,7 ""
,-n
!
JANUARY 11, 1907
9
.Wr
the infrealse.in- the cost of living at 46 per cent,
that the teachers were 17 per cent worse off than
they were before. "The trusts,", he declared, "reg
ulate the. cost of Ayhat you buy, and the labor
unions thet.cpst of what you hire. A coachman
gets $500 H. year to care for four horses, and a
teacher, who cares for forty children, gets $360
a year. Where trained nursing and many trades
bring the worker $3 a day, a teacher in Mexico
gets 95 cents a day." Men with families can not
jafford to be teachers, and while Mr. McAndrew
thought that in an educational assemblage "the
discussion of money was as distasteful as a dis
course on a disordered stomach at a Browning
club," he urged the teachers to come to an agree
ment by which an effort might be made to in
crease their salaries.
ANEW' HAVEN (Conn.) dispatch to the Chi
cago Tribune says: "The American Mod
ern Language association, now in annual session
at Yale, has decided that it was not an apple
that Eve handed Adam. The association has set
aside Saturday morning to discover whether it
was not a lemon that caused the trouble in the
Garden of Eden. Professor Oliver M. Johnson of
the Leland Stanford University of California, who
has made a special study of tropical fruit, has
been appointed to lead the discussion. He insists
that there were no apples in the Garden of Eden."
AFTER INVESTIGATING the "car shortage"
Franklin K. Lane of the Interstate Com
merce Commission has reported to President
Roosevelt. He finds: "It is a fair inference from
all the testimony that the real cause of the coal
scarcity in North Dakota was such an abundance
of westbound traffic at the head of the lakes that
cars were not available in the congested state
of that terminal for the carrying of coal to North
Dakota, a comparatively short haul for a low class
commodity." In his letter of transmission to
the president Mr. Lane says the report will be
followed in due course by the special recommend
ations of the commission as a whole as to what
ever legislation, if any, may be deemed advisable.
Referring to the report that the coal shortage
was due to the presence of a trust or combina
tion between dealers in coal who fixed prices in
the northwest and refused to sell to "outsiders"
and "irregulars," the report says: "The commis
sion has gained indisputable proof of an agree
ment between coal dealers to maintain prices
and to boycott all who do not so agree, but there
is no evidence at all justifying the contention
that this combination is chargeable with the coal
shortage' prevailing nor that the railroads were
party in such a way to such a conspiracy."
THE SIOUX FALLS (South Dakota) Argus
Leader prints a letter from L. C. Campbell
charging that United -States Senator Gamble who
now seeks re-election kept his son on the United
States senate payroll from July 1, 1902, to Jan
uary 11, 1905, and that in 1902 young Gamble
entered a school at Port Deposit, Maryland, con
tinuing there until 1905. Mr. Campbell produces
the records from the office of the secretary of the
senate showing that young Gamble drew pay as
a page, folder, and messenger in various sums
aggregating $1,874. He also shows from the year
book issued by the Maryland school that during
all this time Gamble was a student, taking con
spicuous part in the football team and other
athletic sports; also that he was first associate
editor and then chief editor of the college paper,
and later captain of the fire department and, sec
retary of his class. The Argus-Leader insists
that Senator Gamble should explain these
records.
GOVERNOR FOLK'S message to the Missouri
legislature attracted general attention. Refer
ing to life insurance companies, Governor Folk rec
ommended a standard policy for all life companies,
prohibiting discriminating and rebating, regulat
ing the election of directors and requiring non
resident companies to keep at least seventy per
cent of the premiums received from Missouri
policyholders invested within the state. He also
recommended the enactment of a law making
it a crime for anyone for compensation to loooy
with the members of the legislature. The gov
ernor also recommended two-cent passenger fares;
a primary law for the nomination of all elective
'officers including United States senators; regis
tration applicable to all towns of 10,000 inhabi
tants; making it a felony to register a bet upon
a horse race; -legislation to suppress bucket
shops. Governor Folk said that the liquor traffic
. should be made to observe law just like any m
f dividual. He recommended the amendment to
-
The4 Commoner.
