The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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VOL. 12, NO. 7
Lincoln, Nebraska, February 23, 1912
WMe Number 579
IS IT "MERE SOUND AND FURY?"
The New York World says: "It is difflctilt to
deal patiently with such a telegram as Mr.
Bryan sent to Representative Henry in respect
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Investigation."
Mr. Bryan's dispatch to Mr. Henry was as
follows: "I regard caucus on 'Money trust' in
vestigation as crisis. Its result will largely
affect our chances in coming campaign. Please
say to any who value my judgment that I am
heartily with you in demand for special com
mittee. There are many objections to investiga
tion by regular committee, but it is enough to
know Wall street prefers regular committee.
jWe can not afford to allow accused parties to
lelect this jury. Success to you. If our party
g afraid to offend the powerful financial in
terests that have fought us since 189 G we can
not expect public confidence."
Reproducing this dispatch, the New York
World says: "All this is mere sound and fury.
ere is no 'crisis' except in respect to Mr.
yan's power to boss the house of representa-
ves, of which ...heis not a member."
Let us summon the New York World itself to
show that Mr; Bryan's charge concerning the
Money trust is not "mere sound and fury."
On the day following Woodrow Wilson's Har-
risburg speech in which he denounced the
Money- trust the New York World said: "Com
pared with the profits of the Money trust, the
earnings of industrial trusts on their invested
capital appear paltry. It is not from oil, steel
and tobacco that the greatest gains come, but
from money changing and the exploitations of
the proceeds of industry.
"As Woodrow Wilson said In his speech at
Harrisburg last night, 'The groat monopoly in
this country is the money monopoly.' "
The New York Times severely criticised
Governor Wilson's speech and the Now York
World in its issue of June 17, 1911, replied to
the Times in the following editorial:
"Our neighbor, the Times, confesses its in
ability to understand what Governor Woodrow
Wilson means by 'the money monopoly.' 'If he
means a monopoly of the various forms of cur
rency,' says the Times, 'whore does it exist, how
is it acquired, how is it exerted and what are the
evils attending it?'
"All of the Times' questions are easily
answered. 'The money monopoly' to which
GoVernor Wilson referred has its headquarters
in Wall street, but its influence extends over the
entire country. It is acquired through the con
trol of banks, trust companies and life insurance
companies. It Is exerted through its power of
life and death over credit, a power which is
given by its control over those vast sums of
x other people's money. Its evils are both
economic and political.
""""' "The same day the Times ingenuously asked
Governor Wilson what he meant by 'the money
monopoly,' the newspapers announced that Mr.
Morgan's Bankers' Trust company had bought
from Mr. Morgan's Equitable Life Assurance
society its holdings in the Mercantile Trust com
pany, and that by this transfer the aggregate
assets of the banks dominated by J. P. Morgan
& Co. exceeded $1,000,000,000. This $1,000,
000,000 is not Mr. Morgan's money, but it is
in the hands of the Morgan interests, which
say who can borrow it and who can not borrow
it, how it shall be used and how it shall not
be used.
Scrambled Statements
Jt would be a useless, if not impossible, task
to tlisintangle the errors that Congressman Dies
has mixed 'together, but it should be noted in
passing that in declaring Mr. Bryan ignorant of
constitutional law, he brings an indictment
against all the democrats who voted for the
Cullop .amendment and all the democrats of
CONTENTS
IS IT "MERE SOUND -AND FURY"
DEMOCRATS WILL NOT SUPPORT A
REACTIONARY
ROOSEVELT AND THE MONEY TRUST
HENRY OF TEXAS MAKING A
GALLANT FIGHT
HOW DID YOUR MEMBER VOTE ON
THE MONEY TRUST
IT WAS A GREAT DAY AND THE
PEOPLE WON
BREAKING DOWN THE BIG ALLIANCE
MR HENRY'S SPEECH ON THE MONEY
TRUST
SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO INTER
FERE WITH THE INITIATIVE
AND REFERENDUM
HOME DEPARTMENT
' NEWS OF THE WEEK
WASHINGTON NEWS
"When Mr. Morgan took over the Equitably
fjcom Thomas F. Ryan, ho paid moro than 2r
500,000 for stock that can legitimately oarn
only $3,514 a year, but what ho really bought
was control over tho Equitablo's $400,000,000
of assets and $80,000,000 of surplus. After this
control was acquired tho statement was mado in
ono of tho financial newspapers that no man
could borrow $1,000,000 in New York, what
ever tho security, if Mr. Morgan objected to his
having it. No doubt this is true, for there aro
few independent bankers anywhere who would
care to incur tho hostility of tho Money trust
that has been built up by tho Morgan-Standard
Oil intorests and their allies.
