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Cumnt Copies
HARRY PANNURB GORDON, WHO DIED RE
contly In England, declared that $10,000 per
month was necossary for tho necessities of a gen
tleman's life. "You know, of course," added Mr.
Gordon, "if you want luxuries, it costs more."
There are, howover, many men who are known
as gentlemen among thoir acquaintances who
could get along with $1 0,000 per month and havo
oven a few luxuries thrown in for good measure
LEAGUE TO REFUSE TO PAY TAXES IS A
peculiar organization that has grown up in
Paris as a result of tho closing of tho Congrega
tional schools. It is icporteu that several thou
sand people havo enrolled themselves in this
league. Tho intention of tho memhors of this
league is to resist tho payment of taxes on tho
ground that by tho closing of the Congregational
schools tho government encroached on "public liberties."
A NUMBER OF FRENCH DEPUTIES HAVE
agreed to support a bill which provides that
all men and women contemplating matrimony
must produce medical certificates. "While there is
considerable opposition to tho measure, its cham
pions havo become very acuvo in its support and
havo some expectation of enacting tho bill into law.
NEW JERSEY HAS COME TO BE KNOWN AS
tho home of trusts and S. McRoynolds, writ
ing in the September number of the World's Work,
says that tho state derives more than naif of its
income from fees from corporations and taxation
on franchises. Mr. McRoynolds gives an instruc
tive description of tho manner in which these
great concerns take advantage of tho New Jersey
law. Ho says: "The industrial American, whether
ho desires to mine copper in Michigan, to exploit
the Philippines or Porto Rico, to cut lumber in
Now Mexico, to operate a line of steamers on. the
great lakes, to manufacture steel products in Il
linois, or to run a chain of restaurants in New
York, goes to the little city of Trenton, N. J.,
for a charter. So also go the wolves of commerce
with a view to profit on the exchange rather than
to legitimate earnings; so also tho foxes and tho
lynxes of trade, who plan tho disposition of finely
lithographed stock certificates and bonds for 'de
velopment purposes,' which aro intimately asso
ciated with their own private purses."
TT IS POINTED 'OUT BY THIS SAME WRITER
1 that in 189G New Jersey granted 834 char
tors, receiving therefor $75,000 in fees in addition
to an annual tax on all charters in force, which
tax amounted to $717,430. . In 1901 the charters
granted numbored 2,347, the fees amounting to
$560,000, while tho annual franchise tax reached
the enormous sum of $1,628,958. In 1900 tho total
capitalization of the companies incorporated
amounted to $1,296,897,585. In 1901 tho total cap
italization amounted to $2,907,390,530. Mr. Mc
Roynolds points out that tho. revenue derived by
the state from these corporations, exclusive of all
taxes on real and porsonal property, is already 60
per cent of the total revenue of the state, and he
ventures the prediction that at the present rate
in a few years tho citizons will bo relieved of all
state taxes. Some havo even hinted that if tho
people of Now Jersey continue to bo as generous
as they havo been in tho past in framing thoir
laws to suit these great corporation that an an
nual dividend may. at some timo bo distributed
among tho citizons of tho state.
THE ADVANTAGES OF NEW JERSEY LAW,
according to Mr. McRoynolds, is ' bestowed
largely upon the promoters rather than upon tho
rank and file of tho investors who acquire their
stock later. For instance the bonus stock which"
Is usually issued to promote tho preferred stock
is not assessable. A promoter may sell his own
private property to a corporation that ho has been
instrumental in forming. There is no limit to the
amount of bonded indebtedness which a New Jer
sey corporation may assume. Tho law also gives
tho directors of the corporation tho right to
amend by-laws without tho assent of the stock
holders. It places no limit to the life of the char
ters. It provides that every corporation char
tered under tho New Jersey law shall maintain
its principal offlco within the state.
The Commoner.
THE MANNER IN WHICH THE LAW RE
quirlng corporations to maintain their prin
cipal office in Now Jersey is complied with is de
scribed by Mr. McRoynolds in this way: "With
9,500 corporations created by tho state since 1896,
and with tho prospect of increasing thousands
yearly, one would expect that under such a law
office space and clerks would bo at a premium in
tho state. But tho law has given growth to ono of
the queerest freaks in all tho business world.
