APRIL 3, 1908
The Commoner.
The Handful of Men Who Rule A
menca
Senator LaFolletto concluded his speech
against the Aldrich bill March 24. The- Asso
ciated Press tells the story in this way:
Washington, March 24. Upon the condu
ction of Senator LaFolletto's speech on the Aid
rich currency bill in the sonata today, a plan
was decided upon by which Senator Aldrich will
tomorrow move to take up the bill and continuo
its consideration until it has been disposed of.
'$' Mr. Aldrich asked for unanimous consent to dls
";, pose of the bill before adjournment Thursday,
$Lbut to that proposition Senator LaFolletto ob
jected on the ground that ho feared debate
Should be curtailed by such a procedure.
The colloquy which resulted in Mr. Ald-
trich's announcement followed the conclusion of
the third and last installment of Senator La-
rFollette's speech in opposition to the Aldrich
bill. Mr. LaFollette declared lhat his statement
that the industries of this country were con
trolled by less than one hundred men had been
attacked as sensational. Declaring that such
.was not the case, he said that ho had been too
conservative and that in fact a much smaller
number of men dominate the industries.
"Along with this enormous increase in trust
power, has gone a steady process of centraliza
tion in the control of that power, until now the
ntiro situation is dominated by the 'Standard
Oil-Morgan combination,' he declared. "The
'&old fights between these two great powers have
Jfebeen laid aside. Mr. Morgan's picture adorns
the wall of the inner room or me KocKoieners
at 26 Broadway. In combination today they are
working together to gather in the smaller pow
ers. Mr. Hill has been taught that he must not
oppose the big ones. The Standard Oil got In on
the Great Northern ore deal. The Gould inter
ests are being swallowed by the combine. Morse
and Heinze were neatly pocketed during the re
cent panic.
"The smelter trust was given a drubbing
and started in the same direction. The Vander
bilts can no longer retain their important con
trol and themselves see the handwriting on the
wall."
The senator quoted John Moody to show an
enormous growth in trust consolidation and cap
italization in four years. In 1904 Mr. Moody
placed the capitalization of the industrial fran
chise and railroad trusts at over $20,000,000,-
000. That amount has increased more than
$11,000,000,000 or more than flfty-flvo per cent.
Tho $31,000,000,000, ho said, did not represent
the financial combinations, bank and trust and
insurance companies.
Mr. LaFolletto read tho names of eminent
financiers to whom ho accorded various degrees
of power in the control of Industries. He In
cluded Senator Depow of New York as among
those who exercised largo power and hold many
directorships In the form of delegated power
exercised by him in a more representative ca
pacity. Mr. Depow was in his seat, and general
laughter followed tho mention of his name.
Mr. LaFollette named as next after Mr.
Morgan and the Rockefellers, a group of four
teen men, who, he said, wore "big operators and
men of large power and Interests in their own
rights." These men, ho said, find their best
interests "in working in harmony with Morgan
and Standard Oil." No combination which they
could form among themselves or with others
could cope with that power, ho declared.
In this list of fourteen ho placed W. K.
Vanderbilt, August Belmont, Frederick Weyer
hauser, Henry C. Frick, J. Ogdon Armour,
Gcorgo Gould, Jacob Schiff, B. II. Harriinan,
Thomas F. Ryan, Louis S. Swift, John Jacob
Astor, James Speyer, .lames J. Hill and W. II.
Moore.
A second class of men In tho list wore tho
"stars of lesser magnitude," but men of wealth
and power who work in with tho combine and
a few of the higher rank of attorneys and bank
presidents of the system. This group follows:
C. II. Dodge, C. H. McCormlck, Stephen S.
Palmer, Drayton Ives, C. A. Poabody, G. F.
Baker, J. F. Dryden, J. S. Post, II. Taylor Pyne,
T. H. Hubbard, G. G. Haven, W. R. Oakman,
F. J. Berwynd, J. B. Duke, P. A. Valentine, W.
D. Sloan, Adrian Iselin, Jr., Frederick Cromwell,
G. W. Young, C. Lodyard Blair, D. Guggen
heim, V. P. Snyder, A. H. Brady, Edwin Hawley,
D. O. Mills, Charles Steele, John J. Waterbury,
Oliver Ames, Nathaniel Thayer, E. II. Gary,
John C. Lafiin, John R. Hageman, '. II. Mackay,
W. K. Vanderbilt, J. J. Mitchell, T. Jefferson
Coolidge, Thomas Dolan, Samuel Lea, Chester
Lanier, James C. Fargo, D. O. Reid, Henry
Walters, Norman B. Roam, II. L. HiKfctnuon, P.
A. B. Widener and F. B. Morris.
Of tho third group, Including the balance
of the lists, Senator LaFollotto said: "While
some of them exercise large power and hold
many directorships It Is a delected power ex
cised by them In a mere representative capacity."
This part of tho list Is as follows: Fdwln
S. Marston, G. W. Perkins, John S. Sterling,
Otto II. Kahn, John F. .larvls. A. W. Krotch,
Paul Morton, II. C. Doming, Charles II. Russell,
Clmuneey M. Depow, Oliver II. Payne. W. S.
Habb, James II. Foran, Moses Taylor, Francis
M. Baron. James Stlllman, Luther Kountze, II.
P. Whitney, Paul 1). Cravath. Levi P. Morton,
N. N. Vreelnnd, W. Godhuo Langdon, C. W.
Morse, Charles M. Schwab, 15. F. C. Young, J. II.
Converse, II. A. C. Taylor, C. S. Kalrchild. G. S.
