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16 (880)
Survey o
Commerce Grips World's Peace.
Edwin D. Mead, of Boston, secretary
of the World Peace Foundation, in an
address before the American Association
of Commerce and Trade said he believed
the International Congress In
Boston next year would be the greatest
international event In business history,
of immense importance for the good understanding
of nations: and this association
would be a powerful agency to
secure conspicuous German participation.
"The commercial men of the
world hold in their hands peculiarly,"
Mr. Mead continued, "the conditions of
the world's peace and welfare. While
the world's wars today come chiefly from
commercial rivalries and the efforts of
greedy adventurers and speculators to
exploit weaker peoples, commerce on
the whole Is the great peacemaker. It
is the first duty of high-minded business
men to make it altogether that. This
commands the utmost publicity and freedom
in international politics, and strict
regards for the rights of all weak nations
and races. Txrndon and Paris and
Berlin are this moment talking about
the possibility of war over Morocco.
There will be no war, there is too large
a sum total of common sense in these
great nations for that. But the situation
has profound lessons for commercial
men. All this Motrocco trouble
springs from the ravalries of half a dozen
groups of capitalists and speculators
who have the ear of governments. The
English people and the German people
know nothing and care nothing about
these business Interests; yet their pace
is menaced, and they are kent in anxiety
and uproar, while diplomats for weeks
carry on secret negotiations about territory
to which none of their governments
has any real right."
Promise to be Good.
A promise of lower and more eqult
able rates is read In unofficial assurances
being received by the Interstate commerce
commission from the men who
control the hig express companies. The
companies will not fight against control
of their rates, regulations and practices
by the commission, It Is learned.
They have considered the resistance
made by the railroads and can see no
profit in appealing to the courts. These
assurances come through the agents of
the commission who have heen at work
on the hooks of the companies in New
York- These agents have been treated
as welcome guests. Each of the men
"higher up" with whom they have come
In contact has left the Impression that
when the commission begins its public
inquiry info the express business his
company will give full information and
if there is anything wrong to correct it.
The commission, which already has corrected
glaring inequalities in rates, has
knowledge that whole fabric of rates
needs overhauling. The companies according
to assurances, will not go to
court on any question as to the Jurisdiction
of the commission or its authority
to require them to produce data which
may show excessive quantities of watered
stock or excessive profits. Their determination
to be good, it is strongly
suspected, comes from a careful reading
of the cases decided by the Supreme
Court, in which the wide scope of the
commission's power and authority is
set forth.
We Pay the Bills.
The President, Cabinet officers, subordinates
and attaches together with a
miscellaneous aggregation of departmental
dependents, have divers and
THE PRESBYTER1
<f Curren
sundry junkets planned or in full swing,
and all at the expense of the dear people,
according to information emanating
from Washington. Besides the projected
transcontinental trip of President
Taft, which will be paid for from the
$25,000 appropriation made by Congress
to defray the Chief Executive's traveling
expenses, there are a great number
of big and little trips under way or
planned by the government officials.
For instance, Secretary of the Interior
Fisher is touring Alaska, Secretary of
liio i>a.vy meyer is inspecting European
navy yards, and Secretary of War Stimson
only recently returned from a trip
to Panama, Cuba and Porto Rico- Forester
Graves is making an inspection
trip to the Pacific CoaBt, and Director
Newell, of the Reclamation Service,
soon will follow suit. CommissionerGeneral
of Immigration Keefe not long
ago returned from a tour which included
Canada and Hawaii. The Secretary
of Commerce and Labor is expected to
cruise up the Atlantic Coast visiting
light houses and Secretary of Agriculture
Wilson soon will begin a round of
visits to Western cities, attending conventions.
Members and officers of the
Tariff Board and the Aldrich Monetary
Commision continue their journeys
about the country and in Europe from
time to time. A big expedition of Senators
and Congressmen is said to he scheduled
for Panama this fall. The House
Committee on Rivers and Harbors some
time ago made a run down the Ohio
River. Army and navy officers are constantly
making trips to inspect forts
and navy yards. One of the most interesting
junkets proposed in recent
yearB is that to attend a conference
on national parks in the Yellowstone
Park, beginning September 11. Sixty
men are expected to attend this affair,
mostly Interior Department officers,
from Secretary Fisher down through
Assistant Secretary Thompson and
Chief Clerk Ucker to superintendents
of the several national parks and a few
selected secretaries and private clerks.
Trust, Tariff and Gold.
In an interview in New York, Mr.
W. J. Bryan in answer to questons relating
to the causes of the high cost of
living said: "The trusts use the tariffs
as the means by which they increase
the cost of living. But while it
may seem heresy to mention it down
East, there is another cause that cannot
be overlooked for present high
prices, and that is the world-wide influence
of the increased volume of
money due to the unprecedented discoveries
of gold. This Is the battfc
cause for high prices throughout the
world- But the influence of the increased
volume of money has been added
to in particular by the trusts acting
through the tarifT rates. There are
only two classes who do not want competition
restored. The first is the socialist,
who believes competition is
wrong in principle and wants the government
to own monopolies. This
group, according to the last election returns,
includes less than 5 per cent, of
the voters. The other class is made up
of the beneficiaries of monopolies, who
want competition eliminated for their
own benefit whenever they can control
the product. This element does not
even hhiuuiil 10 o per ceiii. 01 me voters
but it is powerful in that it controls in
a large extent the banks, the railways
and the leading newspapers. The private
monopolist denounces the socialist
in unmeasured terms, but he is doing
more than any other class to help socialism.
f . ''
A N OF THE SOOTH
it Events
Fifteen Cent Cotton and Some Side
Issues.
