The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-10
FROM O7EER PENS
oPTIMIsT AND PEss1M1sr.

Is there not some way to mingle
and compound the temperaments of
Judge Gary of thea Steel corporation
and Mr.. Ripley OF the Atchison and
then divide the mass?
Except, perhaps, Mark Tapley, there
| is not in fiction or life a more uncon-
querable optimist than Judge Gary. If
not always pleased, he is always recon
ci1ed.s Prosperity is always in the
wings waiting to make her entry. He
absolutely and peremptorily refuses to
be cast down or discourag ed. On the
other hand, Ripley is always stepped in
gloom thick enough to cut. Do the
earnings of his railroad go up? The
Improvement will not last. Do they
go down? They are to be worse. The
future is beheld through spectacles of
blue.
Between optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll.
One ALWAYS sees the doughnut
While the other sees the hole.
Is there not some way to strike an
average? When Gary is moved to
speech should he not submit the draft
of his remarks to Ripley and consent
to the excision or modification of some
of his rosy statements? And when the
jeremiah of the railroad world feels
stirring within an impulse to prophesy
woe, should he not call in his friend.
the judge, and allow him to inject a
few words of cheerfulness New
York Globe.
MORGAN'S MASTERY OF CAPITAL
Few sober Americans can consider
the amount of capital controlled either
directly or indirectly by J. p. Morgan
without feeling that this mighty cap
tain may have rather more power than
/ ~I-A = HN =
have. tt3 tkk
Companies actually controlled by
Morgan, including four national banks.
seven trust companies, one insurance
company and several railroads and in
dustrial organizations, have assets val
ued at $4,000, 100000. Railroads pert
ly financed by him, and hence largely
under his control, have assets worth
$4,000, 900. 00Os and he controls other
interests holding assets worth $1,000
100000, bringing the total amount OF
capital under the control of this man
up to $4,000, 100000. Recently the
Wall Street Journal summarized Nor
CANS interests, and in order to empha-
size what Morgan's mastery OF capital
means called attention to the fact that
| the total assets of all the national
banks in the United States amount to
tse,73O,51s,6S5; in a word, Morgan's
| power, so far as the control of capital
| is concerned, is nearly as great as the
| combined power of all the national
banks of the country.-Seattle Post
Intelligencer.
iDODGING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
Nevada has found a way to avoid a
part of the embarrassment that at
taches to inflicting capital punish
ment. No longer will a judge on the
bench in this western state be COM
PEELED to outrage his conscience or as
sail his tender heart by ordering that
| a man be hanged.
BY state law recently passed the
] burden is removed from the judge and
thrown upon the prisoner, who is per-
mitted to choose his means of leaving
the life from which a jury has voted
that he shall pass. All the judge has
to do after the rendering of a verdict
| is to refer the matter to the defendant,
who will make all further arrange
| ments.
| In drafting this measure the Ma
vada legislators have been somewhat
unimaginative, for they offer the muir
derer but three means of death. From
hanging. shooting land poisoning he
may choose one after which he viii
delegate to the sheriff the details OF
carrying out his wishes.-Cleveland
! Plain Dealer.