Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1914. CURBING THE TRUSTS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 January 1914, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1914. CURBING THE TRUSTS.

To th e new political methods he has . ' in!icdiued President Wilson probably I owes the remarkable success he has inachieved in securing the approval iof th Congress to measures (hat were, con- ov sideicd to be beyond the bounds of pi: practical politics. To have secured an the passage of the. Tariff Bill within a an Few months of his election was a feat ex that would have been regarded as sen- wi sational if it had occurred in Kngl.iml. Al hut when lb* 1 quality <>f American pn- of lilies is Considered it was something 10 4<< marvel at, Both Mr. Taft and Mr. Ti

I Koosevelt promised to put such a measure on the United States statute buck, |but neither of them made a serious attempt to do so. It was a triumph of ■moral rather than political force, i r >r President Wilson appealed to the moral sense of the whole American nation, and shattered the conspiracies of the "lobbyists'' by exposing them to the fierce iight of publicity. The use of the s'.une Irresistible force, together with his policy of open dealing, bid;; fair to result in the passage of the Anti-Trust legislation outlined in a cable n essage recently. This policy of letting light into the dark places of politics is best expressed in the President's own words: "Publicity is one of the purifying elements of politics. The best tiling that, you can do with anything that is crooked is to lift it up where people can see that it is crooked, and tiien it will either straighten itself out or disappear. Nothing checks all the bad practices of politics like public exposure. You can't be crooked in the light." And so he is trying his new lovmula upon wlij.it is admittedly the greatest canker in . American business and politics at the present time—the corruption and "graft" and commercial myosis that is the direct outcome oi the Trust system. In a recent speech, Chairman E. E. Clark, of the Inter-State Commerce CYmrmssion, pointed out: "If it be true that the present financial condition of transportation agencies is due to reckless, improvident, or even dishonest financing in the past, it would be a mistake to correct it by a policy of reprisal which would impair the usefulness or efficiency of the carriers upon which the welfare —the very life —of the commerce of the country depends." President Wilson says he has no intention of effecting radical changes, but "the penalties will be made to fall, not upon the business itself, but upon the men responsible for law-breaking." Mr. Taft fell a victim to his denunciation of the Trusts, even though his condemnation did not extend further than an admonitory shake of his finger. Mr. Roosevelt's tornado-like onslaught against the forces that he declared "are sucking the nation as dry as a year-old squash," were easily parried by the weight of money and unscrupulous methods of the combines. And yet this quiet, scholarly professor, entirely unversed in political expedients—a man who has m little more than two years stepped from practical obscurity to the head of the American nation —has made such inroads on the power of the greatest money combinations the world haft ever' known, that no one can doubt that he will eventually bring them completely within the control of the law.

MEAT TRUST OR WHAT? Aee the high prices of live stock due to the operations in New Zealand of a meat trust? The question was raised and answered on the Pahiatua Show ground by a buyer for a leading freezing works with whom the Palmerston North correspondent of the Auckland "Star" conversed. He pointed out that New Zealand farmers were getting bigger prices for stock tha*n last year, though London prices are lower. A large Wellington company, he said, had a thousand lambs on the market a week ago, and had a thousand for the corresponding week last year. They were the only lambs on the market, yet they fetched only 6jfd as against 7£d last year. That does not clear them. Then he spcke with significant suggestiveness of existence on the New Zealand market of some vaguely visible power buying stock. "We buyers don't know who they are," he said, "but we are wondering perpetually whether they are working for a 'Meat Trust. We feel that there is a power fighting against us, but we do not know its strength. It operates through agents, and is buying at high rates. We know that Argentine works have btrm forced to close down, and we are anxious to know whether there is really operating in New Zealand a great power seeking to close us down also." The suggestion that a Meat Trust is operating in ', New Zealand has been mooted at recurring intervals during the past year • or two, but the idea of an outside pombine operating detrimentally to the in- : terests of the New Zealand farmers and buyers is scouted by the majority of those connected with the stock trade, though others again hold firmly to the view that the trust has its tentacles on the New Zealand trade. It is argued by those opposed to this view that although American, English, and Australian firms all come here to buy, the fact that their general interests are antagonistic precludes any likelihood of trust operations for the ultimate purpose of flattening prices. It is also pointed out that the Socialistic and anti-trust spirit of our legislation is such, that upon the first indications of material injury to local freezing concerns through any sinister attempt from outside operators, the machinery could be put. into motion that could effectually check a trust movement.