This year's cotton crop will be
sold for 14 cents during September
and October, and 15 cents thereafter.
This was the agreement
reached by tho cotton growers 1
of the South attending the National
Farmers' Union at Shawnee, Okla. The
action, which was unanimous, was taken
on the adoption of the report of the special
committee on minimum prices. The
committee was composed of cotton
growers, who were largely Influenced
by scores of telegrams and messages
from all parts of the South, many of
which urged a minimum of 15 cents.
Little of the proceedings and deliberations
were made public, although
aside from fixing the price the farmers
are to ask for their cotton, good roads,
parcels post and dabbling in cotton futures
were discussed by the convention.
Members of the unions say the
parcels post will be favored by the
farmejs, and that the delegates will Indorse
the Scott "anti-gambling" bill prohibiting
the use of mails or interstate
commerce for the furthering of contracts
for the delivery of cotton where
there is no intent to make actual delivery.
The report of the live stock committee
urged diversified farming and
stock raising and contains the statement
that "one million additional milch cows
and an epual number of mother sows
properly distributed through the South
would easily add $10 per bale to the
price of the cotton crop." The congressional
immigration committee recommends
increasing the head tax, ex
eluding illiterate adults from America,
and fining of foreign steamships for
bringing to this country undesirables
that could be rejected on the other side.
Progressive Antl-Tmst Bill.
It has become known that the bill pro.
vidlng for the radical amendment of
the Sherman anti-trust law introduced
in the senate by Mr. LaFollette shortly
before the close of the special session
was drawn after consultation with the
majority of the insurgents in Congress
and the leading progressives of the
country, making it the concrete expression
of progressive thought regarding
the Sherman law and what it
needs to make it effective. The bill
contains the substance of what the progressives
in both houses of Congress
will insist upon next winter in the
way of changes in the Sherman law?in
part, to make the law meet modern business
conditions and in part to offset
the decisions of the supreme court in
f K n Qf /^II '1? X- * V * *?
HIVJ uutiiuaiu v/ll taoc. 1UC Ulll IB one
of the most far-reaching measures presented
to Congress since the enactment
of the original Sherman law which it is
designed to strengthen and classify. The
theory of enforced competition is retained
in large part, and no important
concession is offered the great financiers
and captains of industry who insist that
the era of competition is past and that
combination with federal regulation is
the order of the day. The hill provides
definitely for the punishment of combinations
which engage in illegal practices
and opens the way to restitution to
those who have been injured by these
practices by providing that conviction in
court may be made the basis of a suit
for damages. The complainant in any
such suit will not he compelled again
ftn nrove th? UlnrAl ni>fs nf nnmKlnn.
tlon but will be permitted merely to
show the extent of the Injury to himself
as a basis for damages. The bill also
provides that suits for damages against
illegal combinations may be entered at
any time within three years from the
date of the Judgment declaring them illegal.
\
[ September 13, 1911
To Protect Americans.
A crisis hag arisen in the turbulent
province of Szechuan, in China, and foreign
officers of not only the United States
but of other countries have taken precautionary
steps for the safety of their
citizens in that section. American gunboats
will be brought into play to guard
American citizens, and a formidable international
naval array is at hand in
Chinese waters. American Charge d* Affairs
Williams, at Pekin, cabled to the
State Department that the situation had
become critical in Szechuan, where public
meetings in various cities, accompani*
ed with the closing of shops and schools
and refusal to pay taxes, have culmlnat- ^
ed in serious disorders. American
Methodist missionaries at Chunking and''
Chengtu, have informed Mr. Williams
that none of them has y-* left his post,
except that American and British women
have left Chengtu for Chungking.
21 districts are said to be so far affected
by the present agitation. Tax
offices have been destroyed and several
officials have resigned, but resistance to
the government has In general been passive
rather than active. The Chinese
foreign office has asBUred the legation
that protection will be given all foreigners.
and their property, and has offered
escort to all who desire to leave the
disturbed districts.
Franco-German Imbroglio.
Advices received at Paris from Berlin
intimate that the German Imperial
Chancellor, Dr. Von-Bethmann-Hollweg,
has indicated his acceptance of France's
proposals presented to the German foreign
Minister, Herr Von KilderlenWaechter,
by the French Ambassador,
M. Chambon, looking to a settlement of
the Moroccan dispute. The French foreign
office, however, maintains an attitude
of reserve regarding the progress
of the negotiations. Dispatches, which
iuu& us uiougn mey naa common origin
at the French embassy in Berlin,
received by several Paris newspapers,
also indicate that an early
agreement between France and Germany
in the Moroccan dispute is
probable. Economic arrangements offer
the chief difficulty in the way of a settlement.
Germany, according to the Lokal
Anzelger, must Insist upon the most
minute guarantee for her economic
and commercial interests, as the French
government, unfortunately under the
pressure of concession seekers, has a
constant tendency to violate and evade
obligations in this respect. Mineral deposits
must be opened unrestrictedly to
all nations without taxes, export duties
or other devices which would shut out
competition. The tone of the article indicates
a thorough lack of confidence in
France's good faith unless it is backed
up by the most substantial guarantees.
A life which keeps a stream in full
strong flood must be fed from neverfailing
streams. Christ sought solitude,
calm and refreshment on the mountain
top, teaching us the high value of the
quiet seasons of the soul. Religious retreat
is part of any active and evangelizing
ministry.?Dr. W. M. Clow, of
Glasgow, Scotland, in his "Secret of the
Lord."
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