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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1907)
','-? 2 The Commoner. VOLUME 7, NUMBER 12 &&. V F ngcmenl necessarily affects the value of stock. The stockholders, therefore, who desire to purchase for iGffllhntito Investment, should have as much InloroHL iih the patrons In reducing the railroad business to an honest basis, but the railroads have thus far prevented the passage of a law author izing the interstate commerce commission to fix the value of the roads. When the value of the roads Is ascertained, I am satisfied that public sentiment will Insist that the returns shall bo suHlclont to pay a reasonable dividend upon Ihe money Invested. What this dividend should be It might be dlfllcult to fix ar bitrarily. I believe the statutes of Massachusetts and Connecticut 11 x a minimum dividend, but as those laws were passed some years ago when In terest rates were higher, the rates fixed are prob ably too high at Uds time. I should say that any maximum rate fixed by the people should be a little i.ighcr than the rate fixed by competition In the purchase of stock. If, for instance, stock which pays a four per cent dividend can be sold at par, a maximum dividend ought to be enough above that to provide for possible iluctuatlons lu business. If It; requires a five per cent dividend o malce stock sell at par, then the maximum divi dend contemplated by legislation should be above five per cent, or say six per cent. In case the various states or the nation de cide to enter upon public ownership of the roads, lliero would be no disposition to confiscate the property. I am satisfied that in the purchase of roads the public would be much mDre apt to pay more than the roads are worth than less. There Is, therefore, no reason why a person having money to Invest In railroads should not be willing to Invest upon an honest basis at this time, for no future legislation would deny him a fair return. Rut there is another reason why Investors need not fear. They are not only protected by the sense of Justice In the people themselves, but they lire still further protected by the courts which will not permit legislation that Is confiscatory. Sev eral of the railroad presidents have recently com plained of state legislation and charged that the legislation would not permit the railroads to earn a reasonable profit. The Investing public has been unnecessarily alarmed by these statements. The railroad presidents, instead of attempting to terrorize the legislature, should have announced to Investors that If the legislators attempted to cut down railroad earnings below a reasonable point, the courts would restrain them. No rail road regulation will be sustained by the courts that does Injustice to the owners of the railroad, and if public ownership is entered upon, the gov ernment cannot take the roads without paying what the roads are worth. Tills Is a Judicial ques tion. In order to obtain a railroad now in exis tence, the government would either have to buy It or condemn It. If It bought, It would have to buy upon the price agreed upon. If It condemned It, it would luive to pay the price fixed by the court. It will be Been, therefore, that all this cry about confiscation Is without foundation. I think 1 can speak for those who believe in regulation and I know that there Is not and never has been danger of Injustice to the owners of the railroad, and If I can speak for those who believe that the ultimate solution of the question Is to be found In public ownership, I can say that there Is no disposition to confiscate railroad property even If the courts would permit it. In arguing the Nebraska maximum rate case before the supreme court of the United States, I took the position that the value of the road to be recognized In the fixing of rates should be the cost -of reproduction. You will find my brief quoted in full In the decision. While the court did not clearly lay down a rule on that subject, I am still of the opinion that there is no just basis for meas uring the value of railroads except the cost of reproduction, that being the basis upon wWch .all other Industries must rest. A fnrmenta land Is worth not what It may have cost him, or what ho may have spent upon it, but what an adjoin ing farm can bo bought for in the open market A merchant's stock is not worth what it cost him but what it can be replaced for at present prices' The rules that apply to the mass of mankind ami to ordinary business in the fixing of values oivht to apply to the railroads, for when we allow one class to exempt itself from the general rule it not only avoids contingencies which the rest must meet, but by the avoiding of these contingencies it throws an additional burden upon all other forms of Industries. u Pardon this lengthy reply, but I am very clad to answer your questions and to tell vou that honest investors in honestly conducted railroads have nothing to fear. The sooner the honestly conducted railroads separate themselves from the dishonestly conducted ones, the safer thev will he and the sooner the honest Investor separates him! self lrom the speculator the safer he will be Honest accumulations and honest investors have too long borne the odium Unit predatory wealth should bear alone. A lino should be drawn among railroad managers and investors in railroad prop erty, between those, on the one hand, who do a legitimate business and supply a public need, and those, on the other hand, who have the instincts of a bird of prey and make victims of all who are helpless and defenseless. Yours truly, W. J. BRYAN. oooo ONE "GOOD TRUST" At last some one has named a "good .trust." Isaac Guggenheim, the smelting trust magnate and brother of Colorado's new United States sen ator, speaking to the New York correspondent for the Denver News, denounced the present day at- tacks upon corporations. He said: "Not. all cor porations are uad and not all trusts are thieves and robbers. A great combination of capital like the Steel trust, magnificently managed, is a pos itive benefit to the country, both for laborer and for consumer." So the steel trust "is a positive benefit to the country, both for laborer and consumer." It Is g'ven the benefit of a high protective tariff and re wards the American people by selling steel rails abroad at a price cheaper than that deuuvrded of the American consumer. The net earnings oC this "good trust" amount to about twenty-throe per cent of its gross sales. The net earnings exceed by more than eight million dollars per yea-' tlv wages paid to employes. OOOO CARNEGIE ON WALL STREET Under date of New York, March 28, the Asso ciated Tress carried this telegram: "Andrew Carnegie made a vigorous attack " upon certain Wall street methods In a speech at a dinner given In his honor by the United States military telegraph corps tonight. Mr. Carnegie declared he had never made a dollar gambling in stocks and added that it was time business men declined to recognize men who make money in Wall street and render no value for it. 