The Elkins Inter Mountain

THE ANTI-TRUST LAWS

Strange things happen in the business world these days.
A Chicago dispatch states that E. L. Doheny, oil king, who was under indictment in connection with the Teapot Dome case, says the government must modify the anti-trust law and permit the oil industry to operate on the basis of a trust. For several months, oil companies have been trying to get together to agree on shutting down a large number of oil wells and cutting down production.
The strange thing is their activity seems to have the approval of the government at Washington.
In other words, the anti-trust law is to be set aside for the benefit of the oil producers, while being rigorously enforced against manufacture and against commercial organizations of every kind.
Why should the law of supply and demand be suspended for the benefit of oil?
Why should oil producers be allowed to create a trust, and put extraordinary charges upon the public simply in order to escape the legitimate result of their own selfishness?
There have been many signs that the restrictive laws aimed to curb the operation of big business seem to be entirely falling into the discard so far as the administration at Washington is concerned. Mr. Sargent is largely a figurehead. Harry Daugherty, with all his faults, was a phenomenon of energy in the enforcement of the law compared with the gentleman from Vermont and the neighbor of Calvin Coolidge.
Big business is, of course, very well satisfied, but it will not be long before the people wake up to an unpleasant situation.