.-vws A
NOVEMBER 8? 19 07 "''
-j
The Cdmmonfef .
9
fi
under the law, a very large Bumis 'available
for'banks that carry only a comparatively small
amount when compared with' their capital. Orfo
large Now York bank could, under the law, it is
said, take out $10,000,000 additional circulation
and In all probability will soon ask for a ma
terial increase. Mr. Rldgley today expressed the
opinion that within the next ten days the out
standing circulation of national banks will have
been increased from $25,000,000 to $30,000,000
or more. There are indications that many banks
that have no United States bonds on hand to
deposit as security for circulation, are borrowing
them from other banks that have a surplus on
hand or have already reached their limit. In
many instances these requests are being prompt
ly complied with and there seems to be a gen
oral Inclination among banks to assist one an
other in the effort to materially increase the
amount of national bank circulation."
THIS INTERESTING editorial appeared re
cently in the Omaha World-Herald:
"Never before Jias the national government gpno
to the aid of the national banks of New York as
it has in this emergency. The figures, as shown
by treasury statements from Washington, are
almost startling. Last Saturday's statement
showed government deposits in national banks
of $197,390,000. On the same day the actual
working balance of the treasury has fallen to
less than twenty millions of dollars. It has been
an established rule of the treasury department
for a long while, that the working balance
should not be allowed to fall under fifty mil
lions'. March 21, last, the working balance was
almost one hundred millions, while the de
posits in national banks amounted to 141 mil
lion. April 24 the deposits had been increased
to 166 "millions, and the working balance had
fallen to less than sixty-seven million. The fig
ures remained about stationary for several
months, on October 19 the deposits being 165
millions and the working balance was fifty-four
millions. Then on Thursday of last week six
million more was deposited with the banks, in
creasing the total to 171 million and reducing
the working'balance to forty-eight million. On
Friday ten and one-half millions more went into
the "banks, reducing the working balance to
thirty-seven millions. And on Saturday sixteen
millions more went to feed the New York banks,
making total deposits of almost two hundred
millions, while the working balance was so de
pleted that it was less than forty per cent of
normal. This two hundred million dollars is
money raised by taxation and deposited in the
banks without interest. At four per cent it
would be worth eight millions a year; at six
per cent, twelve millions', and at ten per cent
twenty millions. It is a circumstance worth
thinking about."
HARPERS WEEKLY is popularly supposed
to be under the influence of the special
interests, hence its opinions are not always
worthy of serious consideration. But the Week
ly's spirited reply to President Roosevelt is par
ticularly interesting and may be accepted for
what it is worth. "President Roosevelt an
nounced in his Keokuk speech that if righteous
ness and business conflict, business must give
way even to the point of being ruined. Right
eousness and business are not really in conflict.
Some business men, it is true, are unrighteous,
and when their depravity brings them within
the jurisdiction of the criminal law they ought
to be punished by the courts of justice. But
they ought not so to be proceeded against that
their punishment will bring disaster upon inno
cent men, who are largely in the majority. To
denounce business as unrighteous because some
business men are wicked is equivalent to saying
that the church is rotten because one day priests
got drunk, and because since then some deacons
have embezzled, while, perhaps, some sextorts
have sold interesting corpses to hospitals. Be
sides, there is something else to be considered.
Before Mr. Roosevelt and other republican poli
ticians make a general raid on business for what
ever unrighteousness there may, be among busi
ness men, they ought to consider that much of
the business immorality of today is due to the
partnership, nourished" by the republican pro
tective tariff, between government and business,
between republican politicians and business.
They should recall the fact that the republican
politician has had his political finger in every
large business enterprise of the government:
In mail contracts; star route contracts; soldiers'
headstone contracts; in the purchase )f land
for soldiers' homes and national cemeteries; in
.the purchase of supplies for the army "and navy,
often defrauding the soldiers and sailors; In
the distribution of tho public lands; In staaling
thorn in one way or another; in dishonorably,
acquiring possession of their mines; and, abovo'
all, in securing and interpreting tho tariff. Tho
practical Mr. Roosevelt should not forget his
own relations with the practical Mr. Harrlman,
nor tho collection of campaign funds for his own
political profit from tho insurance companies.
