American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1917-01-11
A REMARKABLE INTERVIEW.

FOR earnest and serious thought, was recently gwen TO
Edward w. Hungerford, for Golfers by George w Per-
kins. Mr.. Perkins contends, with almost unanswerable
logic, that the telephone and not the tariff made the
trusts; that a new policy OF dealing with these great ag-
gregations Of capital must be adopted, or in time this
country will face widespread industrial disaster. His
comparison Of the American and German methods Of
dealing with trusts is a lesson in itself.
George w. Perkins il one Of Americas greatest finan-
siers. He revolutionized the life insurance business,
while vice president Of the New York Life, and while
doing so refused a partnership in the firm OF Morgan
a. Co, which is said TO be worth anywhere from a mil
lion 10 three million dollars a year, because his work with
the insurance company was not completed. Later ne be-
came a partner in the firm of Morgan q Co., the coun-
fry's greatest financial organization, and is a factor In
many lines Of big businesses. The part OF his interview
given below not only is interesting, but furnishes food
for serious reflection:
You want me TO talk on preparedness l should pre-
fer TO talk on unpreparedness'
Il prefer to talk about things | have studied. | have
studied a bit into our industrial readiness, or rather our
unreadiness-
From somewhere under the edge of his broad table
comes the soft, incessant voice Of the telephone bell. lie
lifts the receiver off the hook and begins talking into the
transmitter in the slow, distinct fashion that is the de-
LIGHT Of the telephone folk.
"This is Mr.. Perkins" he begins to say. You look
about his office, a generous room you think. It's walls
are lined with ~pictures-pictures and a sign. There are
no paintings, although fine oils are not ~infrequent with
in the offices of the captains Of industry in Wall street.
Neither does he affect the fad of so many OF his fellows
and line his habitat with quaint prints OF old New York,
huge sleighs coming down Broadway, or the harbor brisk
with white sailed ships. His pictures are different They
are the originals Of newspaper MISUNDERSTANDING con-
eeived upon the spur Of trenchant and vigorous moments.
Perkins The Colonel. Perkins and the Colonel. Perkins,
the Colonel, and the Bull Moose. The Big Stick-aii the
rest Of the paraphernalia-ad infinitum to the full ca
pacity Of the walls of the big room; all the time leaving
room for the sign. This last fascinates You. You find
your gaze reyerting. to it again and again. 1t reads;
The Telephone. Not the Tariff. Made the Trusts
Plainly a text. And If you have heard the text and d-
gested Il, you are ready when he again replaces the re-
eeiver upon It's little hook and says-as near an apology
as you are ever going to get: I'VE are living IN an age OF
great things. We read Of miracles-of Jonah and the
whale, Of all the wonderful things, of Biblical things, and
yet we forget that we are living in the presence Of one
Of the greatest Of living miracles today. The other night
I sat alta dinner in this city of New York and heard the
waves 0f the Pacific ocean dash upon the rocks below the
Cliff House in San Francisco. The following day | wanted
90 get hold OF a Californian, upon a fairly important mat
ter. A mutual friend who sat here said: Il Will get hold
Of him and find out for you. But, / expostulated, they
tell me that he went home a week ago l will get hold
the telephone at his home in California, was the reply.
He kept his word, and in an hour the matter was settled
"ro begin az the beginning" you suggest.
we begin at the beginning by going back a mere %
years, says Perkins, going back TO the beginning OK
Of this electrical age-going back to the day when the
telephone. the electric light, the trolley car, the wireless
we're hardly out Of their infancy. We take two great ma
lions Of the earth. Germany and the United States. Each
was then much alike nGustrialy-made up OF a great
number Of separate units Yet the wise men, the FAR see
ing men Of both those countries felt that they could un-
derstand something Of the changes that were going 10
be wrought with the coming Of the electric age.
Don't you understand? The communication-the tel
ephone. just now | spoke Of two personal experiences IN
across-the-continent messages. They were incidental. But
how much more than incidental the telephone 20 a man
like Judge Gary or Mr.. Rockefeller, who are calling Chi
eago or Kansas City or New Orlenas or San Francisco
every hour" i am told that there is a prominent indus
trial leader in this country who has seventy-two tele-
phones on his estate, 50 that when he goes out for a walk
over his broad acres he is never more than a minute OF
more away from a long distance telephone. This man sci
dom comes to the city. Why should he? He can talk t
San Diego, 10 Seattle, to any Of the far corners OF tins
land from any one Of his ~gateposts.
aTbe telenhone. not the tariff. has made the trusts. w,
have had the tariff in this country for a hundred years