They aro known as 'corporation agencies' or 'trust
companies,' and probably havo no counterpart
elsewhere. Ono of incso agencies alono will main
tain the 'principal office' of hundreds of corpora
tions at once and comply with every requirement
of tho law. They are in effect enormous book
keeping concerns conducted on the co-operativo
plan by a host of corporations. Massive libraries,
as it wero, of stock books may bo seen there, in
charge of an army of scribps who register and post
the transfers of stock daily that a correct record
may be available for tho inspection of stockhold
ers. Outside, at the entrance, is the stereotyped
legend, 'Principal Offlco of,' etc., with a register of
tho companies represented. These names are
necessarily in small characters, but oven then it
not infrequently happens that tho list threatens to
require more space than there is facade to the
company's buildings, The constant modification
of these lists, necessitated by the creation of new
corporations and tho dissolution of old, has led
to tho invention of an elastic sign, in which sep
arate slabs with the names printed thereon may
be inserted and removed at pleasure, so that tho
catalogue may bo kept constantly up to date.
At the entrance of tho New Jersey Corporations
Agency, in Jersey City are the names of nearly 700
corporations whoso total capital aggregates more
than a billion dollars. The Corporation Trust
company of the same city boasts of more than
1,200 'principal olaces,' with a capitalization of
between $3,000,000,000 and $4,000,000,000. The New
Jersoy Guarantee and Trust company of Camden
has on its doors 770 names."
A CHICAGO JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
startled the eminent attorneys that ap
peared before him in a certain case by his inter
pretation of tho word "between" as found in the
-statutes. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune de
scribes thes incident in this way: The decision
was made in a replevin suit, which originally had
been commenced oefore a Maywood justice, the re
turn on tne summons having been made at 8 a. m.,
an hour at which the defendant could not have
reached tho court unless ho went to the suburb on
the previous evening. "This summons is not legal
becauso it was made returnable at 8. o'clock," an
nounced Justice Kehoo, when the matter was pre
sented to him. "The statute says that summons
must be made returnable between the hours of 8
o'clock and 4 o'clock. Eight o'clock isn't be
tween those hours, and tho return is illegal."
"The statute means to include both those hours,"
objected ono of the attorneys. "That isn't accord
ing to Webster," returned the justice. "I haven't
referred to Webster lately," admitted the attor
ney. "We'd like a continuance to look that uj."
"All right," returned tho justice. "Read your dic
tionary and I'll givo you a couple of days to con
vince yourself that I am right." "Judge Gary
has decided as I have," said the justice later.
"Of course the question can be evaded by making
summons returnable at one minute after 8, or one
minute before 4, but in this case I believe I am
correct"
CABLE DISPATCHES FROM LONDON AN
nounce that W. E. H. Lecky will retire from
the house of commons. Lecky is a noted histor
ian, He is the author of "History of European
Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne." He also
wrote "History of England in the 18th Century "
and "The May of Life." Mr. Lecky has repre
sented Dublin university in tho house since 1896
and his retirement is duo to ill health.
THE MOST INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF
the meaning of the anthracite coal strike is
given in the Outlook by Frank Julian Warne. Ac
cording to Mr. Warne victory by the owners-of
the present strike means a reduction in the income
and the lowering of the standard of living of tho
English-speaking miners toward that of the im
ported laborers. Already the English-speakers
havo been crowded out in the Lehigh and Schuyl
kill districts. Only in the Wyoming do they remain
in force. Yet so numerous are the Slav miners
and so competent, for all their ability to live on 30
cents a day and got rich on $30 a month, that it
is impossible for the English-speakers to win their
battlo for a higher standard without getting ho
Slav to make common cause with them. This is
Vol. a, Nd35.
the' more difficult, for in tho Wyoming district at
least, tho contract miners aro English-speakers
and tho day laborers aro Slavs.
