NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING

...Its yearly profits in 1896 were more than $36,500,000, or an increase of 400 per cent...

...Scrap iron has been boosted from 50 cents to $2.50 a ton in duty...

...Even then misunderstandings might arise...

...It now transpires that the employers' union placed all its members under penal bonds not to make peace with the workmen on the basis of recognizing the union or using the union label— which was the main point in the controversy...

...Is Meat Too High for Consumers...

...This association is largely one of merchants...

...The cities of New York and Chicago especially have suffered in these respects, and at this writing no relief is in sight...

...In resolutions adopted and sent to senators and congressmen, the association calls attention to the injustice to corporations engaged in mercantile, manufacturing and industrial businesses in competition with copartnerships which would go untaxed...

...It favors the holding companies by means of which most of the great trusts have been formed, by deducting from the corporate income subject to taxation all sums received from stocks and bonds held Ain subsidiary corporations...

...Laborers Killed in Mine Horror Seventeen miners were killed and many more injured in an explosion of gas in a mine at Wehrum, Pennsylvania, on June 23...

...in the interest of the farmer," while Senator Burton of Ohio asserting that the beef trust tans from 60 to 70 per cent...

...of the bill is still the unchanged Dingley law, and that only 25 per cent...

...of the schedules are open to any change in conference, it is evident that there will not be any large amount of revising downward...

...It was announced in New York on the 27th that a company has been formed to establish a line of steamships from that port to Argentina, for the purpose of importing South American meats...

...A fortnight ago the Supreme Court of the state, finding the law one which a coach-and-four might be driven through, drove through it, as it was no doubt its duty to do...

...The mine belonged to the Lackawanna Coal and Coke Company...

...In an interview published on the 27th, Senator Dolliver expressed the opinion that "any redeeming touches" which the bill might receive would be put in it when it went to conference committee of both houses, under pressure from President Taft...

...Taft Measure Meets Much Opposition The opposition to the measure comes from various quarters, and seems to be increasing as the plan is studied...

...Each of the 23 seceders has been sued by the employers' union for $26,000 (we speak on the authority of Peter Power, a writer on labor subjects) and we may look for a most interesting test in the courts of the relative privileges of laborers and employers to organize and carry on war in the labor market...

...Lorimer of Illinois to the Senate declares that "to join in the election of Speaker Cannon's right hand man is indefensible, whether considered from the standpoint of party or from the standpoint of patriotism...

...The governor in an interview asserts that Mr...

...Pleydell saw no reason to tax corporations receiving incomes from actual production in competitive activities, more than any other producers...

...Bryan Criticises Democrats Those Democratic Senators and members of the lower house who have played politics with Cannon and Aldrich this session have been frequently criticised by Mr...

...Henry Clews asserted that two per cent...

...might be unobjectionable...

...Aldrich...

...It might be arranged to tax dividends declared and interest on bonded indebtedness...

...but where the bonded debt exceeds the capital stock, the interest on such excess will be considered as "net" income, and taxed...

...Prostrations, deaths of those weak from infancy or old age, sunstroke sustained by those obliged to labor in places made worse by artificial heat, insanity from the torture of temperatures too high for endurance —all these make depressing reading in the heated term...

...He is a bold man," he said, "who will defend the Aldrich bill...

...of the hides in this country, and threatens to monopolize the whole tanning industry, added, "It requires a good deal of ingenuity to show that the farmer is benefitted by this duty on hides...

...Yielding deceitfully to the pressure of public opinion, the Illinois legislatures have passed one primary law after another in such form as to be unconstitutional...

...The Ryan-Widener-Elkins-Dolan-Whitney crowd on so small a start, by waging the fiercest war on all rivals and competitors, have now amassed holdings amounting to $317,000,000—mostly water—on which they receive dividends and interest so that the stocks and bonds are good securities in the market...

...Bryan in the Commoner...

...Cattle prices at Chicago range from $3.00 for the poorest to $7.35 for the best, while hogs, after reaching the extraordinarily high price of $8.05 for tops, still rule at about $7.60 to $7.90 for the bulk of sales...

...The Taft Corporation Tax Before the Senate After several conferences of the President with Mr...

...Frederick Collin, general counsel for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, said that if two per cent...

