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The -Commoner
VOL. 15; NO. 3
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Another Plutocrat
A
In a recent issue of Tho Commoner the read
ers wero given a sample of tho kind of slush that
passes for wisdom in plutocratic circles I refer
to tho remarks of President Underwood of tho
Erie. And now comes Mr. A. B. Leach, president
of the Investment Bankers Association of Amer
ica, and enters the contest for the prisie in asin
inity. A recent issue of "The Bankers Magazine"
quotes him as saying:
"Wo are creating bureaus and commissions
and filling them with $5,000 a year men to tell
tho $50,000 a year heads of our corporations
what to do and what not to do. The best gov
ernment in tho world never had a monopoly on
honesty, Integrity and efficiency; and this coun
try would prosper more if it hampered business
less."
It is strango that a man who could give utter
ance to tho above sentiment Bhould occupy a po
sition of prominence in tho business world.
According to Mr. Leach's logic, no public offi
cial should be permitted to take part in the reg
ulation of any one drawing a larger salary than
himsolf a doctrine that would make regulation
and restriction impossible. If Mr. Leach's theory
is put into operation, the salaries of state legis
lators would have to bo made as much as the
incomes of those for whose regulation or restric
tion they make laws; a judge, according to this
theory, could not sit in axSnse which involved tho
rights of litigants richer than himself; congress
men or sonators with a salary of $7,500 would,
If his position wero correct, have no right to
make laws to regulate trust magnates with in
comes measured by millions.What would Mr. Leach
Bay of an attorney-general, drawing but $12,000
a year, prosecuting the highly paid directors
of a railroad, for wrecking the road? Even the
president, with a paltry salary of $75;000, would
by. Mr. Leach's logic be estopped from signing a
bill affecting a railroad president with $100,000,
1DspecIally if by the exploitation of his stockhold
ers tho railroad president has made $50,000,000
hi. ten years.
How far will Mr. Leach carry his theory that
a $5,000 man is unfit to oversee the work of a
ran with a larger income. Would he say that
?iV?Stllcl b0 imPrPer for a sheriff with a salary
rof;$2,500 to arrest a bank' cashier guilty of em
bezzling half a million? And should a governor,
drawing only $10,000 a year, be prohibited from
granting a pardon to a rich criminal "whose
health is being undermined by close confinement
, In the penitentiary?" Or would a different rule
apply to this case?
,Mr. Leach sayB that "THE BEST GOVERN
MENT IN THE WORLD NEVER HAD A MON
OPOLY ON HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND EFFI
CIENCY." What has that to do with the ques
tion? The government, acting for all the peo
ple, has a right to define honesty and integrity
and to compel efficiency on the part of those in
charge of quasi public corporations.
Ho says that "THIS v COUNTRY WOULD
PROSPER MORE IF IT HAMPERED BUSINESS
LESS." He ought to bo specific. He ig in the
backing business and ho has ample reason to
know that a handful of Wall street financiers
did, for a generation, hamper business, for their
ovrn enrichment a great deal more than business
is hampered by the government, acting unsel
fishly and for tho public good. Men like Mr.
Underwood and Mr. Leach would better. under
stand the new era if, instead of glibly expressing
tltoir contempt for the people's representatives,
they would address themselves to thq science of
government, and learn that .a corporation has
orily Uiose rights which, are conferred, upon it by
thre public, and that; it is not fair to assume that
the public would create a corporation without,
at(the same time, resolving tho right 'to so limit
and restrict it as. to make it serve tfte public wel
fare.' If "the cares of this world and the deceit
fulness of riches choke tthe truth," it jnay.be-
; como necessary to rely upon men with smaU sal
aries to execute statutes of restraint.
, W. J. BRYAN.
m
There are times when one can discern th hon-
1 ir.i - ' 7" ""7 i'"'"
cut mm. guinea irom a, senate in which the ad
ministration party has but a narrow margin of
voting strength. For one thing it enables the
party members o find but, when a contest arises
over a piece of legislation strongly .urged by tho
preMdant, the hfiatf cit-the organization , how
srtany senators who" claim to belong to 'and frep
fresent the party, are n6t mere preten'ddrst",;' " '
FELLOWSHIP CLUB
President Howard of the Commonwealth Steel
Company (Granite City, 111.,) has organized a
Fellowship club among his employes. It began
with fifteen members in 1906, rose to one hun
dred and twenty-one in 1907, and to five hundred
and fifty in 1912. The club now issues a paper
called The Commonwealther, the first number of
which contains the following salutory:
"I Issue from the heart of things to those who"
really love siricerity and truth.
"Reverencing a Supreme Power; doing unto
others as we would have them do unto us ; recog
nizing business as truthful service, a fair oppor
unity to all; safe and proper working conditions;
honest work; just compensation; right thinking;
true living; pure friendships and all the glorious
fun in the world are the things I most love and
for which I stand.
"I am edited by good fellowship and published
by all those who pass along my gospel of kind
ness. "My price is beyond the reach of any but the
very rich those who are rich in kindness hon
esty and good cheer.
"If you pay this price you 'an have me with-'
out money cost."
Success to The Commonwealther. President
Howard is an enthusiastic supporter of the Safe
ty First propaganda. He says:
"As our business is a proper one in its' object
to give right service and to protect life and prop
erty with its devices, It can not bo necessary that
we injure men in producing tlose devices. Let
us; then, and without timidity,' set the mark for
ourselves that we eliminate all accidents and set
our faces resolutely to that end.