THE DIFFICULT PROBLEM, MR. WARNE
says, has been solved by the united mine
workers. Tho Slavs wero gathered into the union
by the aid of their most intelligent English
speaking leaders. For them the union demands
in the present strike an eight-hour day at tho
present ten-hour pay. For themselves tho English-speaking
miners, fighting to maintain; thei
high standard of living, demand that a ton of coal
be a ton and not 2,800 pounds; that the coal mined
be weighed; that an official representative of the
men shall be present at the weighing; that their
union be recognized, so that they may be 'repre
sented at all times in tho settling of tho many
questions continually arising between them and
their employers. In a word, the operators hav
ing united, the laborers determined to unite, be
causo they knew that disorganized labor could
not maintain itself against organized capital.
(
TT IS FURTHER POINTED OUT BY THIS
J. same writer that if the union cannot bo
maintained the English-speaker with his high
standard and the Slav with his low standard, will
compete against each other for employment, and
the Slav, able and willing to work-for a very low
wage, will win. The Erjglish-speaker will be forced
out of the Wyoming .field as he has been out of tho
Schuylkill and Lehigh, tuough now by virtue of
the union, the Slavs of tne latter fields are fighting
for him. On the other hand tho maintenance of
the union will tend to bring the Slav, as lie be
comes Americanized, up to the higher standard.
Higher standards of living always mean higher
pay. Naturally the operator stands for the lower
standard. And that is why tho operator will not
arbitrate, rie knows that it would be impossible
for a fair-minded arbitrator not to decide against
him, because no man of that kind would conscious
ly render a decision that would lower the standard
of living and consequently depress the whole tone
of life in the mining regions.
THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST FOR NEW JER
sey, Prof. J. B. Smith, has a line orchard in
which he is experimenting with insecticides. Tho
professor is engaged in an experiment with a va
riety of poisons in order to determine the best
method of killing insects that abound on fruit
trees. As a precaution, tho professor caused the
trees to bo placarded in this way: "All the fruit
on these trees is poisoned." Recently a number
of boys made a raid on the trees'. They read the
signs, grinned, and began to clamber into the
branches, but before they had time to pluck, the
poisoned fruit, the professor appeared on the
ground, called the police, and took them into cus
tody. "Didn't you see the signs?" Professor
Smith asked of the boys. "We thought it was a
bluff," was the reply. "Lucky for you you didn't
get a chance to call the bluff," said the professor.
The lads were discharged with a reprimand, and
now it is said that every orchard owner in tho
neighborhood has placed a "poison" placard on
his favorite fruit trees.
THE ENORMOUS BUSINESS DONE BY THE
iron and steel interests of the country is re
vealed in a recent census bulletin. This report
shows a capital of $590,510,484 Invested in this in
dustry Jn tho 669 active establishments. This sum
represents value of plants, but does not include
capital stock of corporations. The value of tho
product is returned at $804,034,918, to produce
which involved an outlay of $11,741,788 for salaries
of officials, clerks, etc.; $120,836t338 for wages;
$32,274,100 for miscellaneous expenses, including
rent, taxes, etc.; and $522,431,701 for materials
used, mill supplies, freight, and fuel. During 1900
there was a decrease of fifty in the number of ac
tive establishments and an increase of $176,845,
640 in capital invested. The average number of
wage earners in 1900 was222,607, an increase of
51,426 since 1890. Of the total capital reported
for active establishments in 1900 Pennsylvania
contributed $231,985,659. The value of the iron
and steel products reported by Pennsylvania in
1900 was $434, 4 r, 200. Of tho total capital in
vested in 1900, Ohiou which ranked second in tho
manufacture of iron and steel, reported $86,477,
552. The value of tho product amounted to $138,
938,256. Illinois had capital invested in this in
dustry in 1900 to the amount of $43,356,239. Tho
value of products in this state amounted to $60,-303,144.
WHILE THE REPUBLICAN PAPERS Off
the north are condemning the dembcrats of
Alabama and North Carolina for barring illiter
ate negroes from participation in political affairs,