The Commoner.
fANUAIlT 29, 1909
itudy Course for Commoner Readers
Tim f!nnimoTifir receives so many reauests for
kistorical information and argument on subjects
irought to puoiic attention uiruugii cuireui
Svents that it is impossible to adequately an- .
iwer all of these appeals.
ty mnfit this nood The Commoner will pub
lish mi nducational series. These articles will
tbc interesting to all Commoner readers as well
is to those who may be engaged in the study
f o nnvHmiln-n minKHnn.
fc Thn initial article of this series annears in
rhiis Issun of The Commoner and relates to the
alien and sedition laws. This subject is perti
Inent at this time because the peculiar proceed-
llngs now being carrieu on against tne iNew
.York World and the Indianapolis News provide
ra strong reminder or tne alien ana seuition laws.
The history of these obnoxious measures is
briefly set forth in this issue.
Next week this department will be devoted
ho the Carnegie pension fund for teachers.
I It will not bo possible, of course, to print an
fof the interesting data' concerning the subjects
A pn.lt with but the articles nrinted in The Com-
inioner may well serve as a basis for further in-
Ivestigation and discussion.
Ttep.nnse the subiects treated in this series
; will be of current interest it would be well if a
club were organized in every town and precinct
of the United states. Tnis ciud snouia eacn
week carefully investigate and discuss the sub
ject dealt with in the preceding issue of The
Commoner.
The result can not but be beneficial to all in
dividuals participating in the study course and
it goes without saying that it would be advan
tageous to our government, for when men care
fully investigate public questions they will take
the trouble to vote intelligently.
Reaching a large number of people The Com
moner is, admittedly, an educational force. It
would widen its sphere of influence not alone
bo for as respects the number of its readers,
but as well in the degree of the service it may
render to those who are already on its subscrip
tion list.
The Commoner would be glad to learn that
an educational club along the lines suggested is
organized in every town or country precinct In
the United States.
It will not bo a difficult matter to organize
such a club in every precinct for the reason that
it does not require a large number of persons
to begin with. If there are but two or three
persons within a precinct ready at this time to
undertake the organization of such a club let
them establish it and while they will bo greatly
benefited themselves they may depend upon it
that the organization will grow in numbers.
In The Commoner's educational series the
tariff as it affects individuals will bo dealt with
in a' particularly instructive way.
These subjects will bo discussed:
Postal Savings Banks Recall of Public Olll
Guarnntccd Deposits cials
Imperialism Commission Form of
, , .Municipal Govern-
Colonialism ment
The Rights of the Regulation of Rail
State roads and Other
State Wide Primary Corporations
.Laws Popular Election of
Inheritance Tax Senators
Initiative and Referen- Income Tax
dum The Trust Question
Also other subjects upon which every American
citizen should be accurately informed will bo
carefully dealt with in this educational series.
The democratic clubs in various precincts and
towns might well bo utilized as the nucleus for
the organization of these educational clubs. In
fact it would bo well if every democratic club
in the country adopted The Commoner's course
of study. It would bo difficult to over-estimate
the excellent results that would follow the wide
spread movement along educational lines that
would bo possible through an organized and
systematic effort on the part of the democratic
clubs of the country.
Who will take the lead in the organization
of the first one of these clubs?
As soon as a club is organized the fact of its
organization together with its name and the
names of its officers should be forwarded to The
Commoner for publication in these columns.
MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE STEEL TRUST
In its issue of January 12 the Wall Street
'Journal printed the following:
Boston Adams, in the Boston News Bureau,
nays:
One of the most amusing things that has
taken place in the past week has been President
Roosevelt's answer to the senate on the matter
of the benevolent assimilation of the Tennessee
Coal and Iron company by the United States
Steel corporation. Mr. Roosevelt states that he
was responsible for every detail of the transac
tion, and is cognizant of all the facts. He told
the senate (using a letter to Attorney General
Bonaparte as a vehicle) that Messrs. Gary and
Frick had come to him in the dead of night,
stating that a calamity would soon take place
in New York, unless the steel corporation should
be permitted by the president to take over the
Tennessee Coal and Iron company. These gen
tlemen advised Mr. Roosevelt that a business
firm in New York would go to the wall, unless
the Tennessee Coal and Iron company were
taken off their shoulders. They did not tell
Mr. Roosevelt, however, the name of the firm,
nor the fact that other institutions of many
times the magnitude of the stock exchange
house in question, had already gone to the wall.
Messrs. Gary and Frick, according to the
president, said that the United States Steel cor
poration did not really want the Tennessee Coal
and Iron company, but merely had the philan
thropic interest in the matter. So Mr. Roose
velt, in order,. as he says, to "save the situation"
'(after the situation had already been saved)
told Messrs. Gary and Frick that he would hold
his hounds in leash or something to that effect
and let the merger go on.
All this is enough to make a truck-horse of
the steel corporation laugh. Everybody knows
that the steel corporation had suffered the pangs
of hunger for years because it could not get
control of the Tennessee Coal and Iron company
and that the control of- that company was the
very thing which the steel corporation had long
wanted.
All of the stock which was carried in pool at
the "business firm" in question was owned by
very wealthy men. Such, for instance, as O.
H. Payne and Leonard Hanna, of St. Louis,
who is a multi-millionaire; and John W. Gates,
who thinks nothing of "betting a million."
