The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-02-06

Ia President, may accept is dinner with the
Vice President. On such occasions the Presi-
dent, SO Ruth Finney informs us, must first see
md approve the names Of the other. guests.
A week or two ago Vice President Dawes
entertained President Coolidge. The other
guests were:
Dwight Morrow. P. Morgan & Co.
owen d. Young-General Electric Co.
James G. Harbord-Radio Corporation of
America.
Three very estimable gentlemen. Three
very able and honest men. Three men repre-
sentative Of institutions engaged in gathering
to themselves the financial and economic
spower of the world
ri HERE is card game, familiar to many
IL readers, called penny ante. The white
chips sell for penny, the red chips for
nickel, and the blue chips for dime. A play
er pushes into the pot as many chips as he
thinks his hand is worth, compared to the
hands Of the other players. Where the hands
appear to be even, on the face of things, the
player with small stack of white chips is
easily crowded out by the players with
supply of blues And as the little fellows drop
out there is always some wag present to re-
mark.
Out go the grocery clerks"
TT1HERE were no grocery clerks present at
the dinner Dawes gave for Coolidge.
Either there were none ON the invitation list
submitted by Dawes for approval or else Cool
idge crossed them off. All of us grocery clerks
were crowded out before that game began.
1t would have been interesting if we could
have heard the discussions of these five men.
What would three men representing economic
power in America have to say to the two men
representing political power!
No sinister plotting. No getting of heads
together and whispering slick schemes for ex-
torting money from the public. Nothing like
that Morrow, Young and Harbord are not
that kind of men Take Harbord, for instance.
He is the same General Harbord who served
with such distinction in the Great War, man
rated by many as the ablest of all In the Amer
lean Army. A man without blot ON his repu-
tation- He could direct an army or group of
armies Can he direct the Radio Corporation
Of America? Yes and no, AS well as any man,
perhaps But the Radio Corporation is big
ger thing than Harbord and is itself in the grip
Of something still bigger, This is the grip of
our present economic tendency toward greater
and greater consolidation of financial, indus
trial and commercial power. Harbord, as pres
ident of the corporation, may think he Is d.
recting its course, but he ism he is just riding
along He cannot command in the sense he
could command an army.
The same things might be said of OwenD.
Young and Dwight Morrow in their respective
fields. They are in the grip of something big
ger than themselves, something bigger than the
big institutions they represent. Their instinct
for making money, their genius for organiza-
ton, their faith in themselves have brought
them into their present positions of blind lead
ership They have gone long way, but it isn't
at all certain they know where they are going.
(r-1HE Socialists have theory that in due
time private capital will have become
completely consolidated. The Rockefellers first
will have all the oil, the Garys and Schwabs all
the steel and iron, somebody all the railroads,
somebody else all the textiles and so on. Then
the Morgans, or some others, owning all the
banks will likewise come to own all the indus
tries. Then, with everything organized into
one machine, with all waste eliminated the peo-
ple through the Government, will take over the
whole works. Socialism will be possible and
it will work. Maybe the Socialists are right
and that is what we are headed for. Nobody
can say, for the thing never yet has happened
in human history.