the anti-bribery law so that witnesses may bo
forced to testify to relievo them from prosecution
by reason of their testimony. Ho recommended
rigid child labor laws, prohibiting a concern or
corporation from selling higher in one part of
the state than in another, adding a prison pun
ishment for violation of the anti-trust laws, and
making the penalty for the violation for the maxi
mum freight law apply to persons, corporations
and partnerships; also a statute providing proper
penalties for railroad corporations of the directors,
employes, or agents of any railroad giving re
bates on shipments within the- state. Every cor
poration, he said, should be required to furnish
each stockholder with a balance sheet of its
business once a year. There should be an an
nual tax in the nature of a privilege tax of 1.15
of one per cent on the capital stock of all cor
porations, both domestic and foreign, doing busi
ness in the state. Ho recommended that the
people of each city or town be authorized to pur
chase or own and operate any utility of a public
nature whenever they shall vote to do so and to
issue bonds in payment thereof.
THEODORE HARRIS, president of the Louis
ville National Banking company, has sub
mitted through the columns of the Courier-Journal
this question: "What article is that in com
mon, dally use by all men and women which, if
all the other conveniences we have learned to
account among the necessities of life had to bo
given up, we would by common consent retain?"
Mr. Harris says that this is not a conundrum but
a question propounded in all seriousness. He
says that when the answer is given It will be
recognized at once as naming the one thing which
we could not do without.
REFERRING TO THE Harris question the
Sioux City Journal says: "In propounding
the question to a party of friends the Louisville
man gave a few clews which may help any one
who wants to do a little thinking about the mat
ter. Mr. Harris explained that he had in mind
an article or appliance discovered or invented
within the last one hundred or one hundred and
twenty-five years. In saying that it is 'in com
mon, daily use by all men and women,' he meant
to be taken almost literally that the thing is in
use in every creed and class of civilized people
and even by some few barbarians. Questioned
for further light, Mr. Harris declared that the
answer would not be found in any art or any of
its congeneric parts; that no manufacturing pro
cesses or applications of power need be consid
ered; that the thing in mind is an article Of com
mon personal usage, so cheap as to seem insig
nificant were it not for its relative importance;
that on careful study or mature reflection one
must inevitably conclude it is the one indispen
sable thing."
JOHN M. HARLAN, the venerable justice of the
United States supreme court, was asked by
a New York American correspondent whether
he was prepared to say that an increase of federal
power is to be desired. Justice Harlan replied:
"I served in the civil war as colonel, and have
been on the bench twenty-nine years the tenth
day of this month. I can say now what I have
said in many judicial decisions, and such has
been the uniform doctrine of our court, that the
federal government has no powers except those
delegated to it by express grant, or by necessary
implication from express grants. I think the
federal government has all the powers it need
have for the purpose of accomplishing the objects
for which the government was established and
that any tendency to enlarge its powers by loose
construction of the words of the constitution
ought to be restricted. I think the preservation
of the states with all their just powers is essen
tial to the preservation of our liberties."
IT IS AN INTERESTING coincidence that a
committee of the British parliament has sub
mitted a favorable report on the suggestion to
introduce the principle of graduation in the pres
ent British income tax, about the same time the
president of the United States formally advo
cate's an inheritance tax and shows decided lean
ings toward the Income tax. deferring to the
report of the parliamentary committee, the Chi
cago Record-Herald says: "Many months ago
Mr. Asquith, chancellor of the exchequer ex
pressed his belief in graduation as well .as in the
recognition of the difference between earned and
unearned incomes, or, more strictly, between in
comes earned by labor in industry or pro'eBsional
life and incomes earned by accumulated capital.
The select committee that wab appointed to In
quire into the subject had at its head Sir Ohnrloa
Dilkc, a strong radical, nnd tho public fully" ex
pected from it an indorsement of the Asquith
ideas.'
