The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1918-03-01
By W. V. BYARS.

The "war finance bill' progressed
far enough in the Senate yesterday
TO make it clear that public utility
corporations" of a worthy character
will be judiciously relieved on prop
er occasion if they are suffering
from stringency which appeals for
the help of Government. This is
understood to mean that they need
not be unnecessarily alarmed about
their maturing bonds, if they are
really worthy.
We have heard much about
graft" in politics during the last
thirty years or so. We have heard
of it from every town of over $4,000
people in the country. We have
heard of bribery in elections, Of cor
ruption in legislatures, of the per-
version of the courts. We have
heard of stockwatering and bond
jobbing as means of controlling both
business and politics. We have
heard that men of high standing
have hired bosses" in politics to
unity and coordinate all that is
most shameful in the slums with all
that IS supposed to be most respect
able in education, literature, jour
nalism, religion, business and
finance. We have heard of assassi-
nation in ward politics as a mode of
suppressing protest against this uni
fication and coordination. We have
heard that corruption and intimida-
ton went on and on, until the same
men who converted monopolies Of
public utilities, obtained by fraud,
into millions and hundreds of mil
lions of securities" used these
securities to coordinate all business
with their purposes, appearing in
the "interlocking directOrates" of
banks, breweries, distilleries; Of coal
mines, oil companies, hydro-electric
companies-and so on from the top
to the bottom OF what Grover Cleye-
land called the Commune Of Cap
ital." And last of all, we have heard
that they demanded sudden interven-
ton in world war, with themselves
on the ground floor" Of its oppor-
tunities for profit, as they co-or-
dinated and uplifted themselves into
the control Of contracts that prom
ised opportunities for graft, for
loots, for plumber OF the public, and
the public treasury at no matter
what expense Of human life and
human misery. This is how an old
story. All know It. Has anyone
heard Of anything most characters
tically infamous in all thet makes
America most unsafe for democracy,
in which some Public Utility" mag
nate was not in some way concerned
The only excuse for recalling
this old story here as news, is that
Senator Furnifold Mel. Simmons,
OF North Carolina, assured the Sen
ate yesterday that there was mis-
apprehension as to the purposes OF
the War Finance bill, Of which, as
chairman Of the Finance Commit
tee, he was IN charge.
The habitual criminals, who IN
the attempt to establish themselves
as political dictators and perpetual
bosses in America, have attempted
to make monopoly an American
method, superseding self1govern-
ment, are not to be relieved by
wholesale from the consequences of
their crimes. On the contrary, only
the worthy and the virtuous need
expect to be re-fnanced at public
expense. Senator Simmons en-
phasized the care taken 20 leave
this to the discretion OF the Board
Of Directors, with instructions to
administer relief only in cases "of
exceptional importance in the pub
lie interest" This being made clear,
so that apprehen ion was quieted,
debate flowed on to other sections
of the bill
In commenting on one Of these
sections, Senator Hollis, Of New
himself a banker, said
tie whole bill WAS "sociaIistir an