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6
The Commoner.
VOLUME 8, 'NUMBER. 18
'(
But at $125 a sharo thoro will bo a rush to
buy. Tho prlco would naturally climb. It la
not unlikely that under tho recapitalization
Bchomo tho Standard Oil will soil at $200 within
a Bhort tlmo. Thus tho valuo of tho holdings
of tho Rockefellers and other big owners of
shares would enormously increase without tho
oxpondituro of a cont on their part.
"Tho Standard Oil company," said tho man
reforred to, "owns Investments worth more than
$000,000,000. It omploys 65,000 men. It
owns 85,000 miles of plpo lines, 100 miles of
which aro within tho limits of greater New
York.
"It owns seventy ocean steamers and 150
bargos and smaller steamers. It operates 10,000
cars in Amorica arid 2,000 tank cars abroad.
It has stprago tanks with a capacity of 82,000,
000 barrels. It Is now expending $70,000,000
on tho Constable Hook torminals. A capitaliza
tion of $500,000,000 on a concern of this mag
nitude would bo small." Deuvor News.
rei
STUDY PUBLIC QUESTIONS
Henry George, Jr., writes: "Beset on every
hand by privilego, at no time in our national
history havo tho pcoplo of tho republic had
more need of tho clear thought precedont to
right action than in this presidential year of
1908. Nor should wo wait until nominations
by national conventions turn tho country into
innumerable warring political camps, for
calm thought is not tho offspring of political
passion. Two fruits of tho present regime of
privilege aro tho trusts and political usurpations.
These aro treated with admirable persplcuous
ness, force and fullness by Mr. Franklin Pierce,
of tho New York bar, in two recent books, one,
'Tho Tariff and tho Trusts,' (Tho Macmillan
company, ,Now York, publishers) and tho other,
'Federal Usurpation,' (D. Appleton & Co., New
York, publishers.) These two books should be
read togother, and since the usurpations of gov
ernment proceed largely from tho tariff, which,
by its extortion of hundreds of millions, if not
billions, from the hard earnings of tlie masses,
litis reduced them to an ignorance or confusion
of oxact conditions as well as of their rights',
the tariff book should bo taken up first. Chap
ters tlireo to seven, inclusive, will bo recom
mondod,, insoniuch as they cover the topics:
American and English Shipping,' 'Protective
Tariffs and Public Virtue,' 'A Talk with Man
ufacturers,' A Talk with Laborers,' and1 'A Talk
with Farmers.' But the second chapter, en
titled: 'The Trust Resulting from the Protective
Tariff and Leading to Socialism,' is the crux
of tho book; and within its forty-two pages is
packed an array of facts that can leave little
doubt in reason; and must prove-a very arsenal
for argument with -the benighted. 'Since I was
queen,' said Elizabeth in the sixteenth century,
yet never did I put my pen to any grant but
that upon pretext and semblance made unto
mo that it was both good and beneficial in gen
eral though a private profit to some of my
ancient servants who had deserved well ' This
was when Bhe had granted patents to her favor
ites for the exclusive sale by each of them of
the commodity mentioned in his patent; as for
-STrn'n10111 the makinS d 'sale o?
gold braid when that was in extensive use in all
court apparel. And so 'upon pretext and sem
blance made unto' the American people 'that
it was both good and beneficial in general though
a private profit to' particular manufacturers,
who nevertheless would in consequenco pay
??iV?g?S, ?. thGir omPloyeB, have tho years of
tariff legislation ensued. Mr. Blaine, in hia
Twenty Years of Congress,' said: 'Protection
in the perfection of its design does not 'invite
competition from abroad, but is based on the
contrary principle that competition at homo will
always prevent monopoly on tho part of tho
capitalists, assure good wages to the laboring
man and defend the consumers against the evU
of extortion.' And an utterance of Mr. Andrew
Carnegie in the 'American Manufacturer,' in
1884, is quoted, to-wit: 'We are tho croat,,
of the tariff and if ever the "steel mamSurers
hero attempt to control or have any general
unders anding among them, the tariff would
not exist ono session of congress.' Tlmo
proved how gross these utterance were Com
petition from without being barred by the tZ
combination has been sot up wfth in the country
with Mr. Carnegie's steel trust loadlnir all n
rest. And yet there is no lessonlne nf Jtf
Slur' i nHthe C0Utrary' tK highest
tariff law the country over suffered, and as n
consequence the greatest number of manufac
turing combinations in our historv ??,?
