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VOLUME 4, NUMBER 3(
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1)0 on wheels in order to bo democratic. I 1)6
liovc thai; our government ought to inaugurate a
now policy in this matter and build in tho chief
capitate o forolgn nations on land convenient to
tho forolgn oflices buildings suitable in every way
lor tho residences and oflices of our diplomatic
representatives. Such buildings constructed on a
characteristic American stylo of architecture and
furnishod liko an American homo would not only
glvo to our representative a fixed habitation, but
would oxhiblt to tho peoplo of tho country to
which ho Is accredited tho Amorlcan manner of
living. Tho records of tho embassy could bo kept
xnoro safoly in permanent quarters.
As real estate in all tne capitals of Europe
Is rapidly rising in value, land purchased now
would bocomo a profitable investment and tho
rent ostlmated upon tho purchaso prlco would
bo a groat deal less than will have to bo paid
twonty or fifty years from now for a suitable sito
and building conveniently located. It is not wis
to conflno our diplomatic representation to tho
clrclo of tho wealthy, and it is much better to
furnish our ambassadors and ministers with
residences than to increaso their salaries.
W. J. BRYAN.
JJJ
Statistics in Stocks.
., A writer in tho Chicago Record-Herald, a re-'
-publican papor, says that during the last eighteen
months, fully fltty corporations capitalized at
.from $1,000,000 to ?50,000,000 each havo gone com
pletely out of existence. This wrltor says that ho
saw a list of 287 corporations some of which havo
collapsed and many of which aro now protty near
absolution. Ho explains that most of -theso 287
torporations were formed during tho last four
years; that their issues of stocks amounted to
tho stupendous total of ?5,800,000,000, and their
bond Issues amounted td $1,169,000,000 more, a
total of nearly $7,000,000,000 of security. He says
that tho actual market value of this prodigious
product of the printing press to date is probably
about 25 cents on tho dollar and that the rest was
water and tho water has been squeezed out.
If this is tho showing when tho republicans
aro shouting prosperity, what will bo tho condition
whon an era of bad crops reduces tho ability of
tho producer to stand trus.t extortion,?
. ,Tho only lesson that somo republicans will
draw from tho statistics presented is that tho
trusts will dio of themselves without any neces
sity for legislation, but that is a very complacent
conclusion. What of tho stockholders who lose
by tho doclino In prices and by the final collapse?
What of tho honest industries that have been
bankrupted by t. ast methods? What of tho peo
ple who havo been tho victims of trust prices?
And what, too, of tho demoralization of public sen
timent and tho degradation of business ideals?
tfhoso things cannot be remedied by patiently
waiting for natural causes to remove tho trusts.
As woll permit a highwayman to pursue his avo
cation in tho hope that an early death will put
an ond to his ctfroer and glvo the community a
rest until a now highwayman takes his place.
And yet with theso evils plainly before him
tho president pormits tho trusts to multiply while
ho plans for another term.
If tho administration will not do its duty and
protect tho public, tho Individual can protect hlm
solf, at least to the extent of refusing to buy trust
stock.
As a matter of principlo ono should not hold
stock in any trust, but in addition to that ho can
find a sufficient reason in the fact that it is not
safe to hold trust stock. It is necessary to op
press tho public in order to make dividends on
watored stock and tho holder of such stock is
thereforo, oithor imposing on others or suffering
loss himself. If honest peoplo will boycott trust
stock and leavo such investments to- the un
scrupulous, they will not only avoid the risks nat
urally incident to such enterprises, but will make
It easier to secure effective anti-trust legislation.
Just now there aro many other reasons of a busi
ness nature for a-oidlng tho stock market.
JJJ
As Good as Gold.
The United States Tnvostor pats Secrotary
Shaw on- the back because tho secretary said
"Fortunately at tho present time no recipient of
any of our several forms of money stops to ex
amine its character, it is all known to be as good
as gold, for the credit of the government is
pledged to maintain its parity with gold I " -
When was this pledge made? Was it In tii
act of March, 1900? Can the Investor or Secretal?
Shaw point out any time prior to March 1900
when tho legal tender silver dollar, fo? instance
The Commoner.
was not current money with the merchant or
when any ono hesitated to accept that form or
money? , .
The Investor makes what it calls a comparison,
of the quantity and quality of our money between
January 1, 1879, and the present time. It shows
that on January 1, 1879, tho total amount of
money in circulation was $816,2GG,721. Of this
sum $96,262,850 was in gold, while $6,204,081 was
In sliver. On December 1, 1903, tho total amount
of monoy in circulation was $2,449,168,418. Of this
$627,025,092 was in gold, while $557,301,042 was in
silver.
The Investor boasts that today tho gold por
tion of our currency amounts to a gain over 1879
of more than 650 per cent. It omits to say, how
ever, that today the silver portion of our cur
rency amounts to a gain of moro than 8,882 per
cent.
In 1879, the percentage of our gold money to
tho total amount of money was a little more than
11 per cent. In 1879 tho percentage of silver mon
ey to the total amount of .money was something
less than 1 per cent. Today the percentage of
gold money to the total rmount of money is a
little moro than 25 per cent, while the percentage
of silver money to tho total amount of money is a
little more than 22 per cent.
The so-called pledge that the government
would maintain the parity of all forms of money
with gold has had no effect whatever upon our
money because this legal tender silver dollar has
always been accepted' at par. When, in 1879,
wo had something like 6,000,000 silver dollars,
every one of them was as good as gold; and now
that we have something like 641,000,000 silver
dollars more than we had in 1879, every ono of
them is as good as gold. This is not due, how
ever, to any pledge by the government to main
tain the parity. It is due to the fact that the sil
ver dollar is legal tender for all debts, public and
private, except where otherwise expressly stip
ulated in the contract. In spite of this statutory
permission to' stipulate against one form of our
money, the silver dollar has maintained its stand
ing; and in spite of the fact that the percentage
of the silver dollars to the total amount of money
in circulation is today about twenty times larger
than it was in 1879, the silver dollar maintains its
position.
