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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1905)
MiTi;iiiiWiriitJwi.tiiii'''ijiwiB)l'twiuiJi''t"'' umm.ifmjiiymmmh-ixiih yKVUr'Sarv-riir ! Wwiipya WIij . ''O'" -i. t n iniitMniiirHiirtiii' r1P-rr'" I-" !- I71 M i if. V : '. . ' 1 r v ft X. "2 cnt forms is to bo obtained from that condition, "then they will prefer that the government shall own. the great corporations. While in tho Lawson view relief cannot be looked for either in the courts or at. the ballot box, the president of the United States is also helpless. Mr. Lawson says: I hate to say it but Roosevelt is as help less in "the system's" net as a bull in a bal loon. Like Gulliver in Lilllputia, he is bound by a thousand threads congress, senate, partisan interest and gratitude and all the tangible influences which Ihe great money p6wer can weave around any individual. How bravo and quick the president is to do. A wrong is Culled to his attention. A law must needs' be passedthe rebate evil must bo curbed, and he sends a message to congress delnandiifg instant action. What happens? Gongrcss temporizes; the senate snubs him; ''the system" snickers. What a striking picture ,Mr. Lawson has drawn! "The System" which ho now assails not only dominates stock' markets-and controls prices but it is strong enough to command perjured tes timony, to frame the verdicts of juries and to write the opinions of judges; it is strong onougji to control 'national elections and if, per chane'e, the president should be inclined to make un effort to give the people relief, the president himself is "as helpless in 'The System's' net as a bull in a balloon!" Senators, congressmen and Judges act under "Tho System's" control and so thoroughly established has that "System" become that whenever a president concludes to act in the public interests he is snubbed by the senate and laughed at by the representatives of this great and growing power! Does any intelligent man, accepting the de scription given y Mr. Lawson, Imagine for a moment that the people are helpless once they become thoroughly aroused to the evils confront ing them? Mr. Lawson's description of the help lessness of tho president and of the people is nothing new in the history of our own govern ment or that of other nations. It is not in the least surprising that tho enormous power which "the system" has built up has persuaded some that the people are utterly helpless in Its pres ence. But If every one were to make that con fession then there would be general agreement that popular government is a failure and Ave would rapidly drift toward monarchy. Americans remember that Andrew Jackson was confronted with a similar situation. Nicholas Biddlo declared that through the national bank ho had the power to make and unmake congress men, to build and destroy presidents. Jackson replied that if that were true he had more power than. any one man ought to have in this country; and it was then that Jackson said that if BIddle's bank charter came before him "by the Eternal I'll veto it!" He began his war against Biddle and his bank and we all know that the result was the overthrow of that great financier and the institution which he so autocratically controlled Another result was that Jackson lives In the Amer ican heart today as one who demonstrated for his time and for all time, that no influence assail ing the public interests is sufficiently powerful to ' withstand the onslaught of a determined presi dent who acts In behalf of the people Benton in reviewing Jackson's work said that a Cicero overthrew Cataline and saved Rome and Jackson overthrew the bank conspiracy tnd saved America. Can it be possible that in this day the money power is omnipotent and the American people must surrender to It? Can it be possible 2fhA Si.?0?10 f What wo aro PsedPto can the greatest republic on earth" can not afford to measure strength with the grca" monpoHsts rLmiTOfrU7 assume i0 control the Sf demonstrated by tho man 1" -J'. ! better tho. Influence of h Tsyslim" 5 T'6'1 with himself hot "a woaMlntf' , ,hls ia? pr0Te1 SU.dt rtSd ? af a'a'lf THE PANAMA FARCE - - . W?22SnX The Commoner. canal are not at all surprised at the conditions that obtain in the canal zone. From the moment the men interested in the welfare of the trans continental railroads succeeded in switching to the Panama route no well Informed man has en tertained the idea that the canal would be con structed within any reasonable time. To obtain a canal was not the purpose of the men respon sible for the abandonment of tho Nicaragua route and the selection of the Panama route after the latter had been discredited by the best engineers and by the lamentable failure of DeLesseps, On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence to con vince the careful observer that a canal connect ing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was just what they did not want. ., One peculiar feature of the canal work cer tainly has been noted .by the general public the appointment of civil engineers who hold high position with the railroads most interested in de laying the work, to be chief engineers of the canal. The more one thinks of this the mdre significant it becomes. Another peculiar feature is that none of the consulting engineers of any considerable reputation advocated the Panama route, while all declared the Nicaragua route feasible. But just as it seemed that something definite would be accomplished and the canal built across Nicaragua, up jump men who have always opposed the isthmian canal and suddenly become wonderfully interested pro-ponents of the Panama route. Climatic conditions, geographical conditions, political conditions and" red tape conditions com bine against the Panama canal, the first two of which would not apply to the Nicaragua route, and the last two of which would not interfere long if a determined stand were taken by public officials who were not under the influence of the trans-continental railroads. The men who se cured the selection of the Panama route at the last moment worked their scheme well. They hindered the .completion of a canal while appear ing' to be great advocates of a canal, and they pulled from the fire the trans-continental rail road chestnuts with the hands of the public hands long used to digging deep down into their owners' pockets to bring up exorbitant freight charges levied by the trans-continental railroads. , JJJ "CRUDE AND BUNGLING' 4 Emil H. Neumer, a clerk employed by the Equitable Life Assurance society, was on July 12 sentenced to prison for