The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-06-24
FOUL. FLOWERS
Civilization Needs Examination
and Rectification
The New Ethics and the Old
Problems Considered.

S>SS~>~S SASSSA
work together to accomplish ends O.
the greatest value to civilization.
AT first glance there seems to be
slender connection between the Equit
able squabble, the rebellion of schoo
children in Chicago, and this fight fol
civic righteousness in Philadelphia
says the Boston Republic.
These widely separated manifesto
lions are the outgrowth of a single
root. They are the foul flowers of a
civilization which is in sad need OF
examination and ratification.
Few understand the precise nature
of the Equitable commotion. The mys'
teries of high finance are sealed and
sacred from the prying eye of curl.
osity The man of small means who
has been investing few hundred dol,
lars annually in the Equitable Life
Assurance Society in order to secure
his wife and children from complete
poverty in the event of his death will
find little illumination in the reports
and retorts made by the myriad com.
mittees and individual directors.
His insight into the three-card monte
game of high finance may not be very
deep; his knowledge may not be so
wide-ranging as that of the estimable
gentlemen who wear orchids in their
buttonholes and call each other
thieves" and liars" and other edify-
ing epithets. But he will be forced
to the conclusion that whether the
Hyde faction, or the Alexander fac
ton, or the Prick faction shall attain
supremacy there are going to be gold
en- plums shaken into the laps of in
triguing directors-and the dear pub
lie will have the consolation of know
ing that it has been exploited deity
and gracefully by the Robin Hoods of
modern finance.
Perhaps in the whole history OF
finance there has never been SO dis
creditable chapter. 1t smirches al
most every one who has been associ-
ated with it. The money is all right
no question of faint there. AS Arthur
Brisbane suggests, it is the people
handling it who are tainted. The PEG.
pie have saved their earnings. It rep
resents sacrifices and the hardest la
Dor and bitter, binding toll. They pour
it into the Equitable coffers-and 10,
it undergoes miraculous transforma-
ton. 1t fits into margins" builds
mighty speculative structures, finances
dubious ventures, yields no CLINT or
glory to those who have deposited
there, but adds much to the financial
stature of the men who employ 1t to
do their henchmen work. In the main,
in fact almost entirely, it is invested
with caution and business acumen.
That's not the point of interest to the
investing public. Those who put
money in it will, without the shadow
of doubt, receive it back in the
form specified in the bond. But there
is nothing more in sight. The vast
profits that accrue from the use of the
hoard of gold goes to little clique of
men who are about as much interested
in the fate of the stakeholder as a
child of ten is absorbed in the delights
of higher mathematics.
When so eminent tinancier as T..
Jefferson Coolidge resigned from the
board of directors of the Equitable,
Boston people could no longer shut
their eyes to the discreditable spec
tacle of the cliques and coteries wash
ing their soiled linen on Wall Street.
James J. Hill-whom the Republic
mentioned several weeks ago as being
one of the largest benefactors to high
err Catholic education-refused to
serve on the Investigating committee
because he could not have his own &C.
countants examine the books of the
company. Again a shock of surprise
went through the public who vaguely
wondered what sort of persons infest-
ed the Offices of the Equitable when
one of it's own directors should ex-
press such distrust of them. Prick
censures with equal force all the work
ing elements,-iyde, Alexander, Tar
bell and Scnilf. These in turn, each
damning the rest in good set terms,
retort by claiming that the Frick re-
port is the result of a giant conspir-
acy to dispossess them and take the
reins of power, thus being in a posi-
ton to use the $4OO,OOO,0OO which thou
sands upon thousands of American cit
izens-thrifty, though not rich-have
contributed to combination of rail-
road spe culators and Standard Oil ra-
vens Of darkness.
This is sinister state of affairs.
It throws the spotlight upon Ameri-
can business methods--and upon the
ethics of American business life. 1t
marks the wide departure we have
made from old Catholic standards
Thomas w. Lawson has revealed a
sad condition of corporate soulless
ness. The Equitable struggle and its
attendant revelations corroborate his
words-nay, they throw lurid light
upon them.
1t is acknowledged on all sides that
there is a growing laxity of ethical