If all business is to bo damaged for the sake
of punishing bad business men, is it not Just
that tlie republican party, or any party In which
plunderers aro conspicuous, should also perish
especially when a leader, like the president, in
sists upon maintaining tho corrupt partnership
between tho party and the protected interests?
The raid on business is too wholesale, on tho
one hand, and, on the other, it is partial. Tho
upshot of it is that sound and honest business
must be punished for tho sins of one wicked
partner, while tho other wicked partner, the
politician, is not only to go free, but is- to be
put in possession and control of all the property
of business, both that of the unrighteous and
that of the righteous."
THE CHICAGO Inter Ocean prints this Inter
esting story: "Tho secret service opera
tives yesterday reported that some official corre
spondence between Attorney General Bonaparte
and District Attorney Sims, containing govern
ment secrets relating to the case of John R.
Walsh, formerly presidont of the Chicago Na
tional bank, now defunct, awaiting trial In con
nection with the failure of the bank, had boon
stolen from tho files in the federal building.
Miss Etta L. McLain, who has been employed
in District Attorney Sim's office for thrco
months, was arrested in company with O. B.
Gordee, charged with 'conspiracy to steal gov
ernment records.' Miss McLain, who is a grad
uate of an eastern college, is alleged to have
procured possession of the records and given
them to Gordee, who lived in the same building
with her on the 'north side.' The records are
believed to have contained information to be
used in the forthcoming prosecution of Mr.
Walsh. Miss McLain and, Gordee were taken
before United States Commissioner Fo.oto Yes
terday and the hearing of tho case was contin
ued until Friday. Miss McLean was released
upon giving her word to appear at the hearing,
while Gordee was taken to the county jail. Both
maintain their innocence. The district attorney
declined to affirm the statement that the papers
purloined were in connection with tho Wabash
case. He confirmed the story of tho theft, but
declared he was not at liberty to state what the
nature of the documents was or to what case
they pertained."
THE DENVER News gives food for serious
thought when it says: "The present tariff
is one of the rankest abuses and absurdities that
any civilized nation ever long endured. It lays
a maximum of burdens on the consumers of Im
ported goods, with very nearly a minimum of
revenue to the government. It is framed almost
wholly in the interest of a small clique of man
ufacturers, whose already overgrown fortunes
arc a public danger, and who are least harmful
when, as with Carnegie, they draw their divi
dends from home xo spend them abroad. Then,
at least, they are not bulling and bearing stocks
on Wall Street and producing conditions like
tthe present. To call the steel trust an infant
'industry is to push even a joke too far; to say
that the tariff on steel Is for the benefit of the
wageworkers, when labor alone is imported free,
is a rather ghastly farce, And it is only through
the democratic party that there is the slightest
chance of remedying this condition. The re
publican party is tied up with tho 'interests'
to an extent that makes reform from that direc
tion impossible. Roosevelt has faced the allied
railroads, but he has not dared to brave the
wrath of the beneficiaries of the tariff. Taft is
careful to tell us that while he favors tariff
revision the revising must be done by the same
'interests' which have given us the present
monstrosity."
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT celebrated his
forty-ninth anniversary Sunday, October
27. Referring to this fact a writer in the New
York World says: "Of the elected presidents
of the United States, Washington was fifty
seven when inaugurated; disregarding the odd
months, Adams and Jackson were sixty-ono,
Jefferson, Madison and J. Q. AdamB fifty-seven,
Monroe fifty-eight, Van Buren and McKinley
"fifty-four,- Polk forty-hlne, Tayldn&alxt&foUr.
