-V '
The Commoner.
VOLUME 9, NUMBBIl 3J
-
.
N
that tho high duty oh -wool will fall directly
unon tho conHumor. It will bo tho man who
buys ft suit of clothes who will suffer. The
ouit that has been sold for $10 heretofore-will
necessarily cost $12, and possibly $12.50, if the
Aldrich bill passes and is signed by tho presi
dent. Tho $10 suit will bo an impossibility,
unless it is built of shoddy or cotton mixtures.
"The increase in duty will benefit about
22,000 persons engaged in sheep raising in the
United States, counting tho dealers -and handlers
of wool. The victims will bo the other 80,000,
000 persons in the population of the United
States. In saying 22,000 persons benefited wo
are counting 20,000 employes. Really, the per
sons whoso pockets will be gorged by tho raise
in duty are not 22,000 in number, but possibly
only 100 rich men, who buy the wool of the
United States and handle it under o gentlemen's
agreement made each year in Boston.
"The blow of the increased duty falls hard
est on the poor man. Tho Increase will be
mainly on tho lower priced suits. Such suits
aro made of American woolens fabricated from
American wools. The gentlemen's agreement
fixes tho price of this wool at just a few cents
under the price of the cheapest imported wool.
For this reason the jump in tariff will be felt
most in the $7.50 to $12 suits."
FULL DINNER PAIL ITEM
Tho Detroit Journal prints this full dinner pail
otter:
Editor Tho Journal. The article from the
fifty sealer a' few nights ago interested me great
ly. The city sealer ought to know that nearly
every grocer and peddler in the city gives short
measure. I do not mean that every dealer gives
short measures iu everything all the time, but
there is always some one thing ho measures
short. Is there a housewife in Detroit who ever
got a full bushel of potatoes? If your grocer
is honest, he will tell you he doesn't get but
three and one-half pecks himself for a bushel,
and .you can bet he. won't K,lve. more than he
gets.
Berries are always short measure, compared
with the measures tho farmers must give. Then
as for these cans of molasses, which the sealor
sjJoke o. They are not sold as cans but as '
quarts. Ask any dealer lor iuquart,of molasses
and -'JiG'. will ,ask. you ,. what price. If. .you pay
"ton" Cents," you will got, three cups; if you say
"15 cents" you will get a lull quart. .If he city
sealer doesn't -.believe this, let him try 'it.
Any. housekeeper who wouldn't go.vinto court
and testify against a. oh eatinggrocer or peddler '
deserves to be cheated.
If women would take those matters up instead
of gossiping over the back fence you would see
more- poor people getting ahead. Of course
women couldn't vote or get any laws passed
themselves, but they might stir their husbands
up to do something.
If our husbands would spend more time trying '
to get lower prices on food and less -crying
for higher wages, if would pay them. Wuges
?JGii li1 el061' if only WG C0I,,d make these
wan street thieves, who control the price of
necessities put food down to where poor folks
could get it. .&
Now I don't know very much, 1 am onlv a
laborer's wife, so I want to ask some questions:
Why do I have to pay 28 cents a dozen for eccs
S 22 ?eX?ket PriC qUtGd 1U the Journal
flrBrS May?' f ml,k- g dWn tho
Why did the price of ice rise 75 cents, u
to where I have to go without it this summer?
I am sure it was cold enough last winter to
freeze all the ice we need.
Why could I get enough pork chops for my
family last summer for 15 cents, and this sum
mer have to pay 30 cents for tho same amount?
The republicans had a lot to say about "the
full dinnor pail" a few years ago, but my hus
band's is setting emptier every year, though
lniwrPk a,!d hiB wagea are the same or
rather $1 a week more
It Is getting that tho United States is as bad
for poor folks as the old country
Detroit, August 11. HOUSEKEEPER.
OP COURSE
John D. Rockefeller has declared himself
against any income tax. This will strengthen
the sentiment in favor of the tax for Rockefeller-
is one of tho fellows whom tho income
tax is intended to reach. Under the present
system he largely escapes taxation.
When Brisbane Answered Harvey
At a dinner given some time ago in honor of
Lord Northcliffe, proprietor of the London Times,
Mr. Arthur Brisbane responded to a toast. This
versatile fashioner of the popular editorial had
sat quietly for some time listening to a corpora
tion lawyer who advised his hearers to "beware
of tho man who expresses sympathy for the
poor," and to Colonel George Harvey, who, stated
a few words of the evils of socialism and the
blessings of wealth. When Mr. Brisbane was
introduced he proceeded in his short, snappy
sentences to give 'his hearers as straight a talk
as they ever listened to in their lives. He evi
dently felt it his duty at tho Northqliffe dinner
to tell his self-satisfied and successful audience
that the great common people, of which he is
the self-appointed spokesman, really exists. Mr.
Brisbane said in part:
"This is a fine gathering of powerful men,
big fortunes, and great reputations. I want to
say something for the men that never had a
million dollars, never got on the payroll of a
millionaire.
"I don't want Northcliffe to go back to Eng
land believing that a man without a million- in
this country might as well 'hide under the table
or jump off the dock.
"The real American nation, its real resources,
its real ability, are hidden among those un
known seventy-nine millions that never go to
Delmonico's, most of whom know as little about
terrapin aB about bird's nest soup.
"Mr. Harvey says very truly, 'The great re-'
ward must go to the man of great ability.'
True. But what is the great reward, and what
do you call great ability?
"If I scatter money in the street and a' thou
sand eager men dive to get it, I am holding up
one kind of a reward, and I call forth one kind
of ability.
