The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1906. THE PRESIDENT AND THE TRUSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 144, 18 June 1906, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1906. THE PRESIDENT AND THE TRUSTS.

naval supplies.

Tor the cause that laekt astistanoe, For the wrong that needs resistance, for the future in the distancfi, And the good tlvat tee era do.

The influence of the beef barons has prevailed in the American House of Representatives so far as to remove from the Inspection of Meat Bill its most drastic and effective clauses. It would be entirely characteristic; of the -working of the American trusts, whose open defiance of the law is protected by a vast system of political corruption, if they succeeded in turning this exposure of the horrors of Paekingtown to their own ultimate advantage. For the United States Government to relieve the packers of the cost of inspection and spend two million dollars from the public taxes on that object, would be of little public benefit .unless the system established were made so thorough as to wipe out absolutely and finally the unspeakable abominations of Bubbly Creek, and the gory horrors of the shambles, disclosed in the recent sickening revelations. It would, however, be an immense gain to the multi-millionaires who have battened on this trade if they were not only saved the cost of inspection, but also received for their wares a Government certificate which was entirely illusory as a means of protecting consumers of American meat from the gross abuses whicj have proved so profitable to the Beef Trust in the past. Only a confidence based upon well-tried experience would have induced the packers to place any obstacle in the way of President Roosevelt's reforming measures. An exposure which for tho moment has struck a deadly blow at their business should have made them eager to assist any legislation that would restore public confidence. But they apparently calculate that these disclosures will soon be forgotten, and that they can go on very much as they did before. On no other supposition can we understand the action of the House of Representatives in denying to inspectors the right of access at any hour, by day or night, and in removing from the authority of the Courts the power to review the inspectors' decisions.

But President Roosevelt must have well understood the struggle he was entering upon when he threw down the gauntlet to the most powerful financial combination in the world. And he is not the man to be flouted when he has set his face steadfastly to the foe. Fresh

elections for Congress take place in November, and the Trusts., whose power is boldly menaced by tho determination of the President to abolish discriminatory freights on railways, as -well as in this raid upon the packers, may hope to secure such successes in the coming electoral struggle as will tie the hands of this resolute enemy. The President has now declared that he will hold another session of Congress, if need be. rather than allow the emascuJated Inspection of Meat Bill to pass into law. A new stimulus to this decision has been supplied by the public statement, of the Prussian Minister of Agriculture that Germany had been aware of the Chicago meat horrors for a long time, but had refrained from denouncing them, although steps were taken to protect the German people. President Roosevelt can hardly do less in defence of the American nation than has been done by the German Government in a matter %o \-itallv afiFeetinothe national welfare. And even the packers may realise at last that if Congress adjourn without doing anything to remove the stigma that rests upon American canned meats, the blow to that industry will be much less evanescent than they anticipate. Great Britain and other Governments must, under such circumstances, follow the example of Germany, and place an absolute veto upon American canned meat for military and

There are good grounds for believing that the battle with the meat packers is only the prelude to a prolonged war which may result in the complete breaking up and reconstruction of American parties. Deep down in the heart of the best of the American population there has bsen growing a feeling of interne antipathy and resentment against the flaunting vulgarity, as well aa the gross dishonesty and unscrupulous corruption, of modern financial and political metaode in

the Republic. Both the Republican and the Xtemocratlfr'partiesr liave been.held in the toils of the political machine, tfftlv 'its organisation of bosses and wirepullers, whose skilful manipulation of the alien horde nullMea the honestThe time is ripe for:revolt, if a leader? were found capable on to victory. Mr. Maurice Lowi one of the best-informed -writers on American air* fairs, in the "National Review" for May stated: "America is now about to enter on one of those politico-eoclal phases that have so often before amazed the world." He founds this prediction upon the role of public protector which President Roosevelt has assumed, and in the course of which he has flouted old-standing political privileges, withheld the perquisites of the partisan, preached against excessive wealth and commercial oppression, and is accused by his party of naving "given'encouragement to every sensationmonger and cheap penny-a-liner to attack" 1 men who should command the respect of the country." Mr. Low further says that there are "conservatives" in both parties, who believe that Mr. Roosevelt, "having broken with the conservatives in and out of his party, will turn to the radicals without regard to party affiliations, and demonstrate anew his power."

To run successfully upon an Independent ticket for the Presidency has hitherto been an insuperable task, but there are elements of vast and incalculable potentiality -which might, under the spur of a powerful leader, break through the fabric of American political organisation, powerful though that appears. The Labour Party, reinforced by two million trades unionists, is showing a strong disposition to separate itself completely from the Republicans and Democrats, bet-ween which it has divided and dissipated its forces. Radical and socialistic elements, ranging from an aggressive Liberalism to the verge of anarchism, have been goaded almost to revolution by the oppressions and arro'ganee of the capitalistic class. Mr Roosevelt may either cast in his lot with these, or he may succeed in regenerating the Republican Party and identifying it more completely with the cause of social reform and the extension of popular rights. Or the Democrats, apprehending the appropriation by their opponents of a* role which they hitherto hav£ considered specially their own, may make larger bids for popular favour, and Mr Bryant's famous aphorism about labour being crucified on a cross of gold may yet be used in another and worthier cause than that of "free silver," which, as a political issue, is dead and buried. The situation is interesting and critical, and we shall probaCly get the first clear indication of the attitude of the Republican Party towards President Roosevelt and the cause of reform, ir( its final disposal of this Meat Inspection Bill.