Evening star., 1924-09-07
WHEELER ASSA|LS
BANKER INFLUENCE
Tells New York Hearers They
Can Shake Off Wall Street
If They Will.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
NEW YORK, September G.-Sena-
tor Wheeler Of Montana, vice presi-
dential candidate on the independent
ticket, pleaded the cause of the
movement headed by Senator La Fol-
lette and himself before a New York
audience in Cooper Union.
He recited the record of Senator
La Toilette, asserting that the Wis
consin Senator'S accomplishment
guaranteed that the new national
effort would be constructive in it's
tendencies. He renewed the assault
on his political opposition which he
originally based on declaration that
both Democratic and Republican par
ties are controlled by Wall street.
TT is not more brains that we need
in our Government" he said, in de-
veloping this topic. 1T is a sharper
understanding that all legislation
and all administration by right
should be solely in the interest of
the whole people. 1t is not ior
tower intellects that you should. seek,
but for men whom you can trust to
remember that it is your votes that
elects them.
Power OF Wall Street.
THE Government has got farther
and farther away from you because
the group that has been able to eX-
press its will in the matter of law
enactment and law administration
has become a smaller and smaller
group. 1t has become the group
which we have come to know under
the general term of Wall street,
meaning by that the powerful finan-
cial and industrial interests centered
in this city of New York.
You can do the same thing that
these selfsh-and they wouldn't be
human if they weren't selhsh-in-
terests have been doing. You can
do it il you will furnish the funds
as well as the votes. whereby your
public servants are elected. SO long
as Wall Street. however, furnishes
the funds it will matter little who
furnishes the votes. Wall Street Will
dictate the Government.
Il say you can do it. because !
come from a corner of the country
where we have begun to do 1t. They
have sent men to Washington to do
their work and these men have been
doing 1t. These men took the lid of
Teapot Dome. They let the light into
the Department of Justice. They
went over the top of the Veterans
Bureau and drove out the men who
were robbing the MANNED and help
less boys we had sent to France.
They have elected men whom they
know.
Have Gone Long Way.
II am not saying tlat all political
wisdom resides in the voters of that
section Of the country. l am only
saying that despite greater difficult
ho dcl
obstacles in the matter of exercising
the franchise than it can be possible
for YOU to encounter in the thIckly
populated Eastern States, they have
gone long way.
I'm the matter OF the presidency
they haven't done SO we'll There
they have tried to nominate and elect
men whom they know, men in whom
they have confidence. But none
knows better than this audience the
sort of difficulty they have met.
Think back a few weeks to the
months Of June and July. A great
political party held here in your city
it's convention for the nomination of
candidates for the presidency and the
vice presidency. Democrats in the
State of New York thought they had
a man whom they could trust and
they offered him as a candidate.
Support for Davis.
"The convention engaged in a 1S-
day struggle. At the end of that
time the financial interests, who had
sat back waiting until the two prin-
cipai opponents had worn one an
other out, came forward and deliv-
cred their message. Your candidate,
they told the managers of the con-
vention. will be Mr.. John w. Davis.
We know him, he is our attorney, he
will do.
"The financial interests had the
funds, the funds to finance a cam
paign. They got the nomination.
The proceeding you witnessed in
your own city differed from the one
witnessed in Chicago four years ago
only slightly.
What results from this manner of
nominating and electing presidents?
Suppose we follow the trail from that
Chicago hotel room Where does it
lead? Straight to Teapot Dome
Straight to Jess Smiths private desk
in the Department of Justice.
Straight to the hunks of the cheated
soldiers in the rehabilitation hospi-
tails and straight to the bank deposits
Of the grafters who had been despoil-
ing Them