t '
b
-1
V
' 1
I'
The Commoner.
2:
f
!
i
.-
L
sr
R.
iv
r
flIIIO TKISMENDOUS POWER OF THE CON
TRIBUTORS TO REPUBLICAN
CAMPAIGN FUNDS
(Dos Moines Register and Leader, Rep.)
Secretary Shaw and Congressman Vreoland,.
"Chairman of the house committee on banking
and curroncy, Indulged In a joint debate over
th6 central bank before the Now York City Re
publican club at their luncheon Saturday.
It Is not so important what they said concern
ing a central bank, although they presented
vlgorduB arguments 'pro and con, as it is that
Secretary Shaw again took occasion to point out
tlio tromendous power of Senator Aldrich, and
to-remark on its "affiliations." Secretary' Shaw
will not bo believed in Iowa to be an alarmist
ovor Ufa threat of trusts, nor will it be easily
credited that ho has suddenly taken up the
gago againBt Wall Street. What ho says is not
from the standpoint of Insurgency.
After making several references to the great,
wiso and astute mail who bestrides the senate,
Socrotary Shaw said:
"Wo now have a commission headed by this
great man, and wo aro told that he wants a
central bank. Ills report is not yet out, but wo
have no doubt as to what it will be, nor need
any onq, If ho will consider who Is the chairman
of tho" sonato committeo on finance and what
are Us affiliations."
Now what did Socrotary Shaw mean when
ho said no one need bo in doubt if he would
consider that tho man In charge is Senator Aid
rich, and then look at his "affiliations?" Tho
answer is easily got at for ho gives it himself.
Tho stool trust and oil trust want a central baifk,
and Senator Aldrich is their spokesman. Hero
aro a fow scattored sentences:
''Do you know any Important city In tho
United States where tho Standard Oil company
does not own ono or more banks, or wlioTe- tho
interests that control tho United States, steel
corporation do not own likewise?
"I bollovo that they could afford to pay the
debt of tho United States as tho price of the
charter.
"What did they pay the other day for the
Equitable Life?' What was the worth of the
$600,000,000 or so of assets which they got
through tho control of $100,000 stock with a
dividend limited to 7 per cent? Was It $9,000,
000 I forget tho exact amount.
"Now I am going to assume for the time being
that it is a slander although some people be
lieve it that tho United States steel interests
swiped tho Tennessee Coal and Iron company.
I will aasume that they did not, but If they had
a central bank thoy certainly could.
"Morse said the other day and' rightly that
tho affiliated banks of Now York could declare
that any socurity whatever was not good as
collateral. That waB rio more than the truth.
And finally: "These interests can fix the price
of every product we have. If you are in New
Orleans and want to borrow thoy can say wheth
er cotton shall be seven cents or. whether it shall
go to ten or fifteen cents, according as they are
on tho bear or bull side of the market."
It is not so important whether this connection
between tho Standard Oil and steel trusts and
tho proposed central bank can be established
as definitely as Secretary Shaw assumes; there
are-many able men who will dispute with him as
, o that. But It is important that the secretary "
.cypresses his own belief as to the connection
.between "the leader of the senate" and tho
.great trusts, and it is important that it is Sec-
' .retary Shaw who tells us what these trusts are
in position to do and have already done.
