USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. V > Part 9
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cause a general use of that designation and to emphasize its appropriateness.
The policy of the Republican party has, indeed, been notably that which was wisely established at the begin- ning of our national life by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and their compeers. It has been to develop to the full our own continental republic and to culti- vate its territorial possessions; to vindicate the inde- pendence of American states against any European attempts at re-subjugation; to participate freely in the commerce of the world and in whatever international intercourse is calculated to advance the humane welfare of mankind; to lend the weight of our example and participation to the practice of arbitration and inter- national adjudication, and to the supremacy of law and justice and peace among the nations; but to withhold this nation scrupulously from all wanton meddling with the affairs of other nations and from all "entang- ling alliances" which might compromise our own inde- pendence or impair our impartial standing.
CHAPTER XIV "BIG BUSINESS"
A S THE nation grows, business grows. A cen- tury ago the supplanting of cottage workshops with large manufactories revolutionized the industrial world. In our own day a similar revolution has been wrought in the mercantile world by the replac- ing of a multitude of small individual establishments with a few very large ones, and the replacing of shops devoted to a single class or a few classes of goods with vast emporiums dealing in all classes. Similar combi- nations have been made in manufacturing enterprises and in public utilities. During the Civil War a dozen or a score of separate telegraph systems, each confined to a constricted region, were merged into a single system covering the whole country. Likewise a number of independent railroads have now and then been united into a single system or a continuous trunk line.
In such combinations there is obviously great advan- tage, or at least the "promise and potency" of great advantage to all concerned. There is also, however, the possibility of abuse and therefore of evil, and this possibility was more than once realized. Great business combinations, or trusts as they came to be called, unjustly and unwisely used their power to prevent competition and to compel retail establishments to
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purchase supplies from them alone. About 1890 such practices became so marked and so offensive as to cause a widespread demand for their abatement and preven- tion. The result was the enactment in that year by the Republican Congress and President of the so-called Sherman Anti-Trust act forbidding the making of con- tracts in restraint of trade or commerce.
This beneficent act was at first held, notably by a Supreme Court decision in 1895, not to apply to manu- facturing concerns but only to interstate commerce, and its utility was not as great as had been anticipated. But during the administration of President Roosevelt, in 1902, an attempt was made to have the act more liberally construed, so as to apply its prohibition to the "holding company" principle. The government selected as the object of its attack the Northern Securi- ties Company, a trust incorporated in New Jersey for the purpose of purchasing and holding the stocks of two competing railroad systems in the northwest, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. It would not have been permissible for one of these roads to purchase and control the other, so it was sought to reach the same end by having a third corporation purchase them both. The government prosecuted the case with much vigor and won a sweeping victory, which not only nullified the Northern Securities Company but also established a precedent for numerous other like applications of the law.
The question of the governmental control of trusts and regulation of "big business" became a prominent issue in the Presidential campaign of 1904. The Demo-
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cratic platform attempted to convict the Republican party of complicity with trusts and monopolies, and demanded that laws be made and enforced to prevent such combinations of capital from interfering with freedom of trade. The Republican platform, however, was able to point to the fact that a Republican govern- ment had enacted an effective law for that very purpose, that the Democratic administration had failed to enforce it efficiently, and that the Republican adminis- tration had secured its very effective application. The Republican convention nominated for President Theo- dore Roosevelt, who was then serving out the unfinished term of President Mckinley, and for Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana. The Democrats nominated Alton B. Parker of New York and Henry G. Davis of West Virginia for President and Vice- President, respectively. Tickets were placed in the field also by the People's or Populist party, the Prohi- bitionists, the Socialists, and the Socialist Labor party. The campaign resulted in an overwhelming Repub- lican victory, the party getting 336 Electoral and 7,628,834 popular votes; the Democrats 140 Electoral and 5,048,491 popular votes; and the Socialists 402,460, the Prohibitionists 259,257, the Populists 114,753, and the Socialist Labor party 33,724 popular votes.
With this unmistakable vote of confidence from the nation, the Republican administration, backed by strong majorities in both houses of Congress, pro- ceeded with the prosecution of various large corpo- rations that were charged with violation of the Sherman act. Among these were the Standard Oil
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Company of New Jersey, the du Pont de Nemours Powder Company of New Jersey, the American Sugar Refining Company of New Jersey, and the American Tobacco Company of New Jersey. The purpose was of course not to destroy those corporations nor to deprive the business of the nation of the advantages which manifestly might be realized from the conduct of affairs upon so extensive a scale, but to curb and check the abuses to which they were subject and to demon- strate the amenability of the largest and richest corpo- ration to the law equally with the humblest and poorest individual. It was an application of the original prin- ciples of the Republican party, the equality of rights and equality of responsibilities before the law. It served notice that just as the slaveholding oligarchy of the south was not permitted to dominate the country, so no oligarchy of capital would be permitted to exercise undue influence to control the government or to defy the law.
