The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-09-27

they had no money to pay their fare,
have been friends of the Chicago &
Alton ever since. Some of these men
have established themselves in bust
ness and have control of vast ship
ments of freight and merchandise.
Such men never miss an opportunity
to bill shipments Of freight by way
of the Chicago & Alton, If they have
the opportunity. Give them their
choice between the Chicago & Alton
and the Chicago-Rock Island and
they take the Chicago & Alton.
The road did a perfectly human
thing in the hour of great need. If
you go thru the world take notice
and see what becomes of the men
and the corporations that do the per-
fectly human and sensible things
when somebody else is in trouble,
you will see some interesting things.
Big Brother to Everybody
In the year 1885 boy was born
whose name was Marshall Field.
During the days of the panic / have
been speaking about, Field was a
Chicago merchant who was rated as
one of the largest merchants in the
world, measuring him by the vol
ume of business which his firm trans
acted. He operated one of the big
gest wholesale institutions in the
world and one Of the biggest retail
institutions in the world and had
branch Offices in Europe with
great organization working under
his direction. He had started in the
mercantile business as clerk, a poor
boy, too poor to go to school and he
worked his way up. At the time
am speaking of he was worth up
wards of hundred million dollars
without counting his property in
Chicago. He was a very generous
man and turnout his life he had the
reputation of doing more for new
enterprises than he could afford to
do. 1t was always subject of sur
prise to people that he should un-
dertake to do so much for projects
that would never pay him back any
money. For instance, there was the
University of Chicago, always need
ing something and he gave them
100000 in donations, one after an
other. Chicago needed great
museum accent the second syllable
ze). At the time of the worlds fair
in Chicago there were opportunities
to secure literally world of relics !,
as gifts, if they only had place to
put them and money to use in TAX
ing care Of them. Marshall Field
mapped out plan for doing that,
and while he was planning it he
planned 1t so big that it utterly
astounded the people of Chicago, and /
they were accustomed to doing big
things in big way. He spent eight
million dollars in carrying out the
plan to give Chicago what was named
the Field-Columbian museum. They
had become accustomed to see Mar
shall Field do big things in big way
for the benefit of the public or the
poor or the young folks who wanted
to get an education, or for the child
rem who needed recreation and play
but they were not prepared
to Sc him hand out eight million dol
lars for museum, a place to keep
relics. Millions of people thought
that Marshall Field has over-reached
himself and would probably regret
his extreme generosity.
Preventing a Panic
Then came the great panic I have
spoken of and the bankers were
sweating blood, SO to speak, to see
how they could keep their banks
from failing. The financiers of
Chicago, big men controlling big
business and big volumes of money,
held frequent conferences to see
what could be done to prevent dis
aster in the business world. Banks
ind business houses were failing in
Chicago and the more there are that
all in such times the more there are
hat are crippled, and two or three
'r hundred may fail in consequence
II one other failure, so the troubles
rapidly. Marshall Field ad-
dressed the chamber of commerce
md proposed doing very unusual
hing. He said there was plenty of
money and plenty of wealth in
chicago to absolutely prevent dis
.ster there among the banks and 4
BUSINESS houses If they would band
themselves together and use their
money generously for the protection II
4 one another. He advised that all II
he men having wealth and money /
hould combine 1t into sort of clear
ng house to loan temporarily to the II
anks and business houses in dis
ress. He proposed making It a kind
community fund or revolving fund
, be used under the direction of Ii
GARD Of directors who should decide
whom the loans should be made
nd for how long a time. He said
lat If all the big money men in
hicago would 60 into the matter
GENEROUSLY they could make every
ody tolerably safe by protecting the
sople who faced the greatest risk, II