The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-10-21
II TAFT SIDE
Rv the Rev. w. S. Grove

- a ,nsnta lat IT is impossible to stop rebates and dis
gNfM ordinations while the railroads ri owned by individuals or
corporations-that government ownership mist come. There ar
two hundred and forty thousand miles of railroad IN n oh1eo e'A'eA
u.,,sd at about fourteen billions of donars-S590O0 a mile, Including sa-
terminals, Offices, lands, rolling stock and ala very low estimate
Fourteen billions, tt the mind o a small child, is not so very dinGent
from fourteen millions or fourteen thousands, but to a grown person.
whose common sense is not consumed by a theory, 1t Is a staggering
nrono.,uon IF we were conducting a war which cost a million dollars a
day there would be complaint about taxes. If the a lasted tnrty-eght
years, 81 a million dollars a day, its cost would be less "a nj vaiue
of the railroads which Mr.. Bryan asks o to buy n pay To- win
taxes. You would not are to foot the bills for a thirty-eight years war
IF WI had to put up still more for the railroads you'd move to Russia,
in search of light taxes. Whether managed by the nation alone, or by
nationa and the States Jointly. there Is n 10 reason to hope that the
railroads would pay. Public officials are VIGOROUSLY lacking In Inc pusi-
ness are which builds up a great corporate enterprise. o. would prona-
bly, have ito put up acre taxes to supply N oencirso o. pon''ea "ahaSe-
ment.
To multiply your taxes by twelve or fifteen would be enough to pay
for q longrhared theory, but that would not b . the worst OF IT, Mr..
Bryan himself bemoans the Capitalization Of power. Imperialism Is ne
o. the red a to excite his fury, and here he is. pleading that two
millions Of men be taken out Of private enterprise ana made Into
government employees The party in power, when those two million
voters can under the Federal and State patronage. would have a lease
of power, and a power Of graft, beyond anything we have yet imagined.
Mr.. Bryans bank insurance dream is of a piece with a IL hi other
ideas of business A storekeeper or manufacturer would hardly guarantee
the credit of a rival in the management Of whose affairs he had n o
voice:y vet the honest and competent bankers II asked to mako good
the losses of incompetent and dishonest bankers, while having no power
regulate the business for which they stand sponsor. II is RESPONSE
.biuty without authority-a new thing in the business world-a contradic-
ton If the first law Of trade.
Mr.. Bryan compares It with life or fire insurance. but the COMPARE
son is a sonstry, thin a $ gauze. An insurance company insuresN you;
it does not insure other insurance companies. This ts a fanctful scheme
by which the solid banks Ire asked to insure the rotten banks.
The really interesting part Of It Is that the deposttors VIII have to
foot the bills. Suppose a thousand banks are in the trust. and the
cashiers OF a hundred of them go to Canada. n buy Haskelrs railroad
bonds; the depostors of the other nine hundred banks must pay back
the souandered cash. Your only safety would be to have your money
in q rotten bank; then your neighbors would be nucted to pay back
your losses-and you call that insurance. Mr.. Bryans idea Of business
is like man." 1t is "fearfdly and wonderfully made