"But if a child is in danger of its life, and a
man risks his life to save it, that situation calls
out a different kind of,. ability, and reveals a
man who asks for a higher reward than cash.
"We are paying too much attention here to
the men that scramble for pennies, for dollars
and for millions. They are able,. strong men,
Jrat-'tlrey are 'not the 'American nation, nor' the
-best men in it.
"Colonel Harvey says that if you take ten
thousand men out of this .country the ablest
ten thousand the country will fall to pieces.
He might as well say that if you take ten apples
off -a tree, the tree will wither and fall. Not
a bit of it. You men with money and power
aro the pretty shiny apples on the tree. The
sunlight, the warmth, the praise, are for you,
but you are only the passing fruit. The real
tree is the thick trunk. The real power is with
those in the roots hidden in the soil.
"And in this nation, tho real power, tho root
of the nation, is the mass of people too often,
like the tree's roots, hidden below in the dark
and cold. But from those roots, from the peo
ple, comes all the real power.
"And when this nation, and you prosperous
men, face a perilous situation, as you have done
in tho past and you will do in the future, you
will find the man to help you and to save you,
not at this table, not at Delmonico's.
"There was trouble before the civil war, se
rious trouble. Did the people call upon a rich
corporation lawyer or a great banker? No.
They asked a little country lawyer, with nothing
but a good name, and a brain, and a heart to
save the country.
"When that man, Lincoln, needed help in his
great work, to whom did he look? Did he find
the man in Wall Street? No. Wall Street was
quite busy, as usual, picking up bargains in
bonds.
"General Grant was there among the roots
of the people, out of sight, unknown. He did
not have a million dollars, and Delmonico's
prices were beyond his reach. But he had the
great ability, and when the nation was ready
to offer him what is really the great reward
honor and glory he was ready.
"It will always be so; the force is in the peo
ple. The strength of the soup is at the bottom
of the boiling liquid, not in the pretty greasy,
bubbling scum that floats on tpp.
"There are big men in the United States wait
ing for the reward worthy of the men we have
been talking about or looking at here. These
truly great men never had a bank account, not
even a 'certificate of deposit, but they are the
American . nation and they are America." San
Tlrancisco Star.
LEGAL HONESTY ,
.. ," --.- ',-
John 'D. Rockefeller .is quoted in one of the ,
"Sunday papers as having said:
"When a man has accumulated a sum of mon
ey within the law, that is to say in a legally
honest way, the people no longer have any right
to share in the earnings resulting from that ac
cumulation." It. is a striking characteristic of a' man of
strict personal morality that he has never been
able to see the difference between legal honesty
and moral honesty. It is also to Mr. Rocke
feller's credit that he defines the methods where
by tho Standard Oil combination and all which
it implies were created as being "legally hon
est." They were certainly morally indefensible.
Here is the remarkable case of a man who is a
good husband and father, benevolent along
large lines, personally humane, pious rather than
religious, in many ways a most desirable citizen;
who yet can not see that there is anything mor
ally wrong in an action which the law does not
punish. It would be impossible, moreover, to
make Mr. Rockefeller see the difference, and
that not from any forwardness or prejudice on
his part, but from a kind of moral myopia which
blinds him to facts most of us find self-evident.
It is probable that the law does not directly
influence, sanction or control more than five
per cent of the actions of a man's life. They are
apart from the law and beyond its reach. The
law can not make a man moral or even honest,
and he may break the rules of morality and hon
esty in many ways without coming within reach
of a statute.
But Mr. Rockefeller says that the people have
no right to share in the earnings of "legally
honest" accumulations. It will astonish that
worthy gentleman to hear it, but this is flat
footed anarchy. The accumulation was made
with tlie sanction and under the protection of
tire people. It could not have been even "legally
honest" save that society made it legally pos
sible. So far from owing nothing to the people
Mr. Rockefeller awes everything, after a fair
deduction for his very fine brains andMidminis-
trative ability. , This is not' socialism. It is
.the. practical working law of good morals in the
relation of society to -the individual and the
reciprocal obligation of the individual to so
ciety. It is curious that the richer a man gets the
more he hates paying taxes. Mr. Rockefeller
does hot want to pay an income tax. No doubt
he would not be the richest man in America
now if he had not made it his rule through life
to pay out as little of that kind of money as
possible. This is all his argument really
amounts to, but we are indebted to it for a
curious piece of self-revelation. It shows us a
sincere desire to do well, accompanied by a
moral conception hardly more than embryonic.
Wall Street Journal,
GOOD ADVICE TO MR. TAFT
In a letter written to President Taft, H. J.
Hammil, a director of the carded woolen manu
factures association says:
"I ask that when the Payne tariff bill is re
ceived you do your duty as fearlessly, unflinch
ingly and as thoroughly as your public utter
ances and acts during the Campaign led those
who voted for you to believe you would do it.
"That would mean a veto of the Payne bill
because of the burdens it imposes on the people
and because of its violation of the pledges made
by you and your party before the election.
"It would also mean that while you are presi
dent no measure passed by congress in obedience
to a mandate from the people would receive
executive approval while the contributions to the
majority's congressional campaign fund re
mained unpublished."
SUSPICIOUS
The Washington correspondent for the Phila
delphia North American wires his paper that
people are beginning to be suspicious that Sen
ator Aldrich is not a foe to the trust system.
How in the world could any one suspect Nel-r-.-son
AvAldrich of. anything, but -an abiding con
cern for the public 'welfare?
-- -T ",if,,.."
,UkiddJAi.ujaki,4