...on the net earnings of corporations, exempting corporate incomes of less than $5,000...

...The use of open lamps in this mine has been permitted by the mine inspectors, and it is considered that this laxity on the part of the inspectors and the owners was the cause of the dreadful occurrence...

...but he does not enlighten us as to the respects in which the bill passed varies from the law declared for in his platform...

...Its influence on the production of tobacco may be judged from the fact that the notorious "night riders" were organized in the tobacco growing regions for the purpose of preventing the pounding down of the price of the leaf by the Trust in the effort to make these huge profits...

...Aldrich and the Senate Committee on Finance, to which Senator Root of New York was invited, a draft of the rather complex corporation tax amendment to the Aldrich-Payne bill by which the reactionaries hope to head off the income tax amendment of the Progressives, was laid before the Senate on the 25th...

...It imposes a tax of two per cent...

...July wheat now rules near $1.16 at Chicago, while prices indicate that the concensus of opinion of speculators is that it will bring about $1.11 in September, and $1.09 in December...

...in six years...

...The Chicago Association of Commerce has become feverishly active in opposition to the measure, and its business manager, Mr...

...The election of Senator Lorimer over ex-Senator Hopkins caused little regret on the part of primary advocates, because Hopkins, it is widely asserted, was never willing to say that he would accept the verdict of the primaries until after he had won in them...

...The Hat Makers Partially Succeed The hat makers' union has won at least a partial success in its long strike against the United Hatters of North America, their employers' union...

...During the week many things of an Aldrich nature have been done, of which not even a summary can be attempted here...

...By a vote of 46 to 30, a duty of 15 per cent...

...Machine Wins When Primary Goes The primary law of Illinois has been the football of party politics for years...

...Senator Brown of Nebraska offered an amendment eliminating the provision for automatic retaliation upon nations imposing export duties on pulp wood, and providing for free ground pulp, and a duty of one-fourth cent per pound on the bleached chemical pulp, and one-sixth on the unbleached, with a proviso that a retaliatory duty may be imposed by proclamation of the President...

...In 1890 it had, on a capitalization of $25,000,000, tangible assets of not more than $5,000,000...

...Whether or not the invalidity has been the fruit of the deceit may be uncertain, but it undoubtedly is a fact that the prominent men of Illinois have most of them been opposed to the abolition of the old caucus and convention system...

...He said that he did not know whether he would vote for the bill on final passage or not...

...Tariff Still in Sweltering Senate The tariff agony in the Senate must be approaching its end, but the end is not yet...

...ad valorem, from 15 per cent., though it is understood that the manufacturers really do not care for a duty...

...In no other respect, however, has the Aldrich machine failed...

...Under the influence of reports of unfavorable wet and hot weather, and of large buying orders from abroad, the price of wheat has strengthened...

...He calls attention to the fact that the platform upon which Governor Johnson was elected declared for the tax, and that Mr...

...ad valorem was fixed on hides...

...of the real net income of corporations is collected it will pile up a surplus which will encourage extravagance...

...It is only in the conservatively-organized corporation which issues stock for actual money or capital only, and bonds for money actually borrowed, that will have all its income reached by the provisions of the bill...

...Aldrich setting out sixteen items in which Mr...

...Thus, as is the case with many of the trusts, as well as with independent corporations, where the tangible property of the corporation is represented by bonds, and an equal or greater amount of stock has been floated representing nothing but water, the interest on bonds, which is the real earnings of the tangible plant, will not be taxed, even though it absorbs the entire earnings...

...He expressed the opinion that the law will be closer to the House bill than the Senate measure, but, he added, "when you figure that something like 75 per cent...

...The life insurance companies all over the nation are making strenuous objections to the tax, saying that it must in the nature of the case be a burden on policy holders...

...Sawed lumber is kept up to the finance committee's rate of $2 a thousand...

...The first cargo of beef and mutton is expected to arrive in December, according to reports...

...Aldrich had made "grave errors of fact" in his statement to the Senate on the pulp schedule...

...In the matter of voting, the Democrats still eat protection out of the Aldrich hand whenever possible, and the Aldrich program goes on, a little belated, but according to schedule otherwise...

...Brown was as much surprised as anyone, apparently, when this amendment was accepted by Mr...

