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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1907)
w-"wm,y&w'$mtw$7r?' r,."9vfmvm' 'mv$WtWl wv r oyisrTS V- KOVBMBBR 8, 1907; The Commoner fri .t-v 5 . vmmmmm j Garden or Eden, for we have In tlio First Ne braska district as beautiful -and .fertile farm y lands as the sun turns his face upon in all .: nls course. I deny that it is just to the farmers of my district that gamblers should be permitted to bet on the price of their products to thpir injury after they hare prepared their crops for the market. When the farmer has taken the chances of rain and drouth, when he has taken the chances which must come to the farmer as they scarcely 'come to anybody else; when he has escaped the grasshopper and the chinch bug and the rain and the hail and the dry winds, I Insist that he shall not then be left to the mercy of a gang of speculators who, for their own gain, will take out of him as much of the remainder as they can possibly get. "There is no difference in the moral char acter of the transaction between the action of the burglar who goes to a man's house at night and takes from him a part of that which he receives for his wheat, and the action of the gambler .who goes on the board of trade and, by betting on the price of products, brings down that price and takes that much from the farmor's income." '. As with the farmer's grain so with the property of the railroad stockholder, or the industrial corporation stockholder, or the bank - depositor, or the real estate owner, or the wage earner the property and rights of everyone .of whom are affected by these high scale gamb lers who, under the guise of business men, have destroyed honest values and created fictitious values at their own pleasure. It will do no good for the American people , to shut their eyes to the truth J they must not suffer themselves to be led into greater pitfalls by the very men who have brought them to their present day plight. Let us cultivate a healthy public sentiment that will frown upon this great gambling system. If the educators who have faith in the power of public opinion to remedy evil will endeavor to create a sentiment against gambling in stocks and grain and produce they will find it easier., to prevent gambling among their students. " - If the ministers who discourse eloquently on sin in the slums of the; cities will arraign the-speculating pew holders they will find it easier to cure the more hideous but less harm ful kind of gambling. If the bank depositor, the property owner, the wageworker :-men and women in all stages of life who want a condition of affairs wherein the results of their toil will be safe from the hands of those who would misappropriate it let them join in the chorus that ought to go up -from every city and village and from every farm - in the United States of America: "Stock ex change gambling must go." ;m ; : s - r Washington Letter Washington, D. C, November 11. I talked recently with a man who is -recognized in Wash ington as the first financier of the city chitside of the treasury department. The windows of his office look out on the stately colonade of that gray granite building in which are kept the millions , of the United States government and under the rqof of which are housed the Becrets of the relations of the United States Treasury with the great banks of New York; While I was talking with him two former treas ury, officials, -who are now high In banking circles in New York came in to discuss the sit uation. The spot was the center of national finance so far as Washington Is concerned. The banker to whom I was talking frankly admitted that much of the trouble in New York, Indeed most of it, was duer as he said, to the fact that every corporation of great size and power which had been subjected to an investigation of any sort proved to be full of corruption. From he time that the Investigation into the insur ance companies of New York began until now that they are Investigating Thomas F. Ryan's merger, there has been an uninterrupted course, of revelations of dishonesty on the part of the managers of these corporations. "It is not," said he, "that the banks of New York are weak. As a matter of fact they never were stronger. It .is not that there Is anything in the country to justify apprehension of disaster. The crops are good and prices high. But .a few men of great prominence in the United. States have put their personal fortunes far ahead of their indi vidual honor, or of their duty to those who have entrusted them with the management of the corporations they control. I do not boliovo that either newspaper clamor or the trust' busting activities of tho presfdont caused this collapse. It is due more than anything else to tho ontiroly justifiable exposition of tho financial methods of some of tho now practitioners of high finance" Not everybody sees the Now York Sun. Not everybody knows that it speaks distinctly for Wall Street. As a newspaper it Is seldom fair but usually clever. This is tho comment which it has to make upon the Now York panic for .that panic will hardly spread boyond tho gambling district which clusters ' around tho United States sub-treasury: " 'He touched tho dead corpso, Public Credit,' said Daniel Webster of Alexander Ham ilton, 'and it sprung upon Its feet.' "Is It to be said of another Now York fed eralist, infinitely more popular and far more of a federalist than Hamilton that ho touched tho healthy body of Private Credit, and it became a corpse?" "Shall It be added that an adoring nation cheered tho miracle and murmured with rever ent lips: 'Hail Caesar! Wo who are about to bust salute you.' " In sharp contrast to tho alacrity with which the secretary of the treasury has sprung to tho relief of Wall Street every time thoro has been a flurry on the stock exchange, is tho cold re ception accorded the financial needs of another section of the nation. In tho south tho banks have served notice that they will no longer make advances on warehouse cotton. Tho ex cuse of the bankers for thus practically forcing tho sale of cotton in storage is that it will bring millions of much needed foreign money into the country. In other words tho producer of cot ton Is to be forced to sell his prbduct at a sac rifice that money may be poured Into Wall Street to save the stock gambler from sacrific ing, his stock on the market. It is this situation that has brought Representative Burleson of Texas to Washington. He has asked that de posits to 4the amount of ton millions, one-third of the amount deposited in one day in Now York City to check the Wall Street panic, be distributed among the