Volume 86 . Number 1 Mr. Root on Japan..... NEW YORK, MAY 4, 1907 337 The Hudson Bay Route. 10 Letters to The Outlook... 39 The subscription price of The Outlook is Three Dollars a year, payable in advance. Ten cents a copy, Postage is prepaid by the publishers for all subscriptions in the United States, Hawaiian Islands, Philippine Islands, Guam, Porto Rico. Tutuila (Samoa), Shanghai, Canal Zone, Cuba, and Mexico. For Canada $1.20 should be added for postage, and for all other countries in the Postal Union $1.56 should be added for postage. Change of address: When a change of address is ordered, both the new and the old address must be given. The notice should be sent one week before the change is to take effect. rected the attention of the whole Nation to the approaching trial of William D. Haywood, charged with the assassina- tion of former Governor Steunenberg, of Idaho. The trial, the various aspects of which were described at length by Mr. Luke Grant, of Chicago, in The Outlook for April 6, is set for May 9 at Boisé, Idaho. Many labor organizations of the country have interested themselves in Haywood's defense, which is an en- tirely proper thing to do if this interest. is kept within the bounds of law, order, and decency. But some of the revolu- tionary and demagogic self-appointed labor leaders have surpassed all limits of public morals in their attempts to preju- dice the case. In a Socialistic paper He [the President] uttered a lie as black and damnable, a calumny as foul and atro- cious, as ever issued from a human throat. The men he thus traduced and vilified, sit- ting in their prison cells for having dutifully served their fellow-workers and having spurned the bribes of their masters, tran- scend immeasurably the man in the White House, who with the cruel malevolence of a barbarian has pronounced their doom. There is not a bloated plutocrat in the land who would not hail with joy the election of William H. Taft as President; he would be almost as acceptable to these vultures as Roosevelt himself. . . Such is Theodore Roosevelt, the President, who condemns workingmen as murderers when they are objectionable to the trusts that control his Of course the President has never con- ine advocate of popular rights, like the ists, but represents comparatively few trades unions. On its official stationery the words are printed: "Death cannot, will not, and shall not claim our brother." President Roosevelt turned the shafts of criticism leveled at himself against his critics. Referring to the above phrase, he said: "This shows that you and your associates are not demanding a fair trial, but are announcing in advance that the verdict shall only be one way, and that you will not tolerate any other verdict. Such action is flagrant in its impropriety, and I join heartily in condemning it." The President, while declaring that his characterization of the accused men could not in any sense be interpreted as an opinion of their guilt in connection with the murder of Steunenberg, did not mince words in repeating his private opinion of them. "Messrs. Moyer, Haywood, and Debs," he said, "stand as representatives of those men who have done as much to discredit the labor movement as the worst speculative financiers or most unscrupulous employers of labor and debauchers of legislatures have done to discredit honest capitalists and fair-dealing business men. They stand They stand as the representatives of those men who by their public utterances and manifestoes, by the utterances of the papers they control or inspire, and by the words and deeds of those associated with or subordinated to them, habitually appear as guilty of incitement to or apology for bloodshed and violence. If that does not constitute undesirable citizenship, then there can never be any undesirable citizens." This letter of the President is written at a time when his political enemies are doing all they can to turn the "labor vote" against him and his policies. Its courage and practical effectiveness as a reply will be widely recognized by all good citizens. connected with labor unions. Jaxon is a Canadian with a strong streak of InIdian blood in his veins. He acted as secretary of state" to Louis Riel in the Northwest Rebellion, escaped from a Canadian prison after the rebellion was put down, and reached Chicago during a strike of carpenters in 1886. He sought admission to the union, and because of his ability to speak and write he soon was in charge of the strike. With a map of the city before him, he marked off the buildings where nonunion men were employed, and is credited with being the first man to introduce "slugging" tactics on a systematic basis into Chicago's industrial disputes. Since then he has worked at various occupations. He has engaged in contracting and building, he has studied law, he has worked as a canvasser and solicitor, and three years ago attained some notoriety as the first disciple of Jacob Beilhart, the founder and leader of the Spirit Fruit