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The Commoner.
8
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yOLUMB 6, NUMBER
50
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A ND NOW THE Standard Oil trust claims that
y i hnnn (rivnn nn immunity bath. The
Washington correspondent for the New York
World says: "The" blame for suspending the
operation of the Elkins anti-rebate act for twenty
four hours, thereby possibly granting amnesty
to all offenders not actually brought into court
up to that date, is placed on President Roosevelt.
It is held that by signing the railroad rate bill
one day before the joint resolution making -it
effective in sixty days was signed this result
was accomplished and that as a result the Stand
ard Oil company will escape punishment under
the indictments found in Chicago, containing more
than 1,900 counts. The legal experts of the govern
ment do1 not accept the construction placed upon
this action of the president's, and say the court
, in passing upon the point raised by the attorneys
7f for the Standard will take into consideration the
'intent of congress, which was not to suspend the
operation of the Elkins act. It is admitted that
a delicate question of law has been raised."
GEORGE P. BAER, the famous coal trust mag
nate; did not always hold the opinion with
respect to corporations which he now expresses.
In 1887 Mr. Baer delivered an address before
the law students In the University of Pennsyl
vania. The subject of the address was "Land
Tenure" and the following extract from that ad-,
dress is printed by a writer in the Philadelphia
Public Ledger: "How much of this great wealth
(mineral deposits of Pennsylvania) falls to the
share of our state and her citizens? It has passed
into the hands of gigantic associations, kept to
gether by state charters, or some cunning called
a trust, whose principal stockholders are not
" among us or of us. Dajly they carry off our treas
ures and leave only enough to pay- the labor which
prepares them for and transports them to mar
ket. The profit which should enrich our citizens
and state goes beyond our borders, and. we re
ceive little benefit from it. All this has become
possible through the mistaken policy of attempt
ing to foster the development of our resources
by departing from the staple principles of honest
free government. It is through the manipulation
of these associations that men ride to 'sudden
fortunes,' and thereby provoke the discussion of
social problems and the promulgation of theories
which are at variance with all sound thinking and
past experiences. These evils primarily owe their
existence to the caprice of government in dele
gating sovereign power to creatures of its own
creation."
COivItaENTING UPON Mr.' Baer's address
Public Ledger writer says: "In 1887
which is constantly mounting upward in this
country. It Is one of the most melancholy feat
ures in the social state of this country that we
see, beyond the- possibility of denial, that while
there is at this moment a decrease in the con
suming powers of the people there is at the
same time a constant accumulation ofv wealth in
the upper classes, an increase of the luxuriotis
ness of their habits and of other means of en
joyment wjiich, however satisfactory it may be
as affording evidence of the existence and
abundance of one, among the elements of
national prosperity, yet adds bitterness to thejre
fiections which are forced upon us by the dis
tresses of the rest of our fellow-countrymen; and
in this point of view I can not help thinking that
the arguments which the noble lord (Lord Ho
wick) has advanced upon the question of the, in
come tax are satisfactorily met by the fact that
it is upon those accumulating riches that the
weight of the impost chiefly rests."
the
V-, Public Ledger writer says: "In 1887 we
regarded this as an expression of a 'jurist;' in
j.3ui tne sentiment seems to be that of the. 'blath
erskite.' Which? Twenty years ago Mr. Baer
could criticize the federal supreme court for mak
ing a decision (the Dartmouth college case) which
makes possible his ignoring the 'spirit and sen
timent perhaps the letter of the state constitu
tion. Today we are all disposed of by -language
more befitting a nisi prlus lawyer than a states
man when we suggest that the Reading company
tn? n-LprScl80ly the schief of the quoted ex-
of the great " fE2 i "J2?0" ?ie saying
'Follies committed irr
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a wV ia WMttl, miuteg revolutionists.'"
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T N aHI? ADPRESS relating to the income tax
IJL Andrew Carnegie emoted ihn w -artm
Gladstone in opposition to that tax, sayinc that
would make "a nation of liars." ' 1 reader of
nGatJZ
tlon. and . J. "i nQ& .V"
nnH ii "", "uu UU1 l0 locate tne
nation Of Unrn" mmtnttnn v. -ii-i -
68 of mnrtBVnnft.auw:rri i" u. on paeQ
. MwUU mufijoijuy uus; rnera are
n i ""j uiumuuuiu 10 uie imposi-
fi2 E 'TZl'X must be
hn . " r ut ieaS, Buch tax
:;! i T , aiK""i mem mat it does
nnZu 4.1 v ' """w -" vuu. ue guaranteed to
each, that enormous accumulation of wWth
A LETTER "WRITTEN by the president to
.Attorney General Bonaparte may provide
a sort of consolation for those negro citizens
who are criticizing Mr. Roosevelt because of the
discharge of the negro troops. Addressing Attor
ney General Bonaparte, the president says: "Some
three years ago Sheriff J. L. Merrill of Carroll
county, Georgia; lost his chancq for re-election
by his action in beating off a mob of several
h.undred white people who were trying to take
a negro out of jail and put him to death. Sheriff
.Merrill and his deputies fired on the mob, killing
and wounding several men and beating the others
off. Because of this he was defeated for re-election.
