EDITORIALS
Elkins Insurges Again IT WAS noted in the Roll Call of this magazine that Senator ElkiNS did a little insuring when the Tariff Bill was pending last summer, because the New England bosses who...
...til fwilbur Wright has opened a school of aviation...
...R-^ AY STANNARD BAKER has been called "the star re-£ porter of the United States...
...The railroad grants were generally passed by Congren because of the influence of the special interests...
...It is a stirring report from the seat of war—where the contest between the People and the Interests is most advanced...
...The homestead policy of the government in giving land to settlers, who would make homes upon it and build up the coin-try, has been much extolled by statesmen as a sort of commendable public charity...
...it is a moral movement, and that is what the old political bosses can not and will not see...
...There are other reasons...
...ill History of the Shirt Waist Strike AHARD-WORKING supporter of the shirt waist rtidt in New York City, Mr...
...They are a modest lot...
...In Wisconsin they have already elected five members of the legislature, and in Milwaukee they have ten of the aldermen, six county supervisors, and four directors of the school board...
...Law-made monopolies must answer for what they have brought about...
...Baker set himself to answer...
...Glavis: "I don't know that he did take part in these cases after becoming Secretary...
...By way of illustration, Representative Adamson added, "It is just like giving a man three or four spoons with which to get into the same dish...
...He appeared the other day before the House Committee on Interstate Commerce to give testimony on pending amendments to the Interstate Commerce Law...
...What are the true reasons for it...
...But all the other kinds must be considered and clothed with their share of the responsibility for the high prices now prevailing for the necessities of life...
...He thus will be able to 'save his face' at home...
...They may be summed up in the two words—Special Privilege...
...Glavis' answer, as actually given and recorded in the report of the testimony was as follows: Glavis: "I know that he did take part in these cases after becoming Secretary...
...To which Mr...
...Baker discovered that "this Insurgent movement is not mere economic restlessness...
...The present tariff law is an instance of Special Privilege legislation...
...And then think of the control over prices that lies in all the other forms of Special Privilege...
...An Apt Illustration MR...
...We say the surprise of his associates" because they thought that ever...
...After all it mi about an "even break...
...There is this other difference to be noticed...
...The Socialists or Radicals, with a small following everywhere...
...In this table is shown the acreage of all the land grants of the federal government in aid of railroad construction, the date of each, the name of the railroad company to which the land was granted, the states in which the land is located and the number of acres certified or patented up to June 30, 1907, The total area of federal railroad land grants was 159,125,-734 acres...
...The dish, dear reader, being in this case the public purse...
...Correction in Summary of Glavis Testimony IN THE testimony of Glavis, as reported in La Follette's January 5, page 14, occurs the following: Representative Densy: "Do you believe Secretary Bal-linger was sincere in his declarations that as Secretary of the Interior he did not want to have anything to do with these Alaska cases with which he had been connected as a private citizen...
...Can it be that he considers it inevitable that the rising tide of new sentiment will'spread over even the mountains of West Virginia, and that he is training to become a progressive...
...Recently he took a trip through the Middle West to get firsthand information about the Insurgent movement...
...This is startling, and the mystery in System circles is, what has happened to Elkins...
...P. E. Sheldon, has, to th surprise of his associates, just brought out a histcij of the strike, which is now practically won...
...The total area which has been certified or patented to the railroads and the title to which has thus passed from the government was 110,320,440 acres...
...Glavis' answer...
...He will rejoin his conservative colleagues and the merry war against the interests will go on...
...You may read this article, "Why Prices are Soaring," with profit...
...And then he goes on to say: "There are no longer two parties, except in name...
...11k Homestead laws were passed because Congress was prevailed upon to recognize the right of the public to receive the po>l lands...
...fThe linotype spelled better than it knew when by a sligJ' transposition of letters it made the editor say: "Aswieiil at present in the hands of an oligarchy...
...Also he is somewhat of an "insider" in politics himself...
...I would not want to draw the attention of the public to these profits by taking open possession...
...Mr...
...Congressman Esch of Wisconsin wanted to know why, if that were true, the railroads did not take over this profitable express business...
...Elkins in framing the resolution to investigate high prices...
...Though they m?.y vary in opinion as to how much the tariff should be reduced, or how far government control of corporations should go, or whether the states or the nation should be chief regulator, they all stand firmly together upon the platform that the power of property in governmental affairs must be limited, that the people must rule...
...What Makes High Prices ON ANOTHER page Mr...
...JOHN CALL AN O'LAUGHLIN who reports the Senate and other important political news of Washington for the Chicago Tribune has been on the job long enough to know the relation between cause and effect in national political circles...
...Elkins Insurges Again IT WAS noted in the Roll Call of this magazine that Senator ElkiNS did a little insuring when the Tariff Bill was pending last summer, because the New England bosses who controlled the upward revision didn't show proper alacrity in giving West Virginia interests their share of protection...
...There is the private car graft, for example, upon which the monstrous Beef Trust has been builded...
...in the February American Magazine...
...What is Insurgency...
...bringing the total area patented to July 30, 1909, up to 113,-879,674 acres...
