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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1907)
NOVEMBER 22, 1907 The Commoner 9 &?... if f t1 i i kfc- & VrtV' 'X i ". T if m. V vm a student in the academic department of the state university twenty-three years ago. Then he returned to his home in Audrian coun ty and Cupid stepped in and ended school days for more than a decade. Ho met a graduate of Stevens college, Columbia, while at the uni versity last summer and married her. Ho con cluded to finish his education and matriculate at the agricultural department of the university. His son is In the same department. Van Natta senior intends to complete the four years' course. He has rented his fine two hundred acre farm, five miles from Vandalia, Mo. Mrs. Van Natta is now in Columbia. The family wiH live there until father and son graduate." ANEW YORK dispatch to the Chicago Record Herald says: "There were two sensational developments in the Illinois Central fight today. One was the discovery that E. H. Harriman had bought the Georgia Central railroad last spring through Oaklelgh Thorne and M. J. Perry, plan ning to sell it to the Illinois Central. The other was a veiled threat made by J. T. Harahan, president of the Illinois Central, in a circular letter to the stockholders that the traffic rela tions between Union Pacific and Illinois Cen tral might be severed if Harriman does not retain control of the Illinois Central. This cir cular says that-the tariff interchange with the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific is vastly more beneficial to the Hlinois Central than to the other lines. According to the Wall Street story of the sale of the Georgia Central railroad to Har riman, Mr. Thorne and Mr. Perry, the osten sible buyers received a commission of $150,000 for purchasing control. Harriman then bor rowed $2,700,000 of Thome's Trust Company of America on Georgia Central stock. Harri man was required to put up only $300,000 in cash, the purchase price being $3,000,000. Har riman's plan to finance the Georgia Central pur chase was interfered with by the recent financial unrest. The loan by the Trust Company of America of $2,700,000 on $3,000,000 worth of Georgia Central stock was one of those objected to by J. P. Morgan, who refused to take it over until Harriman had put up also a large amount ,of Union. Pacific and other gilt-.edged securities." aOVERNOR C. N. HASKELL was inaugurat ed governor of Oklahoma November 16 with impressive ceremony. President .Roose velt signed the proclamation admitting Okla homa as a state at 10:16 a. m. Saturday, No vember 16. In his inaugural address Governor Haskell said: "It is with regret that we notice a disposition on the part of some high authority to look upon the constitution of the United States itself as even a little thing, to be used when it meets the wish of its executor, and to be construed and bent when at variance. There is no more dangerous practice to be tolerated in any public officer, I care not whether he bend it for a good purpose or for a bad purpose, than to assume the right to construe the constitution from time to time to meet his own desires. Those anxious to centralize power in the federal government must blush when they review the conditions under which we have lived for years. Our freight rates are double those in the ad joining states. The lumber trust, the coal trust and other like combinations have fattened by unrestricted robbery of our people. If federal control is such a good thing in a state, why has it proven so utterly inefficient in a territory? You can look for iirimediate relief wherever you please. When you tiro of looking elsewhere you will agree with me that the quickest road to financial relief is to close the New York stock exchange and free the currency that it dominates and turn it Into the channels of legitimate com merce. Let the eastern banks pay our Okla homa banks what they owe them and they should pay in currency on demand and we can market our produce now ready for the buyer, and vastly increase our own wealth. ROBERT L. OWEN, democratic senator-elect from Oklahoma, In speaking to a corre spondent for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, sug gested the creation of a "special currency fund by the treasury department of the United States to be advanced to the banks of the country upon acceptable bonds to safeguard against "runs" and the levying of a small tax upon national bank circulation for a fund to guarantee deposi tors against loss through Insolvency. Asked what remedy he would suggest Senator Owen said: "First, the guaranteed security of deposi tors against loss by the insolvency of banks, tfhis can be,sccured through a small tax on the national bank circulation, which Is at present earning nearly $10,000,000 annually. A fund could in this way bo procured from which de positors could bo paid in case of falluro in cur rency. Secondly, I would recommend a reason able guaranteo of depositors against delay In getting currency for their deposits, by authoriz ing the secretary of the treasury to have printed and kept on hand a 'special currency fund.' This could bo kept In an amount of not less than $50,000,000, with a maximum of $100,000,0000. This could bo advanced to banks on acceptable bonds. Such deposits not to excood eighty per cent of tho bonds. An Interest charge of six per cent, say, for the first ninety days, and eight per cont thereafter, could bo made. Falluro to redeem tho bonds would forfeit them to the government." AN ASSOCIATED Press dispatch under date of Washington, November 17, follows: "Secretary Cortelyou tonight made tho impor tant announcement that as a means of affording relief to tho financial situation, the treasury will issue $50,000,000 of Panama bonds and $100,000,000 certificates of indebtedness, or bo much thereof as may be necessaiy. Tho certifi cates will run for ono year, and will bear three per cent interest. Tho secretary's action in com ing to the relief of tho financial situation meets with President Roosevelt's hearty approval, and the plan Is tho outcome of tho soveral Whito House conferences which have been hold within tho past few days when tho financial situation was under consideration. Secretary Cortelyou says that the Panama bonds will afford most substantial relief, as the law provides that they may be used as a basis for additional national bank circulation. Ho also states that the pro ceeds from the sale of certificates can bo made directly available at points where tho need is most urgent, and especially for the movement of crops, which, he says, 'if properly accelerated, will give tho greatest relief and