'A few gamblers in Wall street . are in trouble,' said Mr. Carnegie. 'If a man has sold stocks short and they go down he is delighted. But if they go the other way and ' ho has not the stocks to deliver, he thinks the' president has gone a trifle too far. It is a ' good thing for the country that the gamblers ' have come to grief. I wish I could invent a system or plan whereby both sides of the stock gamblers would come to grief. As a business man I can say I never made a dollar gambling in stocks and I would as soon sit down to gamble with cards. Let 'me speak as a plain business man. Wall street is not all of America. There are some places in New York that are not Wall street. Speculators are parasites feeding upon values and creat ing none. It is time thai: we business men should rise and decline to recognize men who make money in this way and render no value for it and give nothing or manufacture noth ingor exchange In no way. for the value they get. We have had five years of wonderful prosperity. Today instead of charging $4G0, 000,000 for the Carnegie Steel company I would ask $640,000,000 for it. But never a kite went up but it came down. Wall street is really in a healthy condition. It is an erup tion that is coming out and not going in and let us rejoice and hope that tomorrow prices will go down. Gentlemen I was born to pov erty. But I would not change with the rich est man's son of millions born to life. Whtft does he know of father and mother, of Bie boy whose mother is nurse, seamstress, wash erwoman, cook, angel and saint with no ser vant between the boy whose father Js his guide, philosopher and friend? No teaqher, ex cept at school. It's in the home that the boy ' gets his teaching. I am honest, I have lived both lives. There are men who say that riches are corrupting, but tjiey only know one side of the shield. I have lived both. There is, gentlemen, very little in wealth adding to the sum of human happiness. I think that wealth rather decreases happiness." It is true, as Mr. Carnegie says, "Wall street is not all of America." It would have been better for the American people if Mr. Carnegie had lonur ago spoken frankly, yet his plain talk is bound to have considerable effect for it will tend to open eyes that have long been blinded. But while the American people are curing themselves of the notion that Wall street is "all of America," it will not do for them to close their eyes to the iniquitv of the system which has made Mr. Carnecie'q wealth possible. vjuim.bies In its issue of May 18, 1902, the Chicago Tri bune, republican, had an unusually, interesting edi torial entitled "The Arrogance of -Wealth." The Tribune was considerably disturbed because An drew Carnegie had offered to pay $20,000,000 for the Philippine islands provided only thafhe was permitted vto assure the Filipinos that they would bo given their independence. Tho Tribune sakl that the steel magnate "has tried the patience of his friends severely in some of his .late bids for notoriety." The Tribune thought that Mr. Car negie was constantly posing. It said he . has "scattered libraries broadly through the country, all of which are to be called for him, and every one of them is a 'contribution to the conscience fund.' " Then Ihe Tribune explained: "Mr. Carnegie made his money in a mag nificent way, but he should never forget that , UK MADE IT THROUGH THE UNDUE FAVORITISM of the government of the United States. OWING TO THE DISCRIMI NATION PRACTICED IN HIS FAVOR BY THE TARIFF, he was enabled to amas a fortune of two hundred millions of dollars or. more, MOST OF WHICH CAME OUT OF THE POCKETS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN THROUGH THE OPERATION OF' UN EQUAL LAWS. Much has been said of the benefit arising to the workingmen from tho establishment of the Carnegie works. The beneficent tariff system permitted the works to survive and fiourish, but therevare some people who have "not forgotten the Home stead strike, nor the outrageous manner in which tho workingmen were treated at that time by employers whose brutality has sel dom been exceeded in the history of labor agitations." While thanking Mr. Carnegie for His 'blunt speech with respect to Wall street, one could wish that he would contribute to the welfare of tho American people, and increase the sum of his own happiness by telling the truth concerning the '-'undue favoritism" through which his own millions were acquired. - c. x OOOO .., MYSTERIES "A young democrat" writes -to the New York World to say: "If my memory serves me right you found fault with Mr. Bryan in 1900 because he insisted on the democratic platform being drawn to meet his views. In the matter 'of ov--ernment ownership of railroads he does' not appear so insistent in forcing his ideas on the people or his party. He states that he does not know if the same are acceptable or not, but that he be lieves the 'ultimate' result will be government ownership. In your editorial of the lGth you inti mate that the term 'ultimate' was used to enable the candidate to 'hedge either way.' Now then' to a regular reader of vour vnlnnhio t. u u' pears that Mr. Bryan is 'damned if he does and danined if he does not.' " The World will have no more difficulty in ex plaining this than it will have in explaining "its peculiar position on the railroad question gen arally. It denounces the government ownership proposition with the same vigor it employed tn fighting railway rate legislation. Opposed alike to government ownership and government control it has never yet taken its readers into its confi dence sufficiently to tell where it really does stand The World's position on the railroad question has puzzled some of its best friends. OOOO NOT SO TERRIBLY MAD The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, republican prints a cartoon entitled, "Cutting Another Notch in the Big Stick." In this cartoon Mr Roosevelt is represented as cutting in the "big stick" a natch labeled "Federal Courts of Railroads?' In the rear are a number of railroad chiefs who are shak ing their fists at the president and sandiSg under a banner bearing these words: ,."Amrrv n w Magnates in Their One-Act Comedy, entitled We're always agin the President." But W not "always agin the president." In fact in 'da latest proposition concerning federal control of railroads Mr. Roosevelt has no mqye stronger sup porters than these very same "Angry r n Mi nates." If one would learn how entirely mlsiS" ing the Globe-Democrat's cartoon is, let him t reminded of the attitude taken by these great can tains of industry. , b k For instance: "I believe in federal control of railroads It would be the best thing for the railroads."-Rock-efeller. -"" "All rail transportation should be declared in terstate commerce and put under federal super vision by a constitutional amendment, if ueces sary." Paul Morton. a- "There is federal control now. All that is S -? .r" r - -2 i.Mij " n.wfHVi- t sV