The principles successfully pursued during this administration thus comprised the "square deal" of equal industrial opportunities for all law-abiding men and corporations, and equal punishment for all viola- tions of law; such governmental supervision and regulation of railroads and other public service corpo- rations as would assure their impartial and efficient ser- vice to all; development of the internal waterways of the country to supplement the service of the railroads ; promotion of agriculture by facilitating and encourag- ing the acquisition of homesteads; conservation of the forests and other natural resources; conservation and
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utilization of water-power for industrial purposes ; and building of a navy adequate to the defense of our coasts, an undertaking much facilitated by the connect- ing of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by means of the Panama canal. These were the things for which the Republican party stood during the Roosevelt adminis- tration, and these were the things which it achieved so far as it was possible to be done.
With this record, the party was well warranted in declaring in its platform in 1908 that the Roosevelt administration was an epoch in history. "In no other period since national sovereignty was won under Wash- ington, or preserved under Lincoln," it continued, "has there been such mighty progress in those ideals of government which make for justice, equality, and fair- dealing among men. The highest aspirations of the American people have found a voice." In addition to the achievements of the administration, it was possible to point to an impressive array of beneficent Republican legislation by Congress, including an Emergency Cur- rency bill, provision for a National Monetary com- mission, Employers' and Government Liability laws, measures for the greater efficiency of the army and navy, a Widows' Pension law, an Anti-Child Labor law, and laws for the greater safety of railroad engineers and firemen. It promised revision of the tariff to suit altered conditions and a general continuance of the enlightened and progressive policies of the Roosevelt administration. Upon this platform the party nomi- nated William H. Taft of Ohio for President and James S. Sherman of New York for Vice-President.
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The Democratic platform carped and railed against the Republican party, but in nearly all of its construct- ive planks was compelled substantially to imitate and adopt the policies which the Republican administration was engaged in pursuing and which the Republican Congress had enacted or was pledged to enact. The party nominated William J. Bryan of Nebraska for President and John W. Kern of Indiana for Vice- President. There were nominations also by the Popu- list, Prohibition, Socialist, Socialist Labor, and Inde- pendence parties. The Republicans won the election with 321 Electoral and 7,679,006 popular votes. The Democrats had 162 Electoral and 6,409,106 popular votes, the Socialists 420,820, the Prohibitionists 252,683, the Independence party 83,562, the Populists 28,131, and the Socialist Labor party 13,825 popular votes.
From the establishment of a sound monetary stand- ard, Republican statesmen, in the face of Democratic opposition, went on toward the great improvement of the currency and banking system. The Republican Congress in 1908 enacted the Aldrich-Vreeland Cur- rency bill, to meet a temporary emergency ; a measure the effects of which were of great advantage to the country six years later, at the outbreak of the great war. It also provided for a Monetary commission, under the lead of Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, to report a general and permanent plan of reform. The report of this commission reached Congress after the Democrats had secured control of the House, and was accordingly not directly acted upon. But it served as the source and origin, and provided the spirit and substance and much
NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER
Nicholas Murray Butler, publicist and university president, was born at Elizabeth, New Jersey, April 2, 1862. After grad- uating from Columbia college in 1882 he was a student in Berlin and Paris, 1884-5. He became first president of the New York college for training of teachers (now teachers' college) in 1886. In 1889 he became adjunct professor of philosophy at Columbia and the next year dean of the faculty of philosophy and pro- fessor of philosophy and education. He has been president of Columbia university since 1902. He was a member of the state board of education of New Jersey, 1887-95, and New Jersey commissioner to the Paris exposition, 1889. He was a delegate to the republican national conventions of 1888, 1904, 1912 and 1916, and was chairman of the New York state republican con- vention of 1912. He received the vote of the republican electors for vice-president of the United States in 1913, and was pre- sented by the New York state delegation to the republican national convention of 1920 as a candidate for president of the United States, receiving 691/2 votes.
WILLIAM BERRI
William Berri, publisher; born at Brooklyn, September 12, 1848; educated at public schools and business college; owner of Brooklyn Standard Union, Carpet Trades Review and Press Review Publishing company; delegate to republican national conventions of 1904, 1908 and 1912, to the last of which he was a delegate at large; delegate at large to the constitutional con- vention of 1915; died at Brooklyn, April 9, 1917.
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TIMOTHY LESTER WOODRUFF
Timothy Lester Woodruff, lieutenant governor; born at New Haven, Conn., August 4, 1858; Yale, 1875; delegate to every state and local convention in the state of New York from 1885 to 1912; park commissioner of Brooklyn, 1885; delegate to the republican national convention, 1888; elected lieutenant governor in 1896, 1898, 1900; interested in large business enter- prises; died October 12, 1913.
