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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. 3