CONCERNING MEN AND MATTERS
Attorney General Wickersham's activ
ity in prosecuting the criminal trusts re
minds us greatly of the grist mill to
which the little boy took the family grist.
Growing tired of the slowness with which
his corn was being ground the boy com
plained: "I could eat the meal faster than
your old mill grinds it." "How long
could you keep it up?" asked the miller.
"Till I starved to death," retorted the
boy. Wickershain is prosecuting the
trusts at a rate that threatens to compel
them to die of old age.
We can imagine that Gompers Mitch
ell and Morrison are not worrying a bit
over the outrageous rulings of Judge ,
Wright. Wright may sentence them to t
jail again for contempt, but certainly no
superior court will affirm the Wright
proceedings. One thing is sure, if Judge
Wright were to commit to the District of
Columbia jail all who have an utter con
tempt for him and his court, the taxpay
ers of the District would be mulcted in
enormous sums to feed the prisoners.
Of all the fool propositions ever put
forward in the name of organized labor,
the proposition to call a general strike on '
the day the McNamara brothers are put
to trial is the most foolish. Indeed, it
is really a crime to suggest such a thing.
What good would it do the accused if two
million men quit work, entailing suffer
ing upon themselves and the millions de
pendent upon them for bread and butter?
How would it help the McNamaras for
the wives and little ones of union men to
starve and freeze while fathers struck?
And what about the injury that would be
inflicted upon fair and liberal em
ployers? On more than one occasion we
have remarked, and we repeat it now, or
ganized labor has suffered more from the
damphoolishness of its self-constituted
leaders than it ever lias from the aggres
sions of capital.
At the Fremont convention Chairman
Mike Harrington charged that one
would-be candidate for railway commis
sioner was too closely associated with the
railroad interests. Pressed to be more
specific Chairman Harrington pointed to
C. E. Harman of Holdrege and said,
"thou art the man," or words to that ef
fect. After looking the matter up with
some care Will Maupin's Weekly finds
that about all Chairman Harrington had
to base his charge upon is that Mr. Har
man is a distant relative of Edson Rich,
one of the Union Pacific's able attorneys.
If Mr. Harman is to be barre from office
because he happens to be related to a rail
road employe, then the editor of this
newspaper must give up all of his politi
cal ambitions. At present he has a broth
er-in-law and a nephew in the railroad
service, and a couple of years ago he had
four brothers-in-law and a nephew in the
railroad service. With all due respect to
our good friend, Mike Harrington, we
greatly fear he allowed his tongue to get
the better of his judgment.
The death of C. C. Husted, which oc
curred a couple of weeks ago, removed
from the scene of action a man of parts.
Though working in an humble capacity
in the public service, he gave to his work
that painstaking care and attention that
made him invaluable, so much so, in fact
that changing administrations found him
at the same old desk in the executive of
fices of the state. Quiet and unassuming,
Tie was in reality one of the best informed
men in this section. A linguist of ability,
an expert accountant, and possessed of a
encyclopedia of state history and a com
pendium of information. It was the privi
lege of this editor to be more or less inti
mately associated with Mr. Husted for
several years, and the memory of that as
sociation and friendship will be cherished
by us through all the years that may
come.
While the Fremont convention was
adopting a platform plank advocating
the service pension, the Lincoln conven
tion was contenting itself with asking
old soldiers to stand up and be counted.
We fully recognize the fact that pension
planks in platforms are meant to be vote
catchers, but what we fail to understand
is how it came about that the g. o. p.
managers and platform makers over
looked it this time.
With tariff reduction that really means,
something staring the tariff beneficiaries;
in the face, they have set their subsidized!
press to again talking about our "balamce
of trade." To date not one of thenx lias;
dared undertake the task of explaining
just what is meant by "balance of trader.''
They say that last year we sold Europe
$600,000,000 more of goods than we
bought from Europe, and this amounait
they call the "balance of trade" in ouiir
favor. That "balance of trade" in our
favor was been running from $250,000,
000 to $600,000,000 a year for the last
twelve or fifteen years, every year show
ing a favorable "balance." Call it $350,
000,000 a year for the last ten years
$3,500,000,000 ! Will some advocate of a
prohibitive and extortionate tariff please
tell us what has become of the money? It
was paid to us in commodities, for that
would wipe out the "balance of trade."
What was it paid in if not in money? And
if in money, where's the money? And if
Ave annually export $600,000,000 more
than we buy, and fail to get the money
for it, in the name of heaven how long
will it be ere our "balance of trade"
thrusts every last one of us into the poor
house? That "balance of trade" fiction
and "home market" fallacy has been de
ceiving people for so many years on end
that there is grave fear it will continue
indefinitely. ' . ,
Whatever else may be said of Detective
Burns it will be admitted that he is wise
in his selection of a press agent. Ever
since the arrest and abduction of the Mc
Namaras from Indiana, Burns has had
his name and fame, together with his side
of the McNamara case, exploited in news
papers and magazines from one end of the
land to the other. If ever there was a
clear case of a concerted attempt to pre
judge a case and secure a conviction be
fore the court of public opinion in ad
vance of a legal trial, this McNamara
ase certainly supplies it. The activity
of the Burns press bureau is one of the
strongest evidences, in our humble
opinion, of a "plant" and a cooked up
scheme to railroad the McNamaras to the
gallows in order to cast a fatal stigma
upon trades unionism.
With American citizens wearing knee
breeches at the coronation of a king ; with
a New York millionaire playing on a
$120,000 pipe organ in his castle while
hundreds of starving men fight for a
place in the bread line; with girls work
ing in department stores for $4 . 50 a
week in order that the proprietors when
they die may bequeath millions to found
museums; with the biggest church cor
poration in the world piling up millions
from rents of foul and unsafe tenements ;
with one wage earner in every seven out
of work all the time and more than that
most of the time, while giant trusts make
fortunes for magnates to give in ostenta
tious charity and philanthropy with all
these conditions staring us in the face,,
it does seem strange that about all our
great daily newspapers can find to print,
and discuss is automobile roads, lot lines,,
high society affairs and police court;
items.
Mr. Guggenheim that is the head'
push of the Guggenheims threatens to
pick up the Guggenheim millions and hie
to some other land. The very threat it
self makes us feel faint. But Guggen
heim will not. All he can take with him
is the income from his properties, and he
is not entitled even to that. Most of his
property is watered stock, which is a tax:
upon the people. Some of these days the
community will proceed to take its full
share of community made values, and