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a long ea voyage, while a transcontinental line
owned and operated by the gra ou?
..-.,... i.i - wau ml throuch rates on
overy thing. There are other reasons besides too
reduction of through rates to justify a cawl-it
would be an inexcusable expense to build it lor
that purpose alone.
A plan for public ownership, like that pre
sented by The Commoner, which contemplates tno
federal ownership of trunk lines and the state
ownership of the net work of local railroads, gives
the jH-oplc of both state and nation the means or
protecting themselves against the extortion and
discriminations practiced by the railroads, mo
plan can be adcrted in whole or in part whenever
public necessities require. Today the government
udopts it in Panama, tomorrow Kansas may adopt
it in her light against the oil trust. Pennsylvania
could draw the fa-.gs of tho anthracite coal trust
in short order by building a state road connect
ing the coal fields with Philadelphia or some other
distributing point. Other illustrations suggest
themselves but enough has been said tc show that
the people are more powerful than the corpora
tions whenever they see Qt to use their reserve
powers.
JJJ
"Frenzied Finance" In Insurance
On another page will be found a news item in
rogard to the Equitable Life Insurance company's
affairs. It seems that President James W. Alex
ander and nearly all the heads of departments
joined in a request to James H. Hyde, tho
vlco president and owner of a controlling interest
In tho stock of the company, demanding his resig
nation and such a change in the rules of the cor
poration as will permit the policy holders to have
a voice in the election of directors. It seems that
young Hyde, inheriting the stock of his father with
out his father's good sense, has been engaging in
speculation schemes and leading a frivolous life
to the embarrassment of thoso who are identified
with the management of the company, and these
men declare they would resign if the control was
not taken out of Mr. Hyde's hands. Mr. Alexan
der and his associates also demanded the retire
ment of Jacob Schiff because he has used his posi
tion to make tho company ouy twenty-two million
dollars worth of bonds of a Wall street firm with,
which Mr. Schiff is connected.
"Frenzied Finance" is getting a good deal of
airing now days and the sober judgment of men
liko Mr. Alexander can discern a day oi settlement
if a change is not made in tho policy of the Equit
able. It is a heroic stop and the fact that tho
men who take it place their high salaried positions
in tho balanco shows how serious has been Mr.
Hyde's offonse3. All these exposure are doing
good; they are awakening the country to the iniqui
ties of Wall street and following the awakening
will como reform. It seems that the democrats,
instead of overstating the case, have scarcely been
severe enough in their condemnation or tho meth
ods of tho Wall street speculators, exploiters and
grafters. The people are getting ready to do some
thing and the democratic party is getting ready
to help them.
At a meeting of tho Equitable directors held
February 6, Mr. Alexander was re-elected president
and Mr. Hyde was re-elected vico president. This
was dono after Mr. Hyde had consented to tho
retirement of the stock and to tho "mutualization"
of tho company, which it is explained means that
all policy holders have tho right to vote. A com
mittee of 3even was chosen and this committee
will report April 12.
JJJ
The Commoner.
crats were committed to it by their national plat
forms, but he assumed no authority and issued no
mandates. Mr. Williams and all tho other demo
cratic members, except six, supported the president
and were willing to go even further than the re
publican measure. They needed no instructions.
The fact is that the democratic party neither has
nor desires a boss. It has been a long while since
the democratic party in congress has been as
unanimous as it now is. It favors legislation
giving tho interstate commerce commission power
to fix rates and it is not due to the "dictation" of
any one but to the fact that the position is thor
oughly democratic. The Journal is in error, first,
in intimating that Mr. Williams contemplated re
signing, and second, in accusing Mr. Bryan of
dictating to congress.
JJJ
Statehood for Territories
"The senate amended the statehood bill so as
to admit New Mexico as a state and leave Arizona
a territory. The Chicago Tribune declares that
this was done because "the senators who think so
highly of New Mexico, understand perfectly that
if it should become a state and Arizona be left
the solitary territory, nothing could be done ex
cept to make it a state at some future date, and
-that is what they wish to bring about."
The house bill provided for tho admission of
New Mexico and Arizona as ono state. The Wash
ington correspondent for the Chicago Record Her
ald says that Mr. Kearns' amendment transferring
to Utah about 7,000 square miles of Arizona's ter
ritory is in the bill as it passed the senate. If this
is true, it will further complicate matters, and
so it may be that the long delayed hopes of the
people of the territories are not yet to be real
ized. Long ago the party now in power promised
statehood for the territories and so far as public
interests are concerned, there is no reason why
Arizona should be denied admission.
JJJ
A Low Plane
The inaugurr'. address of Edward C. Stokes,
governor of' New Jersey, has attracted general
attention. Referring to the financial condition of
the state of New Jersey, which state is commonly
known as a breeding place for trust3, the governor"
said:
"Af the close of the last fiscal year, the
balance in the treasury amounted to $2,940,
918.98. The ordinary receipts for the same year
amounted to $4,302,370.61, of which nearly 78
per cent or $3,351,543.69 came from railroads
and the business companies domiciled in our
state. Of the entire income of the government,
not a penny was contributed directly by the
people, yet all of it was expended for their
benefit and in their interest.
