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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1910)
t fc FEBRUARY 18, 1910 The Commoner. 7 $! acted into law it is all preliminary to the great central bank now In contemplation and to be projected at the next session of congress. By that time it will be conveniently found that the management of this vast scheme by the post master general, attorney general and the secre tary of the treasury Is utterly impracticable, and that a central bank is necessary to this and other operations of the government. . Meanwhile the ten per cent of the deposits that under the bill'must be sent to and be under (he immediate control and command pf those three ofllcials will form the initial working funds of the pro jected central bank. There are about 22,000 "banks in the United States. Those banks which under the authority of these three trustees may become the favorites of federal power will also become the understudies, factotums and instru mentalities of the central bank. The central bank will in turn be the subservient agent of the very interests which some of the supporters of this bill profess to abhor. It will not do to say that the central bank scheme has no connec tion with it. That scheme now In process of gestation is the one thing that is bringing cer tain forces to the support of the measure." AS TO THE constitutionality of the postal savings kill, Senator Shiveley said: "It has become unfashionable to invoke the consti tution, except possibly to question the opera tion of salutary laws enacted by the states. But if it be still conceded "that our federal govern ment is one of enumerated pjowers, on which grant of power is the proposed legislation predi cated? Is it on the power to establish postofllces and post roads? What possible connection has the operations contemplated by the bill with mail facilities or postal communication? Is it on the commerce power? What could be a more 'exclusively local and non-interstate-function than the receipt of money by the postmaster and its 'deposit in a local bank? Is it on the power to 'borrow money on the credit of the United States? Will it be pretended that the money to be deposited under the bill is to pay the debts of the United States or to carry into execu tion any of the other enumerated grants of power? In default of any other pretext, is re sort to.be had to the 'general welfare' clause? ,!The. .general.-.welfare- (not the 'general welfare' i&lause')1- requires- that every many- wtiman and child in the country havo sufficient food, clothing and shelter. Are we ready to provide these things? If not, why not? If the 'general wel fare1 clause is a grant of power, then what power is reserved to the states or the people? If such clause is not a grant of power, where is the constitutional warrant for the proposed legislation?" THE NEBRASKA normal school board has ordered the removal of Dr. Crabtree, presi dent of the Peru, Nebraska, Normal School. The members of the board who voted for the removal of Dr. Crabtree are republicans; Dr. Crabtree is also a republican. Nebraska edu cators are very generally protesting against this effort to inject partisan politics Into the edu cational affairs of the state. The Omaha World Herald .prints a letter written by W. B. Rose, now a judge of the Nebraska supreme court, and at the time the letter was written chairman of the republican state committee, in which he censured Dr. Crabtree for not permitting the ' school buildings to -be used for republican meet ings and for showing hostility to republican can didates. The World-Herald claims that Judge Rose is partly responsible for the scheme to oust President Crabtree. SENATOR HALE, of Maine, will have to fight for re-election. Influential republicans will vigorously oppose him and they have selected a popular candidate to lead the fight. Senator Hale is seventy-three years of age. His services in the senate-began March 4, 1881, and his present term will expire in 1911. The Boston Herald says: "Senator Hale, with more than forty years of public life behind him, with a familiarity with national affairs of many terms in the house and senate, recognized as a senate leader, chairman of the important committee on appropriation, a member of the committee on naval affairs and of the committee on finance, wields for his state a great power in national legislation. That fact is recognized, without -statement, throughout the, r country. It is not tcejy ttiat the people of taine will Ignore t. ilnef)as well as Massachusetts, has believe. d ,tje .permanency p the- senatorial office, ,Thig j)qilpf has been confirmed by experience in which the accumulation of influence and power with the experience of continued occupancy of the office has brought honor and distinction, as well as material benefit, to the commonwealth, in greater measure than to the individual. As public sentiment in Massachusetts stands today against tho schemes of personal ambition and political desire in defense of able and meritorious service for state and nation through a long term of years, so Maine, if its truer and deep-lying controlling sentiment is expressed, will demand that the political spoilsmen keep their hands off tho senatorial seat." - 0 HERE IS A- HOT letter written to the New York World by a Brooklyn reader who signs his communication "Sheffield:" "Tho United States steel corporation accounts only for 'net earnings,' these being $34,400,432 for the threo months ending December 31, 1909 about $11, 460,000 a month, or at the rate of some $137, 520,000 a year. Why do they not reveal the total tonnage of steel upon which this vast amount was "earned?" It would be interesting to know how much of a bonus per ton tho people of this country pay in order to make up this enormous total of 'earnings' of the steel trust. My impression is that last year's production ran about 22,000,000 tons and that the United States steel corporation, made about GO per cent of it that is to say, some 13,000,000 tons. Thus tho trust's profit is more than $10 a ton. It is not surprising that it can sell steel in Liverpool or Berlin, cheaper than in Pittsburg in trade war fare. Poor return this trust makes for its hundred-odd millions of dollars a year of takings not 'earnings' in the debauchment of humanity in the Pittsburg slums and the degradation of American citizenship in every iron and steel center it controls. And 'it's a poor, mean spirit you boastful Americans have, to endure its ex actions and its importation of poverty from east ern Europe to break down the labor market." ON THE SUBJECT of wages and cost of liv ing J. A. Blanchard, Jenksvllle, N. Y., writes to the New York World to say: "What-a lot of wisdom is exhibited' in the -'cost of living' ar ticles in the World! W". O. Brown wanders through two columns, using the same arguments that W. J. Bryan used thirteen years ago, when Brown "and his like were calling