JJJ
. Short but Forceful.
What the Chicago Record-Herald, a republican
paper, calls "A short, but forceful sermon on our
trusts," is published as a fading article in a
recent number of the London financial weekly,
The Economist. Tho Record-Herald says the text
of the sermon is found in the recent action of our
railroads in reducing the freight rates on steel for
export at the dictation of the steel trust and that
tho reduction in rates was made to enablo tho
trust to sell certain of its products abroad at
prices far below those charged to American' con
sumers. The Economist says that railroads that as
sisted this project aro not merely causing gTave
prejudice to tho trade of the country, but they
aro going beyond this and are actually assisting in
the operation of picking their own pockets." The
Economist adds:
"The sinister influence of the trust finan
ciers is everywhere felt in the United States.
Their power over the New York banks en
abled them to compel those institutions to
over-lend their resources, with results little
short of disastrous. Their attempts tr domi
nate the Industry of tho country have been
productive of grievous injury to the people,
and the control which they exercise over the
railway systems of the United States has given
them tho power to mulct the snareholders
in a fashion that would never be tolerated
here. One cannot help wondering at the lamb
like submission of the American public un
der this tyranny, and asking whether tne
trusts are sufficiently powerful to dominate
the legislature as well as the general in
terests of the country." '
It will be generally agreed, we think thar
this is "a short, but forceful 'sermon on" ou
trusts;" and commenting upon It, the Chicago
Record-Herald says: "itugo
n 'iTn e,Amecan people are probably not so
rn L 3 i tuo exient to which some
of the trusts are able to dictate to other in
dustries at the expense of both -stockholders
and consumers has in it an unpleasantly laSe
amount of truth." nnauu iarse
If The Economist degires to present authority
on its "Iamblike" claiman authority which tim
Record-Herald will doubtless accept as correct
The Economist might examine another issue ol
the Chicago Record-Herald in-which, after descrih
ing the methods employed by John D. Rockefeller"
the Record-Herald said: ler
"Tho truth is that he (Rockefeller) has
become a resistless force in the Industrial
world and that he will proceed from ono mo
nopoly to another, regardless of all that is .
said and done to prevent. j he could live
to tho age of the patriarchs, the United States
would come to be merely one of his appur
tenances." According to this, the Record-Herald as well
as The Economist believes that there is consider
able "lamblike submission" about the American
people. Is it not strange, towever, that while
newspapers like the Record-Herald admit that the
Rockefellers are acquiring all -too enormous pow
er, while they admit that such charges as aro
made by The Economist have in them an "un
pleasantly large amount of truth," when election
day draws nigh these newspapers are found lined
up in support of the Rockerellers and using their
great power in defense of the system and the men
under whose impositions it is agreed the people
are suffering?
Enforce the Law.
, In, another column of this, Issue' appears an
editorial printed in the Lincoln (Neb.) News, a
republican paper, entitled "The Meat Plot " This
republican paper draws a striking pen picture
showing that the consumer, the stock; dealer, and
tne butcher are in the pen "which has only one
opening, and that one leads into tlie slaughter
hoiise where tlie man with a steel mallet stands
and strikes the endless procession dead.
"Like cattle, the producer, butcher and con
sumer," says this republican paper, "have been
driven into the pen. The individual pays the price
and the tyranny of the packers and their enorm
ous profits will be uninterrupted as long as the
individual continues to walk into Ihe pen the
packers have built for him." r
This republican, newspaper should not forget
that men and women must live and so long as a
coterie of men have obtained a monopoly upon
a great necessity of life, even though they carry
that monopoly to a cruel end, the individual must
pay the price. But what has this republican news
paper to say of the republican administration
that fails to protect the individual in the; right
to live? What has this republican newspaper to
say of an administration that refuses to enforce
the criminal clause of the Sherman anti-trust law,
a clause which provides a potent weapon against
men who would conspire against the life of tho
people?
Boasting of its fight against the trust system,
and particularly against the beef trust, the Roose
velt administration has availed itself of a mere
. ly incidental provision in the Sherman anii-trust
law. The first feature of that law is not the civil
proceeding. The very first section of that law
provides for criminal prosecution; and a few
criminal indictments against theso arrogant mo
nopolists would be worth moro than all the in
junctions that have ever been obtained, and
worth more, indeed, than all the Injunctions that
ever could be obtained.
Is it not strange that when a publican news
paper recognizes solemn facts, to the extent that
it feels justified in drawing the striking picture
which tins republican newspaper has presented
to Its readers, it does not insist that the official
representatives of its party shall enforce tho "plain
provisions of a law which was devised to meet
3ust such emergencies as these?
JJJ
Not "Unalterable."
Referring to the New York dinner on which
occasion Mr. Olney urged that the democratic
party nominate Grover Cleveland, tho Brooklyn
Eagle, tho original Cleveland organ, says:
"Ex-President Cleveland was not present.
Those who expected that he would be were
enthusiasts. Those who reasoned that ho '
should not, and, therefore, would not, be -present,
were not surprised by his absence.
Occasions can bo benefited by his partlcipa- '- .
tion m them, but tle interests of causes, long-
er, deeper and more far-reaching than occa- - "
sions, can best be prospered by his mainte
nance of a dignified abstension from political
gatherings, away from where he lives."
So, after all, and according to the original
Cleveland organ, when Mr. Cleveland said that his