Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-01-29
JEFF Davis RIPS
UP STOCK GAM Bile
ARKANSAS SENATOR WOULD PRO.
HIBIT DEALINGS IN FUTURES
BY LAW.
POOR MADE BY WALL STREET.
Sale of More Products of Soil Than Soil
Produces Causes Untold
Suffering
CONGRESS MUST CALL A HALT.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. 26.-The
evils attending gambling in the products
of the soil by the sale of futures on
stock exchanges was the subject OF
passionate speech delivered by Senator
jeff Davis in the United States Senate
today. Mr. Davis advocated the passage
of bill introduced by him to penalize
the use of the mails, the telegraph or
the telephone for the purpose OF convey
ing gambling propositions between buy
er and seller.
After advocating the passage of this
measure, Mr.. Davis denounced what he
declared to be evils of the money
power and incidentally touched upon
the policy of maintaining a protective
tariff as part of a system which he de-
clared was for the suppression of the
rights of the people.
Picturing conditions in Rome at the
time OF Julius Caesar he described the
death OF Caesar as the price of Caesars
love and service for the poor, declaring:
;, Would to God we had a Caesar i'll
the white house today"
AT the conclusion of his narrative of
the. acts of the Roman Emperor in Sc
curing. laws to suppress usury and in
obtaining legislation for the benefit of
the poor of Rome, followed by his tragic
death when surrounded by the treach
cry OF the money power, tWenty-three
knife wounds pierced his body" Senator
Davis said:
This, sir, is brief history of Rome
and it's great reformer, illustrating the
terrible fate that lies in the path of any
man who seeks to shake loose from the
throat of this government these parasites
OF wealth, these stock gamblers, these
STOCK 5obbers that attempt to control the
NJ hn
Serfdom for Laborers.
Speaking of the ''oligarchy of wealth
builded by legislation and legislation
alone having reduced to almost serf-
dom the laborers of portions of the coun-
try the senator continued:
Rhis is dark picture. l know what the
result may be. For the past twelve months
the country has been RECALLED with an ex-
haustive and learned argument as to wheth-
er or not the President of the United States
had the right to discharge a lot of kinky
headed nlggers from the army, who, in
fenseless people. And more recently we
have been urged to increase the salary of
all our public officials, that they might
more closely initiate royalty.
We stand today face to face with def
lett in our public treasury of $15O,OOOOO0.
Our government is bankrupt, yet we are
the rate of perhaps million dollars an
hour. The majority in Congress seem TO be
drunk on the wine of success They fiddle
and dance and make merry While Rome
burns. l say to you, Mr. President, that it
is time we were calling a halt, and that
the Congress OF the United States legislate
for little while in the interest Of "OId
Man People
He declared that the panic of 1907
"was organized on less than three acres
of ground in New York, where these two
gigantic stock gambling institutions ply
their wicked avocations." Denouncing
the levying of a protective tariff he pic
tured New York city as scene of pow
erty as proof that this tariff does not
bring prosperity even to those who work
in the shops of the protected interests.
Whole Transaction a Gamble.
The transaction on the New York
exchange, he said, involve speculation on
ten times as much cotton as is actually
produced in the south.
"The whole transaction" he said sis
a pure gamble, a bucket shop transac-
ton Of the worst kind, and no exchange
tinue this gambling game. This is gam
bling not only in the products of the soil,
but it is gambling in the flesh, in the
blood and in the bones of women and
children of the south who are forced
by the robbery and spoilation of these
dark to produce the subject matter of
this gambling transaction
These exchanges, he insisted, so com
pletely fix the price of cotton that the
smallest farmer when he carries his
product to market is told that the pur-
chaser must consult the exchange before
be buys it. When gambling in cotton is
destroyed, he said, a better price could
be obtained for the cotton of the south.
The 400 names of members of the
New York stock exchange was included
included in Mr.. Davis remarks These
men, he said, represent wealth aggregat-
ing $4,000, 100000 or about one-seventh
of the wealth owned by the 100000
people of the United States and in addi-
ton to that personal ownership, he
added, they represent vast railway and
commercial systems that add to their in
fuence in the financial world.