complicity in the robbery of a policy from the Equitable company's vaults. Compared with the offenses charged against -the influential men connected with the Equitable, Neumer's wrongdoing hardly reaches the grade of petit larceny. Doubtless Justice Foster who passed sen tence upon Neumer had this idea in mind, for in addressing the convicted man Justice Foster said: Your methods were very crude and bung ling. If you had, instead of collusion with an outsider, colluded with an insider, and there by had your salary raised to $50,000, and then divided with other men, the result would not have been more hurtful to policyholders, but possibly you would not have been at the bar of justice. It will occur to a great many people that it is hardly a "square deal" when the Equitable clerk who engaged in wrong-doing on a small scale is required to go to prison while his super iors who were charged with the theft of thou- ?? S ? i I an(! a variety of frauds gainst the helpless policy holders of the Equitable aro permitted to go scott free. JJJ ' A FRAUD ORDER The postofllce department has issued a fraud order against a St. Louis institution and it was placed in the hands of a receiver. It is an iiounced that the depositors will be paid in full Jcoolooo. St0Ckllolders aro likeJy to lose about The bank may have been started in irood fniHi but the fact that its chief not only ftuiSto sub scribe one-half of the stock, as he advertised he would, but borrowed for various personal enter prises a large part of tho money piid in for stock is a serious reflection upon either his intelligence or his honesty. Over-borrowing from one's own bank is the fruitful source of most of the bank failures and one's moral sense is blunt indeed who does not recognize the impropriety, not to f'unds y' f maUing a personal of trust But aside, from the question of embezzlement or mismanagement there is a serious objection to a bank run on the principle adopted by tho .VOLUME 5, NUMBER 27 St. Louis hank. Stockholders scattered all 0vp the country can not watch the bank officials- the must act through directors and as they u'sualhr give their proxies to the chief officer of the bank he selects the directors who aro to watch him and it is almost certain that the absent stock holders will be defrauded. The hank ought to bo a local institution, with local stockholders, local directors and local depositors. There is enough risk in owning stock in a bank which one can watch; no one but a gambler should risk holding stock in a bank which he can not watch, in the -case of a bank tho depositor is safer than the stockholder for the T depositor must get all before the stockholder gets anything, but even a depositor should keep his money in a homo bank if possible. There is room in every community for a hank furnishing absolute security--ja bank which would loan only on government, state, county, city or precinct bonds of established validity. Such a bank could not pay much interest on deposits, but it could at least return the principal and thu8 relieve the depositor of risk JJJ COERCING CONGRESSMEN. The Chicago Record-Herald reports that "scores of eastern congressmen and several United States senators, who have" enjoyed the hos pitality of the railroads for so long a time that they have come to believe it their inherited right, will have to pay fare on their summer vacation trips this year." It then explains that one of tho most important eastern railroads has refused all requests for free transportation which have come from the senators and congressmen who were either in favor of the Esch-Townsend bill or were lukewarm in their advocacy of the railroad side of the legislation, and the Record-Herald adds that it is understood that other eastern roads are tak ing similar action. This is good news. If all the railroads would shut off the giving of passes to legislators, state and national, it would he easier to secure remediable legislation. The pass is a very demoralizing thing. It not "only, inclines the recipient to favor the railroad in legislative matters, but the carrying of the pass subjects him to calls from friends and constituents, who, knowing that he has a pass himself, insist Uiat he shall obtain passes for them. In this way, the pass grows until the legislator is so obligated to the railroads that it becomes hard to refuse their requests. While the railroads always regard the pass as a foundation for an obligation to be paid in some way, they are generally slow to admit that it is given with the purpose of influencing legislation. The action of a railroad in withhold ing passes from those who vote for a rate bill is equivalent to a declaration' that the pass is in tended as a bribe. When the senators and mem bers no longer ride on passes, we may have legis lation reducing the amount paid to the railroads for the . carrying of mails. JJJ INCOMPLETE EDUCATION Professor William James of Harvard univer sity in a recent address said: "There is not a public abuse on the- whole eastern coast which does not receive the enthusiastic approval of some Harvard graduate." And he added: "Fifty years ago, the schools were supposed to free us from crimes and unhappiness, but we do not in dulge in such sanguine hopes to any such extent today. Though education frees us from the more brutal forms of crime, it is true that education it self has put even meaner forms of crime in our way. The intellect is a servant of our passions and sometimes education only makes the person more adroit in carrying out these impulses." President Roosevelt in his speech at Harvard brought substantially the same indictment against the well-educated lawyers. Unpleasant as it may be, the truth of these statements must be admit ted. If our -schools train men and then leave them to prey upon society, we are going to find a decreasing interest in education. What we need just now is' to cultivate a moral purpose in our students which, will make them employ their tal ent and their training for the benefit of society rather than against it. In other words, ethical development must accompany intellectual devel opment or our country will find itself at the mercy of a lot of well-educated criminals trained at pub lic expense for public harm. And .it is just tins ethical training that is likely to be neglected by college which asks for an endowment from tiio trust magnate and the market speculator. a long as our colleges are looking to the big crinl1 nals for endowments, the professors can not tan the position they ought to on sociological an" economic questions. .-3i.i ,.jf , ."4anf -vs':