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SENATOR BAILEY’S SELF-CON
DEMNING DEFENCE.
Senator Joseph W. Bailey, of Texas,
has confessed to practically every
charge made against him. His own
statement before the investigating
committee of the Texas legislature
condemns him.
He admits that he borrowed $3,300
of Henry Clay Pierce, then president
of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company. At
a later date he drew on Pierce for sl,-
500. He had to confess these charges.
They had been proved by this news
paper.
Bailey likewise confesses that after
borrowing the $3,300 he returned to
Texas and urged Attorney General
Smith to reinstate the Waters-Pierce
concern in Texas, from which it had
been expelled.
Having convicted himself out of his
own mouth, Mr. Bailey offered a de
fence so feeble that it will excite de
rision. It was, first, that the president
of the Waters-Pierce Company had
convinced him that that concern was
not connected with Standard Oil, and,
second, that he had paid back the
money.
In., auch as the state of Texas had
excluded the Waters-Pierce Company
for a specific and proved violation of
the law, in which it had shown itself
connected with the Standard, Mr.
Bailey seemed most easily convinced.
As to the claim that he paid back the
money advanced by Pierce, Bailey’s
statement is refuted by the fact th a/
the amounts are charged off to “profi/
and loss” on the books of the com*
pany. Such entries are not made on
accounts that have been settled. They
are made only on debts that are hope
lessly bad or for any other reason
are not expected to be paid.
Two of Bailey’s associates in this
nefarious deal have already suffered
some punishment for their acts.
Thomas Smith, the attorney general
who was persuaded by Bailey to move
for the reinstatement of the Waters-
Pierce Company, was politically ruin
ed by his connection with the case.
Henry Clay Pierce was recently in
dicted for perjury by the grand jury
at Austin. In 1900, when, by Bailey’s
help, he deceived the people of Texas,
and was again permitted to do busi
ness in the state, Pierce swore that
his concern had no connection with
Standard Oil.
It is for this oath that Pierce was
indicted. It is for this also that ex
tradition papers have been applied for
to the governor of Missouri.
Much as Pierce would like to go to
St. Louis and testify before the sub
committee in behalf of his friend Bai
ley, he is hardly likely to do so under
the circumstances. The Standard
Oil’s agility in dodging subpoenas will
naturally be increased in dodging ar
rest.
Smith and Pierce have been con
demned. Is Bailey, who is more guil
ty than either, in that he betrayed a
higher and more sacred trust, to be
permitted to escape?—New York
American.
H M
PRESIDENTS OF STATE RAILWAYS
JOINED IN BAER’S SNEER
AT PLEDGE.
Presidents of all the railroads operat
ing in this state who indorsed the let
ter to the Pennsylvania legislature
urging that its members violate their
pre-election pledges to pass a 2-cent-a
mile law received an emphatic answer
yesterday in the unanimous passage of
the bill by the house of representa
tives.
Not until yesterday was it known
that George F. Baer, president of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railway, and
famous for his “divine right” and “trus
tee of Providence” utterances, was
not solely responsible for this remark
able document.
The story of how the letter was com-
piled was given out yesterday by a
railroad man, who sought to mitigate
the offense which all now agree was
committed* in the paragraph of the
Baer letter which reads:
“We are given to understand that
election promises were made which
have committed the dominant party to
the passage of a law limiting passen
ger rates to 2 cents per mile. I as
sume that these pre-election promises
—while well enough intended —are
subject to reconsideration by men who
have assumed official responsibility.”
Many Baerisms Cut Out.
From the same source, it was learn
ed that, as originally drafted by Mr.
Baer and submitted to his confrers,
Baer and submitted to his confrerees,
more rabid, than the text which was
finally given to the legislature. It was
fairly bristling with Baerisms.
One president cut out a paragraph
here; another toned down a sentence
there; a third advised further modifi
cation or omission, until, at last, they
all said it would do, and the letter
was sent to the printer.
So the earnest request to the mem
bers of the legislature that they per
jure their souls and trample underfoot
their promises to the people was not
the effusion of one man, for whose
sincere but pronounced bias the public
has always made more or less allow
ance; it was the serious consensus of
opinion of the great railroad leaders
of Pennsylvania, sitting in calm judg
ment and putting their theories of
“vested rights” into the most plausible
and attractive form. —Pennsylvania
North American.
H H H
THE TWO-HOUR DAY.
Replying to one of Mr. Mallock’s lec
tures on socialism Gaylord Wilshire
repeats the stock argument that “un
der the socialistic method of distribu
tion about two hours a day is all that
would necessarily be required to give
a man a fair living.”
