Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1903 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

The AdanlnUtratlon and Wall Street. Wall atreet is still In the dumps and does not seem able to rally from the enormous decline In the quoted value of stock. The Napoleons of finance areturning their eyes to Congress to help them and the select members of the Finance Committee of the Senate are preparing a bill which la intended to be just what the Wall street- people want. Very seldom has Congress legislated entirely as Wall street has dictated, because what the stock jobbers ask for Is Just what the other people who pay the taxes don’t want, and won’t have if they can help It. As long as times are good in Wall street and there are plenty of lambs to shear, ths financiers make no demand for legislation, but when the crop of lambs have all been sheared and the bulls and bears undertake to strip the hides from each other, then the trouble begins and the President Is called upon to order the Secretary of the Treasury to “aiil the banks and prevent a

panic.” Early in the fall of 1902, when the first big break in the price of stock* commenced, the eonditioiv,of the financial weather In Wall street was squally and the Secretary of the Treasurj, under orders from President Roosevelt, at once commenced to aid tfcf banka In every possible way. Bond* were purchased at an enormous premium, the price being virtually dice tated by the sellers. All the receipt* from internal revenue were deposited in the favored banks and allowed t* remain there, without interest, and tha vast snm of over $150,000,000 is now loaned to the banks, on which not on; cent of interest has ever been paid. All this snccor not being found enough to stem the tide of liquidation, tha banka were allowed to withdraw theii United States bonds, which they had deposited with the Treasury as security for loans, and In place thereof deposit city and railroad bonds. Th'.| allowed the banks to use the released United States bonds to Increase the-j circulation and thus to further inflate the currency. At the last session of Congress tha attempt was made to pass the Fowler asset currency bill and the Aldrich bli’. but the proposed legislation was dafeated. - Then a further cry of distress cam* from the banks and Secretary Shaw began the refunding of United States bonds, which has just been closed with an issue of over $81,000,C00 of 2 pu cents in exchange for a like amount of 3 and 4 per cents, the government paying the enormous premium to the banks and other bondholders of ovar $3,500,000 for the privilege of doing to. The statement is now made by Mr. Seligman, one of the principal Wall street bankers, that the administration is prepared to take further measures to relieve the money stringency, If such becomes necessary, to relieve ihe pressure in Wall street. President Roosevelt is officially quoted as favoring the financial legislation that the banks ask for and will issue a call for an extraordinary ms-

■ion of Congress, to commence Not. 9, for that purpose. All this shows tliat President Roosevelt has authorised more and greater favors to the batiks and Wall street than any President ever did and all the efforts of Republican newspapers to make it appear that Wall street la opposed to the President is not only absurd, but not betme out by facta. The spook that worries Wall street is Congress, for It is a notorious fact that at any session Just before a national election the politicians are on their good behavior and do not, as a rule, enact legislation that will be questionably received by the vottys. That President Roosevelt will recommend financial legislation to Congrun Is said to be assured, but whether Congress will dare to legislate further In the Interest of the banks and Wall street is problematicaL Trusts in Control. If President Roosevelt la re-elected next year it win be almply and solely because a majority'of the voters sincerely believe that he Is helping them to fight their battle with the trusts. So odious have the hundreds of protected trusts become, both In the eyes of consumers and Investors, that no man who openly favors them can hope to be elected to any kind of public office. It la not strange, then, that President Roosevelt la seeking to haT« the public believe that he la an enemy of all bad trusts—assuming that there are some good ones. But what did the President ever do to really injure great corporations? Although he began political life as a strenuous free-trader, yet he recently, under pressure from the Protective Tariff League, joined the standpatters and thus stands opposed to the mosn certain way of curbing the trusts and giving relief to the people, by reduc tng the tariff duties. As Governor of New York he called au extra session of the Legislature to pass amendments to the Ford bill to tax the franchises of the public service corporations. The amendments were prepared by the corporation attorneys, and were Intended to make the act unconstitutional. The courts have not yet, after four years of lost time, fully decided the case. It was the President’s voice that killed the Littlefield anti-trust bOl

In the last Congress and caused the passage of two sham anti-trust bills—the Elkins anti-rebate bill and the Department of Commerce bill, with Its bureau of corporations to give publicity to trusts. The facts that are slowly coming to light In regard to this new bureau should open the eyes of the voters to the real position of the President. on the trust question. In discussing ths “Present Statistical Outlook in Washington,” the correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce and Com*/ mercial Bulletin said of this new* bureau: ‘•qjjie work now laid out for this bureau is of a really thorough type, ajodl if It is pursued with vigor on the lines now suggested there will be a good deal of complaint in the near future when the methods now contemplated are actually jpplied. Pressure of the most strenuous sort will undoubted’y be brought to bear at the White 1 House. Just bow soon the department

will really begin to show its hand in the matter of trust investigation cannot be certainly predicted, but those who are In position to know say it will not be until after the next Presidential election. As a matter of fact, a good deal of time is needed for the organization of the work and for laying out special lines of investigation. All this will consume many months, and Secretary Cortelyou Is too tactful a man to weaken his strategic position by opening fire in a Presidential campaign, if there would be any danger of hurting his party thereby. It will, therefore, be a good while before there are any definite results of the inquiries of the Bureau of Corporations.” Is there anything in this statement to frighten the trusts? Is it not clew that this new bureau will give the trusts two years more leeway—two years more license to squeeze the people and extract money from their pockets—two years at $1,000,000,000 a year? And what then? Publicity. That’s all, and mere than all, for it la entirly optional with the President whether any of the facts gathered by this bureau are ever published or not But the facts, when published, are intoned to serve only as a basis for “conservative” antl-truat legislation some time in the dim and distant future. President Roosevelt fighting the trusts? He is their best friend. He, as no other living man, knows how to tickle them and at the same time make the multitude, who sees hla fierce face and vigorous gestures, believe that he is mauling the life out of them. The trusts have great need of Just such a man at this juncture to save them from the Wrath of an outraged y»ople. It is a part of their game that Wall street and the trusts are to be against Roosevelt this year. Next year when the campaign is on it will be found that the G. O. P. is getting financial support from its old-time friends —the trusts.—Byron W. Holt.

Alger and Thnreton Reciprocity. When a speaker of either political party Is Invited to Detroit, he Is treated to the best there is In that ancient western city. There Is, too, a certain exhilaration about the atmosphere of Detroit that has led many ora tour to fall Into hyperbaton and this count for the extraordinary hyperbole indulged In by ex-Senator John M. Thurston In that city. He said: “Blind as bats in Jhe serene sunshine of his success, they have swarmed In the darkness and flung their puny ink-blots at the shining splendor of his stainless shield. But the country knows, and the world knows, and impartial history will declare, that the war administration of Russell A. Alger stands first In all annals of recorded tlma.” With the taste of the embalmed beef still lingering in the minds of “the boys” and remnants of the coat of whitewash that was laid on so thick that the “stainless shield” of Alger and Corbin are still encrusted with It, we certainly have no record to match it The Thurston utterances must be attributed to the lavish entertainment that the General had with his usual prodigality poured out to bta old friend, the ex-Senator. Thurston, though filled up with the Detroit atmosphere and other things, knew ha could not lay It on too thick for Alger and he just “let ’er fly.”

Xrea Trast Prosperity la Waning.

Moreau, Jr.—Papa, they don't bit* any more. Moigan, Sr» —Never mind, nonj they’ll get hungry again after awhll* —Philadelphia North Americas.