all foreign ships alike in the use of the canal, conferred political rights than in others not because of any treaty but because of our where women possess full power. This is beimpartial attitude toward all maritime na- cause the efforts of intelligent women, in the tions. But it has not been the intention of case of full enfranchisement, have to overthe American people that any question should come the double obstacles afforded by the be raised as to our full sovereignty over the mass of unintelligent men and the equal mass canal. That part of the Hay-Pauncefote of unintelligent women. Nevertheless, it is treaty relating to canal tolls was not a bar- admitted that woman suffrage seems desgain, but an expression of our intentions. It tined to prevail in the United States; and it had no proper place in a treaty; but we must will have made rapid gains everywhere not take the position of treating lightly any- through the complete espousal of the cause thing that has been cast in the treaty form. by the Progressive party. Historic Nature Women in Among the history-making events In the political history of the Public of the year 1912, perhaps no of Democratic United States, the sweeping DemAffairs Victory other has so permanent a signifiocratic victory of 1912 will have cance as the action of several States in con- a large place, not only because of the events ferring the full suffrage upon women, and of leading up to it, but also, it may well be asseveral other States in taking marked steps in sumed, because of the consequences that will that direction, while one great national follow. Thus it will probably mean the beparty has made woman suffrage a cardinal ginning of a change in the commercial and doctrine in its creed, and the other parties fiscal policies of the American government. have ceased to be unfriendly. The public It will tend in the direction of an abandonactivity of women throughout the United ment of discriminating tariff duties. It will States was vastly greater in 1912 than in any probably also result in an income tax and a previous year. While it cannot be shown as serious attempt to shift the burdens of taxayet that the States in which women vote tion from the poor to the rich. It will bring have in any marked way changed their laws, about a change in the currency and banking or introduced new methods or ideas into system of the country, marked by an atpublic affairs, it does not follow that the tempt as earnest as that of the period of increased activity of women will not have im- Andrew Jackson to decentralize the control portant consequences. The quickened inter- of the country's bank deposits and reserves est of women in matters of general concern and to take the money power away from is not by any means confined to the States Wall Street. It will signalize, also, some where suffrage has been granted. On the striking efforts to deal with the problem of contrary, it would seem that the aroused in- regulating industrial and transportation moterest of intelligent women in such questions nopolies, and financial corporations of great as public sanitation, housing reform, regula- size and power. tion of child labor, and other topics of social, industrial, and moral concern, is even more effective in some communities that have not Parties and Furthermore, the Democratic Our party stands committed to proWorld-Policy vide for the withdrawal of the United States from the Philippine Islands, which are now under our sovereignty. Elsewhere in this number, we publish an extended article on the attitude of this victorious party toward all of our external relationships. The Republicans have for many years pursued a definite and constructive policy. They have believed that the great growth and inherent power of the United States make it the duty of this country to bear its share of responsibility for the peace and the modernization of the world at large. Thus we have under THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES IS MORE CURIOUS THAN taken to play a great part in the West Indies THE MALE and in the countries surrounding the Caribbean Sea. We have also regarded our interest in the Pacific as demanding our assumption of enlarged responsibility. We are fortifying the Hawaiian Islands and carrying on a vast program of government, education, and industrial progress in the Philippines. We are completing the Panama Canal as a connection between our interests in the two oceans. We have created a large navy, and it is the conviction of the Republican party that the navy should be made still larger and more effective. The policies of sixteen years under the administrations of McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft have greatly expanded the influence and authority of the United States as a world power. Some Democrats have been in accord with this evolution, but the party's national platforms have been against it, and the attitude of the Democrats as an opposition party in Congress has, generally speaking, been opposed to each successive step in the development of this expanded policy. Future of the It is to be remembered, however, that when a party comes into Philippines power it cannot always act as freely as it has talked when in opposition. Perhaps the eggs ought not to have been -scrambled, but to unscramble them is not so easy. Thus the future of the Philippines can hardly be dealt with on a mere theory. Other interests have been created in the islands that are quite as real as those of the so-called Filipinos. As for the ordinary inhabitant, it is probable that for the present and the immediate future his real interests -those of personal liberty, property and WHEN THE DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLMASTER BEGINS From the Oregonian (Portland) labor, family and neighborhood-are better guaranteed by the existing authority of the United States than they could be by any other governmental plan that could be substituted. Furthermore, there are large interests in the islands that belong to Americans, Spaniards, Germans, Chinese, and various other foreigners. The United States is under some obligation to safeguard these interests. Very likely a calm study of the subject will show that the best way to deal with the Philippine question is to go forward on the present lines, precisely as expounded by President Taft in his message of December 6, a portion of which we have quoted on page 92 of the present issue of the REVIEW. Now, or a Hence? A century is a short time in the Century history of a given country or region. Having undertaken to guard the welfare and guide the progress of the Philippine Islands, it would seem as if we should have assumed that our presence will be needed for at least a hundred years. We found the islands wholly lacking in unity from any standpoint whatsoever. There was no such thing as a Filipino people, a Filipino language, or a political or economic system that made the archipelago a self-recognized entity. It has been our business to establish civil order, to provide schools, to encourage agriculture and industry, and to create local governments with a view to training as many of the native people as possible in the habits (This cartoon illustrates the constructive business motives that Secretary Knox and the Republicans have shown in their management of foreign policies) From the World (New York) Suits Under Law of responsible citizenship. There cannot be Last month brought the ending a self-governing country which has few citithe Sherman of another of the great suits zens capable of acting either as private voters under the Sherman anti-trust law or as public officials. It has been the purpose brought by President Roosevelt and pendof the United States to make the people of ing in the courts for several years. While the Philippine Islands capable of self-govern- Mr. Kellogg, of the well-known firm of St. ment just as rapidly as possible. No such Paul lawyers, was appointed to prosecute the effort has ever been made by any other gov- case against the Standard Oil Company, his ernment on a scale of such magnitude or with partner, Mr. Severance, was put in charge of motives so unselfish. Shall we then confer the government's case against the railroad independence upon the Philippines? By all combination brought about by the merging means, at the earliest moment compatible under one control of the Union Pacific and with the largest measure of justice to every- Southern Pacific Railroad systems. The body concerned. Democrats in the United intense bitterness of Wall Street against States have neither more nor less wisdom President Roosevelt was largely due to the than Republicans or Progressives for treat- bringing of four great suits to test the authorment of a problem like that of the Philip- ity and scope of the anti-trust act. These pines. It is no longer a question whether we four cases have now been decided. The first ought to have acquired the islands. If we was the Northern Securities suit, brought by were unwise in assuming authority, we Attorney-General Knox for the purpose of should be all the more careful not to act breaking up the unified control of the hastily in abandoning what we have under- Northern Pacific and Great Northern railway taken. Practically everybody will agree that systems by Mr. Hill, Mr. Morgan, and their we do not wish to follow the European powers associates. Next came the Standard Oil in their dangerous and evil policies of empire- case, then the case against the American building. The inhabitants of the Philippine Tobacco Company, and last, the suit to Islands should have self-government just as break up the combination of the so-called soon and as completely as they can exercise Harriman railroads. When the clouds and it with success. They should have national fogs of current controversy have blown away, sovereignty whenever they can creditably and the truth of history stands revealed, it assume the burdens and honors of a place will probably be seen that at least nine-tenths among the nations. If they can attain such of the bitter hostility to Mr. Roosevelt, fitness by the year 1950, they will have which still keeps its virulence, has been due made unprecedented progress. If they wait to the bringing of these lawsuits. The case of fifty years longer than that, they will proba- the government has been successful in each bly be much better off. one of the four. Dissolving In the case of the Pacific roads Union Pacific merger, the United States circuit System court, by agreement of three judges (Van Devanter, Sanborn, and Adams), with one judge dissenting (Hook), had decided in favor of the defendants. In other words, the Circuit Court decided that the control of the Southern Pacific by the Union Pacific did not result in a monopoly, or a restraint of trade, contrary to the Sherman law. But the Supreme Court of the United States last month reversed the Circuit Court, and ordered that the combination be dissolved. Both benches that have passed upon this case are composed of learned and upright judges. One bench decided the matter in one way, while the other bench took a diametrically opposite view. The administration at Washington was reported by all the news PRESIDENT TAFT PAYS HIGH TRIBUTE TO DIPLOMATIC papers to be "highly elated" over the out Copyright by John T. McCutcheon TRIUMPHS OF THE ADMINISTRATION From the Daily Tribune (Chicago) come. Mr. Severance, indeed, had won a professional victory which all lawyers must regard as notable. But why the administration