The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1915-04-02
ANOTHER BRAINY (?) PLUTO
Graf

In a recent issue of the Commonel
the readers were given a sample oi
the kind of slush that passes for wis.
dom in plutocratic circles refer to
the remarks of President Underwood
of the Erie. And now comes Mr.. A.
B. Leach, president of the Investment
Bankers Association of America, and
enters the contest for the prize in
asininity.
A recent isue of the Bankers Mag
azine quotes him as saying:
I'VE are creating bureaus
and commissions and filling
them with $4,000 a year men to
tell the $4,000 a year heads of
our corporations what to do and
what not to do. The best gov
ernment in the world never had
a monopoly on honesty, integrity
and efficiency, and this country
would prosper more if it ham
pered business less"
1t Is strange that a man that could
give utterance to the above sentiment
should occupy a position of promi-
nence in the business world.
According to Mr.. Leach's logic
no public official should be permitted
to take charge in the regulation of
any one drawing a larger salary than
himself doctrine that would make
regulation and restriction impossible.
If Mr.. Leach's theory is put into oper-
alton, the salaries of the state legis-
lators would have to be made as
much as the incomes of those for
whose regulation and restriction they
q 10 10 iT1n qnanpdfru fn f1nfC
theory, could not sit in a case which
involved the rights of litigants rich
er than himself; congresmen or sena-
tors with salary of $500 would, if
his position were correct, have no
right to make laws to regulate trust
magnates with incomes measured
with millions. What would Mr..
Leach say to an attorney general
drawing but $4,000 year, prosecu-
ting the highly paid directors of
railroad for wrecking the road?
Even the president with a paltry sal
ary of SIS, 900, would by Mr.. Leach's
logic be stopped from signing a bill
affecting a railroad president with
100000 especially if by the exploit
tation of his stockholders the rail-
road president has made $50,000,000
in ten years.
How far will Mr.. Leach carry his
theory that a $4,000 man is unfit to
oversee the work of a man with lar
ger income. Would he say that it
would be improper for sheriff with
salary of $4,000. to arrest a bank
cashier guilty of embezzling half a
million? And should a governor
drawing only $4,000 a year, be pro-
hibited from granting pardon to a
rich criminal whose health is being
undermined by close confinement in
the penitentiary? Or would a differ
ent rule apply in this case?
Mr.. Leach says that THE best go
vernment in the world never had a
monopoly on honesty, integrety and
efficiency" What has that to do with
the question? The government, act
ing for all the people, has a right to
define honesty and integrity and to
compel efficiency on the part of those
in charge of quasi public corpora
tions.
He says that This country would
prosper more if it hampered business
less" He ought to be specific. He
is in the banking business and he
has ample reason to know what a
handful of Wall Street financiers did,
for generation, hamper business for
their own enrichment-a great deal
more than business is hampered by
the government, acting unselfshly
and for the public good Men like
Mr.. Underwood and Mr.. Leach would
better understand the new era if, in
stead of glibly expressing their con-
tempt for the peoples representa-
tives, they would address themselves
to the science of government, and
learn that corporation has only
those rights which are conferred up
on it by the public, and that it is no
fair to assume that the public would
create a corporation without, at the
same time, reserving the right to
limit and restrict 1t so as to make it
serve the public welfare. If ''the
cares of this world and the deceit
fulness of riches choke the truth, "
it may become necessary to rly upon
men with small salaries to execute !
statues Of restraint,-W j. Bryan in
Commoner.