Congressman Adamson brought the matter
to my attention, saying that he hated to see a
man who had done such a service as a public
official defeated because of t;he very fact that,
he had rendered the service. He told me that
Governor Terrell had offered Merrill a place, the
best he had to give, which carried a salary of
$50 per month. I told the congressman I thought
I could beat that, and got him a place at $1,200
a year as custodian of the grounds of the federal
'prison at Atlanta. I hear he has. done well. If
he has done well, can't we give him a promotion?"
CAPTAIN LEWIS KOEHLER has recently .
been under court-martial in the Philippines ,
for having criticized General Leonard M. Wood.
D. R. Anthony, Jr., of Leavenworth, Kan., brother-,
in-law of Captain Koehler, wrote a personal let
ter to President Roosevelt, appealing to him. to
see that Koehler had a fair trial. The Washing
ton correspondent for the New York World says
that, while on the witness stand, General Wood
offered this letter in evidence; that the letter
must have been given to General Wood by Mr.
Roosevelt. In, consequence the president's critics '
are recalling a sentence which appeared in Mr
Roosevelt's letter, to Bellamy Storer as follows:
"It is never pleasant to have to discuss personal
affairs, or to quot$ or explain from personal cor
respondence; which is one reason why it is held
to be a peculiarly ungentlemanly thing to publish
private correspondence."
THE HOUSE COMMITTEE .on banking and -currency
has 'decided to make a favorable
report on the asset currency bill. This bill will
be similar to the measure advocated by tile
American Banking association. In the committee
ten republicans favored the measure while four
democrats opposed It. The Associated Press"
gives this description' of the bill: "In the bill
advocated by the bankers it was provided that
a tax of 2 per cent should be paid by national
banks on credit currency equal to 25j)er cent of
their capital. The committee increased the tax
on such bank notes to three per cent. No change
was made in the provision that national banks
may also take out a further amount of national
bank guarantee- credit notes equal to 12 per
cent of its capital with interest at the rate of five
per cent. Anothef change of importance made by
the committee is one providing that national
banking associations desiring to take out credit
notes and having notes outstanding in excess of
62 per dent of their paid up capital may redenn
such excess without reference to the limitation of
$3,000,000 each month prescribed by the act of
July 12, 1882. The bill as reported extends the
privilege of issuing credit currency only to national
banking institutions which have been in business
for one yeat and' have a surplus equal to 20 pc
cent of its capital. The national guaranteed
credit notes' authorized by the bill may be taken
out for' issue without a deposit of United States
bonds as now required by law. The notes will
be of form and denominations designated by the
comptroller of ,the currency. If the measure be
passed as reported by the house committee every
national bank meeting the requirements of the
bill will '.be. permitted to issue emergency or
credit currency in the sum of $37,500 for every
$100,000 of its capital. It- is maintained by the
supporters of the bill that it will afford sufficient
elasticity in the currency to relieve the pressure
for money which occurs at crop moving time and
in great emergencies. Bankers estimate the
amount of additional currency which the measure
would afford rat $200,000,000."
THE NEW YORK GLOBE prints the following
table of contents of simplified words in the
president's message showing the number of times
they were used and the number of letters saved
by adopting the new system:
Times Letters
Simplified word: usedt. saved.
Altho.; 3 9
Tho : 7 21
Thoro ...,....-. 2 6
Thorogoing .........-, ;...;. .. -2 , . G
Thoroly .- .'...'.. 3 ' 9
Thru ;.;.... .-. 10 ' 30
Thruout .'...-..' 2 6
Past ? 7. . , I4
J-'J'l VUb I I ft t I I ''O A
Supprest ...-. '.... -1 '2
Discust - "1 ' ' 2
Wisht .'...; . : . .;:. ; . . . ; . .' 1 2
Stopt .-. r. ....:.. :. 2- --. 4
UwiixU(3 ' 'O iv
Program . ...;...'.... -2 '" 4
Maneuver. ;..;.. ...! 2 ' 2
1 '
... L . ...
Total saving ............;': ::.;... 134
,. Total letters in message,-125,000.
LEO TOLSTOY has written an extraordinary
attack on Shakespeare. The Paris corres
pondent for the New York American says. "Tol
stoy describes Shakespeare as a time-server who
flattered the governing classes. He declares be
sides that Shakespeare had no genius as a
writer, but was actually wbrse than mediocre.
'Othello,' which he declares Shakespeare's best
play, the Russian philosopher describes as ' in
ferior to the earliest Italian works upon which
it was founded. The same kind of criticism is
leveled at 'King Lear.' Tolstoy says that the
chronicles from which this story was taken were
more full of human interest than the tragedy
itself. Marlowe, he declares, was a greater
dramatist than Shakespeare, who only succeeded
because, being an actor, he had a practical knowl
edge of the stage. Shakespeare is denied the
power of characterization by Count Tolstoy. All
the characters of Shakespeare, he says, speak
the same language. A tyrant or buffoon in any
one play speaks exactly as the tyrant or buffoon
In any other play of Shakespeare's. It is merely
Shakespeare speaking pompously through each of
his characters."
A "SCHOOL FOR crooks" has been exposed
in New York, and the "professor' has been
placed under arrest. According to the New York
Sun one of the witnesses testified that the stu
dents are put through a regular course of train
ing. The lads were taught how to pick pockets
with deftness and speed. The preliminary work
consisted of exercise, to promote lightness of
touch and quickness of handling. It was a course
that required a lot of hard work before the pupil
graduated Into the class which continued its edu-
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