VOLUME 5, NUMBER ij
I
v
The Commoner
6
i OVERNOR EDWARD C. STOKES of Now
( t Tqi-hov recently addressed a conference of
,2ntel ! 1 1 AUantic City. According to tho New
ork World, Governor Stokes advanced the sug
gestion that urayor and preaching would bo a
better remedy for the evils of trusts and rail
road combinations than the usual laws enacted by
stalo and nation. This was brought out in an
address to a newly ordained class of ministers
While I nin a full believer in passing remedial
legislation," he said, "it has been my experience
that any sort of law will be circumvented by
human ingenuity. What is needed is a higher
bgiiso of honesty and right, which will prevent the
oppression of I ho poor by those in power, and
inculcation of this principle is the business of the
preachers of the country rather than the legisla
tors." THAT nearly 13 per cent of all the gold of the
country is held by the national banks of
Now York is a piece of information vouched for
by a writer of tho Wall Street Journal. This .
writer adds: "It amounts to about 45 per cent of
all tho gold in tho national banks of the United
States. As Now York's proportion of national
bank loans on Jan. 11 was nearly 20 per cent, and
its proportion of national banlCcapital, surplus and
undivided profits was 1G per cent, it appears that
tho percentage of gold in tho New York banks is
very large. But largo as it was on Jan. 11, it was
fitill larger before the recent gold export .move
ment, tho percentage last September having been
52. Tho following table shows the lawful reserve
of tho national banks in New York at four periods
in the last seven years, 000's being omitted in
each column:
Total Legal
Gold. Silver. Specie. Tenders.
Jan. 11, 1905 $173,99G $24,044 $198,040 $55,003
Sept. 6, 1904 220,047 21,191 241,238 46,668
Sept. 30, 1901.... 148,445 13,899 162,354 49,002
Sept. 21, 1898 108,903 5,661 114,565 31,265
SOMEONE proposod in the Nebraska legisla
ture that a state railroad commission be
created, each member thereof to receive $3,000
per year. The Wall Street Journal did not take
kindly to the plan and in an editorial said: "We
have frequently expressed our conviction that
federal regulation of rates by a high-class well
paid commission appointed by the president was
necessary, but think of a state commission elected
by popular vote and composed of $3,000 a year
men, having the power to fix railroad rates! Ne
braska, like Kansas, appears to bo going trust
mad. Ill-considered and extreme action against
the trusts is really worse than no action at all."
THIS Wall Street publication is reminded by
the Des Moines (la.) Register and Leader
that for twenty years Iowa has had a commission
composed of $3,000 a year men" having power to
ilx railway rates. The Register and Leader adds:
And what has there been in Iowa's experience
of twenty years to warrant tho sneer of the Wall
Street Journal? Iowa has had 'less trouble with
her state traffic, with her railway assessments
with securing accommodations, and in every way
than any state in the union, so much so that Iowa
has been the model which Governor LaFolletto
has hold up to Wisconsin from the beginning to
the end of his great campaign. The Wall Street
Journal should ponder a remark made by Governor
Larrabee recently. Governor Larrabeo said that
men are the same whether they be called commis
sioners, judges, or what not. Men are the same
nnn'n" draw, salaries of 3'000 a year or
$o0,000 a year and they are the same whether
they are appointed or elected by popular vote
f.fia u0? ?iero Is together oo much talk
In tho United States about the superiority of $30 -000
men-a superiority that does not exist and
aLn?w Wil eXi8t until there Is sora discovery
made that makes a silver spoon in the mouth an
important element of heredity." m an
T OWA'S experience, according to the Reei
1 and Leader, justifies every state that hc
effective control of Its own railways in s$he
bSEt 3'000men" Poplar vXtne
Register and Leader says "it is largelyXational
experience of Iowa that the demand
reflation is so persistent and so overwhelming
n congress. Iowa fought out the fight long ago
and vindicated our common American democracy
by showing to the world that "a commission elect
ed by popular vote and composed of $3,000 a year
men could be trusted to regulate the most Im
portant interests of the state. They have done
this without confiscating property, and have
brought about peace and fair treatment to all
without Injury to any."
ROM certain facts presented in Mr. Garfield's
own renort. the Philadelphia Record concludes
A. r - . - . , n. i
hat there is such a thing as a beet trust ana mat
its members arc not poverty stricken. The Record
says: "The profit of 2 per cent, which Commis
sioner Garfield finds to be the extent of the gain
of the great beef packers, was not computed on
the capital invested, but on gross business. The
annual business of five of the 4big six' the Na
tional Packing company being excluded amounts
to about $825,000,000; and 2 per cent on this
amount foots up to $16,500,000 a year, or 16 Ms
per cent on $100,000,000, which is the invested
capital of the trust. The investment in refrigera
tor cars amounts to probably $54,000,000, and the
returns from these for mileage alone (17 per cent)
would come to $9,180,000 a year. It would not bo
an unwarranted assumption that rebates paid by
the transportation companies, in the form of de
murrage for terminal facilities (stock yards) and
lor trackage on sidings and 'connecting railways'
amount to another $10,000,000 a year. The total
profits thus shown would come to nearly $36,
600,000 per annum surely a very liberal return
on an investment of $154,000,000."
REFERRING to the Record's remark, the Louis
ville Courier-Journal says: "Undoubtedly one
of the indictments against the beef trust is the
profits it exacts of those forced to buy from it
and the profits it denies to those forced to sell to
it. But another indictment even more serious is
the use to which it puts its vast power in the
methods by which it conducts its business and
throttles honest competition."
