Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1907 — Never Could Earn a Billion. [ARTICLE]

Never Could Earn a Billion.

Would an earning capacity of $450 per day without an allowance for hcts and gowns from the first ■day entered the Garden of Eden, endow that mao with the wealth today possesed by John D, Rockefeller? Governor A.. B. Cummins, of Ipwa, before the Will County < 111.-) Chautauqua, Sunday evening, declared that it would not. The address ot lowa’s chief executive was entitled “Tariff Revision and Overcapitalization of Railroads.” In branching off from this topic to indorse the action of Judge Landis he drew the contrast, that ran thru primitive, mediaeval and modern times. “I have been to some trouble, and my secretary has been more troubled in compiling the neeessary statistics,” declared Governor Cummins. “At my instruction my secretary gave Adam a salary of $450 a day—ou paper, of course—and allowed it to pile up from day to day until Saturday was reached. No part of the sum was subtracted for household expenses. Eve retained the same costume she wore an the Garden of Eden and Adam remained faithful to the leafy frock in which he wooed Eve. French creations were not for her. Not even a mother hubbard wrapper could be purchased with this money. It wasallowed to aceumu late and up to Saturday Adam had not reached the billion dollar mark.” Governor Cummins declared that the fine imposed by Judge Landis was commensurate with the immense wealth of the corporation fined and eminently just and proper.