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PAGE TWO
Public Opinion Throughout the Union |
SIX YEARS or MR. ROOSEVELT.
Six years ago today William Mc-
Kinley died and Theodore Roosevelt
took the oath of office as President
of the United States. These have
been six eventful years, and Mr.
Roosevelt could not spend the day to
better advantage than by taking a
dispassionate inventory of his stew
ardship.
Should the President do this he
would discover, perhaps to his own
amazement, that his greatest tri
upms as chief magistrate have been
won not as an agitator for new law
but as an administrator of existing
law.
No new legislation was needed for
the prosecution of the Northern Se
curities case or the other cases prose
cuted and won under the Sherman
Anti-Trust Act, by which the power
of the national government to curb
trusts and monopolies has been fully
established.
No new legislation was needed for
the prosecution of the rebate cases
under which the Standard Oil Com
pany has been fined $29,240,000, a
dozen railroads have been punished
•aid the unlawful practice virtually
eradicated. All this has been ac
complished under the Elkins Act, and
the punishment of the railroad re
baters could have been better accom
plished under the original Interstate
Commerce r 4et of 1887, from which
the prison penalty was eliminated
with Mr. Roosevelt’s consent in 1903.
No new legislation was needed for
the investigation of Harriman’s
swindling railroad operations. These
revelations were all made under pow
ers conferred upon the commission
by the act of 1887.
No new legislation was needed to
hunt down and convict Senator
Mitchell and the other powerful
Western land thieves, their aids and
accomplices. The business of steal
ing government land has been broken
up simply by vigorous enforcement
of existing law.
No new legislation was needed to
purge the postoffice department of the
rascality which years of corruption
had fortified, or to convict Senator
Burton, or Gaynor, or other influen
tial criminals whom Mr. Roosevelt’s
administration has brought to justice.
No new legislation will be neces
sary for Mr. Roosevelt to institute
criminal proceedings against E. H.
Harriman and other wealthy offend
ers, and to demonstrate that there is
really to be no immunity ‘‘for any
criminal, rich or poor.”
In his enforcement of existing stat
utes Mr. Roosevelt has been at his
best. This has been his most note
worthy service to the people of the
United States, the achievement for
which he deserves a secure place in
history. He has broken up the part
nership that existed between the great
corporations and the government of
the United States, and again demon
strated the supremacy of the people
over plutocracy.
But what sort of government
should we have if all the new poli
cies which Mr. Roosevelt has agitated
were carried into effect! If we had
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
federal licenses for corporations'? If
we had federal receiverships for cor
porations? If we had national in
corporation laws? If Congress exer
cised the power he claims for it un
der the post-roads clause?
As a passionate, reckless, semi
populistic agitator, Mr. Roosevelt is
capable of immeasurable mischief to
confidence, credit and general pros
perity. As an undaunted administra
tor of the law where offenses have
been wilfully and deliberately com
mitted against the public welfare, Mr.
Roosevelt is capable of immeasurable
good.
How could he finish his administra
tion with greater glory to himself and
greater benefit to the people than by
ceasing his clamor for new centraliz
ing legislation and devoting his great
energies for the next seventeen
months to a sane, fearless, impartial
enforcement of existing laws? —New
York World.
CAMPAIGN FUND SCANDAL.
After Cortelyou had gathered and
expended millions in the republican
campaign of 1904, a scare overtook
the administration and Candidate
Higgins, of New York, and E. 11.
Harriman, was induced to collect, on
October 29, 1904, a fund to be ex
pended in the next four or five days.
He hurriedly secured $260,000, and
The New York World makes public
for the first time the names of the
contributors to this particular slush
fund, as follows:
Edward H. Harrimansso,ooo
H. McK. Twombly (represent-
ing the Vandelbilt interests) 25,000
Chauncey M. Depew (person-
al) 25,000
James Hazen Hyde 25,000
The Equitable Life Assurance
societylo,ooo
J. Pierpont Morgan 10,000
Geo. W. Perkins (New York
Life Insurance Co.) 10,000
H. H. Rogers, Jno. D. Archi-
bold. Wm. Roc w efeller
(Standard Oil Co.) 20,000
James Speyer and banking in-
terests 10,000
Cornelius N. Zliss (personal). 10,000
Seven friends of Senator De-
pew, $5,000 each 35,000
Sent to Mr. Harriman in
smaller donations 20,000
Totals26o,ooo
The insurance subscriptions were
additional to the heavier subscrip
tions previously made by the Big
Four and already proven by testi
mony that can not be questioned, and
the chances are that the other sub
scriptions were also supplementary.
On the eve of the election when no
considerable money could be expend
ed except in the buying of votes,
$200,000 was turned over by Cortel
you to Governor Odell, who was man
aging the Higgins campaign in New
York, and Cortelyou retained for
other purposes $60,000. The facts
and figures, says The World, came
“from a source that leaves no loom
for doubt.”
