The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-15
w. PERKINS
 GOES TO EUROPE
By HOLLAND

New York, December 14.-(SpectaL)
 Although George w. Perkins sailed for Europe one day later than the steamship George Washington with
 President Wilson and his party on
 board steamed out of her pier, never theless MT Perkins mission abroad is peaceful benefaction and he has $203,- 000,O00 behind him in order that ne
 may institute good works over there His ship Is a fast one and as it is to take the northern route across the At lantic he will probably reach England two or three days before the President disembarks from his ship at a French port.
 Mir. Perkins departure was not her. aided and. therefore, it was unknown until he was already aboard ship, It Is no pleasure excursion which he is now
 making and his absence from the , United States will continue until early | February.
 When the war work campaign for | the seven organizations occupied with services of this kind was under way fmm ediately after the fourth Liberty | Loan was subscribed MT. Perkins was not as conspicuous in the campaign as
 were others, and yet much of the or | ganization work and much of the cam | paigning itself followed his leadership
 
 originally fixed upon as the amount | which should be raised for the wal; /, work was approximately 5,000.0G0. l and although the campaign for this | money began after the people of the l United States had subscribed for the \ fourth Liberty Loan, nevertheless Mir. i Perkins was confident that more than b,000.000 would be given by the peo- pie, believing that as much as S200,000,- 900 and possibly considerably more could be offered for this war work.
 His confidence was justified for s203,- 100000 constitute the aggregate of the gift offering of the people. Mir Per- l kins is the chairman of the finance | committee and 1t will be under his di- i rectton and leadership that these $20S,. | 100000 will be expended. He has per- | fected an organization which will dis
 tribute by competent methods of book Keeping and accounting as those l adopted by large banks all of this ! money and the expenditures and the
 accounting will be under his own eye, as though he was president of bank
 with $200,00 900 of deposits
 A CHANGE OF PLANS
 ! In view of the fact that the end of
 the war came just about the time the
 war work campaign began, so that | conditions in Europe differed greatly 1 from those which existed before the | armtstice. it was inevitable that there 1 be good understanding of these newly
 developed conditions so that the pro portionate parts of the $203,0 900
 could be wisely utilized in works of
 benefaction in Europe as we'll as in the l United States Therefore, it seemed i'm = l perative that MT. Perkins should go
 to these foreign lands so that he might | be prepared upon his return to direct and advise the distribution of his l funds. It Is to be no easy task. He Is ] responsible to the American people for l the wise and economic distribution of these funds.
 PERKINS ON FEDERAL CONTROL l For two years or more on one of the l walls of MT. Perkins office which Is | adjacent to the offices of the United l States Steel corporation, of which he 1 Is one of the most influential members.
 has hung an epigram, printed in con 1 splcuous letters, which reads 'Tn time or war prepare for peace" When his attention has been called to that epi-
 gram by those who wonder exactly what the meaning behind the words Is.
 MT. Perkins has said that the govern ! ment and the people should not be as
 unprepared for peace as they were for l war. For from some points of view the l conditions which will surely arise inn | mediately after peace, will unless there be thorough preparation, be
 found to be as difficult fully to meet and satisfactorily to determine as were the conditions which arose inme- I diately after the United States entered
 Into the war. In a few instances pre- | paratory work of this kind was under | taken year ago. That was true of | the United States Steel corporation and
 of the International Harvester com pany. But for the most part tho thoughts of everyone were centered | upon the war, and there seemed to be
 inability or lack of distribution to
 forecast conditions which would arise when peace came.
 MT Perkins thought that the govern
 ment was amiss, although admitting that the enemies of the governme were almost wholly absorbed by war necessities. Now MT. Perkins says that he Is strongly persuaded that embar- !rassing. possibly dangerous, conditions may be developed immediately after peace Is established. He regards 1t as of the utmost importance that the gov ernment itself should adopt every reas- enable measure that may tend to per- feet preparations for peace conditions. feeling sure that business leaders throughout the country vii, welcome governmental action and adapt them selves to it.
 MT. Perkins strongly favors ade- quate and enlarged government con trol not only of railroads but also of the larger industrial corporations of the United States. There are two factors associated with the government control which, If adopted, will tend speedily he says, to give all the people confidence in governmental supervision and regu- lation and will lead the people readily 10 accept these methods. One is the representation of governmental author ity by perfectly competent, impartial and unprejudiced memb ership of the various organizations which will ex- ert this authority. Another is publicity Ten years ago MT. Perkins, In an ad- dress to the students or Columbia and la little later to the students at liar yard, spoke, as no one had done before, of the necessity of government control. of cooperation along large and wise lines and of publicity. He was confi- dent that sincere and full publicity could go far towards preventing or correcting any errors or abuses in cor poration management. He spoke of the governments regulation and control under adequate administrators of the national banks of the United States. as- serting that administration of this kind has given to the people confidence in the banks and has resulted, on the whole. in management of the banks which has been wise, and in restraining
 any possible attempt towards undue concentration of money power There fore, if this can be done in the case of national banks or, as today, the federal reserve system, there appears to be nc reason why 8 policy of this kind could