OBSERVE THE DIFFERENCE
Paine, Robert F.
Observe the Difference : : By ROBERT F. PAINE IS CONSIDERING the cases of the American patriots who are under charges of fraud, bribery and other corruption and trying to break into the lr. S....
...The objection to Vare is that he was selected through election frauds and illegal boodling...
...Johnson, cut out the provisions which Interfere with the power trusts' grabbing the dam and gouging the people on all that they are permitted to get out of it...
...When looking for absurdity, either in general plan or details, consult a taxation statute...
...The ordinary* filler of tax blanks is in about the same fix...
...In refusing publicity the secretary of ¦var has but recently presented a precedent which is, probably, quite precious to the secretary of state...
...The distinction between the two cases quite plain...
...What the Senate would do to Smith were he not chairman of that commission is not apparent...
...Incidentally, it appears that 'Tare-most Patriot" Doheny made a profit of $791,012.03, by re-sale of the royalty, oil from the Elk Hill leases—a pretty, fair return on one stroke of patriotism, even in times when little black bags go forth seeking friends to whom to loan $100,000 with sang froid...
...The power companies have the means with which to go after what they want...
...Talbert is asked if his cutting off of all those millions of valuation wasn't absurd...
...In 1913, P. S. Talbert, of the Internal Revenue Department, valued the good will of the Ford Co...
...In 1919, Mr...
...and, his reply is, "The idea that it might have been absurd never occurred to me...
...Justice, occasionally, shows very ordinary taste in arraigning people before her lawful bar...
...Now, in the income tax case, at Detroit, Mr...
...Maybe Sinclair plays a harp, Ed McLean pings psalms, and the little $100,000 black satchel has angel wings...
...In the Vare case, the Senate will pass upon the simple question as to whether a member should be admitted who is, for any reason, the par-tieiiljir choice of "the interests" which think it is profitable to invest enormous sums in TJ...
...If," you say, Senator, "the power companies interpose their selfishness |md avarice to prevent this great boon, ye will—-etc,* Senator, yoa never, in all Koht...
...If you want to get speedy action on your Boulder bill, Mr...
...It is that of Senator Norris requiring the state department to furnish all information concerning oil concessions in Mexico, with names of concessionaires who are fighting the Mexican constitution and laws relating-to concessions...
...and, working up telegrams from chambers of commerce, bankers "and others related, in one fashion or another" is common stuff...
...In other words, publicity as to whose "lives and property" are being "protected" to the point of war...
...THE ANOINTED WITH OIL ATTORNEYS for the defense have made out Fall to be a fine likeness of Abraham Lincoln, and Doheny to be "the foremost patriot . of Los Angeles...
...Washington is surrounded by power corporation lobbyists who know just what their backers want...
...This is the big national issue, from the birth of every project for development of national resources, by, of, and for the people...
...The Boulder dam project is not merely a matter of digging through soil, drilling through rock and heaping up concrete, but one of digging and drilling through the influence of power trusts at Washington...
...K. Paine your life, met a certainty that was stronger than this "If...
...The Senate will have a chance to give a demonstration upon this point in the case of Vare, of Pennsylvania...
...at $170,000,000...
...progress...
...A BAS PUBLICITY 1 THE SENATE has before it at least one resolution that has a rocky road to travel...
...The Senate indicates that it will bar Smith, of Illinois, on the ground that he violated a state statute, by accepting campaign funds irom traction companies while he was chairman of the State Commerce Commission, which body regulates traction rates...
...TAXATION ABSURDITY HOW CAN any ordinary citizen be expected to plow his way through the mazes of an income tax blank, when even the government experts foozle the job...
...Senator Norris will be a distinguished miracle-worker, if he succeeds, in getting for the public a full view of what is going on behind the diplomatic doors at Washington...
...Corporation government, or popular government...
...SAME OLD STRINGS PULLED MANY Senators have come to me with telegrams from chambers of commerce, bankers and others related, in one fashion or another, with power companies asking that the Boulder dam bill be defeated.—Senator Hiram Johnson...
...He is not a bird in the hand of the corporations, as is alleged in Smith's case, but there is no doubt but "the interests" knew what they wanted and would get, when they invested several hundred thousands of '.-liars in Vare's campaign...
...and, you know it...
...So natural as to be hardly worth mentioning, Hiram...
...The troubles with Mexico and Nicaragua are based upon concessions and concessionaires are, usually, very touchy in the matter of publicity...
...It is the same publicity that became "obnoxious" in the matter of income tax returns and that would become "obnoxious" if applied to the Nicaraguan matter...
...S. senators...
...S. Senate, it is well to observe the distinctions...
...In other and homelier words, the umbilical cord between "the interests" and their servant, was strong, short and apparent...
...Talbert valued the same at $140,000,000 less, notwithstanding the six years of indisputable Ford Co...
...He puts in things which he knows are absurd, and, also, absurd things of which he has no idea...
Vol. 19 • January 1909 • No. 2