Bryan an 'an archist' and papers like the World were calling him all that was ever known in the way of slander and abuse: 'For this reason tho pay of labor has steadily advanced and must Con tinue to advance t in some fair ratio with the increase in the cost of the things that labor must buy. To put- it in another way wages must go up in about the same proportion that the purchasing pay of labor has steadily ad vanced: This is a farming, dairy section. Day labor on the farm is $1. It was $1 ten years ago, it was $1 twenty years ago, it was $1 thirty years ago. How will Mr. Brown explain that? Mr. Brown pays his common laborers on his railroad from 80 cents to $1.10 a day. Thirty years ago the same class of labor was paid from $1.25 to $1.05 a day. How does Mr. Brown answer that? Of course his trainmen get better pay, but why? Because they are or ganized "and men like Brown are simply forced to pay, not willingly, but because they must." AN INSIDE story of high finance is told in a brief filed in the Chicago court by Otto Gresham, administrator of the estate of John S. Cooper. The brief relates to the sale of the Indiana, Illinois and Iowa railroad. The New York World's report of this suit says that the following names figure in the litigation: Theo dore P. Shontg, former chairman of the Panama canal commission and now president of the In terborough system In New York; Francis M. Drake, Shonts' father-in-law, pne time owner of the 'Three I's" railroad; Paul Morton, former secretary of the navy and now president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society; Joy Morton, president of the International Salt company; William C. Brown, president of the New York Central railroad; Robert Mather, former presi dent of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad; John S. Cooper, Chicago attorney. The last of these, though dead, is in many ways the most important, for fees alleged to have been earned by him in the 'Three I'sK transaction are the basis of the suit. The declaration, filed in the, munclpal court last May, was dismissed by Judge John H. Hume on October 5, because the bill of particulars failed to give a. detailed statement of the dates on which services were rendered. "The plaintiff admitted that Mr. Cooper being dead, he could not supply tho missing Information, but filed Interrogatories de manding information under oath from tho de fendants. These, tho judgo ruled, they did not havo to answer. Tho case was appealed, that tho declaration may bo reinstated and brought to trial." fi RESIIAM'S BRIEF tells a story showing JC how four million dollars profit was mado on the investment, for a short time, of $2,500, 000 of borrowod money. Hero is tho story of tho brief as told by tho World's report: "Tho 'Three I'sj road runs from Streator, 111., to South Bend, Ind., whore it connects with the Lake Shore. Mr. Brown was vlco president of the latter and Mr. Shonts was general manager of tho former road when tho sale was effected. It is alleged that they con spired to divert traffic from the 'Three I's' road, Bonding frolght by circuitous routes to and from its stations to avoid the use of Its tracks. Then, when the road was doing the least possible busi ness, they are said to have got Paul Morton to go to Centralville, la., to Drake, Shonts' father-in-law, nnd buy the road from him for $3,000,000. The road had $0,000,000 capital stock authorized, of which $5,000,000 had been Issued and $1,000,000 was still In tho treasury. Tho purchasers are alleged to have borrowed $2,500,000 by pledging the wholo $6,000,000 of stock. Tho additional $500,000 necessary to pay Drake his $3,000,000, as tho brief says, was obtained by taking that amount from a fund of $800,000 which had been earned by the road in rebates, but which, it Is alleged, had been concealed from Drake, Its owner. Drake was also requirod to pny off a bonded indebted ness of $1,800,000. The $2,500,000 borrowed from Redmond, Kerr & Co., is said to havo been repaid immediately and the stock re deemed with money obtained by issuing new bonds. Having obtained the road, tactics are1 said to have been reversed, and Mr. Brown, as vice president of the Lake Shore, and Shonts, through gifts of stock to traffic officials of other roads, are alleged to havo diverted all possible traffic to the 'Three I's' in this way, according to the brief, quadrupling its business. With its bonded indebtedness paid off, Its traffic enor mous and valuable to the Lake Shore as a fooddr, the road, through tho influence of Mr. Brown, it is said was sold to the Lake Shore, and the profit was $4,000,000, says the brief. And for his services in tho matter Mr. Gresham is of the opinion that the attorney whoso estate he represents earned $100,000. To show how lit tle actual money was required to finance the purchase of a railroad system it is set forth in the bill that Mr. Brown at the time had nothing but his salary and was $10,000 in debt." THAT STAID old republican paper, the In dianapolis Star, actually suggests govern ment ownership as a possible solution of some of the present day evils. In an editorial entitled "Losing Its Terrors," the Star said: "Intensely devoted as they are to tho individualistic phil osophy, the American people have been inclined to look upon government ownership as the last extremity of industrial and economic freedom. Especially when they contemplate the inefficient service official administration often gives and the political abuses to which bureaucracies and armies of government employes so readily lend themselves, does it seem better to. bear tho ills we have than fly to others that we know not of. In this spirit an Indiana contemporary observes: 'Perhaps after Uncle Sam gets a postal savings bank established in every town he will then set up a printery, a bakeshop, a meat market and a grocery alongside of it. More than that, when it becomes generally known how poorly the postal department is managed few peoplo will want to trust their savings with the Institution anyway.' But the American people will wel come government ownership, both local and na tional, the moment it develops that tho great public utilities can not be controlled in any other way. In New York City one of the most note worthy of Mayor Gaynor's new and popular poli cies is municipal ownership of street car sys tems. If a combination of the Western Union and Postal Telegraph properties should be made so as to eliminato competition and defy legisla tive control, the proposal of government owner ship would become a tenable and not at all horrifying thing. Whenever a public service corporation becomes a monopoly and controls legislation, local or national, it is inviting gov ernment .ownership In the strongest possible way? It is better for the government to ,own the railroads and banks than for the banks and Tallroads to own and run the government." fe'fadil JlaU'isathJfoititej& &&'' -e.. .lV--"-ifi' 1M t yHJU