Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1907 — Political Comment. [ARTICLE]

Political Comment.

Wall Street’s Bl* Bluff. President Roosevelt has called Wall street’s bluff and wo may confidently count on a cessation of the financial shocks which recently have been disturbing the serenity of the buslneasL world There is no reasonable ground for doubt that the stock manipulators were wholly responsible for the attempt to frighten the administration and force from It the “reassuring” word. The railway rate measure was of small moment to them, but when the President took up seriously the question of over-capitalization and urged some means of regulating that feature of high finance, the Wall street gamblers saw the prospect of losing their most valued instrument. They advised, pleaded and finally threatened, accompanying their program with a series of market manipulations of a startling nature. That sort of a game is played only as a last resort, because it is dangerous to the operator. Wall street cannot thrive in a panic and it doesn’t take many financial convulsions to create a panic. The speculators were desperate enough to run the risk, but as their plans have miscarried, they will probably confine their future warfare to less menacing tactics. Instead of giving a “reassuring,” the President has given a “reiterative” word. That is, he has explained, In a letter to the Illinois manufacturer, where he has stood consistently throughout the railroad campaign, and where he stands now. To discount the claim of his enemies, who have insisted that he jumped at conclusions, the President declares that he took no action looking to the reformation of railway methods until he had made an exhaustive study of the question; He is convinced now more than ever that the legislation already passed and the additional legislation which he favors are In the public interest. That the people may not be misled into thinking he is hostile to railway Interests President Roosevelt repeats several paragraphs from his Raleigh speech and also from his inaugural address, in both of which he was care-

ful to stand on the middle ground—advocating justice to the shipper and to the railroad as well, and to each the same measure of Justice. He dwelt on the Importance of the railroads as a factor in the development of the national resources, denied that rates were, in the main, unreasonable, but urged that there must be an end to every device giving one shipper an advantage over another in their respective relations to the common carriers. Likewise he showed the injury to the common welfare, growing out of overcapitalization and excessive stock watering and recommended legislation which should at least minimize the corroding influence of speculation on the industrial world. The carefully prepared attack of Wall street operators which drove prominent financiers to Washington in an appeal for a word of assurance from the White House has been repulsed. The President treated the petitioners with courtesy and promised consideration. _ He wanted to convince himself first that there were no under currents In our commercial life of which the Wall street upheaval might be the surface lndicijjjton, and when he Investigated and discovered the truth of the plot, he was prompt to announce his position. He says in his Illinois letter that he has not changed his opinion, and will not alter his plans, and that should be enough to reassure the nation. If there is any comfort to Harriman or his crowd in this, they are welcome to it.—Toledo Blade.

I.abor and Tariff. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, recently expressed lilmself as being proud of what had been accomplished for the laboring men of tlie United States in recent years. It Is perhaps true, as claimed by Mr. Gompers, that labor organizations have had something to do with the situation In which as an American citizen life expresses pride, but he Is of course aware of the fact that labor Is far more thoroughly organized in England than In the United States, yet present conditions In the former country would cause no sort of pride. If Mr. Gompers lives long enough to see the repeal of the present tariff law of the United States and In Its place the adoption of sonic tariff reform compromise, he will have an opportunity to revise his labor review recital and to learn anew a lesson which he seems to have almost forgotten. —Hancock (Midi.) Journal.

Clewland’s Bad .Advice. Mr. Cleveland clings to his Idea that the tariff makes trusts, and he insists that the evils which haije led up to the present revulsion of feeling against corporations were brought about by the tariff. Strange, then, that they did not appear with the Wilson bill. That measure closed the shops and mills and put 3,000,000 idle men on the streets, Jt>ut the corruption of insurance companies, railroad discriminations and all manner of corporate abuses went on right through the last four years of Grover, without regard to tariff conditions. It Is doubtless true that tariff reform which would ignore the principle of protection, as the Wilson bill did In parts, would destroy some of the trusts, for it was pretty well demonstrated that neither the independent manufacturers nor any combination of industries could so much as keep the mills going on starvation wages during the second Cleveland administration. That administration effectually halted industry, but it did not check the scandalous wrongs leading up to the existing “popular clamor” which Mr. Cleveland now deplores. If it had Mr. Cleveland would not to-day be the arbiter of the great Insurance trust, drawing a generous salary for making appeals to legislatures and to allay an aroused public sentiment. —Pittsburg Gazette-Times.

-- Wage Increases. Notice of an increase in wages of $1 per week has been posted in six of the largest silk dye houses in Paterson. The advance affects about 5,000 men with weeklv wages ranging from $lO to S2O. It h expected that the smaller dye houses will grant a similar increase. Would these advances in wages occur if the tariff were now in course of revision, or even if a definite date for taking up revision had been agreed upon? Certainly not. Would the wage Increases be granted if reciprocity treaties had been concluded, or were in course of negotiation, by w r hich a tariff reduction on silk goods was conceded in favor of imports from France and Germany? No; there would be not increases but decreases of wages. Just as surely as the tariff is revised downward by direct reduction or by reciprocity concessions, so surely will wages be revised downward in every branch of industry. It Is well to keep this fact in mind. Bryan’s Change of Views. In a letter to Henry M. Whitney of Boston, W. J. Bryan gives his views on railroad supervision, showing a change in his original attitude on the subject. The Nebraskan still believes in Federal and State ownership, but does not think the people are ready for that. It Is not an immediate issue, such as government regulation. He now thinks that whenever public ownership is adopted the present owners will receive full compensation up to their physical valuation. He would have the commerce commission fix the values. The Probable Reason. The Washington “Star” professes great mystification as to the influences that have prevailed with President Roosevelt in keeping tariff revision in abeyance for something over two years past. We have an explanation to offer which may help the “Star” out of its quandary: Ordinary, every-day, allround, common sense. Those in search of a reason may go further and fire worse.—American Economist.