MORGANJZBD PLUTOCRACY
The life insurance scandals, with tho result
ing investigation and legislation, checked the
.development pf one-man power in the control
.and exploitation of tho groat New York.com
.panies. If it was dangerous to permit reckless
jflnanc ers to use the resources of these cbrpora
tldns in their own daring adventures, as it cer-
thinly waB, there can bo no doubt that one
.wan'B dominant influence in the wider field of
jbauklng, transportation and industry as well as
in insurance is even moro to be feared
Stock gambling was at tho bottom of the
fight between Ryan and Harriman for tho con
trol of tho Equitable They wanted to use Us
. accumulated millionsnn their private enterprises
They coveted its rich and persistent revenues'
- tA splendid fund devoted to safeguarding the
welfare of hundreds of thousands of homes was
lin their oyes of uso primarily in promoting selfish
ends and in extending personal power
ii,Zriie-.ono man idea was" responsible also for the
Moot o the Metropolitan Traction system for tho
. gigantic Combine. of all the local transportation
facilities in Manhattan, for the millions of wa
tered securities that have been dumped upon
tho public, for the accompanying inefficiency of
service and for the bankruptcies and receiver
ships which seem to have no end. As in the
case of tho contest over the Equitable, the Ryan
coterie acted here in complete defiance of public
rights and with a greed which has had few
parallels. Such safeguards as were supposed to
have been thrown about the interests of the peo
ple proved to be almost valueless. What was
not accomplished by mere might was made easy
by the acts of dummy directors and other con
federates. In the face of these impressive examples of
the ruthlessness of one-man power there has
grown of lato even, a greater personal dominion
of the financial world. By purchase, by com
bination and by community of interest there is
now a J. P. Morgaii power which, embracing
banking and trust, insurance, industrial and
transportation companies, controls or influences
capital amouting to more than six thousand
millions of dollars. It is not necessary to say
that this power is abused to maintain the asser
tion that its exercise is altogether too great a
responsibility for any individual, no matter how
good or how able. Conservatively estimated,
with no account of corporations in which this
one man is only moderately or sympathetically
interested and with no reference to the four
Morgan banking houses of New York, Lpndon,
Paris and Philadelphia, the principal Morganized
or partly Morganized institutions to date are as
follows:
Life Insurance Companies
Assets
Equitable Life Assurance Society. .$462,000,000
New York Life-Insurance Co 557,000,000
$1,019,000,000
Banks and Trust Companies
" Rgsoiitppr
First National Bank ". . . . $139,600 000
National Bank of Commerce. .... 226.500J000
Mercantile Trust Company. . , . . .' 68,475,000
Equitable Trust Company 63,800,000
Guaranty Trust 'Company 88,960,000
Astor Trust Company 15,200,000
Bankers' Trust Company. ...... k . . 53,900,000
Chase National Bank. . . .-.v. .....; -107,280,000
, Mechanics' National Bank. ....... 51 360,000
National Copper Bank 40300,000
Liberty National Bank 24,700,000
Fifth Avenue Trust Company. . . . .- 19,100000
Standard Trust Company... ..... 18,450,000
$917,625,000
Industrials
Stocks. Bonds.
U. S.Steel Corp'n. .$868,809,000 $593,231,000
Haggin-Morgan Pe
ruvian Cop'r Mines 25,000,000
United Dry Goods. . 51,000 000
Inter. Harvester Co. 120,000)000 ,
$1,064,809,000 $593,231,000
1,064,809,000
o m , , m $1,658,040,000
Railroad and Transportation Companies
Stocks. Bonds
Southern Railway.. $179,900 000 $228,701000
Inter. Mer. Marine. 120,000',000 72,684000
Northern Pacific.... 247,905,000 282,499000
Great Northern.... 27f,129,000 97 955000
Reading Co.. 140,000,000 106 654'oob
Cen. R. R. of N. J. 27,436,000 52;85l'oOO
Lehigh Valley R. It. 40441,000 81,639'boo "
N. Y.N.H. &H... 100,000,000 56 849 000
Boston & Maine. . 31394,000 30,373000.
Hocking Valley Ry. 26',000,000 19 912 000
Chl..G. W. R. R..v "57,015,000 28 000000
N. Y O. &. W. R. 58,113,000 27,173 000
Hudson-& Man B0000,000 57 920000
- . ', ' $1,3,53,333,000 $1,143,210,000
' ; ;; " 1,353,333,000
' . ' $2,496,543,000.
- Miscellaneous Companies
Angelo-Amerlcan Nitrate Syndicate
In Chill ".,.. $12 on Ann'
North American Company. . '. '.'.'.,'. 29)779000
n i , $42,279,000
Recapitulation
Railroads, etc o 4nfi - iQ nAA
Industrlnlq t4J)b,o43,000
Banks g? Ii058,040,000
panics, etc -. . . . 917 62 ftnn
Life Insurance Companies. . .'. . .i bio'oon nnn
Miscellaneous Companies ....... 42,27900
"' Nnn0!!? m "' ' ' '" V1?G33,487,000
Not all of theso companies vara under the
VOLtfME 10; NUMBER 21
jurisdiction of the state of New York, but tho
stock exchange where, in the guise of the money
trust, they operate always daringly and some
times disastrously, is clearly within the control
of that commonwealth and may be brought with
in its regulating influence .whenever the repre
sentatives of the people shall so elect.