...The organizers of this company express the opinion that even after paying the tariff of two cents a pound it can be sold at a profit in this country, owing to the high prices maintained by the packers...

...It is interesting to note that at Yorkville, where a primary was to have been held under the law on June 26, the old-time party bosses, out of business since the old system was abolished, played the old game, rushed out an old-fashioned call for an old-fashioned convention, and won what the press dispatches call an old fashioned machine victory...

...Huge Profits of Huge Trusts Senator Beveridge on the 24th told in the Senate the story of the financial freebooting of the American Tobacco Company— the Trust...

...This trust is one of the beneficiaries of the Aldrich-Payne tariff bill...

...It will mean," said Joseph Basch, of Siegel, Cooper & Company, "that we shall have to go back to partnerships...

...Senator McCumber of North Dakota wanted a duty of 25 per cent...

...It provides for statements to be signed by the president, vice president or other principal officer of the corporation, and by its treasurer or associate treasurer, and establishes penalties in the way of either fine and imprisonment, or both at the discretion of the court for the making of false or fraudulent reports "for the purpose of evading the tax...

...Bryan would change his views if he better understood the nature of the bill passed...

...The Steel Trust has subject to the tax $29,247,957 which would pay a tax of $584,957, and may be taken as a type of such concerns...

...Bryan speaking of the coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the election of Mr...

...Corporations which have large net incomes and which it seems inadvisable or impracticable to reorganize so as to eliminate the "net" from them, are mostly outspoken against it...

...John Norris, representing the newspaper publishers, on the 25th sent a letter to Mr...

...Thus do supreme court decisions affect practical affairs...

...That meats for consumption are too high even at the present rates for live stock seems to be the opinion of some capitalists...

...The measure contains no provision for preventing the issue of watered stocks and watered bonds in equal sums until the income of the corporation is absorbed by the interest, and there is no net income...

...is excessive, but that one per cent...

...In the last issue he takes to task Governor Johnson of Minnesota for vetoing the tonnage tax on ore...

...Corn still oscillates about 70 cents for July, and only a cent or two lower for September, while even for December, it is quoted at from 58 cents to 59 cents...

...He added: "If we are to tax the net earnings of corporations the law should be so drawn as to be automatically computed...

...It was feared that iron in the form of scrap might come in to compete with the ore of the Steel Trust...

...The bill provides that interest on bonds shall be first paid before the corporate income shall be considered as "net" for purposes of taxation...

...The tax will be collected by the local collectors of internal revenue, as liquor and tobacco taxes are now collected, and the moneys sent to Washington "forthwith...

...The interesting phases of the market, for both producers and consumers, is the high prices of wheat and corn, and the very high rulings of pork, coupled with stiff prices for beef...

...Especially in the congested portions of the cities where the poor live, do these days fill the thoughtful reader with the realization that "the destruction of the poor is their poverty...

...After contesting the matter of recognizing the union for five months, 23 hat manufacturers have seceded from the employers' union, and made peace with the employees...

...The duty on shoes has been increased to 20 per cent...

...Oil and its products are kept on the free list by a vote of 40 to 30, with much confusion in the minds of Senators as to whether they were doing a good thing for the Standard monopoly or a bad one...

...Walter D. Moody, was quoted on the 27th to the effect that he looked for similar associations all over the country to take a like position...

...Judge Gary, the chairman of its board of directors, in a New York Tribune interview said that while he is in favor of publicity and modified government control of corporations, he is opposed to the Taft measure as "extreme," and for the reason that if adopted it would mean "government management in some respects" and that it might "interfere with our present system of protection...

...It will not do to leave these matters to the discretion of officials, as it will lead to endless dispute and trouble...

...Sole leather has been advanced from five to ten per cent...

...While these capitalistic critics take this position, men like A. C. Pley-dell, secretary of the New York Tax Reform Association, and a well-known taxation specialist of the democratic sort, expressed doubt as to the constitutionality of the Taft proposal, and said that he did not like to see corporations thus singled out whether their incomes are of the earned or unearned sort, while huge private incomes derived from the unearned levies on industry of monopolies go untaxed...

...Aldrich has told the President that he looks for final adjournment by July 15, but his predictions have been very untrustworthy as to such matters all through the session...

...Johnson should have repudiated before election or supported it when passed by the legislature...