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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1905)
PAGE 2 G6j Nobracko. Independent DECEMBER 21, 1905 and who will not pledge himself to abstain from accepting or using a railway pass or other railroad favors. If the citizens of all the counties take this view of the matter the railways will be defeated in the next election. Any candidate of any party, who is known to be tainted by railway influence, will bo defeated, and a legislature will be elected that will destroy the free pass bribery system and give to the state an elective railway commission empowered to regulate the railways for the benefit of the people. The need of such a commis sion is imperative, and it should havo real powers. It should not only have the right to fix a rate that may be found unreasonable after investigation on complaint, but it should have the right to investigate and fix a rate even though there be no complaint, for frequently shippers will endure great wrongs rather than complain, fearing that if they complain they will be , accorded worse treatment as soon as the railways find a good chance to obtain revenge. More over, the rates should go. into effect at orice and every effort should be made to secure a law which, while remaining constitutional, will be designed to prevent the use of injunctions to thwart the purpose of the law. i ' STANDARD OIL STILL CONTROLS . i t ( t i Senator John P. Dry den, president of the Prudential Life Insurance company, testifying before the Armstrong committee in New York, said that federal control would prove beneficial to policy holders as well as to the companies. lie then proceeded to define the benefits. The life insurance companies would be able to comply strictly with all rgulations, something now impossible because state ' regulations are conflicting. Here the senator failed to particularize. Another benefit would be the protection afforded by the government to companies transacting business abroad. Furthermore, the govern ment would have absolute authority to investigate all companies. , " . Policyholders will wonder if President Roosevelt's indorsement of Senator Dryden's plan wras gained by such puerile reasoning. They will be at a loss to see what benefits will accrue to them.. The senator did not name a single benefit that federal control would con fer upon policyholders and merely hinted at a possible benefit when ho said, that the government would have absolute authority , to in vestigate all companies. But what reason has the senator for think ing that federal investigation would be any more advantageous than state investigation to policyholders? The states have absolute au thority to investigate all insurance companies and a state investi gation is apt to bo as fruitful of good results as a federal investi gation. -Mere investigation is not sufficient. Offenders should be pun ished. Herein the New York investigation has been ineffective, mui . iiuvioi iuvcaugom;u nuuiu nuvu uccu uu mure euiruvt, lA WU 'are to judge by what the government has accomplished in its rebate cases." The government has been' as liberal with promises of immun ity as has the New York investigating committee, and the results have been alike. The big offenders have not been punished except by public opinion. Public opinion, however, does not deter the Stand ard Oil crowd from retaining control of the life insurance com panies. Standard Oil reorganized the Equitable and placed Paul Morton in control. It has now reorganized the Mutual and placed Charles Al Peabody in control. As soon as Mr. Peabody had been chosen president he made this untrustworthy announcement: "No private interest controls the company and I enter upon my duties as the representative solely of the policyholders, chosen unanimously by meir eiecieu representatives, me uoaru or. trustees. Policyholders of the Mutual will recall that when they took out olicics they assigned their proxies to the management. This they were forced to do or go without olicies. It is, therefore, impudent and presumptuous on the' part o Mr. Peabody to call the trustees the elected representatives of the policyholders. But the announcement is typical of Standard Oil hypocrisy and promises ill for the futuro of a company that is mutual only in name. It is rumored that Standard Oil is planning to retain control of the New York Life, whose funds have proved so useful in carrying forward the. financial deals of the Standard Oil crowd. It is just possible that Thomas Lawson may lie able to thwart this plan. Policyholders of the New York Life are free to vote at all election, although they havo never availed themselves of the npjwrtunity. Lawsuit is now mm ring proxies from New York Life policyholders and may get enough to control the next annual eleetiou. He it l. ............ .,.,,..:.... ,.!!. . i .::.... t i. . c.. t crowd. Ktvently K. 11. llantmau made inquiries among the em ployc of the llarriiuau lines for the purpose of discovering how many were aligning their proxies to Lawu and of preventing thoo who had not already done so from so aligning their proxies. Harrhnan is the man who wanted to share with Ryan control of the Equitable, and who brought on the present investigation because Ryan refused to take him into partnership, but both are Standard Oil men and the little disagreement among these demigods of finance does not indicate that -there is any discord on the Olympian heights where John Rockefeller and II. II. Rogers, with godlike repose, dictate the na . tion's destiny. , $ . "... 1,58 if SENATOR MILLARD'S DILEMMA Senator Millard has retired from the committee on interstate commerce under fire. In Washington it was rumored that the,sen a tor wished to escape the embarrassment of remaining on, the com mittee and opposing the president, but he denied: any such motive. A few wreeks ago Senator Millard was reported' to be out of har mony with the president on rate legislation, but when interviewed he said rather evasively that he hoped the 'committee on interstate commerce would be able to recommend a measure in accord with the presidents wishes. Then, as now, Senator Millard said that for the present he did not care to express his views on rate legislation. Senator Millard was severely criticised even by members of" his own party when he first adopted this dubious attitude. They demanded to know why a senator seeking' re-election should be ex cused from making clear his views on the most important issue before the public, but his friends explained that the senator" was right in not declaring himself for or against the president's policy until that policy should be defined precisely in recommendations to congress. These recommendations have been made, but the senator, instead of expressing his views, again beats a retreat, abandoning .bag and baggage. v .. ,;; . . . ; . The senator's action does not seem to be even good politics. He cannot expect to remain a senator by refusing to take any stand on important issues. He admits that he has "strong ideas as to rate legislation,", and in time he will no doubt tell what they are. That they are antagonistic to the presidejat's ideas and to the ideas of an overwhelming number of Nebraska voters is niost probable. If such" be the case Senator Millard cannot hope to remain a United States senator except on one theory, viz., that the railways will con tinue to dominate Nebraska politics and elect the next legislature, , Senator Millard possibly knows good politics better than most men. It may be that the present agitation in Nebraska against rail way rule is merely .a bubble that is sure to burst before the next election, or that a republican legislature, despite the hostility in re publican ranks to continued domination by tho railways, will be a railway legislature. ... - On the other hand, it is just possible that Senator Millard is in perfect accord with the president on rate legislation and retires from the committee because he does not wish to openly oppose the railway interests to whom he owes his selection. In either contin gency the senator can gain little by continued silence. Sooner or later he must take a stand for or against the railways. 3t . - Jit MOODY SEES THE LIGHT Although in his message to congress the president did not urge that the giving and receiving of rebates be punished by imprisonment, it is to be presumed that he is in perfect accord with Attorney Gen eral Moody who advocated the prison penalty in his annual report and who now has directed United States, district attorneys in all cases where there is probable ground for action to prosecute the givers and takers of rebates on the charge of conspiracy. Under the conspiracy act they may le incarcerated for the offense" of conspiring to violato the Elkins law. The attorney general, therefore, con siders that violation of the Elkins law is one offense and that con spiracy to violate it is a separate and distinct offense. In 1003 the Elkins law was amended by striking out tho words which provided for the penalty of imprisonment. The penalty of a fine was retained, and violators of tho law can bo fined as low as $1,000 and as high as $20,000. In its present form tho law has proved almost a complete failure. The giving of rebates has greatly in creased since tho criminal penalty was abolished. Realizing "that the prison penalty is the only menace that will restrain the giversi ami receivers of rebates, Attorney General Moody has decided to do everything jWiMo under tho present law to stop the practice of rebating. The thief handicap will lo the seeney and motility with which rebates me now given and received. Those who are npjorting the president's railway policy in the houso and wnate should mo to it that the mnv law provide?" for tho ) tenuity of imprisonment and for tin keeping of accounts by tho railways in such a manner that the intermit commerce commit- tdon can more easily detect relating If the new law contains thec