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Netos and Vietos From All Around
ASTOUNDS THE PUBLIC.
Harriman Inquiry Shows the Methods
of High Finance.
WILL HAVE A MORAL EFFECT.
Previous Investigations of “Jack and
Beanstalk” Schemes Are Recalled.
New York Banker Thinks People
May Be Led to Insist Upon Roose
velt Again Being a Candidate for the
Presidency.
(Holland, in Philadelphia. Press.)
Mr. Harriman is dividing public in
terest with or diverting it from Ev
elyn Nesbit Thaw, and maybe it is
well that there has come this relief
from the intense strain occasioned by
the examination and cross-examination
of Mrs. Thaw. Many persons who
read the testimony given by Mr. Har
riman spoke of it as an amazing rev
elation of the manner in which gigan
tic individual fortunes were in a few
years’ time rolled up. The veterans,
however, spoke of this testimony as
though it recalled other investigations,
especially that of the Credit Mobiler.
Then, too, the brilliantly conducted
investigation of Jay Gould and the Erie
Railroad management by a legislative
committee, of which A. Burton Hep
burn was chairman, was recalled by
Mr. Harriman’s testimony, as was the
evidence variously produced of tho
manner in which the Vanderbilts’ co
lossal fortune was established, chief
ly through the doubling of the capital
stock of the New York Central, almost
all of the forty millions of stock there
by created being absorbed by the com
modore.
There were other comments from
which a judgment of public opinion
could be secured. For instance, one
man, himself of prominence in finan
cial promotion, and also of a little con
sequence as a politician, declared that
if this investigation continued and
the further revelations of what may
be called Harriman financing equal
those already made, then the entire
country would willingly confess the
obligation the people are under to
President Roosevelt and may be likely
to insist without party distinction that
he be named as the candidate of all
the people for the presidency next
year. Os course, this was an excessive
statement, and the temper of it may
be gauged by the fact that the banker
who thus spoke had been at consider
able odds with E. H. Harriman and
with Benjamin B. Odell.
Democrat Blames National Banks.
One very good Democrat, who is
himself soon to be associated with
financiers, was of the opinion that
this “Jack and Beanstalk’’ method of
securing gigantic fortunes through the
control of executive boards of rail
roads and the creation and then the
private and afterward public market
ing of securities, the profits going into
the pockets of members of the execu
tive boards, will continue as long as
the national banks make such financ
ing possible. This Democrat ventured
to say that the most grievous blow
business interests of the United States
received was that administered by An
drew Jackson when he vetoed the re
newed charter of the United States
Bank and in that way destroyed the
bank. For whatever the faults of an
Institution of that kind might have
been, nevertheless, under it, there
could be no such manipulation or use
of banking funds as the exploiting of
railway securities to private advantage
by means of syndicates, largely made
up of national bankers.
That, too, is an excessive state
ment, and yet it shows the temper
with which Mr. Harriman’s testimony
has been read in this city and probably
elsewhere. The chief difference be
tween the so-called Harriman financing
and that which distinguished Jay Gould
and Commodore Vanderbilt or the
Credit Mobilier group is that suggest
ed by the magnitude of the figures.
All the others operated with intent to
secure comparatively few millions.
Mr. Harriman’s operations in Chicago
and Alton alone were vastly in excess
of the Credit Mobilier underwriting
of the Pacific railroad securities, al
though apparently the underlying prin
ciple in each case was the same.
Harriman and Equitable.
Many who read this testimony spoke
also of what would have happened if
Mr. Harriman had succeeded in his
surmised attempt to secure control
of the Equitable Life Assurance Socie
ty. All who have been familiar with
the inner history of the family troub
les which at last culminated in the
revolt of James H. Hyde and the gen
eral cataclysm preceding the insurance
investigation, have been firmly of the
opinion that these troubles arose at
first because of Mr. Harriman’s deter
mination to secure control of the gi
gantic resources and opportunities of
the Equitable. What could he not have
done had he penetrated the Equitable
fortress and occupied it himself is a
question many persons now ask.
The moral effect of this investigation
will in all probability be of more
consequence than any legal results.
The question for the interstate com
merce commission to decide is the le
gality of the methods by which Mr.
Harriman swept into one colossal con
trol much the greater part of the rail
way systems west of the Mississippi,
with considerable alliance east of that
river. It may be impossible to prove
that anything was illegally done or
that the various combinations made
by Mr. Harriman are in violation of
federal statutes. But there has been
demonstration of the manner in which
syndicates may take advantage of self
made opportunities and accumulate gi
gantic personal fortunes representing
the subscription to stocks and bonds
of railroads which these syndicates
have underwritten and marketed. Re
cently, railway presidents have spoken
with some anxiety, apparently sincere,
of the lack of public confidence at this
time in railway securities. ’ They have
been disposed to trace the cause to
popular agitations of legislative in
vestigations. But there are wise men
in this city who say that after this
Investigation it will cause surprise if
the general public are disposed to pur
chase new issues of stocks or bonds
of the Harriman groups.
•t
At the same time we think the rail
ways will manage to make dividends
with the 2-cent passenger rate. Short
tailed dogs manage to learn to walk a
log all right.
A Baltimore doctor recommends
that men should go hatless and does
so himself. That sort of M. D. looks
like a monkey doctor to us.
