The Washington herald., 1913-12-21

each should be heard in all personal and
family matters. Mrs Davies and / in
variably counsel together on subjects
which concern our mutual interests. She
had some property Of her own. Ny uncle,
John Davies, had left me an Inheritance.
My mother was well-to-do. Nor had
spent all the money i earned practicing
law.
I'VE decided, Mrs. Davies and myself,
that l could prudently give more of my
time to government and politics. 1t may
sound like cant but we were serious in
the belief that 1 might, perhaps, be of
some service to the public. The feeling
that one ought to be of service to the
public when possible came to us when
we were students at the university. 1t
was taught there month in and month
out, and was breathed in with the atmo-
sphere That is the reason the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin, through its faculty and
its students, really dominates the polit-
ical opinions of the State. formally en-
tered politics in 1910, the year l have
named, and was elected chairman of the
Democratic State Committee. In 1911,
went on the Democratic national COM
mittee."
And the following year." 1 said, you
became one of Woodrow Wilson's cam
paign managers
When l learned that Mr.. Bryan would
not be a candidate for President, / turned
to Gov. Wilson, who l believed to be
constructive progressionist in politics-a
practical and creative man and not
critic entirely. William F. McCombs.
then known as a Princeton alumnus and
a young lawyer in New York, had already
begun to tell the Democrats of the nation
that Gov. Wilson was the best and
strongest man in the party. He wrote
and asked my assistance We carried
Wisconsin. 1t was the first primary State
to elect delegates to the national con-
vention. Nineteen of the twenty-five
men chosen were for Gov. Wilson and
sixteen of the nineteen were university
graduates"
College Men Won the Fight.
After the primaries in Wisconsin, and
at the request of Woodrow Wilson and
McCombs, his chief manager, Mr.. Davies
took charge of the campaign in other
primary contests, going to Illinois, Mas
sachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North
Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. From
Baltimore, where he was conspicuous as
a leader, he sent a telegram forty-eight
hours ahead Of events predicting Will
sons nomination on the forty-third bal
lot. University men, he believed, would
of the work done by them in the con-
vention.
Have the special agents of the Bureau
of Corporations" / asked, authority to
walk into the general offices of a trust
and call for its books?''
They have" Mr.. Davies replied, when
the trusts are doing an interstate busi-
ness"
DO you think" I went on, that old
fp hr,g -
restored?'
Now you must remember" Mr.. Davies
answered, that l am not a maker of
policies or of laws. My business is to
obtain facts on which policies and laws
may possibly be based. I cannot with
propriety prophesy or philosophize ex-
cept on my own account Mr.. Roosevelt,
when he was President, wanted a flying
squadron with which to scout and fight, |
il necessary, for certain kinds of infor-
nation. Thus the work of getting cor
poration facts was started.
THE functions of the bureau so be-
gun, are to inquire into the organization,
ownership, and management of all cor
porations, except railroads, which are
engaged in doing an interstate business-l
which sell and ship their products, you
understand, out Of the States in which |
they are manufactured. Officially have
no opinions TO puDllsh. we are con- |
cerned wholly with facts.
For example, we desire to learn if
great combinations of capital and fac
tories can make things more cheaply |
than can small concerns separately |
owned and operated. DR.. Van Hise, for |
many years the distinguished president |
of the University of Wisconsin, contends |
that the larger the combination the great |
er the economies.
"On the other hand, Louis D. Brandeis, /
the Boston lawyer, maintains that after
a certain size has been reached, combi- /
nations are not economical, but wasteful. |
Col Roosevelt agrees with DR.. Van
Hise. |
along with the reasoning Of men Hkei
Roosevelt goes the conviction that the
government must fix the prices of proda
ucts. 1t seems to me that once prices
are regulated by the government, social
ism is logical and inevitable finality.
'I am not a Socialist, nor, in my view
Of them, are the American people So
cialists. We are not ready now, II we
ever shall be, to throttle self-interest,
energy, Initiative, and Imagination, not
alone in agriculture and industry, but in
art, law, medicine, and literature.
But do trusts cheaper the cost Of
production? Not prices to consumers,
but the expense of manufacture? No one
knows. Old-fashioned competition, as
you term it, was often old-fashioned
Nobody wants to return |,
the country learns definitely what is best