Whitson. A. I). Gulllard, G. II. Allen, V. Morltz,
J. II. Parker. Krcdorick Sturgus, C. N. BIIhh, A.
Forr, II. Mack Twombly, Charles Dawes and S.
R. Shipley.
Mr. LaFollette argued that tho Aldrich bill
would only serve to strengthen this groat money
power In Wall Street. Ho criticised tho failure
of the committee on finance In not keeping hank
reserves in the vaults of the banks throughout
tho country.
Mr. LaFolletto concluded his speech with
a strong appeal to "tho progressive men" in tho
senate to stand together and beat the bill. Ho
spoke of tho activities of the president and Mr.
Bryan In combatting with wrongdoing among
high financiers.
"Whatever differences there may be in party
policy or personality between the president and
Mr. Bryan they are striving, each in his own
way, for certain fundamental truths. Whatever
mistakes Mr. Bryan may have made In policy,
whatover mistakes tho president may have made
In promising legislation, they aro believed In
by tho people berauso they are fighting to pre
serve the principle that the nation should be
governed by tho people."
At the conclusion of Mr. LaFolletto's re
marks, Mr. Teller said he had listened to his
narrative on the enormities of the pending bill
with intorost and said that some of the difficul
ties he complained of were already provided by
laws on the statute books, Instancing laws for
tho punishment of derelict bank officials.
Democrats Ready to Help in All Good Measures
Men of all political parties having no spe
cial interests at stake but being concerned solely
in the public welfare, will be interested In the
statement issued on behalf of the democratic
(members of congress by Mr. Williams of Mis
sissippi. The following dispatch carried by tho
Associated Press tells tho story:
Washington, March 2G. Representative
John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi, as leader
of the minority in the house of representatives,
tonight issued to the press a written statement
defining precisely the attitude of the democratic
party in the house toward legislation urged by
President Roosevelt in his message to congress
at the present session. The statement describes
what republican legislation democrats will sup
port, what they will oppose and what conces
sions they demand on the part of the majority
as the price of refraining from an organized fili
buster throughout the remainder of the session.
Mr. Williams opens his statement by saying:
"Some things in the president's recent mes
sage are so immediately important to the in
terests of the entire country as to pass the
bounds of partisanship and to make it inexcus
able for me not to say anything concerning them
with the view of assuring the president himself
and reasonably inclined republican members of
the house and the country of the support and
endorsement, or of the opposition of tho demo
cratic minority. Insofar as the things urged by
the president are good things I would like the
country to know that all he has to do is to
deliver twenty or twenty-five republican house
votes in favor of them. These, conjoined with
the solid democratic votes, will put them
through."
Mr. Williams notes the following measures
as the ones which will "command virtually the
solid democratic vote within constitutional
limits:"
To compel publication of campaign contri
butions. Prohibition of child labor in tho District
of Columbia and the territories.
An employers' liability law, drawn to con
form to the recent decisions of the supreme
court.
Federal liability to government employes.
A law to prohibit tho issuance of injunc
tions without notice to the party enjoined.
Removal of the tariff on wood pulp and
printing paper.
Imposition of a federal charge for every
water power right granted on a navigable
stream.
Those principles and measures urged by the
president with which Mr. Williams, as minority
leader, takes issue, are enumerated as follows:
The penalizing of the boycott.
The right of the attorney general to nom
inate receivers when common carriers are
thrown into the hands of a receiver.
The modification of the Sherman anti-trust
law so as to permit within limitations the main
tenance of trusts, and the making of trade agree
ments between combinations of capital.
The appointment of a commission to pre
pare data for a revision of the tariff.
Commending the president for his recom
mendation for "the immediate enactment of an
employers' liability law," Mr. Williams says:
"There is no excuse for the delay on the
part of the republican members of the house
judiciary committee to report an employers'
liability law. Their delay at least arouses, if it
does not justify, a suspicion that they are hav
ing a lot of useless hearings simply for the pur
pose of having the bill as a buffer to prevent
the serious consideration of other bills before
the committee."
Respecting pending bills to prevent the
issuing of injunctions without prior opportunity
for the enjoined party to be heard, the minority
loader says: "Of course, I take it that nobody
will understand the president or me to mean
that there should bo any limit on temporary
restraining orders when intended to prevent the
Immediate destruction of property, life or limb.
When I say property I do not mean judicially
constructed 'property rights.' "
One of tho most vigorous portions of Mr.
Williams' statements regards tho boycott. After
quoting tho president's declaration that nothing
should bo done to legalize a blacklist or boy
cott that would bo Illegal at common law, Mr.
Williams says:
"It Is a sad commentary upon this utter
ance of his that, while the federal courts have
held that a boycott Is a combination In restraint
of trade and therefore Illegal, they have virtu
ally upheld tho employer In his assertion of a
right to blacklist because one federal court wont
so far as to say that because the employer had
a right to discharge without giving any notice
at all, therefore, he had a right to discharge
because the discharged man was a member of
a labor union. It Is a poor rule that does nol
work both ways."
Tho president's recommendation of a law to
place wood pulp on the free list, "with a cor
responding reduction upon paper made from
wood pulp when they come from any country
that does not put an export duty upon them,"
meets with Mr. Williams' approval, "except that
it does not go quite far enough."
"There are other things in the president's
message," said Mr. Williams, "which one might
naturally expect, considering his education in
the line of Hamiltonlsm, and his tendencies to
ward federalism can not meet with democratic
approval. One is his Idea that the attorney
general representing the government should
have the right to nominate receivers when a
common carrier Is thrown Into the hands of a
receiver. That right ought to rest in a court
not in the executive."
