EDITORIALS
Taking Care of Wall Street "The System managers were beaten. They chose to allow the Borah amendment to pass—trusting, perhaps, to future stages of the legislation to afford them an opportunity to...
...The new day of popular government, wherein the political machinery is not "so arranged as to facilitate the purposes of those who would subvert government to their selfish advantage," is dawning...
...Checks are mailed quarterly to each stockholder...
...It is a splendid declaration of educational independence...
...They were bought at par or above "under special inducements as to circulation privileges...
...Simply abandon the measure passed by the Senate after full deliberation, and accept a new and different bill...
...It was brought forward to prevent Wall Street from using these deposits to take care of the famous "two per cents...
...Enlightenment of the people is what Special Privilege most fears...
...Now I beg your attention while I read the provision which the House bill contains upon that subject...
...The day of the boss is fast coming to an end...
...To quote Senator Cummins: "The House struck out everything after the enacting clause and passed one which bears no resemblance whatever in its essential principles to the one passed by the Senate...
...Chantecler, by failing to crow, could not have prevented the sun from rising...
...But against this scheme, Senator Cummins protested...
...Then follows: It being- the intent of this act that the residue of such funds, amounting to 65 per cent, thereof, shall remain on deposit in the banks in each State and Territory willing to receive the same under i ho terms r>f this act, and shall be a working balance and also a fund which mav be withdrawn fur investment in bonds or other .securities of the United States— "That is, the 65 per cent.— but only by direction of the President, and only when, in his judgment, the general welfare and the interests of the United States so require...
...That sentiment is that the instrumentalities of party management shall not be so arranged as to facilitate the purposes of those who would subvert government to their selfish advantage "We must safeguard the purity of the ballot and protect our general elections from violence and from fraud...
...that this provision and this alone is the basis of a final settlement of the railway problem...
...Maintain the leadership of this great institution in the public affairs of the state...
...On another page of this magazine we print President Van Hise's address in full...
...but to secure the administration of government upon a sound basis we must insist not only upon proper methods on election day, but a fair and free opportunity within the party on primary day...
...They have not been restricted in their investigations to non-controversial subjects, but have been permitted to follow the truth wherever it may lead...
...Why do they insist on this provision...
...Make application for stock at the office of the Company, 941 O Street...
...There is no limitation as to the character of the bonds or the interest they draw, and 30 per cent, of the whole amount thus at once put at the disposal of the board of trustees need not remain in the banks one moment longer than the board thinks it wise that it shall remain...
...did she crowd lodgers into her home—if any one of a score of such things happened, the question was not, why did it happen, but why was she a widow...
...Without a conference...
...The time has actually arrived when a public utility company points proudly to the fact that its earnings rest upon a valuation of its property and that an investor who buys its stock "knows what he is getting.*' Read the advertisement that follows...
...This means that the postal savings deposits may, without restriction, be placed at the service of Wall Street...
...Not, however, until it was made certain that Wall Street was to be taken care of in the matter of those "two per cents...
...We ask every reader of La Follette's to study this courageous utterance, and then ask himself "How about my own state...
...Emphasize at all times the obligations of the University to the people who support it...
...In the first place, 5 per cent, of the amount is never deposited in the banks...
...But when the Senate bill went to the House it was changed...
...Because the stocks and bonds of every public service corporation In the United States exceed the physical valuation and cannot be accepted as a basis of earnings...
...He said: "Now I desire to read from the bill as passed by the Senj.te...
...And, mark you, the President has already declared his conviction that the deposits should be used to relieve the holders of the "two per cents...
...In view of the fact that the great railroads, and other public service interests, have been fighting in Congress—so far successfully— against the regulation of their rates and services upon a basis of physical valuation, this is significant...
...FoIIette and the progressive element in the United States are insisting that physical valuation 13 an Indispensable prevision in the Administration Railway BUI...
...While I think that a reserve is entirely unnecessary under this system, because all the moneys arc subject to check in all the banks, yet I would have no serious complaint of a reserve of 5 per cent...
...It is the fact that its earnings rest upon a physical valuation...
...So it was decided to let a postal savings bill pass...
...The Prevention of Widows ACCORDING to The Survey, the keynote of the St...
...It is absurd for any man to insist that this constitutes any limitation whatsoever...
...did the mother break down from the double hazard of self-support and home-making...
...Five hundred shares of this stock are offered for sale to provide funds for extensions...
...did the girls fall into evil ways because the mothers were away at work...
...These two per cent, bonds are owned mostly by the Standard Oil-System banks...
...These Influences, partly from outside and partly within the board of regents itself, are nowhere better exemplified than in the attack of the water power interests upon a professor, who, at the request of a committee of the legislature, prepared an able and thorough report upon the control of water power rights—but whose report did not happen to be in the nature of a brief for the owners of water power...
...It was a provision to allow the investment of postal bank deposits only in hands bearing at least 2 1-1, per cent...
...It has sold at par from the day the Company was organized...
...It will be remembered that President Taft, in a pre-election address, spoke of the two per cent, bonds of the United States, of which upward of $700,000,000 have been issued, and urged that any legislation establishing postal savings banks should contain a provision to "take care of" that issue...
...THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN has become famous throughout the world for its service to the state...
...The La Follette measure is already in force in this city...
...This particular traction company has selected a most unusual "talking point" to encourage buyers to invest in its stock...
...For this reason the commencement day address given by President Van Hise comes both as a warning and an inspiration...
...They have not locked up the result of their research in musty tomes, but have turned it over to the legislature to assist it in solving by law the social problems of the time, in agriculture, in engineering, in sanitation, in economics, and in sociology...
