The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1914. THE AMERICAN "TRUSTS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 March 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1914. THE AMERICAN "TRUSTS."

In various ways President Woodrow Wilson is milking it plain to i >.(• world that liis policy is designed to <iiexpression to the conscience and honor ol tho American people. Tt is. too often assumed that the American collective conscience is a thing' of poor calibre ami that public honor is in the main conspicuous by its absence; but this is an erroneous conclusion, based upon the sayings and doings of individual politicians, who are not always actuated by the best motives and are often painfully indiscreet in their utterances. The fact is now evident, if it never wan before, that given a leader of high principle and purpose, the American people are ready to respond to the guidance and give loyal support to measures based on the principles of truth and justice. The accession to power of the Democratic Party, with President Wilson at its head, has witnessed a clearer 'enunciation of these principles and a more determined projection of them into action than has yet been seen in the United States. Tariff reform, at which the presidents baulked, and which it was held would be. the ruin of any administration, has. been successfully accomplished. Banking reform, essential to itlie well-being of the masses, has been boldly tackled, and to every-' body's surprise has been carried into effect with hardly any perceptible effort. In the matter of intervention in Mexic*, and with regard to the vexed question of Panama Canal tolls, President Wilson's policy is one of clear-cut justice and "rigid adherence to obligations. He may be trusted to bend to liis will the members of his Cabinet, the Democratic party and the saner elements in the nation, despite the clamor raised by selfish interests. Ilis most noteworthy achievement, however, will doubtless prove to be his suppression of the injurious monopolies exercised by "trusts" and "combines." With regard to these, Roosevelt was wont to fulminate, while Taft roared as softly as a sucking pigeon; but the measures they framed to deal with the evil proved quite ineffectual—purposely made so, some people said. In his recent message to Congress, however, President Wilson outlined his proposals for suppressing the trusts, and showed that he was in earnest on the subject. He recommended that, instead of fining the trusts for violations of the Sherman Law, the chief officers of the trusts should he sentenced to imprisonment. Interlocking directorate were to be prohibited, aad a special commission would be set up to supervise the securities of all corporations and their method of conducting their business. At the same time he laid emphasis upon bis desire that the work of reform should be approached in & spirit of friendliness rather than hostility, and promised that ample time would be given to business to adjust itself to the new conditions; but at the same time he made it indubitably clear that monopolistic methods should cease. The result has been that most of the "trusts" have expressed their willingness to submit to the proposed new order of things. In effect they have said, as the coon of the story did to the crack-shot huntsman "Don't shoot; we'll come down!" So the President will not shoot, but he will pass a law that will place the administration in the position of having its gun loaded and cocked, ready for shooting, if need be. All this has the effect not only of raising the President in the eves of Americans, but also of raising America in the estimation of outside nations. Those, who sneered at the "schoolmaster" and predicted a weak or erratic administration, have now changed their tone and are recognising in him a practical politician of a most unusual stamp. Even the Morning Post, the most Conservative of London journals, is fain to admit that "if the proposed L.nslation is successfully passed. President Wilson will have to his credit a record of achievements unequalled by any of his predecessors."