The firm of Lon & Harvie, farmers
of the farmers, seems to have more
friends in Wall street than in the cot
ton fields.
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
RAILROADS DECLARING WAR ON
THE PUBLIC.
(New York American.)
The railroads apparently have deter
mined to declare war upon the public
wherever legislatures exercise the
right of regulating them. This is a
policy which is sure to react upon the
roads, for when it comes to close
quarters the people, after all, are
stronger than the corporations.
Nebraska passed a two-cent fare bill
a few days ago. It went into effect at
once, and immediately the railroads
entered upon a campaign of retalia
tion. Trains have been taken off;
every sort of public concession has
been cancelled; each road has refused
to sell continuous tickets' or to check
baggage over a connecting line; the
two-cent fare has not been allowed on
interstate tickets, the passenger be
ing required to buy a new ticket at
the state line and also to recheck bag
gage.
The people of Nebraska are not like
ly to bear this kind of thing patiently.
For forty years they have had more
than enough of railroad extortion and
tyranny. Besides imposing robbing
freight rates, the companies have as
sumed political mastership. For a
long period the Burlington and Union
Pacific took turns in electing the
United States senators and combined
in choosing the governor and legisla
ture. A Nebraskan was not asked,
“Are you a Republican, or a Demo
crat?” but “Are you a U. P. or a
B. & M. man?”
This continued until the antimonop
oly uprising in 1893 caused the passage
of the maximum rate bill, which was
afterwards beaten on a technicality
before a federal court. The reform
wave subsided and the railroads again
took control, which they maintained
until the present rebellion in the Re
publican party, which has once more
broken their grip.
Throughout all these years the rail
roads of Nebraska dodged their taxes.
Recently they were forced to pay up
to the tune of >3,100,000, which no
doubt has something to do with their
ill-temper. Nearly every prominent
man in the state had a pass, so that
ordinary people who traveled were re
quired to pay for themselves and the
“deadheads” too.
Among the trains taken off to punish
Nebraska are those running east and
west between Chicago and Los Ange
les, the finest on the Harriman over
land system.
A fact that the railroad managers
everywhere need to have impressed
upon them is that the states of the
American union are sovereign, each
within its sphere, and that to defy
them and challenge their power is
an extremely hazardous thing to do.
ROOT IS A DISGRACE.
A Shameful Type of Man to Receive
Decent Foreign Representatives.
(The New York Journal.)
News dispatches announce that Mr.
Bryce, the English ambassador, has
paid his first visit to Elihu Root, sec
retary for the United States.
All the world knows the character
of Bryce, author of the “American
Commonwealth.” He is a profound
and thorough student, a brilliant
writer, an unselfish servant of his
country and his fellow citizens for
.many years.
And he is an honest man.
What kind of man does he meet as
head of the state department of the
United States?
He meets Elihu Root.
Who is Elihu Root?
This man began his life as the well
paid lawyer of Tweed, the great crim
inal and thief.
When he was mixed up in shady
transactions in the constitutional con
vention it was shown, among other
things, that the house he lived in was
taken from Tweed, who had bought
it with money stolen from the city.
Root didn’t deny this because he
couldn’t.
He began as Tweed’s lawyer. He
ends as the lawyer of any public cor
poration scoundrel that cares to hire
him.
He is at this moment the principal
adviser and lawyer of Thomas F. Ry
an, of New York city.
He is the man of whom the late
William C. Whitney said:
“Other corporation lawyers will tell
me what I cannot do, but Root is
the only man who will tell me what
I can do.”
By that Whitney meant that Root
was the only man he could rely upon,
not merely to tell him that such and
such a thing was illegal, but also to
tell him how he could do the illegal
thing in some other way.
England sends to this country a man
of character and honor —a man who
would no more receive the stolen mon
ey of a Tweed than he would cut oft
his right hand. And he meets at the
head of our department of state the
paid agent of criminals, the willing
adviser of the enemies of the people,
the man who for pay tells the biggest
thieves in the world’s biggest country
how to steal more money.
This man Root, pander of public
thieves, at the head of our state de
partment is a disgrace to the country
and to the official who appoints such a
man to office.
GETTING EVEN.
(The Philadelphia Press.)
As so many people are now engag
ed in smashing the railroads, it looks
as if the railroads thought they had
a right to smash some of the people,
and that’s what they are doing with
their accidents.
THERE ARE OTHERS.
(The Chicago Tribune.)
While paying his respects to the
mollycoddle the President might have
uttered a few earnest words concern
ing the geezer, the slob, the mutt, the
pieface, the fink, and the cheap skate.
FARMERS, TAKE NOTICE.
(The People’s Paper.)
We warn you farmers to be careful
about changing >I,OOO bank notes for
strangers that may come along, as
173 >I,OOO bills have lately been stolen
from the sub-treasury in Chicago, and
you are liable to get stolen money
packed off on you.
REDUCE JUDICIAL EXPENSES.
(The New York World.)
It might save much expensive litiga
tion to provide in general enactments
that no manslaughter indictment shall
lie against any one higher in his pro
fession than a brakeman or a ticket
taker, and that killing shall not be an
indictable offense when the person
killed has done something that made
talk among the neighbors.
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