Between the testimony in the in
surance cases and the disclosures of
The World, the source of republican
slush funds is well established, and
the source and uses of such funds
should, and assuredly will, become a
leading issue if the people desire to
elect their own presidents and to
manage their own affairs. —Age
Herald.
THE CLEVELAND CONTEST.
In the Cleveland, Ohio, municipal
contest there will be reform agitation
galore. Tom Johnson, according to
his not overmodest estimate of him
self, is nothing if not a reformer, and
Congressman Burton, who has ac
cepted the nomination for mayor
against Johnson, is presented by his
followers as an ideal candidate for
reform. If the voters of Cleveland
should divide upon party lines Bur
ton would have the decided advan
tage, but he has entered the race
rather as an exponent of the non-po
litical theory of municipal govern
ment. This idea is, however, dis
counted by the evident backing he is
given by the administration at Wash
ington, and Mr. Burton may further
handicap himself by his admitted in
tention to try for the United States
Senate to succeed Mr. Foraker. Tom
Johnson is a democrat after his kind,
but has maintained his dominance in
Cleveland affairs by the aid of an
independent vote, which has given
some signs of a reaction. —Nashville
Banner.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
It was six years ago to-day that
William McKinley died, the victim of
the bullet of an assassin who could
give no reason for his act save the
one of a blinding hatred for the es
tablished order of men.
William McKinley was not a great
constructive statesman. His part in
public life was the best known to
posterity by his advocacy of an eco
nomic principle to which the people
gave approval. It was his personal
ity that won the affections.
More than any other president
since the days of the civil war Mc-
Kinley, who had been a soldier in
that conflict, sought to bind up the
wounds left as marks of the strife.
He advocated publicly the care by
the republic of the graves of the Con
federate dead. The South, where his
political antagonists lived, loved him,
as did the North and the West. His
memory is gentle.—Chicago Post.
FAMINES MADE TO ORDER BY
THE PITILESS TRUSTS.
Made-to-order famines as an excuse
for high prices are not confined to the
ice trust. In the matter of that con
cern the case has been proved out of
the mouth of its president. With
other similar dishonest combinations
the evidence is no less conclusive, al
though not so direct.
Even now the anthracite coal trust
is paving the way for a winter cry
of fuel famine. Various reports are
being sent out through its avenues
of publicity to prepare the public
mind for a prospective shortage.
One cause is the lack of water to
run the mines. Already it is stated
that some of the collieries may be
compelled to close down for this rea
son.
Another excuse put forward is that
there is an insufficient supply of la
bor. ' Agents are said to be scouring
the country for miners. There has
been no epidemic among the work
men, no strike, no halt in immigra
tion. Yet the coal consumers are
warned to prepare for the worst, as
the trust is short of men.
• Another reason for the impending
famine is the lack of cars. The coal
trust must be hard run for excuses
to resort to this old and familiar sub
terfuge, especially as the railroads
own the mines, and it is their own
fault if they have not provided
enough cars So there is to be a lack
of water, a lack of workmen, a lack
of cars, but no lack of high prices.
These steadily climb on any pretext
or none.
Even the weather serves the pur
pose of the trusts. When it grows
hot, ice goes up; when it is cold, fuel
is high. Eveiy drop in the thermom
eter adds a few cents a ton to coal.
This is in the line of charging all
the traffic will bear. When people
are afraid of freezing it is possible
to squeeze out more money for fuel.
A manufaetuied famine aids in the
process of extortion.
The similarity of methods used by
the various trusts in the necessaries
of life indicates a common system, a
chain of plunder. Mr. Oler, of course,
understands this perfectly. He ap
parently had it in mind when he jubi
lantly announced that the suit against
him would fail, since the fall was
coming on and soon “the press would
have the coal man on its hands.”
People would forget how the made
to-order shortage of ice had rebbed
them and killed their children, when
they were shivering from the made-to
order coal shortage.
The evidence furnished by W. R.
Hearst proved the coal trust a law
breaker, just as t-he letters of Mr.
Oler published in this newspaper
prove the ice trust a lawbreaker.
Through these disclosures suits are
entered to bring about the dissolu
tion of both. All that is needed is a
vigorous prosecution. The ending of
these twin monopolies may discourage
the manufacture of famines in order
that famine prices may be charged.—
American.
THE OLD FLAG.
The same flag which floated over
the armies in the field floats over
the public buildings, in which are
gathered the chosen servants of the
people. That flag for whose honor
you were ready to give your lives de
mands the same loyalty in time of
peace. Patriotism is not limited to
times of conflict, but is , equally ex
pressed in every form of service
where love of country rises above
love of self.
An eloquent and comprehensive
tribute to the stars and stripes is
this from Governor Hughes, speaking
to the Grand Army veterans. It is a
timely reminder to ug all as to what
the flag stands for.—Boston Herald.