"The 'money monopoly' controls moro than
money and credit. It controls oil and steel and
railroads and all manner of corporations by
means of interlocking directorates and a well
defined community of interest. Its political
activities, aro as far-reaching as its financial
activities, working through railroad lawyers,
corporation lawyers, country bankers and politi
cal bosses.
"In fact, there has. been, created in Wall
'street what is practically a central bank, more
formidable than tho old United States bank ever
was or could be, wholly irresponsible in its use
of power except as restrained by tho merely
technical provisions of tho banking laws, and
more dangerous politically than a regime of Nick
Biddies such as Jackson crushed.
"Governor Wilson, wo think, could tell tho
Times a great deal about this money monopoly
if it is really Ignorant. Unless common report
is mistaken, the governor is already on tho
monopoly's blacklist, and it has decided that ho
would not be a proper candidate for president
of the United States."
the house EXCEPT MR. DIES AND HIS
TWELVE FOLLOWERS, voted as Mr. Bryan
would have voted. In the second place, in de
claring that he preferred to follow Mr. Clark
and Mr. Underwood instead of Mr. Bryan, he
overlooked the fact that both the speaker and
the gentleman from Alabama voted for the Cul
lop amendment.
But Mr. Dies' statements, like the eggs
described by the waiter, "look better scrambled."
A GIANT FALLEN
The death of Gen. James B. Weaver, of Col
fax, la., removes one of the giants of the poli
tical forest. Ho represented all that is highest
in citizenship and noblest in manhood. For
three score years almost he was a warrior, fight
ing the battles of the common people. His
strong body, his active mind and his great
heart all were at the service of his fellows.
He was a pioneer in tho reforms which are now
marching on to victory and his last days were
gladdened by a consciousness that he had not
labored in vain. Happy man to have lived to seo
the harvest ripening in the field in which he
toiled so faithfully. He was moro than an ex
emplary citizen; he was a man of the purest
and most exalted type. In every relation of
life he played his part with fidelity. He did not
amass wealth, .but he left his family what money
can not buy a spotless name and a secure
place in tho hearts of his countrymen. The
Commoner tenders its sympathy to tho family
and congratulates them that death can not rob
them of the priceless memory of a splendid life,
fruitful to the last, and full of honors.
An Overburdened Statesman
The Associated Press sends out a dispatch
from Washington describing a speech made by
Congressman Dies of Texas In which the said
congressman, after annihilating Mr. Bryan
(again) proceeds to defend the action of tho
"immortal thirteen" democrats who voted with
the stand-pat republicans against publicity as to
recommendations. It is pathetic enough to seo
the burden of protecting the constitution fall so
heavily upon these few democrats (and their
stand-pat republican allies) but it is really
heart-rending to watch the gentleman from
Texas as he staggers along the rocky road bear
ing upon his shoulders tho organic law of tho
nation while his colleagues from Texas seem
entirely oblivious of the menace which threatens
constitutional government in the Western
Hemisphere.
Mr. Dies can now appreciate Kipling's verses
on "Tho White Man's Burden." What an heroic
picture ho presents, his bent figure silhouetted
against the sky. But think of the consolation he
must find in the thought that he monopolizes the
constitutional Intelligence of a whole state aye
almost of an entire party! It makes one shud
der to think what .would happen what "wreck
of shores and crash of worlds" if he should
break down under the strain and the constitu
tion, with no defender loft, should go to pieces
before tho clamor of the "mob" for more light.
But perish the thought!
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