LENROOT'S GOOD WORK
Lenroot's Good Work THE BILL for leasing coal lands in Alaska which became a law last week may not be regarded as a perfect solution" of this important problem. Doubtless the public interest would...
...Whereupon he worked out a plan whereby the water could not only be cleansed, but also sold to the people at less cost than they had been paying to the private corporation that owned the plant...
...His record shows him to be a foe of compromise...
...Three years ago, in a speech in the United States Senate upon his resolution for the leasing of Alaska coal lands, Senator La Pollette said: "With a law such as I have indicated, the Government owning the railroads, the direct operation or leasing of the coal fields under proper regulations, insuring a proper revenue to the Government for the benefit of the people, and proper regulations that will protect the consumer, all under the management of a board of experts having in mind only the public interest, I believe that the problem of conservation of our natural resources in Alaska will be solved...
...In the last two years, under his management, this municipal plant has given Omaha pure and clean water such as they never had before, at more than a third less cost than they had ever paid before...
...Recently, as a member of the Public Lands committee, he has made a steadfast and brilliant fight against certain indefensible features of bills before that committee...
...One thing is certain: we are all paying a pretty penny for the answer...
...Harvard.may or may not lose a $10,000,000 bequest by its honorable act...
...That its prompt rejection has met with general approval in this country is a tribute to the American spirit...
...But the new law blocks private monopoly, such as the in-famous "Morganheim grabs...
...His knowledge of the land laws is remarkable...
...others on behalf of the public...
...and does measurably meet public needs and sound public policy...
...Every time a lull comes in emergency legislation he pops through a new peace treaty.—Nashville Southern Lumberman...
...On matters of vital importance to the public, Mr...
...The way has been properly marked out...
...No other individual accomplished as much on behalf of the people, in this connection, as he did...
...FEARS are becoming general that the real inwardness of the European war will not be satisfactorily elucidated until the graduating exercises next June...
...His proposal for silencing Munsterburg was an affront to Harvard...
...The passage some months ago of the bill creating a government railroad system in Alaska, and the passage the other day of the bill opening up coal deposits to development under a leasing system, are two steps toward this end...
...By turn-ing down the unworthy demand of a Major Clarence Wiener that Professor Hugo Mun-sterburg be dismissed as the price of a $10,000,-000 bequest to the University, the trustees of that institution of learning have set the seal of academic freedom upon those classic halls...
...The big water plant was taken over by the city as a publicly owned and operated utility...
...THE growing strength of the movement to investigate the way Messrs...
...This young engineer, Robert Beecher Howell, talked back to the water magnates...
...No provision, no insidious joker, escaped him...
...SECRETARY BRYAN has evidently revised the adage to read, "In times of war prepare for peace...
...Is there any good reason why this should be so...
...What Howell did in Omaha he may be trusted to do for the people of the whole state...
...Irvine Lenroot's service to the public in this legislation is of the highest...
...And if you, as city engineer, persist, we'll have the city government discharge you from ybur position...
...And Munsterburg's eminence as a scholar is recognized the world over...
...For several years there have been attempts to put through legislation opening the natural resources of Alaska to the American people...
...For example, it was Lenroot who pointed out that an amendment proposed by Mondell of Wyoming requiring continuous operation of the mines was likely to discourage the moderate sized investor and favor the Monopoly...
...will appear in an early number of La follette 's...
...It has gained what is worth far more—the appreciation of the American public...
...He should receive the vote of every genuine progressive...
...A German housewife could buy for $5.64 what would have cost her in New York $8.25...
...Wiener's partisanship toward England made him resentful of Professor Munsterburg's ardent championing of the German cause...
...Lenroot has had a watchful eye on all of them...
...A Costly Answer OERE is a bit of news to set one thinkin„ German price list of foot stuffs received in New York shows that on September 2 in the Hamburg market, out of thirty-two items, eighteen were lower in price than in New York, nine were higher, and five the same...
...Again, it was Lenroot who, in a two-minute speech, laid bare an unconscionable amendment offered by Hawley of Oregon which would "revive the Cunningham claims and it would revive every claim that has been passed upon by the Department of the Interior," which would mean that "no coal operator in the United States would think for one moment of leasing one acre of coal lands in Alaska...
...Doubtless the public interest would best be conserved by insisting upon government operation of these vast coal fields...
...Washington Post...
...He found it muddy and unfit for use...
...Some of these attempts have been on behalf of the special interests...
...A Personal Triumph" THE Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune in reporting the passage of the amended river and harbor appropriations bill in the House, wrote: "With the 'pork' hunters overwhelmingly defeated, these Republicans fairly fell over one another in their rush to support Representative Frear of Wisconsin, the first-term Member who waged a fight against the grab in the House and afterwards spurred the opposition to victory in the Senate...
...But the rich owners of this concern wouldn't listen...
...That it does so, is largely due to the ability, keenness and patriotism of one man—Congressman Irvine L. Leneoot of Wisconsin...
...For Mr...
...Freedom CONGRATULATIONS to Harvard...
...Howell of Nebraska COME twenty years ago there was in Omaha a young city engineer who set about to test the city water...
...EUROPE is the country that conserves its forests and wastes its men.—Chicago News...
...His long struggle against a special interest and its allies has given him keen insight into the nature and fighting methods of the privileged corporations that seek ever'to gain profit at the public expense...
...It was Lenroot who gave warning that several lessees might get together and organize a selling corporation which would constitute a complete monopoly and entirely evade the provisions of the bill...
...Nebraska needs a governor who will serve the interests of all of the people, intelligently, uncompromisingly, honestly...
...The fight lasted fifteen years...
...Howell now finds himself before the people as the Republican candidate for governor...
...He uncovered pitfalls cleverly designed to entrap public rights...
...Frear it was a personal triumph, such as rarely if ever has been achieved by a neophyte in the House...
...Sullivan and Penrose got their nominations suggests that it might be well for those statesmen to begin to mobilize their reserves.—In dianavolis News...
...Lenroot has earned a generous measure of public appreciation...
...Howell is a Progressive Republican...
...We'll not tolerate your interference with the water plant," said the owners...
...And if this course be consistently followed, there need be no fear that Alaska's treasure trove will become the easy prey of scheming and unscrupulous monopolists...
...Out of the issue thus joined between the engineer and the water company there grew a larger issue between the water company and the people—an issue that advertised itself widely over Nebraska, an issue that is now emphasized in state politics and the state campaign in which Mr...
...Howell was placed in charge...
...He was always alert...
...Lenroot has beaten down tha privilege seekers...
...Howell meets those specifications...
...And I'll appeal to the people of Omaha," said Howell...
...It ended finally about two years ago...
...Why should they go to the expense of making the water clean and at the same time reduce the price when the people, who had no other source of drinking water, could be compelled to use this water as it was and as it had been for years and pay all the time as they had paid whatever the corporation saw fit to demand...
...More To Follow PREDERIC C. HOWE'S next article in his series "Shall the Government Own the Railroads...
...A traveller returning from England exclaimed to a reporter that one aspect of the war which greatly impressed her was the fact that prices in New York for ordinary necessities were markedly higher than they were in London when she left that city...
...He forced into the bill protection against plotting financiers...
...Not all in the United States may agree with Professor Munsterburg's views, but most of us do regard as beyond price the freedom of thinking and teaching by which alone the truth can be found...
...More than that, over a half million dollars has been placed in the saving fund of this city enterprise...
...Time and again he forced his opponents to recede from cleverly assumed but untenable positions...
...And he did...
Vol. 6 • October 1914 • No. 43