...The Old Order Changeth," says William Allen White, which is another way of saying that the old disorder is being cured...
...What was the Borah amendment...
...They are making valuation the important feature of regulation because (1) it informs the public on what capital the railway is entitled to an income...
...Keep politics out...
...Privileged Interests, holding with an iron hand the control of the nation's resources, the press, and even the government, are reaching out to lay heavy hands upon those progressive, fearless, institutions of learning that are still free from business or political censorship...
...A Rising Sun GOVERNOR HUGHES, in his special message to the New York legislature on June 21, said: "The people are dissatisfied with existing conditions, and demand a change...
...The street railway has been valued to fix a basis of earnings...
...These privileges would be taken away by the establishment of a central bank of issue...
...It Has Come ASTREET RAILWAY company in one of the leading cities of the Middle West is advertising the sale of stock to provide funds for extensions...
...So, by the adoption of the Borah amendment, the postal bank bill, as it passed the Senate, was shorn of this System scheme to make the postal savings bank serve as the hand-maiden to a Wall Street Central Bank...
...from the "little bunco game" (as the President calls it) which the Government played upon the banking interests...
...Does business control its schools...
...So the workers in charity turned from their unending task of filling the widow's cruse and demanded of industry in its characteristic accidents and diseases, in the deadly monotony and speeding up of its processes, in the inadequacy of its wages as measured in terms of family life—demanded of industry an answer as to why it has put upon society a charge for pensions such as no government has ever borne from war...
...Louis Conference on Charities and Corrections was "the prevention of widows...
...The stock pays 6 per cent, dividends In quarterly Installments...
...The face value of the bonds and stocks (preferred and common) exceed this valuation, as do the stocks and bonds of every other public service corporation in the United States...
...did she go insane from worry...
...The university is the greatest single factor in the life of the state...
...Hold up the ideal of Service...
...To this end the Borah amendment was eliminated, in the manner described...
...The valuation makes the preferred stock a gilt edged security...
...There was a positive command to deposit all the moneys in the banks of the community, and the only way in which that money could be withdrawn was, first, to pay the deposits when demanded, and then as follows: Provided, That when in the judgment of the President, war or any other exigency involving the credit of the Government so requires, the board of trustees may withdraw all or any part of said funds from the banks and invest the same in bonds or other securities of the United States...
...Without changes...
...They demand physical valuation to establish a basis of earnings...
...did scanty women's wages mean meager meals and a rickety baby...
...What was then suggested has come to pass...
...If such depositories had to come, make them serve Wall Street...
...Senator Dolliver spoke, not merely for himself and his fellow insurgents, but for the whole country.—The Indianapolis News...
...were all the children sent to work early at the first futureless task that offered wages...
...They have not been content with educating the young men and women who have been able to attend the university, but have sent educational influences radiating out to the remotest corners of the state—for the betterment of the old as well as of the young...
...Postal savings bank deposits offered a solution...
...They chose to allow the Borah amendment to pass—trusting, perhaps, to future stages of the legislation to afford them an opportunity to get rid of it...
...THE VALUE TO INVESTORS OF PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATION...
...It is the old story...
...Did the boys run wild for lack of a father's stern hand...
...Keep the Universities Free...
...And in its place was inserted the provision that thirty per cent, of the deposits may be available at any time for the purchase of government bonds, and ninety-five per cent, whenever the President may deem it necessary for the public welfare...
...It is complete, with the exception of the name of the company...
...Let no special interests, whether business, social or political, dictate what the university may or may not do...
...Recently, however, influences have been brought to bear upon the university to discourage investigation and circumscribe research, especially along lines of present-day interest...
...2) it enables Investors to ascertain what the actual capital In the plant is and the earnings It may rightfully demand...
...Senator La...
...Every problem of dependence, of education, of crime, of health, is infinitely sharpened when it falls on a woman's shoulders...
...Governor Hughes is right...
...But the pressure of public opinion was too great to be resisted— the congressional campaigns were coming on...
...Then, in the closing days of the session, it was proposed that the Senate adopt the House bill...
...Neither ean the old-line politicians, by refusing to pass primary election laws, stop the dawning of the new day in democracy...
...When the investor buys the stocks of a public service corporation that has been valued he knows what he is getting...
...Then follows the provision which limits the investments in bonds to those which bear at least 21/44 per cent...
...But the bill then proceeds: Not exceeding 30 per cent, of the amount of such funds may at any time be withdrawn by the trustees for investment in bonds or other securities of the United States...
...THESE lines appeared in La Follette's for March 19 in a discussion of the postal savings bill...
...Its professors have not been limited to the dogmatic teaching of innocuous theories and platitudes, but have been free to present facts and conditions...
...The Borah provision ivas taken out before the postal savings bank bill became a law on June 23...
...Kansas City Star...
...No trouble about collection...
...Is there danger that our university fall under the censorship of Special Privilege...
...It has, indeed, been called "the soul of the state...
...The Aldrich leadership wanted no postal savings banks...
...It was important that some means be provided by law to enable the Standard Oil institutions to crawl out from under this load of securities, without loss, before the Central Bank was permitted to come...
...did she contract tuberculosis in an unsanitary factory...
...So it is, that charity seeks justice...
...This was done...
...Whatever may be said of imperfections in the laws relating to this matter In other jurisdictions, there can be no question but that these laws reflect a wholesome sentiment which is country-wide, and can not be denied...
Vol. 2 • July 1910 • No. 26
