Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-04-28
BANKERS TOLD
TO CHEER UP.
Professor Allen Says We Are
HysteriCaI and Condemn for
What We Ourselves Practice.

rotary of War William Taft and Sec
rotary of the Navy Charles ]BOuaparte
were distinguished speakers ar the
banquet of the New Jersey Bankers
Association last night ar Hotel Chel-
sea. in which the members Of the
National Municipal League who end
ed their convention yesterday after
noon joined.
Governor Edward G.. Stokes, Of
New Jersey. and United States Sena-
tor Dryden, were among the speakers
who addressed the gathering Of 300
people in the great banquet hall Of
the hotel.
Early in the afternoon President
Carlton Godfrey, of Atlantic City,
called the third annual session to
order. Rev. Herbert Gessnes, Of this
city, invoked a blessing and Mayor
Stoy welcomed the wealth of the
state, and extended to them the re-
resorts freedom.
H~ystericaI Over Big Corporations.
An address, brief and pointed,
which received applause, was made
by Prof. George E. Allen. of New
York University.
Prof. Allen spoke in part as fol-
lows:
At present we are in Mysteries over
great corporations and great personal
fortunes. Their sizes brighten us and
we are making them a moral issue.
We demand of concentrated wealth a
/ hiUhlr Gt1 n n q yI lnf atbipg HI ~ xrrn do
mand of distributed wealth. II is all
right for us little fellows to crush
our competitors, if We can, but our
big ~neighbors must not. We may
lobby for laws to suit US, but they
must not.
Our moral panic is about our big
brothers. We are hunting for mil
lionaires to indict as some of our an
cestors hunted witches 10 burn. We
have killed one insurance magnate,
made nervous wrecks of others and
banished others of less sensitive ma
lures TO the boulevards of Paris, all
because they did in a big way the
things which most OF us are doing or
trying to do in a small way.
Dividing Line Is Size, Not Sin.
The dividing line is drawn at size
and not at sin. We have known for
years that the railroads were supply
ing us with government as well as
transportation, and that certain 9TH
err institutions strong as Gibraltar
have been writing legislation as law
ishly as they have been writing insur-
ance.
Not until recently. however, has
this knowledge eliminated in phobia.
1t is fear rather than greed that pro-
duces campaign funds. In fact, the
trusts have so many human weak
nesses that we almost imagine that
they have no souls. Consider the
four big capitalists that are popularity
supposed to be the largest. Andrew
Carnegie is devoting himself TO edu-
cation, with occasional lapses into os-
culation. The Aston fortune is going
into New York skyscrapers. The Van
derbilts are investing in castles. The
Rockefeller is no longer autocrat of
oil. He is turning to conservative in
vestments, and some of it has gone
into colleges and churches.
In view of all this and the addi-
tional fact that the male heir is a re-
ligious rather than a financial enthu-
siast, any public danger from that
source seems to be disappearing. We
ought to more fully feel that God is
still running this world, and that
while He permits calamities which We
cannot understand. He is presumably
running it well.
If we will do a little less cursing
and a little thinking the present
dark spots in the commercial sky will
disappear and the mex moral panic
will be less acute"
Attack on Labor Unions.
is this country in danger of So
cialism?" brought from John R, Van
Wormer, of New York, an attack up
or organized labor.
The mistaken theory of the agita-
tor" said he. was that capital paid
only living wages and took all the
surplus. Capital today was weaker
than organized labor, and if il would
meet labor, capital must organize.
Banking Commissioner David O..
Watkins, of New Jersey. referred to
the growth of wealth and banking in
situations in the state and intimated
that it would be a mistake to hold f.
nancial Investigations by commits
sions because of the expense they en-
tailed.
Thomas B. Patten, of New York,
editor of a banking journal, dealt at
length with bills of lading and Alfred
NJ. Barrett talked about the organiza-
ton of bank clerks for the study of