A CURIOUS state of affairs is described by a
writer in the Louisville Courier-Journal in
this way: "In a burst of enthusiasm for the fight
of Kansas against the Standard Oil trust the South
Dakota legislature amended its law fixing oil
standards so that Kansas oil could enter the state
at a lower test than any other. It may have been
supposed oy tne members of the legislature thai
tne on renned Dy a state would not blow up,
that it WOUld hfi lfiRo rHofrpaelrnr r Mm iri,
io be blown up by state oil than by trust oj&
that it mattered little whether people were t
up or not so long as the oil of a state tbut n
fighting a trust was favored in business "
was discovered immediately after the 2
adjourned that no Kansas oil could An,i Iw
except from the Standard Oil comnythw w
the trust has not been sendingwerinB of
Kansas oil into South Dakota. erZl n? thn
the test, therefore, amounts toXi J
legislation that the trust has IlglltmS'
A DDRESSING the ChioSs F eS T'
A elation recently, Dn Sd hST' '
according to the Chifc4 rSnC fnr ii ?aS
made a study of chrhl n?w ?-r sixteen
years," laid down ?Sf f ,ntoting rules.
Here are Dr. Rogjresses his thumb on the back
of your hid 7 a" I" UbSa?
2 Thfi110, niVer pre8ses his thumb
the higton who sluices hands wltl, the tins
pair When a man gives vou Ke aoeoaa-
hand, wWch pula shal S'h S rd m'
by watS This eUs ft ft U
oyo at the outside coraor droonw CUts ?n the
possessor is a stranger to 'H!? ov,!: " tho
heard of veracity m "ordta th V,?? has on,y
and sides than at the front and top, the animal
predominates over the intellectual forces.
8. In judging women the essential things to
be observed are the lips, and eyes pay no atten
tion even to powder and rouge in your estimato
upper 4ip like a streak of red is not only cold
hearted, birt clammy.
9. If a woman's eyelid cuts off the eye at tho
of female character. The woman with a thin
corner she is a liar like the man with the cor
responding eyelid.
10. If she has white all the way around her
eye she does not tell the truth.
11. Beware of the person, man or woman,
who does not look you straight in tlie eye. If he
or she examines the wall or the sky or the dog
make up your mind that you are dealing wit
one who is insincere.
12. Courage and force of character are shon
by the person who walks with his head held v la
the air.
NOW that the Dominican treaty has yei Put
away Walter Wellman, Washing'11 corre
spondent for the Chicago Record-Herr9. says it
is pertinent to describe the means bybich that
treaty met. its fate. Mr. Wellman ss: "We are
told many times a day that the trea could not be
ratified because the democrats Wer,yirtually solid
in their opposition to it, and, p' Jne, democrats
have a little more than one-thi of a11 tIlG votes
in the senate, that is suppose0 be an adequate
explanation, but it is not. h eaLy actually
fails because the republic? f the senate, or
enough of them, wanted if0 ,aI1 for thTe P"rPose
of 'teaching Mr. Roosevf a lesson- Instead of
showing their hands Pen opposition, they
quietly induced theirends of the minority to
stand in solid array0 assume, responsibility for
the removal of theecotme visitor within the
senatorial precinc Tnis s not the first time a
majority has use,?. complacent minority to pull
the chestnuts eafJrthe fl for " Probably it
will not be th st time- The treaty could easily
have been rpJed if the rePublican leaders of the
senate hadrSn in earnest in their desire for its
ratification They were not- Tnose that were not
seriouslvpposed to ifc were indifferent. A tacit
bargain?;3 mde wlth Mr- Gorman, the leader of
the V 'r y which he was t0 Plav the role
of Rf us He was t0 line "P his men. Absentee
rej? ml were not t0 be brought back to Wash
in ' Thanks to tho men of his own political
yty, another of President Roosevelt's plans for
b lumgH uus come to naught."
A CABLEGRAM under date of Viborg, Euro
. Pean Russia, March 20, says. "Governor
Miasorodoff was shot and seriously wounded to
rt ay by a boy The assassin, who is about 15 years
ciu obtained an entrance to the governor's office
and fired three times at him, one bullet inflicting
a serious wound and the others slightly injuring
the governor's legs. The governor's clerks and
rSiaJyWere lmable t0 stP the assassin, who
rfi S? street' where, however, he was ar
rested without a struggle. The governor's condi-
at Vt!c,a1, The youth has been identified
knf wlalraar Reinikke. He admits that ho
n "tionists. .He hails from Kurikke parish
n the northwestern part of Finland, but recently
??nnfen Hv.,n? in stockllolm to avoid arrest on
frnn ? lmown revolutionary ideas. He re
f?!l our dW aSo to Finland by way of Tor
Jna ,1 iS?nt Jhree days In Viborg, but declines
Snfp i i S stPPinS Ptoce. Governor Miesoro
o? win?JL ieen most enerSetic in the Russification
?tn?? f'tS113. memorIala have been sent to tho
hi. nlfJE :Wn? for hIs removal on account of
Sit tan! g f(,illeeal methods and the general con
be'm which were pronounced to
C NGMATIpNAL MINISTERS representing
iafci hnll and vious sections of New Eng
nort fnc,rdIS? t0 an Associated Press re
sioner foffnecl,t0 the An board of commis
acceMan l1 a protest against the
John D Li1 W0ard of a SIft of $100,000 from
P?enar?d S??feller; The Petion; which waa
thePclerlfia cmrai cbosen at a meeting of
the SooThS Protests against tthe. acceptance of
pany of wh nn3S,lSa that Standard Oil com
Pany, of which Mr. Rookefeller is the Aead, standi
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