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The Commoner.
VOLUME 7, .NUMBER 42
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The, Commoner.
ISSUED WEEKLY.
WIMjTAMJ. IlUYAK
Editor nml Proprietor.
IU0HA1II) It. TiUsiGMiVK
Afcsoclato Kill tor.
OtlAUMCU W. BnvAN
Publlnlior.
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THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Neb.
The Knickerbocker Trust company's finish
was in short pants.
'' Some financial institutions find it extremely
difficult to stand on their own copper bottoms.
It seems that St. Louis is much better at
hoisting balloons than at .erecting free bridges,
'' ' 4 ' "
The firemen on the Lusitania are coming
in for somewhat belated credit for that record
breaking trip.
If the president still yearns for excitement
since, the bear hunt ho might find it by going
to the rescue of Mr. Burton.
. Instead of feeling badly Sir Thomas Llpton
should think of the fate of several other gentle
men who of late have "lifted the cup."
t. , While the president was hunting real bears
1,gln&tb.o- brakes there was some tall hustling by
Jfojfior bears to keep from going broke.
; i. 4I havo been ureing tariff revision .for the
last three years," solemnly declares Senator
Lodge of Massachusetts. Up or down?
s
"What is a democrat?" is still the plaintive
query of the New York World. Pretty nearly
everything the World claims to be and isn't.
When Uncle Joe Cannon kicked that foot
ball seventy-five feet he must have had his mind
on those who would revise the tariff now.
Mr. F. Augustus Heinzo is in. a position to
give expert testimony to .the ,ftwt. that the Jlock
ef oiler-Rogers combine is not yet down and out.
While Mr. Harriman and Mr. Fish .are fight
ing for control of the Illinois Central a. lot of
aSon d mGn ar0'lceeplnS tllQ road in oper-
Concerning the disappearance of that $3? -000,000
of Standard Oil money two or three
New York's financial institutions seem amply
able to furnish an alibi. uy
Surgeons removed a portion of Edward
BrldgenWs brain, and within six weelcs after he
was convalescent Bridgeman perpetrated 200
robberies. The surgical bill of tte Standard OH
company must be something enormous, And the
company s scalp must look as cut up as a patch
work quilt. tfttw.ii
THE SPECULATORS" PANIC
The panic broke with full force on the ;
whole country Monday, October 28. On Sunday '
bankers' conferences were held in every town
in the United States. In order to prevent runs
on banks the various financial institutions in
different cities adopted tho clearing house cer
tificate plan which plan was devised to keep
business moving without requiring the banks
to pay out all of their cash on hand. Cash
payments were everywhere suspended although
checks were honored to the extent of a small
per cent of the individual's deposit. The news
paper dispatches of tho day told this story:
"New York bankers have engaged about $12,
000,000 in gold in Europe. Bankers' Trust
company of Kansas City closed because denied
the privilege of issuing clearing house certifi
cates. Has deposits of $800,000. All the banks
in Oklahoma and Indian Territory closed for
a week by holiday proclamation of governor
because unable to' get cash from Kansas City
and St, Louis banks. Duluth grain market sus
pended artd elevators advised not to buy grain.
Wheat broke four cents at Chicago and 4 at
New York and all grain weak. Runs continue
on two trust companies and two small banks at
New York. New York stock market opened at
an advance."
In an editorial entitled "A Bank Situation
Without Precedent,", the Omaha World-Herald
says: "In the midst of great prosperity several
thousand of the Jeadinc banks. of the United
States yesterday suspended cash payments. They
had hundreds of millions of dollars in their
vaults belonging to their depositors, but they
refused to pay it out. This occurred all over
the United States and it cajne with a sudden
ness which took everybody by surprise, including
the bankers themselves. For such an occur
rence there is no parallel In history and no war
rant in law. Unquestionably the first effect of
such a performance js a shock which will jar
the business world from center to circumference.
Everyone will feel it and few will escape dam
age. There is, however, some satisfaction in
the reflection that such a universal and such an
acute attack can not last long. Whatever
change occurs now will be for the better. Ap
parently we are now all in the same boat with
New York and as her condition Improves ours
will mend. Two great factors have combined
to force the troubles of New York on the rest
of the country. One was the fact that the rest
of the country had several hundred million ,ii
lars in New York banks which had u nlted ft
refusing to pay it out. The other was tint n
crop-moving period .having arrived, western and
southern banks, unableto get their money from
New York, were getting it from the other ro
serve centers, Chicago being the chief with"
thirty or forty million dollars tied up 'in Now
York, Chicago could not meet the strain inii
not only suspended, as New York had done
the making of cash payments, but advised ami
forced the other cities of the west to do tho
same. The effect will be to keep money in tho
banks, to expand the currency by the injection
of certified checks, cashier's checks and clearing
house Certificates, and to give the country timo
to regain its financial equilibrium."