result In tho most Immediate financial returns.' The secretary calls attention to the attractiveness of the bonds and certificates as absolutely safe Investments. Secretary Cortelyou adds that tho relief meas ures will onablo him to meet public expendi tures without withdrawing for that purpose any appreciable amount of public moneys now de posited in national banks throughout the coun try. Two treasury circulars, ono inviting pro posals for the issue of bonds and tho other ask ing for the certificates, will be sent out under date of November 18. In his letter to Secre tary Cortelyou, approving tho secretary of tho treasury's plans, President RooseVelt states that ho has been assured that the leaders in con gress have under consideration a currency meas ure 'which will meet in permanent fashion tho needs of the situation and which, I believe, will be passed at an early date after congress con venes two weeks hence.' Tho president also calls attention to what Is needed most at this time, saying that the 'people should realize how fundamentally sound business conditions in this country are, and how absurd it is to permit themselves to get Into a panic and create a stringency by hoarding their money Instead of trusting perfectly sound banks.' " AN ASSOCIATED Press dispatch from Girard, Kan., says: "Acting under special in structions from Attorney General Bonaparte, United States District Attorney Bone of Topeka has begun criminal proceedings against the pub lishers of the socialist paper, 'The Appeal to Reason Fred D. Warren, editor; Eugene V. Debs, editorial writer, and other members of the staff, because of a cartoon and article which, it is stated, were objectionable to Mr. Bonaparte and President Roosevelt. This order was Issued after the district attorney investigated the case and reported to the department of justice that there were no grounds for Indictment. The first article to which the administration at Washing ton objected was writteb. by Eugene V. "Debs, and was a 'denunciation of the president for his attitude In the Haywood case in Idaho. Another article specified is an offer of a reward for the kidnaping and return to Kentucky of William Taylor, fugitive former governor of that state, after tho United States supreme court in the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone jiabeas corpus appeal 'had decided kidnaping to be an act of legality It was pointed out that President Roosevelt had personally contributed to the defense fund of Calob Powors, tho defendant In tho Gobel mur dor case, while branding tho Idaho prisoner aa 'undosirablo citizens.' Aftor tho matter had boon dropped for lack of sufficient ground, an tho district nttornoy said, on which to bnso an indictment, Tho Appeal to Reason published a cartoon by Ryan Walkor caricaturing both At torney vGonoral Bonaparte nnd Prosldent Rooso volt, after which tho attorney general ordered the case ro-oponcd. Tho action against Tho Ap peal to Reason Is basod upon soctlon 4988 of the fodernl statutes, which it Is hoped to so con strue as to define tho first page of any paper as its 'cover or wrapper.' Tho law prohibits tho mulling of any paper when there appears upon such 'cover or wrapper' any delineations, epi thets, tornis or language of a scurrilous, dofam atory or threatening character, or calculated by tho tonus of manner or stylo of display to re flect Injuriously upon tho character or conduct of another, and provides a penalty for each and ovory offence' of five yoars imprisonment at hard labor, or $5,000 fine, or both. Postofllco Inspec tor Chance of Fort Scott informed Tho Appeal management that the case had boon closod on tho record of the postofllco depart ment, but that it had been ro-oponod at tho direction of Attorney General Bonaparlo. Tho Appeal to Reason management argues that a conviction would establish a precedent which would enable tho administration to exerciso a rigid censorship over all papers during a na tional campaign next year, suppressing 'undesir able' cartoons and eliminating unfriendly mattor from tho first page. The editor of Tho Appeal to Reason is already under indictment In tlio federal court for publishing and mailing articles reflecting on President Roosevelt. Ills trlal;will be called In tho November term of tho United States district court at Fort Scott." 171 DWIN SIDFTON, sccrotary committee on 1 organization and campaign democratic national committee, has compiled tho national convention proceedings of the democratic party. This publication covers tho complete record from the party's inception to and Including tho 1904 convention. Tho "proceedings" will con sist of eight volumes, Referring to this pub lication Former Senator Blackburn mya: 'From my acquaintance with Mr. Bofton, which ia of many yoars standing, and his long association with democratic national politics, I am sure that tho compilation which ho has made Is per fect in all its detallsr and It gives me pleasurb to commend his work to tho democrats of this country, as I feel suro that it will bo of great valuo not only to democratic organizations, but to democrats individually." , THE STORY OF JOHN R. WALSIl (Continued from Pago Seven) price or at tho same price, but usually at a higher price, as wo will show. . "This went on for years, and yet upon' tfi'o books of 'tho Chicago National bank it does, not. appear that Mr. Walsh sold ono of these bonds to himself at a smaller price than ho sold- it to the bank. It does not appear that ho got tho bond department check for it, because that was made out to the bearer when he deposited it with his personal account. In short, thero is not a scratch on the books to show that the bond department check had gone Into his per sonal account, and these facts were only dug up by Bank Examiner Moxey after an exhaustive search in tho vaults of tho bank." Taking up the subject of the alleged forged notes found in the bank, Mr. Dobyns declared tho transactions found were "fraudulcqt throughout" and unknown to honest banking methods. "Mr. Walsh would make out a note, wo will say, in the name of W. S. Wilder, for $92,000, with $100,000 Indiana Southern rail way, bonds as collateral," he said. "That not would go to the loans and discount department of the bank and the cashier's check for $92,000, or whatever the amount was, -would be made out to W S. Wilder, or to bearer, but never to John R. Walsh, although the collateral bond was ono belonging to Walsh. "The books also will show you, gentlemen, that Mr. Walsh's account with tho bank was a small ono; that his various companies alwayg were In. a poor. condition and very often they, were overdrawn." ',vfru.iijtfij MMi. lArtW ,v i ?j&! ? .