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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.
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