Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-05-28


500 OOO, 900 increase in the authorized
capital of the American Telephone
and Telegraph company.
What do these figures mean? They
write the doom Of the speculative
trust system; they mean that an ac
tual dollar is more than match for
an imaginary one--that the modest
unobtrusive coinage of the realm has
nothing to dread from the free and un.
limited coinage OF the air. Already
the market place is strewn with the
remains Of arrogant institutions which
FIVE years ago pushed honest men of
the sidewalks as they opened their
books for the accommodation Of the
restless and buoyant throngs. Glance
at the proceedings Of the courts and
watch the lawyers picking the bones
of corporations that five years ago
were ostentatiously giving tips to in
vestors with half-defined ambitions to
own the earth. 1t is the first of Janu-
ary What is the governor of New
Jersey doing yonder at Trenton? He
is crossing off the books Of that thrifty
and hospitable commonwealth the
names of, scores of preposterous con-
schdations, illustrating all types Of
mental and moral hallucinations-
thrusting them out into cold world
for the non-payment of dues.
Capital VS.. Capitalization.
Open the Wall Street Journal for
October 26, 1903, and read for your
selves the bloodless verdict of the
market place against the modern
American trust system. 1t indicates
the present lost condition of 100 cor
poraitions whose stocks are dealt in
on the New York Exchange, taking
no account of those which are too lit
tie or too feeble to make their way
from the curb to the headquarters.
1t shows shrinkage in these bet
ter class shares of nearly two thou
sand millions of dollars. That is to
say, loss Of more than 43 per cent
of their advertised value. Is it any
wonder that even the best of the in
dustrial shares are under suspicion,
since the public discovered that with
conditions exceptionally favorable
less than so per cent of the total
trust capitalization has ever paid any
dividend at all? When stocks which
have never failed to make show of
Z per cent per annum settle down be-
tween 80 and 60 cents on the dollar,
what is likely to become of the mis-
cellar eous assortment of speculative
inves :ments which have never been
able % draw full breath in their
lives'
We Will quit talking one Cay about
the conflict between capital and la
Dor, for we all join in the hope that
they are on the way toward better
understanding, even toward a treaty
Of permanent peace. But there is
conflict in which there can be no
conflict between capital
and apitalization-the earnings and |
the savings Of labor against the coali- |
ton of the promoters and the engra
vers. We do not sneeed to call the |
Old World to take the fight off of our |
hands. Independent American enter |
prise is equal to the strategy of our
commercial defense.
A victory over the trusts won by
enlisting the armies of the aliens |
against them is not an American vic |
tory. Such a victory would prostrate |
our market place in inconceivable dis.
aster, in the midst of which labor and |
capital would suffer a common af- |
Fiction. The victory which we seek
the only victory that can be of any
value to the industrious millions of |
our peoples the victory of our own
capital, fighting its battle under the |
protection of our own laws and shar-
In the fruits of its achievements with |
our own market place
Certain Deluslons and Certain Facts.
The experience through which we
are passing has not, of course, been
without its depressing effect upon
business and commerce. But if the |
prosperity of our people were an ar
tiiciai thing-of the American mar
ket place were not founded upon a
rock-how could it have stood when |
these winds blew and these rains de-
scended and these foods came2