A money trust is likely not only to make com
mon cause with all other trusts but it may be
tempted to subjugate business and industry in
many branches. Dictating interest rates, it can
make money cheap or dear. Controlling huge re
sources, it can, if it will, interfere with the nat
ural course of markets and of distribution man
ipulate bank reserves, establish confidence or
destroy it, encourage new enterprises "or blast
them, and by iricious assaults upon credit create
panic among the people and menace the govern
ment itself. Good, times orchard times, pros
perity or ruin, inflation or contraction, for many
people, all lie in the hollow of Its plutocratic
hand. Where shall this Mcrganizing end?
While the money trust is in part to blame for
unchecked stock-manufacturing and stock-gambling,
it is probable that ttie money trust exists
chiefly on account of the possibilities that lie In
the highly productive orgies of Wall Street. That
is the state upon which 'the latest expression of
one-man power finds4its mqst alluring activities.
If the special privileges which the law has thrown
about the stock exchange were repealed; if gam
bling there and usury there were treated as they
are elsewhre; if wash sales and' other dishonest
tricks by brokers were punished, and if banks
subject to state control were held to a stricter
account for their misuse of depositors' money,
even the money trust, bowing to the will of one
far-seeing and far-reaching man, would be shorn
of much of its capacity for mischief.
To these ends -Governor Hughes can contribute
powerfully by urging upon the legislature the
adoption of the alternative recommendation .of
the Wall Street commission that the stock ex
change be incorporated and subjected to- state
authority and supervision. With state power
asserted, one-man power must decline. With
state supervision in force, the more manifest
evils of stock gambling, stock watering and the
defenses -which have, been thrown, about them
must disappear. t
The Morganized plutocracy ;presumesuipon the
indifference and the inefficiency ;oftthelstatoi' It
undertakes to dictate in finance, in "industry, and
m government. To meet and .defeat this- assump
tion there must be an impressive assertion of
popular authority, so energetic as to command
respect and so just and wise as to disarm reason
able criticism.
t
Ah
a
?'
f vc .'ka
. r. "ew
'&k&W
"ILLINOIS" TO BATE
From thy legislature, bollintr.
Illinois, Illinois v ." "&'
- ,"'' -vuuivu l.H31jr LUlilUg.v- ,. ij.;
unnois, Illinois,
uomes an odor on the breeze 1 ' SNF-"
maiting oia campaigners sneeze,
With suggestions such as these:
T1 "Buy and buy, buy and buyU'
With suggestions such as these: '
"Buy and buy!"
When you heard your country "knockinS&w
With insinuations shocking. - V S9
Illinois, Illinois: -. r
When the press, and pulpit, too, 'fc.V '
S??nAe? WaTnines loud and true: ? v
Whod have thought so soon you'dirueV
u ,i y and buy buy and buy?" ' i
Who d have thought so soon you'd rue'
"Buy and buy?" ' .,
Not without the caucus gory, ';fi
- n ,A1"UU1H ."nnois, - ,--
Could be writ the nasty storvi Jy-
Tll-1-. Vlii . V .-
JIMIlllIK I MlflAfn T , jt-
r Looking back o'er recent years -'' " '
The corruntins "hnDO ol " .. . . k
Who afar the "Interests" hears';
'-.
M
'z'tA
IT)'., J . UCU,JBI "L. '
1 , ujr 1- ouy Duy and buy!"w,;w
v W.h0 "far tne "interests" hears, Z&
Buy and buy." -vv r '
G. A. Powles, In Chicago Rscord-Heraldt- '
saysUthat ltthliHeftnIfderS. ?f the ministration
says mat it will take at least another vpnr to
dec de whether the tariff law is good ov bad
' Sd' Slyt'hehlaw-eflClarie8 f tecUonbS":
emeu uiat the law was good-when thev nife-
pared Tthe schedules and the coMumer?X0Id
the law was-bad as-soon .as they read It The