Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-04-29
Financial Domination.

In the current issue of Commerce
and Finance there is quite a shrcwd ar
1icle by Theodore H. Price. intended rs
q defense of the group Of Wall Street
fnanciers recently charged by Senator
Larollettc as having conspired togeth-
er in the bringing about the world de
tIation Of wages and prices through
which we are now passing. Senator
LaFollettc's speech was based largely
upon diagrams and arguments furnish
ed by w. Jett Lauck, economist Of the
Brotherhood Of Railway. Engineers,
which speeches and arguments under
took to show that the banks, the rail-
roads and the railroad equipment COM
panies of this country, along with the
big steel corporation and other leading
industries are completely dominated by
not exceeding twenty-five men, through
interlocking directorates. In part Mr..
Price says by way Of reply:
1t is maxim Of law that it is neccs-
sarv to prove motive in order TO
prove crime and the charge that the
capitalistic conspiraturs in New YORK
have brought about the Worldwide de-
Gation uf prices and Of wages that has
nearly bankrupted some of them and
| has cost all Of them heavily can only
be sustained uJ6n the theory that they
were bent upon financial suicide rath-
cr than financial gain. This is the re-
ductiu ad absurdum Of Mr.. Lauck's ar
raisnmcnt, developed at some length
lest his allegations uncontrorerted
might mislcad the public who are al.
ways willing to believe the worst OIL
Wall Street. We have lived on or near
that nefarious thorOughlare for thirty
five years and know that our neighbors
are neither more nor less selfish than
their countrymen elsewhere. In every
little town and every city in the coun-
try. in every church and in the man
agcment Of every charitable "rganlZa-
tion there is some one man or group OF
men that leads and dominates.
Amongst women in every grade Of
! life there arc social leaders whose au-
thority is generally recognized. In
schools and colleges there is always
some boy OF girl whose right to the
leadership of the scholastic group Is
conceded and whose decisions arc re-
! succted This is fundamental IN hu-
man nature. In the days of prehistoric
man the tribe had its chief and from
J then on every group has either tacitly
or affirmntirciy selected and obeyed
some enc in whose leadership 1t had
! confidence.
AS the duties Of leadership multiply
| lieutenants becnme necessary and so IL
! results that in finance as in every other
! field OF human activity there are men
and women who become associated to-
| Ia ian n
that must be intellgently directed if
Society is TO survive. 1t cannot he
otherwise unless the cugenistS manage
to cuntrivc that the mental endowment
of every human being shall be identl-
cal and that brains as well as wealth
Shall be equally distributed.
Quite IN ingenious argument that
Mr.. Price makes; but not at all con-
elusive.
| In their presentation Of the case, FOR
instance, Mr.. Lauclt and Senator La
Toilette give the names OF the men
they charge with having manipulated
the whole business, not only the orig
! inal expansion but the subsequent de-
fation, and while there is no question
of the fact that many millionalres nave
been bankruptcd, Mr.. Price does not
show that any Of the men particularly
named have been hurt.
If there WAS anything criminal III
the stupendnuS operation complained
of, il was i'm the expansion rather than
in the contraction, and if the whole
thing was really Il conspiracy, 1t IS
pretty safe TO assume that the partlcS
who were on the inside managed to
take care Of themselves.