The cliff-dweller and the cave man
by compelling the women to do most
of the work managed to gain what
they considered “a fair living” by
as little effort as the socialistic millen
nium will require. The time spent
in the chase by the North American
Indian probably did not average more
than two hours a day, but he was for
tunate in having an industrious and
well-trained squaw. Certain inhabitants
of the banana belt have likewise realiz
ed the socialistic two-hour day, but
it is gravely to be doubted if Mr.
Wilshire would be satisfied with their
standard of living. Many of the gen
tlemen who have apartments In the
Bowery lodging-houses have already
adjusted their affairs to the socialistic
maximum of productive effort, but they
represent the only type of white men
that has ever been able to do It.
Like all socialists, Mr. Wilshire as
sumes that the great mass of the peo
ple have to work eight and ten hours
a day because capitalists seize most
of the products of labor. But If Mr.
Rockefeller’s annual Income of $60.-
000,000 were distributed pro rata the
per capita Increase In Income would
be about a cent and a half a week.
If the combined Incomes of Mr. Rocke
feller, Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Morgan and
Mr. Harriman were confiscated and
distributed each Inhabitant of the
country would have about three cents
a week more than he Is getting. Even
this princely Increase would hardly
justify the head of the family In work
ing half-time while he devoted the oth
er twenty hours to sleep and the Im
provement of his mind.
If Mr. Wilshire or any other socialist
actually believes that a standard of liv
ing approaching civilization could
be maintained If nobody worked more
than two hours a day we should like
to see him try It. No farmer was
ever able to do it, even In pioneer
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
days when he paid no taxes, no inter
est to capitalists, and had neither rail
roads nor trusts to oppress him. If
Mr. Wilshire thinks he could do it, no
doubt there are plenty of benevolent
plutocrats who would be glad to stake
him to 160 acres of government land.
There is no better test of any man’s
personal productive capacity than the
sort of living he is able to dig out
of the soil with his own hands. —N. Y.
World.
* * *
WAS IT NOT MADNESS?
Much has been said about “the
strenuous life” and “the simple life.”
Not long ago the newspapers were full
of these two extremes. It remains for
a new author, not necessarily of eith
er the presidential or theological va
riety, to write a book about “the
crooked life.” After that “the straight
life” could be made a very effective
subject.
The crooked life, as it appears to
the Tribune, Is the life that is grow
ing into great prominence these days,
and is ever apt to wind up with a jolt
against some very thick, hard wall, af
ter circulating into an unclean and
confusing cul de sac.
It is hard to conceive of men, and
women too, who so far lose all sense
of those general obligations owed by
everyone to society, as deliberately to
make up their minds to forsake alto
gether the straight path of rectitude
and honest living laid out by all the wis
dom of the centuries, and determine
to live by their wits tn the exercise of
every available illegitimate scheme to
swindle those with whom they come
in contact. They scorn the voice of
conscience, the still, small voice that
calls from the image of God that is
in them, and hearken Instead to the
strident cry of that rebellious, self
assertive, diabolical spirit that fell
from Heaven to the fires of Hell. —
Tampa (Fla.) Tribune.
M r,
MR. ROOSEVELT STANDS PAT.
1. By the needless ta*es on the ne
cessaries of living. By the taxes on
lumber and its products, which act
as a premium on the destruction of
the forests he is trying to save.. By
the taxes on fuel, which protect the
coal mine owners in the extortion
which inspires him with the notion
of government ownership. By the tax
es on hides and on meats which bol
ster up the beef trust he has so vigor
ously assailed.
2. By the taxes on the ma* .-rials of
home industry, from the metal for
tools and machinery to the thread of
the sweat-shop sewing girl. By the
taxes that enable foreign capital to
fatten on the needs of American work
ingmen, while domestic monopolies ex
act from American industries prices
30 per cent and 40 per cent higher
than they offer to foreigners.
And he stands pat by these curious
ly unreasonable and extortionate ex
actions solely because they are not so
unpopular as the evils —real or imag
inary—which he prefers to attack.
It is easier and simpler to assail
“swollen fortunes” than to attempt a
practical reform of taxation which
helps, at the expense of the common
people, to produce swollen fortunes.
We are far from accusing Mr. Roose
velt of conscious preference for the
ways a demagogue might naturally
choose to follow. His experience, his
somewhat one-sided education, his de
votion to politics and relative unfa
miliarity with practical business on the
economic side of legislation, Incline
him to the path he pursues and di
vert him from one more difficult and
statesmanlike. The real results are a
marked waste of energy on hts part
and an unwholesome security for or
ganized and unscrupulous monopoly.—
N. Y. Timer
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