Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-28
WALL STREET JOURNAL
ATTACKS THE PRESIDENT
PRINTS SARCASTIC STORY OF
STRIKE OF 1908
Article Follows Lines PopuIarized >y
Edward Beliamy, and Predicts
Strike of Capitalists
Against Labor

| Journal the staid and dependable daily
| that deals with financial matters and
| that goes into the office of every. con-
Germ or individual whose business has to
do with finance, wakes humorous, or
prophetic, or even pathetic, as viewpoint
| may differ, in a recent issue and fol-
| lowing the style of Edward Bellamy's
| Looking Backward" prints under its
| sterotyped head "Review and Outlook"
an article of more than two columns in
| length entitled 1.-THE Great Strike of
1905"
The article is introduced, parenthetical-
| ly, as follows:
1.-THE following has been reprinted by
| request from the Wall Street Journal of
June II, 1903, with the idea that it will
| throw light upon the distressing financial
| conditions existing today"
The first paragraph of the reprinted"
article reads as follows:
Washington, June TO- 190S.-Capital has
gone on strike. On Friday, June II, at S
o'clock in the morning, practically every
wheel in the country will cease to go
round. Manufacturing establishments
will be closed. Railroad trains will be
brought to a standstill, mining will be
suspended, banking houses will close
their doors and the stock exchange will
| take an indefinite recess as in the panic
| of 1873. Fully 100000 persons. the bread
winners OIL IO,UUU,UUU ldullliSo, Will 10
thrown out of employment. 1t is be-
| lieved that many of the rich men of the
country have gathered their available
funds together and have prepared to
leave the country.
Great Crisis at Hand
The article goes on to say that the
crisis confronting President Roosevelt is
the greatest in the history of the country,
for "capital has been made desperate and
declares that 1t will now withdraw COM
pletely from all enterprise"
Then is told how the various represen-
tatives of capital arrived in Washington.
John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefel-
ler, H. H. Rogers, James Stillman, j. +.
Morgan, H. c. Frick, Andrew Carnegie'
Judge Gary, August Belmont, Thomas Il.
RYAN. Jacob H. Schiff, Otto III. Kahn,
James Speyer, e. H. Hartman, j. j. Hill,
George j. Gould, James McCrea, Presl-
dents Newman, Baer and Underwood ana
host of others are represented as
reaching the national capital and, on the
morning of June 10, 1908, marching IN
procession to the White House, In autos
and carriages.
reporters is told of, after which, at the
close of the conference, Hartman ana
Hill are pictured leaving the Whlte
House arm in arm. Carnegie comes out
arm in arm With Frick ana announces
he has nothing to say further than that
'I can see anyway clear now 10 ule pour
and undisgraced. Baer appears ana re-
fers the newspaper men to lsaian NV.:Io
Then comes the story OF the meetlng
between the representatives OF capltal
and President Roosevelt and Judge Gary
renresenting the iron and steel trades
and .all of the $4,000 manufacturing
establishments in the United States, rep
resenting an invested capital OF $lz'oOo'-
900 ,OOO''; President Baer, representing the
railroad interests, and jacob II. ochiii'
representing the banking interests are
represented as telling the president that
ali these interests have decided to stop
work.
President Talks
Then the president makes an impas-
stoned speech. He tells them it is a mon
strous, inhuman thing they plan, ana
says he will call out the army and navy
to prevent them from carrying out their
threats Then Hartman asks the presi-
dent, with Swapping sarcasm" What
can Won expect from undesirable citi-
zens?'
The president then roasts Hartman ana
demands of all those who confront him
if the conditions of which they complain,
hostile legislation exorbitant demands by
the labor unions and Socialistic agitation
ton. are not the outcome of capitals out
rageous treatment of the people.
Then he tells them that If they will not
operate the factories, the railroads and
''the various tools of commerce, the peo-
pie will take your properties and operate
them on their own account" Il
The capitalists at this point paralyze
the president by telling him they have
formed a union which includes. in addi-
ton to all employing capitalists, the
great mass of high class labor, such as
executive heads of departments, experts,
scientists etc, who preferred to throw
their lot and portion with the employing
capitalists" Henry H. Rogers, after
stating this, demands to know where the
people could run the properties II they
took them.
Then the meeting is represented as
breaking up, the president not even say
ing adeu to his callers. and the article
ends with this paragraph:
Long past midnight the lights were
burning in the cabinet room, where the
president and his advisers Cthe cabineO
were laboring on a plan to avert the
catastrophe
| 'It was with deep regret that saw my
wlre's brother going into yonder saloon just
nOW''