should be "elated," is indeed a puzzling thing. We are told that suits may now be brought against the Pennsylvania system, the New York Central system, the Rock Island system, and one or two others, not to mention the New Haven system which is already singled out for onslaughts from a dozen other directions, besides the proposed attack under the Sherman anti-trust law. A Law It was at least to the great credit that Works of Mr. Roosevelt, while President, Iniquity that he constantly deplored the existence of so crude a piece of legislation as the Sherman anti-trust act, -a law which (as shown in this latest case) means one thing to one set of judges, another thing to another set, and only confusion to the mind of the layman. We have witnessed of late an orgy of legal attacks on large corporations under a system that works in effect very much like the machinery of law and government in France just before the Revolution. In that period in France, any man of importance might be suddenly assailed by arbitrary legal action against his person or his property. Nobody knew where the law was going to strike next. It has been like that in these recent years in the United States, allowance being duly made for changes of time and place. There are hundreds of industrial and business corporations against which the ad- so becoming to victorious champions of the ministration may bring suits at its own pleas- law. First, technical dissolution of these ure. Last month it happened to be the large great companies has been followed by rebutter dealers, with headquarters at Elgin, organizations highly gratifying to the "deIllinois. For some reason, the clearing-house teated" monopolists. Second, the minions of the New York banks and the association of the law have been so well satisfied with called the New York Stock Exchange have winning civil suits that they have abstained not been prosecuted by the Attorney-General, from attempts to enforce the criminal feaalthough their practices, as also shown by sworn witnesses before the Congressional committee last month, would seem to the layman to be a great deal more oppressive in relation to the business of the country than many other companies or combinations that have been singled out for government prosecution. MR. C. A. SEVERANCE OF ST. PAUL (Who won the case against the railroad merger) tures of the Sherman anti-trust law. This magazine has always frankly informed its readers that it considers the Sherman antitrust law a humbug; and there are those who think the recent spirit and method of its enforcement a much worse thing than the law itself. Every successive "victory" in the so-called "enforcement" of that statute, only shows how bad is the law and how Under the fostering care of the dangerous is the power reposed in a political The "Quality of Mercy" public authorities the Standard administration, to pick and choose here and Exemplified Oil Company and the American there among the great corporations, this one Tobacco Company have been permitted to being prosecuted and that one being spared. bind up their wounds and go forth again Those who dominate the railroad systems quite prosperously. In fact, their readjust- that Mr. Harriman had brought under united ments have been the most profitable events control, seem to be in no way disturbed by in their respective careers of fabulous ag- what has happened. Outside investors and grandizement. Two things have happened stockholders will be unfortunately placed in by reason of that "quality of mercy" that is this reorganization, as in all the preceding publicans have lacked the courage to perform. The country can do business under Mr. Bryan's plan of dealing with trusts and corporations, or it can get along with Mr. Martin Littleton's. Senator Cummins is prepared to defend his carefully prepared bills, that would provide a method under which the business of the country could go forward. Three years ago Mr. Wickersham had a constructive plan which, with some amendments, would have provided a useful remedy. Let it be hoped that President Wilson and his Cabinet will join with the Democratic leaders in Congress to provide a plain, practical way of dealing with trusts and combinations. Mr. Louis D. Brandeis, the wellknown Boston lawyer, had much to say upon this subject during the recent campaign, and he endeavored to impress his views upon the President-elect. Let us have these views put in the form of a bill and subjected to discussion from the standpoint of actual legislation. New England's Railroad System The newspapers have been quite persistent in the suggestion that Mr. Brandeis is to be made Attorney-General. However that may be, the country has much more need of his talent in helping to secure a proper law than in bringing suits against corporations under the existing statute. It happens that Mr. Brandeis has taken a leading part in the current attacks upon the management of the MR. ROBERT S. LOVETT, CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE New York, New Haven, and Hartford Rail COMMITTEE OF UNION PACIFIC AND SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROADS (Mr. Lovett's abilities as a lawyer and railroad manager are held in such high repute that the financial world sees no disasters ahead for the properties under his administration. It is thought likely that the court decision will result in a rearrangement favorable to all the lines involved) cases. Favored individuals will have abundant opportunity to increase their own wealth. Railroad rates are no longer fixed by what the courts call competition, but by the direct or indirect authority of public commissions. It has taken four years to find out whether the successors of Mr. Harriman were obeying the law or were breaking it. |