...Barlow replied: "1 think that if I were a railroad president and knew that 55 per cent, of the profits of the express company working on my lines was going into my pockets I would let well enough alone...
...In the Tribune of the 5th instant, Mr...
...And now Senator "Steve" is again showing signs of restlessness...
...Tha &¦ is probably near when people will be taught to fly by correip* dance.—The Chicago Record-Herald...
...They stand essentially for the control of government by property and privileged interests...
...There are the law-given railroad grants, which have enabled certain lines to take from the government millions of dollars worth of choice lands...
...You cannot afford to miss this story of the Insurgent West...
...There is no longer any thrill in the words 'Republican' or 'Democrat.' In reality there are three clearly defined parties: "1...
...Scores of examples may be cited showing how laws are enacted at the behest of powerful private interests and designed only for the selfish purpose of profiting these same interests at the expense of the public...
...moment of his time had been given to active campaigning...
...O'Laughlin writes up the latest insurgency of Senator "Steve" Elkins of West Virginia against the Aldrich management of the Senate and arrives at the following conclusions: "What will happen will be this: "Some concessions will be made to Mr...
...j|| is another example of what a person can do, when he is thoroughly aroused, in what he believes to be a righteous cau||| This history, which sells for ten cents, may be obtained from Women's Trade Union League of New York, or from F. i Sheldon, 151 Clinton Street, New York City...
...In the course of his testimony he told that the big express companies, whose excessive charges are a subject of keen and widespread interest, are really controlled by and in the interest of the great railroad systems...
...He confessed in the Senate the other day that he had been in slavery to the Aldrich Machine and rebelled at the "dripping" West Virginia had gotten under the new tariff...
...They stand upon the platform 'Let the nation own the trusts.' They argue that so long as private and personal ownership of the great sources of production and of public utilities is permitted, property corruption in government is sure to continue...
...under the homestead laws, from the beginning of the Govera-ment to that date, was 115,124,295 acres...
...We want to suggest, however, that in reading this contribution you do not lose sight of the fact that the tariff law is not the sole reason why it is harder to make both ends meet today than it was a few years ago...
...From the report of the <"• mn.i>.-ioner of the General Land Office for the year ending June 30, IMS, it appears that the total area of lands patented to homesteader...
...But perhaps Elkins has a good sized bump of acumen as well as a goodly store of practical horse sense...
...jjj * * * b f The world is a mirror—try smiling in it and see what wt happen.—Elbert Hubbard in The Philistine...
...The word "don't" crept into the report in transmission by telegraph, and completely reversed the meaning of Mr...
...The people have been given only abort one per cent, more of the public lands than the railroads hue received...
...These are the questions Mr...
...The broad, genial smile will reappear upon his countenance...
...You will find in it a plain statement of the relation between excessive tariff and excessive prices...
...How deep does it go...
...H. C. BARLOW of Chicago is a traffic man of large experience...
...The Insurgents, or Progressives, led by La Follette, Bria-tow and Cummins, and others among the Republicans, and Bryan, Champ Clark and others among the Democrats...
...He has a rare faculty b of getting at the heart of things and telling about it so simply and directly that it is made plain to everyone...
...He is traffic director of the Chicago Association of Commerce and chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Industrial Traffic League...
...Has Uncle Sam Been "Easy" ? THE REPORT of the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the year ending June 30, 1907, contains an interesting table...
...Special Privilege, in the main, means the power to control the prices for service or for goods...
...The 'Stand-patters' or Conservatives, represented by such men as Aldrich and Cannon among the Republicans and Mc-Enery of Louisiana among the Democrats...
...Will It Last...
...His answers are to be found in an article entitled "Is the Republican Party Breaking Up...
...Among other things, Mr...
...He very nearly scared Senator Aldrich out of his usual equanimity by asking that the proposed investigation into the high cost of living be broadened with a view to ascertaining if the new tariff did not have something to do with it...
...that the land grant "statesmen" (and they are not all dead) are not of ten heard either in party platforms or on public rostrums proclaiming their achievements...
...Nine of evil ten cents obtained by the sale go to the strikers' fund...
...Barlow...
...The Commissioner of the General Land Office is quoted in the Congressional Record as authority for the statement that there have been patented in addition, from June 30, 1907, to June 30, 1909, 3,559.234 acrei...
...Thousands of people have come to look to him to set them right on great national problems...
...And the railroads still have claims not yet adjnstH and patented for 45,228,358 acres more of the public domaia.h As for the homesteaders, they were of the people—anyone who chose to take a homestead and comply with the law...
...Tavenner gives some very cogent reasons why it is necessary to take into account the Payne-Aldrich-Cannon tariff law in any consideration of the causes of the increase in the cost of living...
...There are the land laws which have made it possible for powerful interests to secure and hold waterpower sites undeveloped so that power might not be created upon them to compete with power already developed, and thus lower the cost to the consumer...
...Somewhat," answered Mr...
...Keep in mind that exorbitant tariff rates constitute one form—and a very pernicious form—of Special Privilege...
...They have with them the considerable group of older and temperamentally conservative voters who still cling unthinkingly to party names...
...Who are in this Insurgent movement...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 6