"The state is caring for the blind, the
feeble-minded and the insane, supporting our
prisons and reformatories, educating the
younger generations, developing a magnifi
cent road system (embracing quite one-third
of the macadam or state roads of the United
States) maintaining the state government and
courts of justice, all of which would be at ,the
direct expense of our citizens as tax pavers
except for our present fiscal policy.
a. cuiuu ot every one hundred dol
lars expended by the state $2.00 was given to
lPZ?i6iLforedcon, $30.00 for
Not "Butting In"
The Boston Journal, in an editorial entitled
"Mr. Bryan Butts In," says that Mr. Williams is
contemplating retirement from tho leadership of
tho minority in congress n.nd gives the following
as an explanation: &
"The immediate cause of Mr. Williams' deter
mination to quit his present post is said to be Mr
Bryan, who has lately been hanging about tho
capital with mandates for the democratic members
of the house. It is charged that ho issued aton
lute instructions as to the party attitude on the
railroad question and that Mr. Williams found i,i
control gone in a twinkling. All this is very
demoralizing and it can not be called exactly i)ro
fessional for Mr Bryan to assume the role of
supreme dictator." U1 0l
Mr. Bryan was in Washington ,i
with tho president and so iXaU"''
members; ho expressed himself In favor of rii,
rate legislation and pointed out Slat tho deS
ohnrlHne nrwl nnn,u. r . - ' Tou1,
Ppuc
the soldiers and $1.20 for agriculture To ml
extent did the people draw benefits from the
state treasury without financial contX,H
thereto. To have raised last year by direct
axation the income of the state, wouM have
imposed upon property a tax ratP if
four-tenths or nearly LihSf of? per cent"
to have raised the amount that comes from
railroads and corporations alone would ha
imposed upon property a tax rit? IS
three-tenth of i L LJl ., x rate of over
per cent."
Having thus described New Trcwc
financial condition, the governor sals thaf
question is: "Shall we cnnHmm y at the
fiscal system, or on the other hand SEm DM8ent
the people for the support of our S?t ttU Wo tax
our courts of justice, TZ educSttona??rament
tarian institutions, n, ",c"nal and human!-
lujouus ann
.VOLUME 5, NUMBER
that would compel them to -pay the present state
income out of their own pockets."
Then in the light of the fact that these cor
porations pay about 78 per cent of New Jersey's
income it is of no moment that the Nv Jersey
policy has fostered a great iniquity and has heaped
impositions upon tho people of all the states.
If Governor Stokes has correctly inscribed
popular sentiment in New Jersey, $hen we must
believe that tho people of that state would rather
perpetuate a wrong upon the general public than
pay their own taxes.
Democrats have been met with sneers whon they
have used the phrase, "putting tho dollar above
tho man." Perhaps we will oe paruoneu on uus
occasion for employing that phrase merely for
the purpose of saying that if Governor Stokes
has faithfully portrayed New Jersey sentiment,
the people of that state have placed the dollar far
above the man and have reduced what should be
a great moral question to the low plane of "will
it pay? '
JJJ
44 Heads I Win; Tails You Lose"
The St. Paul Globe, a newspaper that, accord
ing to popular understanding, is owned by J. J.
Hill, the head of trie great railroad combine, does
not 'look with favor, either upon Mr. Roosevelt's
railroad policy or the manner in which democrats
are rushing to the president's support. The Globe
is greatly fearful lest the encouragement demo
crats give to Mr. Roosevelt's railroad policy por
tends "party dissolution." The Globe says:
"We should be less than democrats if wo
did not sound the note of warning and point
out whither such policy must inevitably and
speedily lead. Let us at the beginning make
most emphatically the point that it makes no
difference what the particular issue at stake
may be. Just now it happens to be a proposi
. tion to give autocratic powers to the Inter
state Commerce commissioners, a proposition
from which the president himself has cau
tiously withdrawn. A little before that it was
the proposition that this government was right
in wresting by force the isthmus of Panama
from its rightful rulers, whose possession we
had formally and sacredly guaranteed. A lit
tle later it may be the tariff or some item of it,
or a bill aimed at trusts or something else.
The nature and name of die issue are absolute
ly immaterial. The cold fact is that a party
must have a distinct and definite policy of
its own, different from the policy of its op
ponents, held to tenaciously and offered in op
position to theirs at every step of the way, or
it will not hold men together in its allegi
ance." Democrats have had "warnings" before and
tbey have come with a irreat showing of force
from the St. Paul Globe. The Globe seems, just
now, to be very jealous of its standing as a demo
cratic newspaper; yet, if memory is not at fault,
The Globe deserted the party in the presidential
campaign of 1896.
Now The Globe tells us that "the cold fact is
that a party must have a distinct and definite
policy of its own, different from tho policy of its
opponents, held to tenaciously, and offered in op
position to them at every step of the way, or it
will not hold men together in its allegiance."
But this is not in harmony with the pathetic plea3
the St. Paul Globe made in 1896 and ir succeeding
years. "When democrats insisted that their party
should not undertake to occupy republican ground
on the money question and on the trust question,
The Globe declared that the party must become
"safe and sane" by adopting the policies of its
opponents. In l?0" and in 1900, as well a3 in 1904
when the element with which the St. Paul
Globe trains dominated in the democratic na
tional convention the democratic party declared
for the railroad rate policy to which Mr. Roose
velt seems now to be devoted. The Globe would
certainly not say that it is so important that each
party have "a distinct and definite policy of its
own" that when the republican party adopts the
policy to which, during three presidential cam
paigns the democratic party was thoroughly com
mitted, democrats should abandon their position.
It will occur to a great many people that a
newspaper that has employed as much energy as
the St. Paul Globe has employed in the effort to
carry the democratic party into republican terri
toryso far as concerns the money question and
iiiu irusi question lays Itself, open to suspicion.
loaus.' me governor says: "We cannn? Ji . Its cllief concern seems to bo not for the welfare
he XS! " ff destroy Sir 'source and t e Vut for tho vantage of special in-
mefer tho Si?6 is llttle douljt that thennhli, tei;estts' glves disputable propf that in its
Piefei the present method rather than a SffiS pinIon, tho Party should adopt republican i oll-
a policy cica whenever those policies conform to spial
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