The Forum

OCTOBER, 1907

AMERICAN POLITICS

THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

BY HENRY LITCHFIELD WEST

SLOWLY but surely the lines are being tightened for the next Presidential campaign. President Roosevelt, speaking in no uncertain voice,

President
Roosevelt's
Position

has done much toward clearing the atmosphere. There is to be a more determined effort to regulate the railroads along national lines and an equally insistent endeavor to curb the corporations which fatten and thrive at the expense of the public. "Once for all," is Mr. Roosevelt's declaration, "let me say that as far as I am concerned and for the eighteen months of my administration that remain, there will be no change in the policy we have steadily pursued, no let-up in the effort to secure the honest observance of the law, for I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this Government-the people, through their governmental agents, or a few ruthless and determined men whose wealth makes them particularly formidable because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization."

This utterance of the President came as a climax to a remarkable series of events. The prosecution of the Standard Oil Company, the greatest monopoly in the world, led to the imposition by Judge Landis of the maximum fine of $29,240,000 for 1,400 violations of the law. The immensity of the fine staggered the country. It was a demonstration of the purpose of the court to punish heavily those who held the law in disregard, and it gave a rude shock to those whose identification with other trusts rendered them also liable to severe penalty. Serious disturbance in money centres immediately followed. Stocks tumbled in value and a

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The

panic reigned. There was no real reason for the depreciation. railroads were carrying as much freight and as many passengers as before; the manufactories were still busy; the farmers in the West were harvesting abundant crops. President Roosevelt directly charged that the shrinkage in the price of stocks was due to the manipulation of men who control the market. "It may well be," he said in his Provincetown speech, "that the determination of the Government, in which it will not waver, to punish certain malefactors of great wealth, has been responsible for something of the troubles, at least to the extent of having caused these men to combine to bring about as much financial stress as they possibly can in order to discredit the policy of the Government and thereby to secure a reversal of that policy so that they may enjoy the fruits of their own evil doing."

These were bold words and, in the very nature of things, contained a charge which it would be difficult to substantiate. No one who knows President Roosevelt, however, believes that he would have made such an assertion without adequate foundation; and, as a matter of fact, the comment which followed the utterance demonstrated that he had, at least, given voice to a popular belief. Secretary Taft took occasion to refer to the same subject in his Columbus address. "If the prosecution of dishonesty and illegal practices," he said, "like the giving and taking of rebates and the destruction of competition by monopoly, is to injure the market for stocks on the stock exchange, then this is a burden that must be borne and must be charged, not to the head of the nation, whose duty it is to enforce the law, but to the violators of the law, whose pursuit of criminal methods has been so successful and far-reaching as to make their prosecution a serious threat against the stability of the market." And Mr. Taft added that the President did not intend to raid all corporations, but that "his only policy and sworn duty is to prosecute, with the fullest vigor, the corporations and individuals whose flagrant violations of the law make it necessary to do so."

The men who have amassed wealth through the operations of monopolistic corporations are blind to the handwriting on the wall if they do not realize that the great mass of American citizens are heartily in accord with the President's position. Viewed from a popular standpoint, it is impregnable. Honest corporations have nothing to fear; dishonest corporations are to feel the heavy hand of the law. If the President was a candidate for re-election, which he is not, he could well afford to go before the country upon this platform.

Amid all the smoke and disturbance which the past three months have

Business
Interests

witnessed, one fact stands prominent. During the many years wherein no President had the temerity to charge the huge corporations with wrong-doing, these trusts accumulated an amount of wealth which makes them practical masters of the finanWill Dominate cial situation. They can raise or lower prices of stocks Politics as in by their manipulation of the market; they can cause a 1896 money stringency by refusing accommodation to the provincial banks, which are dependent upon the big institutions in the money centres; they hold, in fact, the financial situation in the hollow of their hands. It is an enormous contract to undertake to dislodge this powerful element; it is even dangerous to arouse its enmity; and one can well understand the hesitation and inaction which characterized Mr. Roosevelt's predecessors. The deed has now, however, been done; the gauntlet has been thrown down; and, as in 1896, business affairs will be uppermost in the next Presidential campaign. There will be no discussion of, nor fight over, abstract principles. The pocket nerve, which the late Mark Hanna said was the tenderest part of a man's anatomy, is to be touched. There may be some patriotic pyrotechnics in the party platforms, some references to high ideals; but these will be words, mere words. Underlying all will be the practical considerations of corporations and dividends, of prices and the cost of living, of work and wages. These are the things which will stir men's hearts in the next campaign.

Commercialism, which now dominates everything and relegates sentiment to the trash-heap, was the paramount factor in 1896, when the dollar was elevated to the highest pinnacle, not only as the party emblem, but as the height of every man's ambition. This spirit of commercialism is to-day more rampant than ever. The managers of the great corporations-the men whose actions in the handling of life insurance funds and whose manipulation of railroads, as in the Alton affair, aroused wholesale condemnation-must, however, remember that there is one important point of difference between the situation which existed in 1896 and the condition which now presents itself. In 1896 every small property-owner and every man who had a dollar in a savings bank was told and really believed that his frugally acquired store was threatened. The free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one might cause him serious loss. He voted, therefore, on the side of safety. During the past few years, however, these thrifty persons have been unable, even by the exercise of closest economy, to add to their meagre store, while in many cases the savings of years have disappeared. The cost of living has increased enormously and there has been no proportionate rise in wages. There is, in consequence, throughout the country to-day an intense antipathy to the

trusts, because the latter are blamed, whether wrongfully or rightfully, with having ruthlessly extorted millions of dollars out of the pockets of the consumer. The average voter will hail with delight any movement which tends to curtail their enormous profits and will support any candidate who pledges himself to prosecute the task which President Roosevelt has undertaken. The battle is to be of the individual against intrenched corporate monopoly; and unless the signs of the times are strangely misleading, the individuals will be successful.

Radical
Sentiment

in the South
and West

It is this feeling, so universally prevalent, which is the basis of the demand for President Roosevelt's renomination; it is this condition of affairs which makes Secretary Taft so popular because he gives assurances that he will, if elected, continue the policies which President Roosevelt has inaugurated. It is true that in New York, and especially in Wall Street, there is much denunciation of the President and an effort to treat his policies with scorn. New York and Wall Street are, however, proverbially inaccurate indicators of popular sentiment. The West and South are practically unanimous for a more vigorous regulation of corporations than has yet been undertaken. There was recently held in St. Louis a conference of the attorneys-general of several States to devise ways and means for further restriction of corporations. Every one knows of the attitude which the Southern States have adopted toward the railroads. In North Carolina the enforcement of the two-cent-per-mile rate led to a serious conflict between the State and federal courts. In Alabama, because the Southern Railway appealed from the State to the federal court in violation of a State statute, the license of the road was revoked, and if a compromise had not been reached, the State authorities would actually have prevented the operation of trains. In Arkansas, because the Rock Island Railroad sought the protection of a federal court in opposition to the State law, the Attorney-General of the State declared the road liable to a fine of $1,000 a day, and proceeded to forfeit its right to do business in the State, being halted finally by an injunction. In Virginia the railroads were also in conflict with the State authorities, but finally agreed to accept the two-cent rate imposed by law. In Georgia the successful candidate for the governorship was openly hostile to the railroads, and in Mississippi the same situation prevailed.

All these incidents point unerringly and conclusively to the character of the campaign which will be waged next year. The cry will be, "Down with the trusts," and in some degree it will be as bitter as the outery of the French populace against the monarchy. The trouble is that these

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