southern banks in order to save the cotton producer $150,000,000. This request is in compliance with the recent law that the treasury deposits should bo distributed equitably between tho different states and sec tions. It is not a wild cat request because a warehouse certificate on cotton Is far better se curity for a government loan than tho collateral tho New York banks are now depositing to got the nation's funds. Tho treasury has de posited to date in national banks about $201, 000,000, a large proportion of this amount (n New York. Much of this money has been loaned by the government In the last few days to stock gamblers, in order 'to obviate their dumping their watered stocks upon tho market to bring what they would. It would seem that there, is as much Teason for the administration to consider tho loss of tho producer of an actual product of real wealth, like cotton, as to favor Wall Street. Yet Mr. Burleson is curtly told by the treasury department that however much the government might be disposed to comply with .. his request, it would rnot now be possible, as the treasury has already been stripped of Its cash save a bare working balance. In fact, the working balance alluded to, -is admitted In Wash ington to be far short of tho amount required for that purpose. WILLIS J. ABBOT. SPEAIONGOF "VIMLES" There is a merry contest going on between the Houston Post, Washington Herald, Charleston- News and Courier, Milwaukee Sentinel and other newspapers as to which locality offers the most gustatory delights. Owing to the fact that Nebraska has not yet been entered The Commoner admits that the Houston Post leads with the following: . "A pair of Texas 'possums duly dressed and baked, garnished with taters, and accompanied by Texas celery, tomatoes, crackling bread, cold buttermilk and punkln pie." The Post furthermore promises to fur nish the "vittles" for a Thanksgiving day din ner if the contestants will visit Houston. This sounds good, but up hero In Nebraska the Thanksgiving day dinner will consist of alfalfa fattened turkey stuffed with the crumbs of bread made from Nebraska wheat, sweet taters raised in the once despised sandhills, seedless tomatoes that will still bo blushing red on the vines despite the November season -and each weighing more'n a pound, pone made from the finest corn that over rustled its blades in tho wind or noddod its tassols towards tho horizon, wheat broad mado from wheat so hard it cuU tho rollors like omory -powder, boss mado from apples as different from tho Bon DavJs varioty as democratic, principles aro from g. o, p. hot air, tomato ketchup so fine that every taste gives you an appetite for another squnro meal, maca roni and cbceso, tho ingredients of which were secured first hand from Nebraska farms and dalryn, Injun puddin' covered with a swoot aauco mado from sugar extracted from Nebraska beets, and plo mado of punkins as yollow as a newly minted gold caglo and swootor'n a dream erf your first sweotheart. Tho chief drink will bo wator so cloar that a full glass looks ompty and so cold that It will mako frost on tho outer rim; wator that has boon flltored and purified by thousands of foot of porcolatlon through rock aud sand and brought to tho surfaco by gravity. And whoit tho dinner is ovor tho happy NobraskanB will wander forth under tho clear blue sky and look abroad ovor a land toemin'g with industry and dotted by full granaries, pretty schoolhouscs, cdmfortablo churches, cosy homos and fat flocks and herds. Texas, Wis consin, South Carolina, tho District of Colum bia fino places all and worthy tho praises of tholr local journalists. But ovory tlmo wo walk abroad across tho Nebraska flolds wo kick up evidences that go far to provo to our entiro satisfaction that tho Garden of Edon was located between tho Missouri river and tho seventh guide meridan west, with tho clear and pollucld Platte bisecting it east and wost. oooo WILL FURNISH "STRIKE BREAKERS" Laboring men will bo particularly Interest ed In a nowspnpor dispatch under dato of Wash ington, Octobor 25, and printed in tho Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal, republican: "Tho buroau of commerco and statistic is sending out circulars all over tho country to the principal business houses and associa tions which is very likely to stir tho labor unions to wrath, "In this lcttor tho bureau says that accord ing to the import of congress which created the department they aro trying to help poor, ignor ant, and homeless foreigners to a ,placo wh.re labor is plentiful. They point out that thoro aro thousands of aliens, many of them unskilled laborers and others tradesmen of tho highest skill, who have settled in sections of tho coun try where their true economic worth is not ap preciated. TIjobo men aro living in parts of tho country that aro over-populated where work is scarce and lahorers are plentiful. ' "Tho department is asking those to whom they send their circulars to send them lists of employers who aro In need of help and tho kind of workmen they need. The department on receipt of this Information will get into communication with tho mon who wish to im port laborers frorn the congested foreign dis tricts in. the cast and will endeavor to send them men to fill the vacant -places. The department says that the list they will bo able to fill in cludes skilled labor pf all kinds, unskilled, labor, farm hands, domestic and settlers. fc ; "The thousands of men, easily got- hpjd pf by this department of tho United States ,oy ornment to send to any part of tho nation wher , a call comes from may affect strike situations to a. great extent. So it is looked on by those who have heard of tho mqyc of tho authorities and it 4 expected further that tho various organIzar tlons of allied labor will protest agains tho gov ernment putting in their way cheap foreign, labor with-which they must thereafter compete' . , OOOO iH ONLY? The Hurley (S. D.) Herald (rep.), says:. "Tho republican party is under more 'or less suspicion today of being a corporation nartjr.'; Only suspicion? ;.. t'. "WITHOUT ARE DOGS" '","' If, through some wondrous miracle of grace, . To the Celestial city I might win, And -find upon the golden pavement place, Tho gates of pearl within. Irisdmo sweet pausing of the immortal song ' '" To which the choiring Seraphim gave birth, Should I not for that humbler greeting long Known in the dumb companionships of earth? Friends whom the softest whistle of my call - -Brought to my. side in love that knew no doubt, :. Would I not seek to cross the jasper wall ; If haply I might find you there "Without?" Edward A. .-Church in the September Century. 1 r ; mh .Ut' ,mV4.