The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, March 05, 1909, Page 7, Image 7
"ijTy'T- -.i-t" MARCH i, 1901 The Commoner. rcuR&eNT MaaMMVMHWCr '" , ......inimmAiMawMMjlWHaMMMIIISS MPMIK. .IWJfe BY WHAT the Associated Press calls "an overwhelming vote and without party dis tinction" the house of representatives tin Feb ruary 5 sustained the committee on appropria tions in again reporting a provision in the sundry civil appropriation bill, restricting the operations of the secret service detectives of the treasury de partment. The president was scathingly de nounced by Mr. Cook, republican (Colo.), while Mr. Smith, republican (la.), a member of the ap propriation committee and one of those named by the president in his message of January 4 last, as being responsible for the secret service limitation, seemingly employed all the invective at his command in an attack on that service. He compared the secret service detectives with "common liars," declared them to be worthless and pointed to the assassination of President McKinley as a sample of the watchfulness and capacity of those men, one of whom, he said, stood at the president's side when he was shot down and failed to observe the approach of the assassin with his. supposedly bandaged hand in full view. REPRESENTATIVE Cook, republican, of Colorado, said: "President Roosevelt seems to think that ho alone is the government, and that his ipse dixit must rule everybody, in cluding the poor and friendless black soldiers ot Brownsville, who were insulted, dismissed and degraded without procf or trial, by execu tive order and without any warrant of reason or law. President Roosevelt runs the govern ment on the same principle that the beef trust runs its sausage factory, from a personal stand point, using executive and judicial pork as the crude material in liis fantastiu administration. While imitating Rlonzi and Cromwell in fooling th,evpepple,- he is praqticing the hypocrisy and dictatorship rof Cleon,-and Dionysius, and has built up a kocsevelt ring in the army, navy and civil service, all for his personal and political glory, supreme in his impudence, vanity, arro gance and i nperial egotism. His veto messages are made from the impulse and ignorant in formation of his cabinet clerks, and the vacillat ing attorney, general is a weak legal reed of the rough riders' dependence-, who even racently gave a false statement to the president upon the joint resolution passed by congress, deter mining the question of tbe boundary line be tween Colorado and Oklahoma and the terri tory of New Mexico," WtlTING TO the Chicago Banker, Issue of February 13', John Schuette, president of the Manitowoc Savings Bank, Manitowoc, Wis., says: ''The Al'dri'ch-Vreeland bill will disclose to any one looking sharp that it has 'a nigger In the wood pile.4 When this bill was under consideration, and even after it was passed, nearly all believed that only the emergency cur rency which might be issued under it could be secured by United States bonds or other securi ties,, and that the security against the old. na tional bank notes would remain unchanged, so that we would haye two kinds of bank notes, the old, secured by United States bonds exclusively, and the new emergency notes, secured by United States bonds or other securities. .'Other securi ties,' as defined in the act, may consist of state, municipal, railroad bonds, or. commercial notes. This, then, 'is the general acceptance of the pro visions of the Aldrich-Vreeland act; but now let me .explain, how it is entirely different. The leading spirits in securing this legislation real ized that the emergency currency, the security of which might be questioned, as it might con sist mainly of commercial notes, would not be accepted by the public as quite as safe as the United States bond secured notes, and to make all alike in the eyes of the people, they lowered the security of the old national bank note to the lower level of emergency bank note, and this was accomplished by an amendment to the national bank act, which only required -the add ing of three words, 'or other security,' after the wordB 'United States bonds Since the passage of the Aldrich-Vreeland act, all national tank notes printed by the government state upon their face, 'secured by United States, bonds or other securities Since then, not a dollar of emergency currency has been issued, while many of the new notes have been issued to banks in exchange for mutilated bills; and such bills, although Becured by no other security than United States bonds, state on their face, 'so cured by United States bonds or other securi ties;' this really is a deception. I can not see any reason for this but a bad one, and that is to prepare the way for asset currency. While an emergency currency act might have boon drawn to give some relief in a money stringency, the Aldrich-Vreeland act has actually done harm iir-that it depreciates all our national currency. Before this act was passed, all knew that the national bank note was secured by United States bonds, exclusively, deposited with the United StateB treasurer, as this was plainly printed on their face. But when they now find that this has been changed to read, 'secured by United States bonds or other securities' and the line 'deposited with the United States treasurer' left out, it is a serious question whether the people will not lose their unbounded confidence in our currency, as soon as they will get ac quainted with the real meaning of the act. Al though some may not be greatly alarmed by this, yet you can not convince the people that railroad bonds or commercial notes are as safe as United States bonds, especially in a panic. I fear that as soon as the real character of the fact is generally known, and we have a financial crisis, the Gresham law will begin to operate, which means that the depositors will draw gold and hoard it. Instead of national bank notes, which would be far more serious. As this act is deceptive, misleading, and may undermine the confidence in our whole currency, therefore it ought to be