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of the actual language, of the Federal Reserve Banking act which was enacted by the Democratic party in 1913, and for which the Democrats have improperly at- tempted to claim the entire credit.
This important measure was amended in the fall of 1919 by the addition of a new section providing for the Federal incorporation of institutions organized for the purpose of carrying on international or for- eign banking or other financial operations; all such corporations to be under the control and regulation of the Federal Reserve board and a majority of their stock to be American-owned. Approved and signed by President Wilson, a Democrat, this amendatory act was drafted by a Republican, Senator Edge, of New Jersey, and was enacted by a Congress Republican in both branches, and it may therefore properly be set down to the credit of Republican statesmanship.
CHAPTER XV PARTY READJUSTMENT
P RESIDENT TAFT soon after his inauguration called a special session of Congress to revise the tariff, as the platform had promised. The result was the Payne-Aldrich tariff, which Mr. Taft appoved and which undoubtedly had many admirable qualities, but which failed to meet the expectations of many mem- bers of the party, especially in the west, who complained that it was largely a revision upward rather than down- ward and that it favored too greatly "the interests," meaning great trusts and corporations. So considerable was the dissatisfaction with it that in 1910 the Repub- lican party suffered defeat at the polls and lost control of the next Congress, which met in 1911. In the fall of 1910 Mr. Taft urged further tariff reform in the shape of a reciprocity treaty with Canada. Although that would have been in accord with established Republican policy, Congress failed to enact it. Thereupon Mr. Taft called a special session of the new Congress imme- diately upon the expiration of the old and renewed the proposal. It was readily passed by the House, the Democratic majority accepting the Republican doc- trine; and it was also passed by the Senate, though by the aid of Democratic votes-the dissentient or "insur- gent" Republicans opposing it because they thought it
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would be unfavorable to the agricultural interests of the west.
This reciprocity measure did not go into effect, because of the retirement from power of the Liberal party in Canada which had favored it. But its adoption by Congress aroused the antagonism of the agricultural interests of the north and west, largely Republican, and revealed the presence of serious dissension within that party-the culmination of disagreements between its progressive and conservative wings, which had been increasing gradually for a number of years. The efforts of Mr. Taft to mediate between the two were unavail- ing, and when the time came to nominate his successor a disastrous schism occurred. The conservative wing of the party renominated Mr. Taft and Mr. Sherman on a platform reaffirming the established conservative principles of the party, and the progressive wing organ- ized itself into the Progressive party and nominated Theodore Roosevelt for President and Hiram W. John- son of California for Vice-President on a platform which in many details was substantially identical with the Republican, but which greatly emphasized the need of a more radical prosecution of the reforms that had been begun under the Roosevelt administration, and also contained declarations of a character so radical that they would not have been seriously considered except under the stress of a factional contest. It also contained an unequivocal declaration in favor of "equal suffrage to men and women alike."
The Democrats, in a convention dominated by Mr. Bryan, nominated Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey
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and Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana on a platform calling for a "tariff for revenue only," an income tax, and abandonment of the Philippines. Socialist, Pro- hibitionist, and Socialist Labor nominations were also made. A vigorous campaign was waged and the Republicans polled a large majority of the votes of the nation. But, owing to the division in their ranks, they were badly defeated and the Democratic ticket was elected. Mr. Wilson received 435 Electoral votes, Mr. Roosevelt 88, and Mr. Taft only 8. Yet Mr. Wilson received only 6,286,214 popular votes, while Mr. Roosevelt got 4,126,120, and Mr. Taft 3,483,922. If the two wings of the Republican party had remained united and cast their total vote for one candidate that party would have had 7,610,042 votes, or 1,323,828 more than the Democrats, and it would have had 379 Electoral votes to the Democrats' 152. In this election the Socialists polled 897,011, the Prohibitionists 208,923, and the Socialist Labor party 29,079 votes. The Democrats also gained control of Congress.
After the middle of the Taft administration, there- fore, the Republican party had for a number of years no control of legislation, and after the close of that administration they also lost control of the executive for eight years. In 1916 the party was reunited on a basis of sanely progressive principles. Its platform spoke clearly for protection of American rights in all parts of the world, for maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, for a reasonable degree of military prepared- ness for the protection of the country, for a Tariff com- mission which should place the tariff system of the
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country upon a scientific and non-political basis, for such regulation of business as should prevent abuses without crippling enterprise or impairing property rights, for exclusive Federal control of the railway transportation system, for restoration of the merchant marine, for the establishment of a budget system for the national treasury in the interest of economy and busi- nesslike methods in government, for the careful hus- banding of natural resources, for vocational education, laws against child labor, workmen's compensation and accident compensation laws, rural credits, extension of the rural free delivery mail service, full protection of naturalized citizens in the right of expatriation, and the extension of the electoral franchise to women equally with men.