Florae forty-eight,- Buchanan slxty-avoJ'LfiTaoln
fifty-two, Hayes lirty-four, Oarflold fdHy-nlno,
Clovoland forty-jiovon, Benjamin Harrison fifty
five. Tho oldest olaetod presidont Installed wa
William Honry Harrison at sixty-eight, (ho
youngest, Grant at forty-six. Tho a'voragQ ' rfge
of. tho twenty, el acted presidents whan fahufei!-
rated was abovo fifty-lx years, Including tho
odd month. Waahlngton, .lofforion, Madfion,
Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Clovoland and
McKinley were Inaugurated In second term at hn
average ago of sixty, odd month Included. Grant
whan inaugurated for tho second time vn tho
ypungost re-elected president not quite fifty
one. Of presidents reaching their ofllco by way
of tho vice presidency, Tyler was fifty-one, PHI
mdro fifty, Johnson fifty-six, Arthur fifty; nvor
ago ago, odd months Included, about fifty-two
and ono-thlrd. Mr. RoomovoU lilnmoir was not
quite forty-three when he became president, up
on McKlnley's doath. He was Inaugurated in
19 0f at forty-six. Upon tho -lt.il of March , 1009,
Mr. Roosevelt will bo fifty years, four months
and seven days old, two your younger than tho
avorage ago of presidents promoted from tho
vice presidency, six your younger than tho aver
age of flrst-eloctod president, ton years younger
than tho average of presidents beginning a
'second elective term.' "
WASHINGTON dispatches for November 2
announce that groat prossuro was being
brought to bear on tho presidont to persuade
him to call congress .In exlia session In tho hope
qf, pushing through an awiot currency bill. Con
gressman Fowler of Now Jersey, one of the
pioneer workers for asset currency gave to tho
Associated Proas a long statement In favor of
his favorite scheme. Now York dispatches told
of a serios of conferences held at J. Plorpont
Morgan's library, the subject under discussion
being asset currency and how to bring it about.
Ono newspaper dispatch says: "Tho seventeen
financiers present Included ,1. P. Morgan, Goorgo
,W. Perkins and Charles Steele of Morgan & Co.,
James Stlllman of the National City ,bank,
Georgq P. Baker of,- the First National. uun.lt;
Honry C. FrlckT former Judge Elbert 1.1. (Jerry,
Thomas F. Ryan, Richard Trimble and Uriitit
B. Schley ot the stock exdmngo firm of Moore
& Schley. None of those present attended tho
all day conference at the library Saturday and
it is understood that another conference is
planned for tomorrow. Concerning yesterday's
meeting Mr. Perkins said that It had been ar
ranged primarily for a discussion of the pros
pects of moving the grain and cotton crops. At
midnight William Solomon and Isaac Seligman
joined the party in the library. The men came
from tho Waldorf Astoria, where the directors
of the Trust Company of America had been In
session for several hours. President Oaklelgh
Thorne of the trust Company presided at the
mooting and it was said he might have a- state
ment to make later."
O i
IN AMERICA there are a number of Europe's
namesake cities and tho story Is 'told' by
a 'Writer in the New York World In' thbj'Away:
"Yarmouth in England, whence the bloaters
came, extends a hand across the sea to' Yar
mouth In Massachusetts, asking for a closer re
lationship and the promotion of mutual Interests
through an exchange of historical documents,
etc. No doubt the filial affection of Boston,
Mass., for the Lincolnshire borough town from
which It derived Its name and the close com
munion of the two Cambrldges have furnished
the precedent. The Idea, If extended to unite
English and European cities in a more intimate
association with their namesake towns in tho
United States, would do much to foster interna
tional amity. In Massachusetts alone, Worces
ter, Gloucester, Plymouth, Taunton and number
less other cities and towns of English antece
dents might knit the two nations in closer bonds.
Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester have
American offspring deserving of cultivation.
Rocholle might fraternize with the city of the
Hugenot refugees. Namesake cities indeed bind
us to the whole civilized world, ancient and mod
ernfl Have we not twenty Romes that should
forever attach- the eternal city to us? Thirty
Berlins recall the kaiser's capital, twenty
Parises the 'city of light.' There are Madrids
and Peklns, a Utica, Syracuse, Carthage, Pal
myra and Cairo. There is even a Yeddo, and
no doubt in course of time there will be .a
Tokio. Hague conferences of the future might
profitably concern themselves with a propa
ganda of universal peace through cordial rela
tions between namesake cities."
0 , '.
4
'I
i
Of
. j JflWM n Hi teTfciflf 1 1 nfifrfi jfr ' AfcAairjimt i ' a ttrm tJAtnimt ijmmb jgjS"L.
. JUAV... . t
3m