The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-10
GOTHAM GOSSIP
(Ry Francis Phillips. Copyright 1910. by the National News Service. N. Y.)


 by the National News Service. N. Y.) New York, Nov. 10-Lloyd-Georg in eff1gy was tried and acquitted of trea- son against the British Empire at q mock trial on board the incoming liner Cedric at high sea the other ev- ening. With straw taken from steer age mattresses. a frock coat borrowed from the bo'sun, the chief stewards silk hat, and mask painted to rep resent the features of the man who may be the next British Premier, an excellent efigy was made and placed in the smoking room. The Judge was Louis Oppenheim and the jury was composed of six women and six men. Thomas M. Alexander was the fore man. Fred Skull acted as counsel for the prosecution and W. Kelley rep resented Loyd-George. The charges against the Minister were that he had destroyed the British Constitution by l iniquitous land taxes and driven men like William M Ffson, one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution. l who was emigrating to British Colum- bia, out of the country. MT. FfsOn, who was conspicuous on the Cedric by wearing a long leather coat and cap, told how he had been l in the real estate business and had l to leave England because he had to | Ucdr dll HIS lOSScS duQ pay a IdA VI 20 per cent. on his profits, and no business, he said, could be run that 1 way. The case looked bad for Lloyd George, when a note was handed to 1 the Judge calling his attention to the | fact that it would not look well to on British ship. After consulta.- l ton with the prosecuting counsel. Il Fison was recalled and asked in se- were tones if he had ever been guilty
 of stealing sheep. He replied Ger | tainly not'' Then the jury brought l in a verdict acquitting Loyd-George l and finding Ffson guilty of bringing vexatious litigation and also of, having once stolen a sheep at Nottingham Goose Fair.
 Later Fison was hung in ef1sy. Second marriages while sometimes desirable are expensive according to John Jacob Astor, the multi-milliOn- ] aire who recently married eighteen i. .year-old Madeleine Force, in an affi- : to have his personal assessment re- 1 duced, says he is worth less in per- : sonal property now than he was be- 1 fore, he married.
 This year and for several years back
 the personal property assessment
 $400.000 and he has paid taxes on that
 amount. In making up the books ] for this year the tax board, following a general plan resulting from the new law taxing unregistered securities of
 certain sorts, raised ''the ante'' on MT.
 Astor to $800,000 and thereby, as 1t
 proved, lost money for the city. MT. ! Astor visited the department and told i Lawson Prudy. it's president, that his personal holdings were not worth more
 this effect. The amount Is composed
 almost entirely, it is understood, of
 money in the bank, the greater part of
 MT. Astor's fortune being in real es-
 tate and mortgages, and not in per-
 sonal property: In accordance with
 MT. Astor will be reduced to $350, ,000
 and he will be taxed on $50.000 less
 than last year.
 Rev. Reginald John Campbell, pas
 tor of the City Temple, London, who
 has come across seas to rescue us from
 perdition, has got himself in hot wa
 ter with the business end of the com
 munity by his assertion the other day
 that it is impossible for business
 man to prosper and be honest Lewis
 Nixon, who designed the battleship 7 Oregon while Naval Constructor in the
 United States Navy, and is now a
 .arge shipbuilder, here, and other rep
 resentative business men of the city
 have taken a Fall out of the distin-
 
 ment and intimate that he is indis-
 erect in discussing subject of which
 he patently knows so little. The re- , marks of the clergyman which have | stirred the ire of the business world, ] were these: "As a matter of cold fact, no successful business man in modern l times can be honest. Conditions in | business are such today that the bus mess man must take gross advantage
 of his competitors every chance he gets or go to the wall. Competition Is | too keen.'
 l Replying to this MT. Nixon says: "Our reverend critic has built up case out of the depths of his inner con- | sciousness. The trade conferences held almost every day in the year, where | competitors meet and discuss means of increasing the sale of their pro- l ducts and to better their quality, free-- l ly nterchanging information, are the 1 best evidence of the wrongness of his l conclusions.
 "In the past we have heard of the 1 tgent1emen's agreements being broken, and much has been made of such ac- l tfons But 1t must be remembered l that whenever such breaches of faith were discovered, those guilty of them
 suffered loss of respect, and were ob- l jects of contempt ever afterward. | '"There is very high standard in
 this country in general business com | petition. Great enterprises are carried l through on verbal agreements, which are almost universally lived up to in
 a way not known in other countries. I have closed for thousands of tons of steel at figures that had they later
 been repudiated or questioned by the | seller would have greatly profited him, and similarly have often bought l when if I had refused to confirm tel ephone of a week before I could have gained a great deal. Strange as 1t may seem to such men as Rev. MT. Camp bell, there Is such a thing as business | methods apart from trickery. The American business man is just like all other men in his complete realization l of the fact that honesty is the best policy. Tn no other country that I know of do we find men standing by a poor bargain, not cutting in workman | ship or material, even though loss fol- lows.
 "To rail against the wickedness of the times has always been popular and perhaps may be of some service, but | to find that the good far outweighs the l evil should be an inspiration Our | business men are the very ones who
 expose those who are dishonest. and
 it may be accepted that the man who is known to be tricky soon finds his