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Show HI i , ' TAFT DEFENDED BY THE TRIBUNE. Hi , 'I .; The Salt Lake Tribune insists that Taft is not to be held ac- H ' -' J 'noTintnble for that which his attorney general does. The Tribune H' ' r, . Tlio Ogden Standard professes itself unable to undcr- H1 ( ' " stand the position of The Salt bake Tribune whore we ex- Hr !; ' oneratc the lresidont from responsibility for the ineffect- H: I J' fl T ive, 'abho'rtive successes that Attorney General Wicker- K j - '.l -sham has achieved in his alleged enforcement of the anti- K trust law in the courts, notably in the Standard Oil and the Hi I Tobacco Trust cases. And further, it holds that president L , I v Lr , Taft ouglit to be held to responsibility for the foolish M threats that Wickersham is making continually as to what H lie will do to various forms of business combinations, more H i "f by way of annoyance than of effective results. H ' " Technically, of course, there is something in the posi- H f.ion of the Standard; but the President naturally leaves R the preparation of the oases and the manner of conducting K j , , them to his Attorney General. The President docs not H ' ' look over the briefs; he does not examine the preparation B w of the cases to judge of them as a legal proposition. It M '1 -J would be impossible for him to do this. ITe is obliged to H ' ?"'' trust his Attorney General on these matters, and the peo- HL - "r PQ "otni'nily understand the fact to bo so H ) " The foolish annoyances, therefore, that the Attorney H ", General is inflicting upon the business of the country, with- H , ,Jj out getting any measureable results for popular relief, H .. , brings an odium upon the administration for which the H ' r Attorney General himself is alone responsible. It amounts H ' " ' to nothing to enforce the Sherman law in the way in which H ! ' ' it has been enforced in the Standard Oil and the Tobacco HJ ' v. ' -y Trust cases. Breaking tho, Standard Oil monopoly up into H " thirty-four separate monopolies, all acting in common and M - making concerted rises in the price of oil from time to time, H ;, v. forms a curious commentary on the claim of successful Hl '. - nrftcnmiiinn nf i lir Sfniul.Mrd Oil mononoh- bv the Attornev H , ' j ' General. Tt is a success which is comparable only to the H , success sometimes boasted of by surgeons of an operation H under which the patient dies. H j "We will concede that Attorney General Wickersham was free H 1 to prepare his case against the Standard Oil'trust and prosecute the Hl ( same in his own -wav. but after the Attorney General made such a H r , dismal failure and while he is continuing his campaign of nagging H 1 1 "the trusts without accomplishing any good purpose, though doing H " the country immeasurcable injury by disorganizing business, to I whom should the American people look for relief? To "Wickor-1 "Wickor-1 , , sham himself or to President Taft? And failing to obtain relief, on h M " "whom must the responsibility rest on Wickersham, the servant, Hl or Taft, his superior? V k ' ' The Tribune, in closing its editorial denunciation of Wicker- H j sham, says: H i J "President Taft must be extremely annoyed by the futile rc- H i suits of the 'successful' -prosecutions which. Attorney General H Wickersham has conducted, and we verily believe that the best H' , ' possible thing that President Taft can do, not only for his own po- m " litical fortunes, but in the interests of the American pnblic, would H be to dismiss Attorney General Wickersham out of hand, and get H ' for attornev general some good lawyer whose prosecutions when H - successful would give relief, as Wickersham 's successful prosecu- H r I tious certainlj' do not." H j, j Taft will not dismiss Wickersham because that official is in full B U i harmony with the administration. lie is not expected to success- b I t fully prosecute the trusts. His duty is to make a pretense. This !j ' conclusion we have reached by reason of the fact that the attorney j . general has been the same stupidly; blundering prosecutor from the H very beginning of his administration of the offico of trust-buster B and not once has a note of discipline come out of the White House. H J I , Wickersham is doing as he is told to do; otherwise he would be H 1 i seeking a new field of duplicity. |