the tariff, and outside comStlUouldmSh
these domestic combinations, induce domeifcic
compotition, reduce tho price of products to a
natural basis and make an increased demand for
labor, thus raising its price or wages. That
old preacher In tho revolutionary period, Peter
Muhlenberg, astounded his congregation by Cast
ing off his surplice and revealing a continental
uniform, declaring: 'There is a tlmo for all
things a time to preach and a time to pray;
but there is also a time to fight and that time
has como!' Mr. Pierce recites that incident
to tho end that the hour has come for action
not only against tho tariff iniquities, but also
against the usurpations in every direction grow
ing, in largo part, out of them. The title of the
second book, 'Federal Usurpation,' is really nar
rower than its contents, for, besides dealing
with tho usurpations of the three co-ordinating
departments of the federal government execu
tive, legislative and judicial, the latter fast
crystalizing into the absolute power it treats
in the ninth chapter of the centralizing move
ment in the states movements that will shock
and bewilder him who beholds for the first
timo tho mass of facts thus comprehensively
arrayed. This alone might be pessimistic in its
effect on the mind. But Mr. Pierce, on tho con
trary,, is an intense optimist. His final chap
tor 'How to Restore the Democratic Republic
vibrates with hope. His remedy in the main
is the application of that first and last principle
of democracy the destruction of special privi
leges. Further than that he -would elect United
States senators by. the people, limit the powers
of congress and still more restrict those of the
senate, institute the referendum and bring about
other things, for particulars of which I shall
direct the reading of the book itself."
TOBACCO
"Tobacco," a publication Issued in tho in
terest of the tobacco trado, and published in
New York prints this editorial:
Manifestly more in sorrow than in anger,
the great commoner, William Jennings Bryan,
was some months ago constrained to deplore tho
fact that some of the great daily newspapers, of
New York were betraying the interests of the
people because of the slavish subserviency upon
the part of the newspapers' to the predatory
While no papers were specifically .mentioned
by name, tho cap seems to have fitted tho New
York World and one other publication more
closely than any of the rest. The second pub
lication ignored the matter altogether, but some
body in the World office seems to have been
seriously disturbed by Colonel Bryan's plain
speaking.
His just characterization of newspaper ser
vility to the trusts seems to have bitterly rankled
in the breasts of some of the editorial writers
of tho World, and as a consequence from that
day to this the World has lost no opportunity
to launch a blow at William Jennings Bryan
One morning it raay hammer him, bludgeon
like, with a double-headed editorial, and the
next it may seek to impale upon the rapier-like
point of a sarcastic paragraph.
In, ,Ufmea2tim? tue NeDraska statesman
has paid little attention to the World's contin
uous attacks, In spite of the fact that the World
itself has during the past three months fur
nished, the most complete and ample justifica
tion for the criticism at which it took offense bv
its attitude of servile submission to the tobacco
trust the trust which Theodore Roosevelt E
ago characterized as the worst of all the tt
The suit of the United States governmeni
against the tobacco trust has been on trial nlno
png weeks, the hearings were held within a
little more than a stone's throw of ho World
office, and many of the disclosures have been
of a most picturesque and sensational character
Under ordinary circumstances, that is had
t been a bank or a minor insurance comply"
that had been placed on trial by the covernSt
-the revelations of rascality ufa came outXr
ing tho trial would have been accorded imSiv
columns of space in tho World from Saf to-day
But It was tho tobacco trust that was on
trial, and so the World found it convenient tl
ignore the proceedings, except upon such rare
occasions as something could bo found in the
evidence that could bo twisted and contorted
tSbacc1 tnuTr On ?h aPPeaT he
ocsso sr?heocsr0sf g;
World at those.times, readthougSl hadS?
carefully edited and amended at tobacco trust
headquarters, before being put into print.