There was less difference than usual between the two platforms. The Republican stood for the protective principle in the tariff, while the Democratic repeated the demand for a tariff for revenue only, though the tar- iff which a Democratic Congress had enacted at the dic- tation of the Democratic President was very far from answering that description. The Republican insisted upon keeping the faith of the nation which had been pledged in the treaty of Paris concerning the Philip- pines, while the Democratic advocated a policy of repudiating, scuttling, and abandonment. The Repub- lican platform proposed specific constructive legisla- tion and executive action for the "rigid supervision and strict regulation of the great corporations of the coun- try" in the interest of the encouragement of legitimate business, while the Democratic made no proposals on
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the subject save that for a general Trade commission. The Republican, perceiving intrastate and interstate commerce to be inseperably interwoven, proposed that all railroad legislation should be committed to the national government, so as to avoid the mischievous confusion which had often arisen between Federal and State control; while the Democratic was silent upon this immensely important subject. The Republican favored legislation which would promote the building of an adequate American merchant marine, while the Democratic favored the socialist plan of a marine owned and operated by the government.
The campaign of 1916 was conducted while the attention of the nation was supremely fixed upon the great war in Europe and while the issues of that war seemed paramount to those of our domestic affairs. The Democratic party pleaded for the reelection of the President on the specious and altogether insincere ground that he had "kept us out of war," and by that means gained many votes, particularly in the middle and far west. In a few of the States there were still some lingering traces of the Republican schism of four years before. Technically, as shown by the result, the immediate deciding circumstance that determined the election was the tactical error of permitting the Republican candidate to tour California, which was in the throes of a factional contest and where he incurred the resentment of the Johnson faction, costing him the election. The Republican candidates were Charles Evans Hughes of New York and Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana; the Democratic, President Wilson and
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Vice-President Marshall. There was an attempt to put Theodore Roosevelt forward again as a Progressive candidate, but he declined and supported Mr. Hughes on the regular Republican ticket. The drift of popular sentiment was undoubtedly toward the Republican party. But owing to the circumstances mentioned, the Democrats won by the narrowest margin since the dis- puted election of 1876, forty years before. They got 277 Electoral and 9,129,606 popular votes, while the Republicans got 254 Electoral and 8,538,221 popular votes. The Socialist vote was 585,113, the Prohibi- tionist 220,506, and the Socialist Labor 13,403. The Democrats retained control of Congress.
Thereafter, for the first half of the second Wilson administration, covering the period of American participation in the great war, Democratic control of the government was complete and under it the Presi- dent was invested with an autocratic and dictatorial power never before approximated or contemplated in American history. Shortly after his installation in the second term, to which he had been elected chiefly on the pretense that "he kept us out of war," the President was compelled by the logic of events to ask that the nation be plunged into the war. To that momentous step and all through the succeeding transactions for the prosecution of the war the Republican minority offered no factious opposition. With patriotic zeal it coöper- ated heartily with the Democratic government in every measure that was necessary to win the victory. In some important respects, particularly the legislation for creating and preparing a great army, the Republicans
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gave the President more hearty support than did the members of his own party.
Nevertheless, as the war drew near its close and as the time approached for the election of a new Congress which would be in office during the period of peace- making and reconstruction, President Wilson repudi- ated the loyal support that the Republicans had given him and in October, 1918, took the unprecedented step of issuing a public appeal to the nation to elect a Demo- cratic Congress that would be subservient to his will. It is possible, though not probable, that without that astounding performance he might have secured a Democratic Congress. But the last hope of his doing so was destroyed by the issuance of that appeal-which in spirit was in fact an imperious demand. The nation revolted against such a display of despotic partisanship, refused the Democratic government the vote of confi- dence which the President had solicited, and elected a Congress Republican in both houses.
This body was kept from meeting as long as possible, and then was greatly hampered and delayed in its work by the petulant and arrogant unwillingness of the President to cooperate with it, and by his insistence upon the Senate's ratification of his secretly-negotiated treaty of Peace and covenant of the League of Nations without any of the amendments or reservations which the Senate was constitutionally entitled to make, and which were necessary for the protection of American interests and for making the treaty accord with the Constitution and fixed policies of the United States. The desire of the Republican leaders to ratify the treaty
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with proper reservations, acceptable to the other signa- tory powers, was finally thwarted by the President, who instructed his subservient followers in the Senate to kill the treaty rather than have it ratified with the reserva- tions required by the Constitution and by the over- whelming sentiment of the American people.
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