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Show HE IS RIGHT IN WRONG WAYS. "That, portion of the President '& message mes-sage which rclatod to tho employers' liability bill .and which was devoted to quarrelling with the courts, was treated treat-ed of in these columns yesterday. There is another portion of the message, however, how-ever, which stands on au entirely different dif-ferent basis; and that is the emphatic protest against the predatory proceedings proceed-ings of monopolistic concerns in restraint re-straint of trade nnd in oppression of the public. As to all of these. President Presi-dent Roosevelt enters his stinging protest pro-test against, tho idea that those who criticise the prodatory and unlawful acts of combines and corporations should be held responsible iu easo those corporations and their allies arc able to inflict injur j" upon the public as in the late currency piuch by way of retaliation. re-taliation. The- President insists? that right is right, and that wrong is wrong, and that thoso who arc iu the right have the right to say so, aud it is their duty to denounce the wrong and to seek for remedies that will relieve the public pub-lic from tho exactions and oppressions inflicted by extensive- monopolistic enterprises en-terprises and combinations. All of which is emphatically true from the moral standpoint aud the standpoint of principle. At tho same time, it must ho confessed that whore one working for tho right endeavors to correct tho evils complained of ho should seize a favorable opportunity and be able actually ac-tually to effect results; he should proceed pro-ceed in a businesslike way, and not with spectacular horn-blowing. A. mere railing rail-ing at abuses, a constant iteration of throats as to what is to bo done about these abuses, coupled with attacks such as iho President made, threatening prominent financiers with the vengeance of the mob, and likening tho watered' issues of stock to counterfeit monoy, arc well calculated to cause alarm among stockholders all over the country. coun-try. Immense values in stocks are "held by estates, by persons who cannot afford af-ford to have their value arbitrarily depreciated; de-preciated; and to liken such stocks to counterfeit money is certain to cause alarm and give occasion to the monopolistic monop-olistic classes to strike back in a way to put even the rightful aggressor on tho defensive. In this case, while the Prcsidcut 's iulent was undoubtedly good, and while the aims he sought to right were desirable in themselves, the ilourish of trumpets he made about his purpose, the constant threatenings as to what he was about to do, the unwise hcraldiugs, such as arc referred to abovo, have actually put him in the ; wrong; so that, while theoretically ho iB - 1-1 i l-ianl , 1 f 11 rmrrntf rrrmmrl ti iirfli". tical condition as ir. exists is that he has stirred up such a storm that he is actually put upon the defensive, where he hoped the other fellows would be. The great trouble in all this matter, as we intimated 3'estcrday, is the lack of proper foundation upon which to proceed. Congress has never taken the jurisdiction of these large interstate and transportation interests that the constitution empowers it to take. And in such legislation that it has passed, the employers' liability bill, for example, exam-ple, the foundation of National incorporation incor-poration has been omitted, so that the grasp of the National authorities upon tho question of damages is feeble. The claim of jurisdiction rests, after all, as against corporations which derive their charters from the States. Prima facie, the State is the one to deal with violations viola-tions of its charier, and with damages dam-ages growing out of the operations conducted con-ducted by virtue of thoso Slate-given charters. The matter would bo entirely changed if National incorporation were first exacted. Then Congress, having laid the foundation upon w'hich the in-torslate in-torslate commerco and transportation should be conducted, would bo empowered empow-ered also to legislate as to details connected con-nected with that interstate commerce. But to legislate upou the details first, puts Ihe National purpose at a disadvantage. disad-vantage. It is not surprising that this portion of the message should 'have been received re-ceived with shouts of applause in the IIou.sc, nor that it should le approved by Mr. Bryan. The general argument will bo approved by everybody of. moral sensibility. But tho unwisdom of tho course the President has taken fn pursuance pur-suance of his moral ideas is responsible for the condition iu which ho Jluds himself now on the defensive as to a question of principle wherein he is morally mor-ally right. There is another feature of the ijics-sa'ge, ijics-sa'ge, however, which is indeed deplorable, deplora-ble, and that is where ' questions, of , veracity are raised, and the President's statement of facts absolutely denounced. de-nounced. Chancellor Pay of the'Sj-ra-cuse Uuiversit3r does not mince words in calling the President a falsifie? as to facts relating to himself. -President B. P. Riplcj' of the Santa Fc railway rail-way 13 equally explicit in pronouncing the President's statement false where the message charges M.r. Ripley with being a part3' to secret rate.-j on oil in California"-. Mif .Ripley" says this is "absolutely false;" on the contrary, he says he emphatically declined to enter en-ter into any such arrangement or to agree to any secret, rate; and he says, further, that oven if he had done so., the matter under question had nothing to do with interstate commerce or with the National Gn'verument. All this is extremely unfortunate for the President, Presi-dent, Ho should cer.taiilly have been suro.uf his facts, and clearly if -Mr. Rip- ley is right as to the substance of this matter not coining under -the jurisdiction jurisdic-tion of the National Government in any ovent, the President made a doplorablo blunder. Mr. Roosevelt, while meaning to be richt and while hi principle and morals he is right in - all this controversy, contro-versy, has been extrcmoly unfortunate in doing right in such a wrong way as to-placo himself in the wrong, aud make it necessary, for him to enter upon the defense, of his case, iu' which defense j he is making further blunders that arc 'disastrous to his case. The message is certainly a vigorous one. It is placed 011 a high plane. But its stumblings appear to bo so many that after all President Roosevelt is liable to get the worse of the controversy, contro-versy, though, ho-be right on the main issue. |