LONDON CABLICGRAMS say that thin commit
tee report will go far toward satlafylng those
who are demanding progressive or graduated tax.
atlon. The Record-Herald says: "The parlia
mentary committee finds that graduation Is prac
ticable In Incomes not exceeding $5,000, and for
all Incomes in excess of $25,000 It recommends
a surtax, though, apparently, not a progressive
one. It also finds that Incomes not exceeding,,
$15,000 can ho differentiated as regards their
source. The object of differentiation, of course,
Is to relievo the middle .rind Industrlnl classes
to some extent from the heavy burdens to which
they have been subjected since tho Boer war and
Impose a larger part of the national taxes on the
possessors of exceptional fortunes, In harmony
with the 'ability to pay' principle. Tho present
cabinet Is prnctlcally pledged to such differentia
tion. In one sense tho British Income tax Is al
ready 'graduated,' but the graduation Is Indirect
and unrecognized. All Incomes of $800 and under
pay no tax at all. On Incomes ahove that amount
but under $2,000 an allowance Is made of $800
that Is, tho tax Is levied on the Income less $800.
On Incomes exceeding $2,000, but not above $2,500,
$750 Is allowed. On Incomes hetween $3,000 and
$:$,500 tho allowance 'Is only $350. There is no
abatement on any Income in exccs of $3,500.
These differences In the abatements spell differ
ences in tho rate per pound, so that the tax Is
not strictly proportional. But tho friends of grad
uation demand a tax frankly and avowedly pro
gressive." GOVERNOR SHELDON or Nebraska has been
very generally complimented upon his In
augural address. Ho emphasized the need (or
reduction of freight and passenger rates; he
urged the passage of a law clearly defining the
powers of the new railroad commission, saying
that railroads should be deprived of the right
to enjoin enforcement of tho rate made by tho
commission pending appeal in state courts; ho
also suggested that the legislature memorallzo
congress to pass a law depriving common carriers
of the right of enjoining enforcement of rates
made by the state commission between points
within the state, pending appeal to the federal
court. He would have the railroad commission
control the telephone companies as well. He
declared the action of the Union Pacific and the
Burlington in resisting payment of taxes is un
fair and unwarranted, and says they lack the
noble quality of patriotism. Everything that can
be done to enforce collection of the taxes should
be done. The new governor warned against ex
travagance. He says that in prosperous times
the state debt should be decreased. He said
that in levying taxes the amount of mortgages
should be deducted from value of realty, and
bona fide debts deducted from the value of per
sonal property. He said the governor should
have power to summarily remove heads of state
institutions for mismanagement or misconduct.
Governor Sheldon said that effective law should
he enacted barring lobbyists from the state
capitol.
COLLIER'S WEEKLY gives Secretary Shaw
and other "prosperity preachers" something
to think of when it says: "Prosperity cries,
'More cars!' And the beseechment receives only
helpless echoes from the car building companies.
Theae are months behind their orders. The ship
per clamors at the railroad, the railroad clamors
at the car builder; the car builder docs his best,
but that best does not keep up with prosperity.
In the west there arc not cars enough -to carry
coal to those who need It, nor to move the grain
to the flour mills. In the Pennsylvania manufac
turing districts millions of tons of freight await
cars to carry them to market. It all reads mag
nificentlysomething like a man so rich that he
can't invest his money as fast as It accumulates.
But he is fatuous who sees in this merely a
temporary inconvenience flowing from abundance.
Prosperity without cars is no prosperity. Coal at
the mouth of the mine is not heat or power or
light- wheat in the barn, unable to reach the
mill, 'is not flour or bread. And, moreover, man--ufacturers,
mine owners, all producers, do busi
ness on credit. To pay their bills they depend
on prompt marketing of their output. Goods
clogging the factories, and no cars to carry them
to purchasers if this does not sflell potential
panic, what handwriting is clear?" ,
&
r
'I
1
(
)
mmii
kJA.K"- aa AUrtiw