TO FIGHT THE TRUSTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume xxix, Issue 7350, 3 December 1907, Page 1

TO FIGHT THE TRUSTS.

Mr Roosevelt reiterated his resolve to go on fighting the- trust's in a speech whjcli-he delivered at Keoluk, lo\ya, U.S., in the course of a tour which he was making through _ the Southern States. One of lie objects of his tour down the Mississippi river, says Renter, was to rouse interest in thel scheme for enlarging and deepening the channel of the river, and for securing an adequate connection with j the Great Lakes, and- thus to create a national waterway which would successfully compete with tho railways. Among the numerous prominent persons present on the occasion wei-e the Governors of no fewer than 23 States who are especially interested in the canalisation project. President Roosevelt, in the course of his address, again defined his attitude towards the trusts. At intervals during the past few months, he said, an appeal had been made to him not to enforce the law against certain wrong-doers of great wealth, because to do so would interfere with the business prosperity of the country, tinder effects of that kind. of fright.-which, when it is sufficiently acute, we call panic. This appeal had been.made to him even by men who ordinarily behaved as decent citizens. One newspaper, which iself strongly advanced this view, gave prominence to a. statement by a. certain man of great wealth to the efFect that the so-called financial weakness was entirely due to the admitted intention of the president to

PUNISH LARGE MONEYED INTERESTS.

which had transgressed the law. "I do not admit (said Mr Roosevelt) "that this has been the main cause of any business troubles which we have had, but it is possible, that it may have been a contributory cause. If so, friends, so far as I am concerned, it must be accepted as a disagreeable, but unavoidable, feature in the course of tho policy which, so long as I am President, will not be "changed. If righeousness conflicts with the fancied needs of business men, then t]ie latter must go to tho wall. A year or two ago certain representatives of labour called on me, and in the course of a very pleasant conversation told me they regarded me as a friend of 'labour. I replied that I certainly was, and that I would do everything in my power for the labouring man except . anything that was wrong. I have the same.answer to make to business men. It would not merely be wrong, but infamous, to fail to do all that can be done to secure the punishment, of those wrong-doers whose deeds are peculiarly reprehensible because they are not committed under the stress of want. If a man does well lie has noth-"-ing ;t"o fear from this Administration, but so far as in me lies the corruptpolitician, great or small, and the private citizen who transgresses the law, be he rich or poor, shall He brought before the impartial justice of the courts. , I