South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-01-08
FEDERAL PROBE
CAUSE Of MOVE
Morgan Company Acts in Effort
to Prevent Legislation
Against System of InterIOCk-
ing DireCtorates.
BY gibson GARDNER.


WASHINGTON. Jan S.-A desire
20 postpone or prevent legislation
against interlocking directorates is
Responsible for Morgan & Co.'S sud
den spasm Of virtue The announced
resignation OF it's firm from a mum Der
OF directOrates is understood here TO
have this purpose. The direct cause
for this new policy on the part of our
great investment bankers Is 20 be
found in the series OF questions Just
sent them by the interstate commerce
commission. The commission IS
hearing the plea OF railroads for an
increase Of freight rates. After the
railroads had presented their plea
their directors were asked to furnish
Information on numerous subjects
principal among them. interlockinS
directOTates
The organization Of the New Haven
system and the conspicuous collapse
which has resulted from the Morgan
management was the principal in
stance in the mind of the commission
Of fhOnODOlistic mismanagement by
interlOcking directories. But it was
desired to secure an official record Of
these conditions and TO learn officially
TO what extent they prevailed in the
other great railway systems. The in
terlocking directOrates as used by the
investment banker has been the
have been looted. When a company
or construction company or a firm
manufacturing railway supplies sells
TO a railroad which has the same set
or directors as the manufacturing
concern or terminal company, its
transaction becomes on which is
likely 20 prove lucrative to the direct
Ors and costly to the minority stock
holders and the general public. This
IS the situation in regard TO practical
" the entire railroad world. Rail
roads have been MIXED by terminal
companies. by construction com
panies By supply concerns, and not
ably by the steel trust, whose direct
Ors are in the main the same as the
directors of most Of the principal
railroads. But rails are sold to the
roads at high prices. the directors get
their profit the railroads are impOV-
erished and the public gets the acct
dents and pays increased freight
rates. required by this form &C ex-
travagance. In the face Of disclos-
ures bound TO come as a result of the
commissions inquiry. the great in
vestment bankers have taken on a
sudden spasm of reform.
That II costs only SO a year to pro-
vide lunches for a child I'm an open
air school is the information furnish
tu 10 Nil1 L. =. bureau OF eQuCaLlOn
as a result Of an experiment recently
conducted at Green Bay, Wis. The
discovery that in most OF our large
cities. particularly Chicago and New
York. nearly half the children in
public schools are underfed and suf-
fer from weakness due to lack of
proper food. has given impetus TO the
movement for public feeding and
open-air schools.
One effect OF the new currency
measure will be to make the gold
now held in the treasury perform a
greater amount Of service In place
OF gold certificates which require the
deposit of the full face value OF gold
in the treasury. the new law will per
NIT the issue OF currency which Will
be backed by portion only of the
metallic gold. At the present time the
amount Of gold in the treasury
against which certificates are out
standing and coin in circulation is
approximately $1,S67, 900. 600. Ten
years ago the amount was $1,24S,-
100000. while in 1893 there was only
$500. 700. 600 of gold in the reserve.
Thus it appears that gold certificates
In circulation increased in the last
ten years from 1917. coo, 600 to ST.
O0S,0eO,00O. on account of the
greater elasticity of the currency il
may even be exported.
As bearing on the demand for
work by numbers OF men unemploy-
ed in the large cities there is great sig
nificance in the statement by the sec
rotary OF agriculture that the total
arabic land in the United States is
approximately 935,00O.OOO acres. OF
which 100000 600 is unimproved and
not included in farms while the re-
mainder is included within farms
but OF this remainder only 400. 0OO,-
coo is imprOved-in other words less
than 80 per cent of our own farm
lands are reasonably we'll cultivated
while less than , per cent is yield
ing its maximum returns and only a
small fraction OF one percent is in
tensively cultivated
with all these millions of acres
uncultivated and with men clamoring
for work and food why should there
be these millions Of acres uncultivat-
ed Perhaps the laws Of land own
ership might be slightly changed st
as 10 permit labor and land 10 get to-
gether.