attorneys for the people prayed. The guilty railroad presidents who violated the law to "STRANGLE” competition are not marked out for punishment; competition is not restored. The supreme court merely dissolves the instrument by which, in the last analysis, is a license for the continuance of the monopoly ami which protects the privileged special interests and disregards the demands of the people and the rights of the people under the law. r The most unworthy act of Mr. Taft's political career was the packing ot the supreme court of the United States to make it stand as a bulwark for the privileged interests against the growing pro gressive movement for equal justice and popular rights. No institution, however reactionary, can continue permanently to oppose the righteous requirements of the people. Mr. Taft has received a deserved rebuke and a merited pun ishment in the most ignominious repudiation recorded in American history. Mr. Taft has been dealt with by the people, but Mr Taft's re actionary supreme court REMAINS to be dealt with by the people and Ml ST be dealt with by the people before the people can secure the liberty, the equality, the opportunity, the legal and political rights which are theirs and which under our form of government they should and shall enjoy. WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1912. O '■M ' "Sil « to h ww rr ? u* nA ■ m I Jra o It — ’ “ i /pl r-Ur J iOL If o’ - ~ ( Yo WIFIE - d'A \ HERE'S ThYT /aJ f rW 3 CARPET V, X '’J' \ /■'Q D "'T SveePEtt M I wk" jHBr 1 1 IttX - Working For the Boss 8> THE TOUGH JOE : : : : : : By THOMAS TAPPER THE famous African explorer, Henry M. Stanley (his name was really John Rowlands) knew what it meant to face a hard situation, to perform a difficult piece of work. In fact, he worked on the Tough Job so much that he began to think out the philosophy of it. Here is the way he sized it up: “The bigger the work, the greater the joy in doing it. “That whole-hearted striving and wrestling with difficulty, the laying hold with firm grip and level head and calm reso lution of the monster, and tug ging. and toiling, and wrestling at it, today, tomorrow and next, until it is done; it is tho soldier’s creed of forward, ever forward —ft is the man’s faith that for this task was he born. “Don’t think of the morrow’s task, but what you have to do today, and go at it. “When it is over, rest tran quilly, and sleep well.” Good, cheerful philosophy, isn’t it? But what is it all about? Well, it is something like this Work a Developer. A good tough job gets a man thinking. When a man thinks he is exercising the highest faculty he possesses. And the more he exer cises that faculty, the more of a man he will be pretty soon. Now, when a man gets to be more of a man, his future is as se cure as can be. Thinking that is developed by a big piece of work soon teaches a man how to look around. It is the men who do this —look around and see things—who succeed. A certain comer lot on Broad way had never been built on. It was surrounded by shops and apartment houses, all full of plain people and business men. One day a man came along who was accustomed to look around and see things as they are. He figured out that an apartment house on that particular comer would pay. He knew in his own mind why it The Christmas Bundle By HAL COFFMAN. would pay, but he said nothing about that. On a small sum of money he took over the property, and in the course of a few months put up his apart ment. When the building was ready for tenants, another man came along (also w ith the looking around faculty) and bought it up, paying the first man a clear profit of one hundred and forty thousand dollars. Language of Opportunity. The druggist across the street asks this question: How was it that some of the business men in this neighborhood did not see that chance? The man that cleared the profit had the foresight and the courage to see the job through. He was a German who could scarcely speak English, but he, could talk the language of opportunity. Why didn’t some one of us see it? Civilization in Arkansas •? r * It Is Bound to Get to the Legislature There Some Day. In the ‘•name of civilization,” Governor Donaghey, of Arkan sas. pardoned 360 convicts to prevent them from being leased. I his wholesale pardon was the last step in a bitter, tireless war that the governor has carried on against this phase of barbarism since his election. 1 he governor tailed in his tight to have the lease system abol ished during his administration. The capitalists who have swelled their fortunes by renting the convicts fought him at every turn, and with their money beat him. Donaghey s term ends January 1 and his wholesale pardon came as a final blow to the lease system. Today not a single con vict in Arkansas is working for a contractor, and not one will work, except on state and county improvements, until the fightin" gov ernor goes out of office. Dt spite the tact that he has been beaten. Donaghey has set a fine example for the man who succeeds him. Not once since he took office has he wavered in his fight. He has followed the lines of civilization taken by most of the other Southern states and sooner or later the Arkansas law-makers will emerge from their medieval shells and turn their backs on the well-filled hands of contractors that have so successfully kept the state from progress gnd decency. \\ ar on the convict lease system can never be lost entirely. Because two or three legislatures refuse to abolish it, there is no reason to give up the fight. 1 ivilization creeps in everywhere. Even the legislature of Arkansas is not exempt. And when it does get there. Governor Donaghey can see the tight he started was not in vain. THE HOME PAPER The answer to the druggist’s question is this: Probably they did not see it be cause they had had no experience in the real estate value line. But there is another answer which deals with the German.- He had the courage to follow up his beiief in his judgment. That comes always from exercising the judgment in hard jobs and getting on friendly terms with them. Os laying hold of them and wwestling with them until they are down and you are sitting on top of the pile. Any job that puts you face to face with plenty of trouble is worth a fortune, because it is the expe rience ( of doing tough jobs that leads a man to fortune. Abraham Lincoln looked at them that way, and in no part of the world is his birthday ever forgot ten.