repealed at the earliest moment." SOME IDEA of steel rail consumption is given by the Wall Stre"et""Jouraci - uu.tn .wny. "It is estimated that the rail mills of the UiiitecT States now have a capacity of 4,500,000 tons a year, including the Gary plant, which is now in course of construction. Manufacturers began adding to their capacity two years ago, as thoy believed the railroad construction under way would require a larger tonnage than the country could produce. Then the panic came and half the rail mills of the country have been idle for over a year. Many rail manufacturers figure that the average life of the steel rail Is ten years, and in consequence the rail mills of the country today do not represent overproduction. It is remarkable, however, what a small tonnage of rails the railroads can get along with In periods of depression. As an illustration, the production of rails this year will not be greatly In excess of 1,800,000 tons, against a capacity of at least 4,500,000 tons. The falling off in consumption this year would seem to Indicate that many railroads were badly in need of steel rails, but there has been no evidence that a great buying movement is under way. The Pennsylvania railroad ordered 135,000 tons of rails, for delivery next year, which is between 50,000 and 75,000 tons below the average an nual consumption of this road. The recent Pennsylvania order would keep the rail mills of the country in operation for fourteen days, which is a striking illustration of the great tonnage of rails this country can produce. The cost of producing steel rails has been going up ward for the last ten-years. The new specifi cations of the railroads have added at least a dollar a ton to the cost. Should this Increase In operating costs continue, an increase rather than a decrease in price of rails can be looked for, providing It costs $21.50 a ton to produce steel rails, as testified before the ways and means committee." STOCKS ON Wall Street suffered severely February 23. The New York World says: "Five hours on the New York stock exchange blptted out millions, tens of millions, even hun dreds,, of,' millions, yesterday. It was- Wall Streak way of showing its respect for. the cut price war now going on in the steel trade and, officially declared on Friday last by Elbert H. Gary, chairman of tho board of tho-Unlted States Steel corporation. Not since tho panic days of October, 1907, did prices melt away as they did yesterday. At tiroes, particularly in tho closing half hour, thero was demoraliza tion comploto and effective. Speculators who could not replenish exhausted margins Instnntly saw their stocks dumped overboard and slaught ered at panic prices. It was one of those days in Wall Street when nothing but money count ed friendships botween brokor and customer were cast to tho winds. Tho customer had to produce more margins or ho was sold out. Brokers simply put out orders In advanco to soil at certain prlcep, and tho specialists in.' whose hands tho orders wero placed, took no chances and throw out tho stocks. There wore 1,586,800 shares sold, or property approximate ly worth, the stupendous sum of $158,680,000 SOME IDEA of how stocks crumpled In the Wall Street slump may bo obtained from the following statement showing the conspicu ous losses . suffered by tho owners of certain stocks: Amount Not Loss Loss to L , Quts'd'g. in Day. Stockh'rs. Stool Common.. $508, 302, 500 4 $24,144,308 xujau, uom 70, 000, 000 10 7,1'.5,000 in. i. uonc 178,032,000 4 Mo. Pacific 67.817.875 3 195,489,900 153,887,900 50,000,000 45,000,000 Union Pacific, Amal. Copper. . Am. Smelter... Am. Sugar. . . . Penn.,R. R.. . .314,549,G50 3 4 4 3 2 8,708,310 2,529,076 7,575,233 6,924,735 2,000,000 1,031,250 7,470,553. A NEW YORK special to tho Denver News says: "The stage Is sot for a battle of tho giants in the steel trade. Tho Morgan interests are determined to prevent reduction of the tariff ness in this country. In order to accomplish his -purpose It is believed In Wall Street that Morgan will, It necessary, precipitate a financial stringency more severe than that of the fall of 1907. That flurry enabled him to gather in, with the permission of President Roosevelt, Tennessee Coal and Iron. The facts concerning that transaction were laid before the country today through the report of the sub-committee of the senate committee named to investigate the setting aside of the laws and constitution by the president of tho United States. Of course, the independents will fight Morgan, but how long they can hold out is problematical. Tho one fact accepted by all is that the business world will be severely shaken while the king of Wall Street is laboring to gratify liis selfish ambition." ' THE LONDON Daily Mail prints this bit of news via Pittsburg, U. S. A.: "A gen eral overhauling of the picture galleries of wealthy collectors In Pittsburg Is now proceed ing, and connoisseurs from both east and west are Inspecting the paintings to see how many of them are 'fakes Tho fact that Mr. James B. Laughlin was recently found to have paid $9,500 for a $30 painting has caused great ex citement among the iron and steel kings inter ested in art. The Laughlin case, in which tho dealer was forced to refund the money on ex posure, is not the first case of this kind. There has been started among the rich people of Pitts burg, who claim they are imposed upon, a sort of black-list of dealers who have charged ex orbitant prices or sold 'fake' goods at first-class rates. This list is said to contain the names of more than a score of New York dealers and fully as many In London and Paris. Within tho past year a prominent Pittsburg man arranged to buy a picture abroad for $25,000, but found before delivery that the 'work of an old master' had been made In New York and shipped abroad for his benefit. Some Pittsburg men declare there is collusion between certain art dealers in New York and London and Paris dealers, their one object being apparently to fleece Pitta-burgers." m'fimu munttfmn iij i nwiiai1ii(iiiiiite -a taita- i .-rtVffrafcA'i ftjfrfrfcgfrri