"Safety First shall be our policy, for if it were
not so, we would value money above the lives,
limbs, and health of our workmen, for every
haste and so-called economy that the policy of
Safety First would seem to interfere with, is
measurable in dollars and cents. We older men
must set the example to our Commonwealth Fel
lowship club boys and other young men that
money to be enjoyed, must be well earned and be
clean of all selfish cost. We should find, how
over, that safety work being a study of the right
and orderly way to do things, will Increase effici
ency and aid economy.
"This is not only an appeal to the employes of
the company to observe every care for the safety
of themselves and of others. It is also a direct
order from the company to every superintendent,
foreman or other person having authority over
its employes, to see that those "under them take
proper care for their own safety and for the safe
ty of others in doing their work.
"More important than safe machines and safe
places are habits of care and watchfulness.
"Remember that while every man is hired to
do some particular work, the safety of himself
and his. fellow workmen is more important than
that work.
"Remember that if a worlcman has a prevent
able accident, to that extent he is unsuccessful in
his job; and to that extent his foreman is unsuc
cessful in his foremanshlp.
"When carefulness and efficiency become fixed
habits, accidents will not trouble us."'
Government chemists have,, discovered a meth
od of treating petroleum by which the output of
gasoline will be doubled and provide a supply
of products necessary in the making of dyes and
high exphbsives. These were problems that baf
fled the experts of the big corporations that are
interested in those industries. Where the public
benefits is that these discoveries by government
chemists' will be available to all who can make
use of hem. If the experts of the big industrial
corporations had made them, the economies and
the profits would have Ijeen theirs.
The New York chamber of commerce has
adopted resolutions declaring as its opinion that
the government should create a shipping board
to ascertain" the excess of cost over operating o
ship under American registry over foreign reg
istry, and then appropriate money to pay that
difference If the New York chamber 6 com
merce -will consult public opinion It will discover
a fairly unanimous sentiment that revenues can
be put to much more profitable uses.
1 ,
n '5&V&?.seyelt ia 8tm Proclaiming his b'P
lief tht.the "surest way to avoid "war -Is tA
; prepar&.f or It," TherVa Severn 4 eight 1
tionB Eurbpe, that tho conef will be Ut
TWO YEARS OF WILSON
On tho fiftieth anniversary of Lincoln's sec
ond inaugural, Woodrow Wilson completes half
his presidential term.
These two years of the Wilson administration
have helped to make more history than any other
two years since Lincoln. Tho coming two years
of tho Wilson administration must inevitably be
the most momentous period that this country
has known since the civil war.
It Is a fact of enormous importance that this
crisis finds in the White house a president who
is completely master of himself. Being master
of himself, he is master of his party and of his
administration.
There is no kitchen cabinet. There are no
back-stairs advisers. There are no secret influ
ences that pull and sway the policies of the ex
ecutive. No Underground wires from the White
house into Wall street or into the headquarters
of any political committee. Men may agree with
Mr. Wilson or disagree with him; they may like
him or they may dislike him; but everybody
knows that he and he alone is president. Every
body knows that during the remaining two years
of his term he and he alone will be president.
A very unusual man, meet to cope with a very
unusual situation in the affairs' of mankind a
president who in all his official relations displays
neither vanity nor resentment, nor anger nor
personal ambition. If he has friends, their
friendship counts for nothing in the affairs of
state. If he has enemies, their enmity weighs
nothing in the balance of government. He seeks
neither, to reward the one nor to punish the
other.
So evenly does he hold the scales that the
members of the diplomatic corps, with all their
highly developed -facilities for obtaining inform
ation, have never been able 'to learn where
the president's personal sympathies lie in the
great conflict that is now devastating Europe.
Whatever his Individual opinions may be, he has
smothered them in the responsibilities of his
office.
At this period in. their first term most pres
idents have been carefully calculating their
chances of - renomination and re-election. No
body knows whether Mr. Wilson intends to be a
candidate for re-election or not. Not a member
of the cabinet, not a member of congress, can
say of his own knowledge that the president de
sires re-election or that he wbuld not refuse
a nomination. What all of them know is that
the president would not stoop from principle to
win either a renominatlon dr a re-election.
That is where his great strength lies. That is
where his great usefulness lies in this crisis. It
is easy to rattle the sabre. It is easy to make
the welkin ring. It is easy to be spectacular
and sensational and theatrical, It Is easy to be
a demagogue. It is easy to juggle with the fate
of a. nation when no man can forsee what tho
next day will bring forth. But it is not easy
to be calm and restrained and judicial. It is not
easy to face every responsibility without preju
dice and without passion. It is not easy to hew
straight to thejine of first principles, regardless
of applause or censure or praise or denuncia
tion. It is not easy to be sane when the world
has given itself over to madness.
The enormous good fortune of the people of
the United States in the storm and stress of these
coming years is that their chief magistrate is
sane the sanest mind today that Is intrusted
with the responsibilities of government any
where in civilization. New York World.
. r
President Wilson was unable, by reason of the
opposition of a small group qf democratic sen
ators, to secure the enactment 6f the ship pur
chase bill. It was" a sane 'and" Intelligent effort
to provide a means by which the greed of the
owners of vessels engaged in the ocean carrying
trade might be curbed. The principal reason
urged against it was that the competition thus
created would be ineffective. At the same time
the senate had -before it the result of the gov
ernment's action in establishing a- bureau to sell
war risk insurance, which' was followed imme
diately "by a tremendous reduction in existing
insurance. Evidently the principal reason was
not given. - . -i
r.
, Twenty-six treaties. of pejace negotiated by the
state department Vere ratified by the senate dur
ing the congress just closed.' ftilfi represented
,tho first definite "effort to' put Jnt6 practice and
hpon paper, 'frilly signed, aixd" sealed the .peace
. Protepttfiians- Id", which our nation '.has ' so often
in the past given voice, '
am
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