THE WAR AGAINST TRUSTS

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 27

THE WAR AGAINST TRUSTS

MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT ROOSE

A VIGOROUS DENUNCIATION.

NEW YORK, February 1. In what is admitted on all hands, to be the most impassioned and stirring document ever issued from White House, and which takes the form of a special Message to Congress, President Roosevelt vehemently denounced the methods of the Standard Oil Trust and the Aiitohison Mne and the whole web of business corruption. President Roosevelt urges t/htat further legislation be passed, and suggests the prevention of the grosser forms of gambling in stocks and the futures of commodities.

Regarding railroads, President Roosevelt says they should issue stocks and bonds only in a manner , approved by the Federal Government, and the proceeds be used for not for the enrichment of either an individual or a syndicate. The Federal Government should assume a certain measure of control over tihe physical operations of railroads in handling inter-State traffic. Besides their rights, employers must be impressed with their obligations and their duties to-wands t'heji' employees, investors, and the general jtfbblic. He recommends, inter alia, the re-enactment <of the employers' liability law in conformity with the Supreme Court's decision that it should c confined to a corporation doing miter-S'tmite business.

The Democrats in both Houses applauded the Message. In the Senate Mr Jefferson Davis described the Message as the best democratic document that had ever emanated from a Republican President.