The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1894-08-30
A WORD TO THE WISE.
Interesting Letter on Pres
ent Conditions. .--
MR.. PHILLIPS BAYARD DISCOURSES
Present Evils In the COuntry-Is 1t
Not About Time That We DiscOv-
cred the Necessity OF Civic Ed
ucat1On In Land where
Every Man Is RulerY

It is said, and think the evidence is
abundant, that the coal combines have
deliberately driven their miners to strike.
This seemed to be the simplest, if not the
only, way to reduce the supply Of coal
and raise the price to any extraordinary
point. The plot has worked we'll. Wages
we're reduced greatly. suddenly and in
wholesale manner. A vast number of
men were driven to desperation, and the
result has been enormously to the disad-
vantage of the people. That these things
do occur, and arc occurring, and that we
have no remedy adequate to prevent
their recurrence Is true. That capital in
the hands of the great corporation is
abused is not open to any discussion.
The career of Jay Gould as wrecker,
able to go forward without arrest in a
systematic scheme of wholesale rob-
berry, is too recent to be forgotten. Black
Friday is day that sorue future genera
tion will look back to with amazement.
A recent writer asks: "Where was the
officer of the law when Gould organized
the robbery Of the Erie corporation and
added $4,000, 900 to the indebtedness?
Judges were his tools. Legislatures
were his instruments. Read the story of
the seizlng, by legal methods, of the
streets of New York, and the watering
by illegal methods of the stock of the
corporation created, to give the necessary
rapid transit to four times, at least, the
amount that legally could be issued.
The laws in connection with corporations
are non-operative in just the particular
that makes our national bank act effect
i've; the part that creates the offices of
the Comptroller of the Currency. If The
nation will avail itself of it's experience
and create with like power the office of
comptroller OF commerce, we will soon
see different condition of affairs This
writer is sanguine that cure can be de-
vised for our present uncertainty and in
stability OF commerce.
The 'Globe-Democrat recently pub
lished a sketch OF the "Napoleon of Amer
lea Financiering," Henry s. Ives. 7 will
recall few passages as illustrative Of the
utter insecurity of American corporate
business A thorough scamp from the
outset; at IS he left his fathers farm to
enter the employ of Harper & Bros. as
office boy, at salary of So week. At
l9 he is clerk in an advertising agency at a
salary Of $6 week. At 20 he is clerk
in brokers' Office in Wall street at a sal
ary of $40 a week, adding to his salary
by small speculations. At 21 he is stock
and bond broker with $10,0 600 capital and
an assistant to whom he pays $18 week;
2l@ he is Ives, Meeker & Co., with cap
ital of 100000. At 2lM he is Ives &
members Of the Stock Exchange.
At % he is principal owner and Vice
President of the Mineral Range Railroad,
and has "made' $838,Oo0. At 22A he is
Henry s. Ives & Co., bankers, controllers
of Cincinnati, Hamlin and Dayton Rail
road, out of which he "milked'' 81, 100000.
At 2215 he bought option on Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad and telegraph system,
and sold Western Union for 100000.
At % he assigned, his liabilities being
At "a he was in prison.
At 30 he was dead. Perhaps the worst
OF this is not the fact that young men
are led to believe such men to be great
geniuses and their careers indicate
total insecurity for American trade. 1t
is hard to tell which is the worst dis
aster of the two. It is folly to expect
that we shall escape frequently recur-
ring crises crashes SO long as man can
deal with public commerce in such
manner as to call down down disaster on
ten thousand persons when he chooses.
With few exceptions we have made no
effort to prevent this autocratic power.
We have 80 arranged civil government
that monarch is an impossibi1ity.
Our American maxim used to be "a
church without Bishop and State
without King" I do not know that
the drift is any less strong to freedom
and individual rights than it was 100
years ago. But where we have drifted
into monarchism is in our business life.
There we submit to the Napo]eons and
Bismarks without dream OF the slavery
and ruin that is entailed. The fact IS
that we are rather proud OF our plunder-
ers, and hold them up as medals of en-
terprise. In the days OF our Viking
fathers we ralded and plundered other
peoples; now we have turned our raids
upon our own markets and our own prop
erty. Our trade boards our organized
without provision against gigantic gam
bling in the peoples prosperity. Every