Very likely the president felt flattered that
Messrs. Gary and Frick had gone to him per
sonally, something after the manner that a child
goes to its parent for a penny, to buy a stick
'of candy and asked permission to buy control
of' the Tennessee Coal and Iron company; but
this does not prevent the characterization of
Mr. Roosevelt's act in suspending the operation
of the federal laws in this particular case, as a
scandal.
But what would interest Wall Street more
than all of this, would bo answers to some
questions: Did J. P. Morgan & Co. buy the
Tennessee Coal and Iron company from the
"business firm" to whom Mr. Roosevelt re
ferred? If so, what price did Morgan & Co.
pay the "business firm" for Tennesse Coal and
Iron stock?
What did the steel corporation pay Morgan
& Co. for this Tennessee Coal and Iron stock?
Is it a fact that the steel corporation did not
want to absorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron?
Tennessee Coal and Iron stock of $30,374,725
par value was transferred to the steel corpora
tion, and the steel corporation gave in return
$35,407,000 par value of five per cent bonds
which at the time wore worth very nearly the
amount of the par value. So that the steel
corporation actually paid about $115 a share
for its Tennessee Coal and Iron company stock.
Rumor has always said that the "business
firm" sold its stock at a much lower figure.
The real questions are: "Were there inside
prices?" if so, "What were they, and who got'
the profits?"
The president did not suspend the operation
of the Sherman act in the case of the Northern
Securities.
He did not suspend it in the Standard Oil.
But then the gun was long loaded for those
men of great wealth.
He did not suspend it in January, 1907, in
the case of the Harriman roads. But thon, just
before Messrs. Harriman and Roosevelt had a
public quarrel.
Ho did not suspend it last summer in the casa
of tho New Haven. But then, tho president
only a few weeks before vituperated tho presi
dent of tho Now Haven at tho Whlto House.
"Who can say if John Rockefeller and Harri
man and Molton had gone to get permission of
the groat father at Washington, that the Sher
man act might not have been suspendod in their
cases?" This is tho question that disturbs more
than one captain of industry in New York.
THE RAILROAD IN POLITICS
Colliers Weekly has an article by Mr. C. Pj
Connloy discussing tho record of Senator Gal
linger, of New Hampshire. Enough of it is
given below to show tho activity of tho railroad
in politics. Hero are some extracts from tho
Colliers article:
"Boston, January 10, 1904. My Dear Sen
ator: I have this morning had a frank and
satisfactory talk with Mr. Bumhara, and I havo
suggested that ho repeat it to you when he re
turns to Washington. I very much desire that
you and he head the New Hampshire delegation
to Chicago in June as dolegates at largo; and
I am still more anxious that you shall retain
your membership in the national committee, re
gardless of all efforts or wishes on tho part of
our friends in Now Hampshire to succeed you
in the office. Yours truly,
"LUCIUS TUTTLE, President.
"Hon. J. H. Gallinger,
"Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C."
"It will bo noted that the letter is signed, not
by Lucius Tuttle, tho Boston citizen, but by
Lucius Tuttle, tho president of tho Boston and
Maine railroad. It was a command, and was
so looked upon by Gallinger, for when ho failed
of election to tho office of national committee
man, he boldly exhibited this letter to some of
his political friends as his excuse for running
for an office which he had said ho did not want.
"Within a week after Lucius Tuttle, as presi
dent of the Boston and Maine, gave his orders
to Burnham, and so that there might bo no
mistake put them on paper and mailed them
to Gallinger nearly every newspaper in tho
state began, in diapason, an urgent editorial de
manding that Burnham and Gallinger go to tho
national convention as delegates.
.THE GIST OF IT
"In New Hampshire the power of publicity has
been largely destroyed. The only argument
put forward in that state in favor of Gallinger's
re-election is that he has become a power in tho
senato by reason of long service and seniority
on Important committees. That power and that
service have been used, at every turn, to servo
the corporations as against justice and fair play,
and at the same time to solidify himself with
the voters of New Hampshire. Gallinger goes
on the principle enunciated on tho witness
stand by Frank Jones, who testified that men
were a good deal like hogs, and that if you
threw them a little corn they would follow you
most anywhere.
"Downstairs in tho corridor of the state capl
tol at Concord hang the tattered flags under
which New Hampshire's sons fought for liberty.
In the hall of representatives, upstairs, Is tho
portrait of Daniel "Webster. At the head of tho
stairway hangs the advertisement of the Boston
and Maine. Gallinger's friends claim to havo
the written pledges of enough legislators to
elect him. Is the Boston and Maine more potent
than the memory of Webster and of the tattered
flags?"
It would seem from this that the Boston and
Maine railroad is in politics; it would seem,
also, that the president of that road, although
a' citizen of Massachusetts, takes an interest in
New Hampshire politics, and it would seem
further that some of the republican papers take
their cue from an alien political landlord.
It is interesting to see an eastern paper, and
one of such wide circulation as Colliers, point
ing out what democratic papers havo been de
claring for years, namely, that the favor-seekJng
and public service corporations are exercising
a corrupting influence over the politics of tho
country.
" l2r t& itr tt
CHEROKEE COUNTY, KANSAS
Charles Stephens of Columbus, Kansas, writes:
"Cherokee county, Kansas, claims the mule. Mr;
Roosevelt carried this county by 2291 in 1904,
while this year Mr. Taft carried it by only 72
votes."
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