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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.