In the midst of this time of plenty every
one is asking "How did it happen?" Tho
World-Herald throws some light upon the situa
tion in this way: "The four great banking in
stitutions in New York belong to what is known
as the 'Standard Oil crowd.' They are the Na
tional City bank, with $193,900,000 deposits
the National Bank of Commerce, with $145 1
000,000 deposits; the First National, with $107
000,000, and the Park National, with $90,50oi
000. Then there are eight great trust compa
nies which are banks that do a banking busi
ness, practically without reserves. They aro tho
Farmers Loan and Trust company, with $8S,
000,000 deposits; the Knickerbocker, with $70,
000,000; the Central, with $67,000,000; tho
United States, with $65,000,000: the Trust
Company of America, with $61,000,000; tho
Union Trust company, with $58,000,-000; tho
New York Guarantee and 'Morton, with $59,
000,000 each. In 'those institutions was concen
trated almost exactly $1,000,000,000 and there
was where the trouble began. The trust com
panies were competitors of these and other
Standard banks. The panic began with a fight
between them for business and the Standard
Oil methods were used. It did not work as
well as when a little independent oil company
was to be crushed out. It worked something like
the 'object lesson' of 1893, and the Standard
Oil crowd found themselves in the same predica
ment as the bankers who tried that 'object les
son.' The concentration of a bilfiqn dollars in
the hands of a small coterie of men, subjects to
passions cultured in Wall Street, has proved to
be a very dangerous thing."
Mr. Harriman says there is plenty of money
in the country. Quite true, and several eastern
cities are wishing that the country would dig
up and send some along.
Some New York lawyers of "cabinet rank"
should step forward and explain how their fees
in the Metropolitan traction cases became mixed
up with the "yellow dog"' fund.
"Tantaline" is a new metal. It is so hard
that a diamond drill making 5,000 revolutions
a minute was scarcely able to scratch it in ten
minutes. It Is almost as hard to scratch as the
hide of a tariff protected trust.
There may be consolation for some in the
rapidly advancing price of paper. If the price
continues to soar a lot of certificates of stock
now practically worthless will become valuable
per pound. ' '
Judging by the Oklahoma election returns
it will not be extremely' difficult for the presi
dent to find federal jo.bs for all of the disappoint
ed republicans. The returns indicate a surpris
ingly small number of republicans.
Secretary Taft issued instructions that no
intoxicants were to be served at any of the
banquets tendered him. This naturally leads
the old" Cincinnati contingent to suspect him of
"nature faking,"
The Panama canal commissioners are boast
ing because they move an average of 2,000,000
cubic-yards of-eaTth a month. The old Missouri
river can 'beat that record in twenty-four hours
and never half try.
On September 30, 19Q7, the Bedford, (Pa.).
Gazette completed its one hundred and 'first
year. The Gazette has been democratic for one
hundred and one years, and is "a democrat still "
not a sill democrat. '
The Milwauk'ee Sentinel . says the trouble
4s to get an airship that will alight when you
want it to. .Strange how-obtuse' some people
are. The trouble is to get;an-airship that will
not alight when ypu do not -want it to.
-
A lot of republican newspapers in Nebraska
that used to throw fits at the very mention of
fusion between democrats and populists are
maintaining an eloquent silence concerning a
recent fusion deal -in. Greater New York.
Having won. his libel suit against that up
state editor, Attorney Jerome should now hark
back and explain the connection between those
campaign contributions, and his failure to prose
cute some of the insurance grafters and election
sharpers.
A Russian newspaper predicts that there
will bo war between Japan and "the United
States soon after the Panama canal is completed
'O, well, our grandchildren's great-grandchildren
can take care of it all right.
A Pennsylvania exchange says the chestnut
crop is a failure this year. Even if true, there
is no peed for alarm. There will be-a plenty
of chestnuts, among them that one of "revising
the tariff by its friends" and "the foreigner
pays the tax."
Having' acquiesced In the president's plan
by accepting the mayoralty nomination in Cleve
land, it is only Reciprocal that the president "
should accept Mr. Burton's plan for. improve
jneut of -interior waterways. ' "
Some eminent New York financiers are now
in a position td realize that copper securities
consisting of ninety-sevon per cent water and
three per cent copper are not even so good as
standard silver dollars containing only fifty
cents' worth of silver bullion.
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