cult. Jaxon is now a strong advocate of the doctrine of "non-resistance." His claim to recognition as a labor representative rests on the fact that he is a member of the Canvassers' and Solicitors' Union. This is a local organization not recognized by the American Federation of Labor, and its membership is composed of Jaxon and one other man, also an agitator. Between them they pay the small per capita tax necessary to entitle them to representation in the Chicago Federation of Labor for the privilege of airing their theories on the floor and writing resolutions. Jaxon courts notoriety, and in getting recognition from the President of the United States he has reached the height of his ambition. y had accepted a rate of six cents a hundred pounds on oil shipped from Whiting, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois, when the published tariffs fixed the legal rate at eighteen cents, and a rate of seven and a half cents a hundred pounds on oil shipped from Chapell, Illinois, to St. Louis, the legal rate being nineteen and a half cents. In defense the Company contended that the rates were not solicited or accepted knowingly or with an intent to violate the law; that the Chicago and Alton Railroad is not now nor ever has been engaged in inter-State commerce; that the tariffs on which the Government based much of its case had not been posted in accordance with the governing statute; and that rates equivalent to the concessions alleged to have been accepted were available over the Burlington and the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railways. It is said that during the six weeks' duration of the trial more than three tons of documentary evidence were submitted to the jury. Way bills, shipping orders, receipts, pages from account books, and transcripts of records to the number of more than fifteen thousand were put in evidence. After only two hours' deliberation the jury returned a verdict of guilty on 1,462 counts, the other counts in the indictment. having been stricken out by the presiding judge in his charge to the jury. A motion for a new trial was entered by the defense, and it is almost certain that the case will be carried on appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The penalty for the offenses of which the Standard is convicted would be fines amounting to $1,462,000, if the minimum penalty of $1,000 prescribed by the Elkins Law were imposed. The maximum penalty of $20,000 for each offense, which it is, of course, inconceivable that the judge would inflict, would make an aggregate fine of nearly thirty million dollars. The conviction of the Standard in such full measure is an ample justification of the statement made by Mr. Garfield, Commissioner of Corporations (now Secretary of the Interior), in submitting last May his report on the transportation of petroleum, that "the Standard Oil Company has habitually received from the railroads, and is now receiving, secret rates and ... other unjust and illegal discriminations. Many of these discriminations were clearly in violation of the inter-State commerce law." It will be remembered that the truth of this statement was strenuously and half-contemptuously denied by the officials of the Company. Mr. Rogers and Mr. Archbold, two vice-presidents of the Standard, in commenting on Mr. Garfield's report, declared: "We say flatly that any assertion that the Standard Oil Company has been or is now knowingly engaged in practices which are unlawful is alike untruthful and unjust. . . . There have been no secret rates nor unlawful discrimination in the interest of the Standard Oil Company." The first annual meeting of the American Society The American Society of International Law of International Law closely and appropriately followed the first annual Peace and Arbitration Congress. The meeting was held at Washington, and was really a continuation of the sessions of the Peace Congress. The subjects for discussion included the development of international law; the second Hague Conference; rights of foreigners in the United States in case of conflict between Federal treaties and State laws; immunity from capture during war of non-offending private property upon the high seas; contraband of war; the transference of prize cases from municipal courts to an international court; and the forcible collection of contract debts. In the discussions the Secretary of State and two exSecretaries of State participated. Olney was characteristically caustic in his interpretation of the Government's policy regarding Santo Domingan debts and the acquirement of the Panama Canal Zone without compensation to Colombia. In this connection he paid his vigorous respects to the corollaries now derived from the Monroe Doctrine; for instance, if a South American State does not behave itself well (good behavior according to our own standards, of course) it may be coerced by the United States into doing the right thing; if necessary, may have its revenues sequestered and Mr. |