Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1912 — WASHINGTON NEWS. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON NEWS.

(By Clyde C* Tayenger, Special Cor. respondent for This Caper.) | Washington, Dec. Ifi—United I States Attorney General Wickersham has re used to allow warrants to be served on John D. Archbold and other ■officials of the Standard Oil Company ir the case in which j the Magnolia Oil Company of Texas, was indicted bv a federal grand jury in Texas for criminal violation of the Sherman law. Once again Mr. Wiekersham is using the machinery of the great office of the Department of Justice to protect, instead of prosecute, the millionaire heads of illegal trusts. A hundred instances could be cited where Wiekersham has, by means of especially prepared opinions, orders and rules, given comfort to the great industrial trusts, private monopolies and special privilege. It was Wiekersham, the attorney general, who stopped important suits against the beef trust immediately upon taking office. It was Wiekersham, the attorney general, who rendered an opinion upholding Ballinger and viciously attacking Louis R. Giavis, who said it was legal for sugar trust interests to acquire by the exploitation process 55,000 acres of rich sugar lands of the Phillipines when the organic law of the islands expressly declares that no corporation shall be allowed to acquire more than 2,500 acres. It was Wiekersham, the attorney general, who sanctioned the Taft administration railroad regulation hill, later exposed and altered, Containing a joker legalizing the Southern . Pacific-Union Pacific merger recently held unlawful hy the supreme court. It was Wiekersham, 'the attorney general, whose suit against the step’ trust i 3 one in equity instead of a criminal prosecution. t At the time of the appointment of Wiekersham, it was said his selection by Mr. Taft was in recognition of the desires Of the great industrial trusts of the country, who had contributed large sums to Mr. Taft s campaign fund, and who as a return favor desired that a “safe” man be placed in charge of the government’s prosecuting machinery. Before his appointment as Attorney general, Mr. Wiekersham was a trust lawyer. For years and years he had been receiving huge fees from corporations for interpreting the laws, not from a viewpoint of the welfare of the people, but from the viewpoint of the welfare of the trusts. Mr. Wiekersham was a I

member of the law firm of Strong & Cadawalader. Congressman H. T. Rainey described this firm on the fioor of the house of representatives as follows: “The firm of Strong & Cadwala>hr is one of those important New York City legal firms to which great corporations appeal for aid when they propose to violate the laws of the land or when they have violated the laws of the land.” Tho firm of Strong and Cadwalader, at the time of Mr. Wickersham’s appointment as attorney general, represented, among other great corporations, the sugar trust, and one of the last things Mr. Wickersham

did ag a member of the firm of Strong A Cadwalader, was to draw down his portion of sugar trust fees for something like $25,000. And one of the first things Mr. Wickersham did as attorney general, was to write, on .Tune 27, 1909, to John S. Wise, U. S. District Attorney for Southern District of New York, a lettter revea'ing his strong interest in three sugar trust officials then in danger of the penitentiary. This remarkable letter, thfe authenticity of which has never been denied by the attorney general, reads in part as follows: i 1 “My dear Wise: Senator Root has sent me the proof of a petition signed by Bowers, Milburn and Guthrie, in support of their contentions that the statute of limitations has run in favor of Messrs. Parsons, Kissel and Harned. If the only overt acts done to carry out the objects of the unlawful conspiracy were those referred to in the brief, I should think they were insufficient to save the bar of the statute. A strong effort will be made tomorrow to persuade the president to interfere in some way to prevent the indictments. Faithfully Yours, George W. Wickersham.” And now Mr. Wickersham is using his office as attorney general to save from arrest John D. Archbold, H, C. Folger, Jr., and W. C. Teagle, officers of the Standard Oil Company. Under the Taft administration it has been impossible for the government' to control the .trusts, because the trusts controlled the governmen t.. At last it has been possible to elect a president without the financial support of the heads of illegal tariff trusts, and it is hoped President Wilson will be able to find a man for attorney general who will be so constructed temperamentally as to feel that millionaire sugar trust barons who rob the government and violate the law ought to be sent to the penitentiary just like the poor man is sent to the penitentiary when he violates the law.