It would be useless for the World to' assert
that reports of tho trial of the tobacco trust
were crowded out by more important news, for
the simple fact that on many days while tho
trial was in progress in New York, there was an
actual dearth of news, and the World was com
pelled to pad out trivial and commonplace oc
currences to great length in order to fill its
columns.
But no sooner is the taking of testimony
in the case temporarily at an end in New York
than the World find that it has plenty of space
in its news columns to devot to a statement
issued by the tobacco trust in its own defense,
and which it may be incidentally remarked is
a tissue of misrepresentation to use no harsher
term from beginning to end.
In other words it would seem to be the set
tled policy of the World to allow real news of
a character that would prove vitally interest
ing to many of its readers to be crowded out
of its columns so long as there is the slightest
possibility that such news might prove distaste
ful to the tobacco trust; while on the other
hand the World will accord the most ample
space to any matter to which the tobacco trust
desires to give publicity, regardless of whether
It be news, whether it be true, or whether it
be, of the slightest interest to the World's hun
dreds of thousands of readers. Editorial in
publication called "Tobacco."
"TAINTED NEWS"
The following is from the Colliers Weekly
of April 18: .
The mystery as to who is paying for the
press notices favorable to the Aldrich currency
bill grows.1 Ridsdale of Wilkesbarre and Whit
craft of Washington have professed utter ignor
ance of the source of the funds used by them to
reward correspondents who wedge into their
columns opinions designed to help the bill
through congress, and their power td direct pub
lic opinion has been hurt by undue publicity.
But the campaign has not flagged. Now the
headquarters of the crusaders has been shifted
to Philadelphia, and a certain elusive "Key
stone News Bureau" has taken up the, work.
Following close on the publication, of . the
brief article in Collier's .about Mr. Ri'dsdale-'s
enterprise, the Detroit Journal publfcfiea ttio
following in its editorial columns:
"The incident narrated in Collier's is sin
ister. Frankly, we were inclined to question
the accuracy and the motive of the correspondent
who made the expose. However, corroborative
evidence came with startling suddenness and
c2nlf ,S011, 0n the same day that this number
of Collier s appeared on the news-stands, a com
munication addressed 'Editor Detroit Journal'
reached thisoflice. Enclos.ed was a typewritten
letter and a return postal. It was signed by
the Keystone News Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa.'
There was this candid and attractive preface
" 'Editor Will you kindly let usnow, on
enclosed postal, if you favor the Aldrich emer
gency currency bill and also if you can use the
appended article and the date of publication9'
"Here is an extract from 'the appended
article : .
' 'Washington, D. C, March There is com
ing now from a quite unexpected source support
of the Aldrich emergency currency bill which is
expected by those who favor it to win it many
votes in the house. Leading labor union men
throughout the country, now that they realize
how many workmen are idle and how little pros
peqt of employment there is during the next sev
eral months, say that some financial measure is
imperative, and that as the Aldrich bill is the
pSSnSSfii611 iS a.t11 likely t0 Pass tlley are
strongly in favor of it. Representatives of the
;trmlonf i1lt,ere?ts11Iu the llouse Have been
i nJff1?18 feeling durinS the last few
Jna !t ,s expected that, irrespective of
the biir consequence be in favor of-
tho Tn!l?rJ' ?e. 'Keystone News Bureau' asks
""? m j0i? with U In threatening the
S0, with starvation if he does not in-
t thPS?J?fe PaXage ?J the Aldrich bI- What
is the Keystone News Bureau?' Has it and 'Mr.
?i?l0whe identiCal wr and a common
Sinted n'ewsT" G emanateS tMs highly exp.ensive
,iWhait,is thx0 ''Keystone News Bureau," in
deed, and in what secret spot does it hide? In
nvnfnn,f17fI)iai)er mces of Philadelphia there is
n .gn?i f n,is listed eIther in the city directory .
oi the telephone directory. Men most-familiar
t&Z
aau:'!-ifg
