Montana labor news., 1938-01-20

It is not given to all of us to be
bright, but it is within the range of
everybody to be thorough.
much comforted to find that there
is one state, Delaware, described as
the Duchy of Dupont, which is more
under corrupt corporation control
than our own.
The arguments brought forward
by the apologists of great fortunes
are shattered. Huge fortunes ire
not necessary so that great industry
may be financed. The Rochedale
Cooperative in England is the
strongest, largest business in the
world. The lavish expenditures of
the idle rich may give employment
but they do not give useful work
to many people" A frequent say
ing that great wealth is at any rate
dissipated in several generations is
not true. By careful intermarriage
of the go wealthy families a caste
is already established. If their i'll
gotten gains cannot be taxed into
the public use, the 80 million sub
merged will continue to be objects
Of niggardly charity and our middle
class will descend to the standard
of the Chinese coolies.
Perhaps the darkest villain por-
trayed by Lundberg is Walter Hines
Page, our ambassador to England. He.
was getting $4,000 a year from
Cleveland Dodge, a director of the
National City Bank and a munitions
profiteer. There is spread before
the reader his cunning cablegrams
to Wilson which brought us into the
Great War. Page was also a trustee
of the Rockefeller Foundation. On
his head is the blood of every
American soldier killed or crippled
in that war.
The war profits Of our dear old
home company, the Anaconda, along
with dozens of others of course are
analysed.
The wreck to our finances caused
by the fight we put up to make the
world safe for the Morgans may be
paraphrased.
"The United States government,
like the majority of its people, found
its financial position hopelessly
compromised at the end of the war.
Unlike the dominant families it
was not richer, it was poorer.
In 1914 the national debt was 1898
per person. At the end of the war
it stood at 1928 per person. The
direct cost of the war was SO billion
dollars; including the expense of re-
Mobilization the war cost approx
mately rs billion dollars. Presi-
dent Coolidge, in a message to Con-
gress, estimated the direct and in
direct cost of the wal at 100 billion
dollars. Lundberg never exagger-
ates.) About half the war expense
was contracted in making loans to
the allied governments so that they
could buy materials through ]. P.
Morgan and Company, which pro
fitted by an admitted 30 million
dollars. Europe, except Finland,
has repudiated the debts to our gov
eminent of $13, 1856, 900, 300. This
money lever went to Europe. It
went to Morgan, Rockefeller, Du-
Pont, Mellon, and similar groups for
supplies sent to the Allies. The go
families have it yet. The loans made
to the Allies by our private bankers
have been mostly repaid.
A judge acting in his own case if
is i%mpeached. Lundberg
tells how Mellon, as Secretary of
the Treasury, adiudged to himself
and near relations returns of mil
of income taxes assessed by
men in his department against him
and his relations in blood and bust
ness.
Lundberg explains how J.. P.
Morgan and Company own, control
or has influence over practically
every life, fire, casualty, accident,
liability insurance company
in America; that ]. P. Morgan and
owns, controls or has in
fluence over more than seventy-two
billion dollars of wealth. Lundberg
follows the famous essay of the lib
eral Mr.. Justice Brandeis of the Su-
preme Court of the United States
that "the vast reserves of the insur-
ance companies are the greatest
menace to the freedom of America"
Lundberg's book while depressing
is gripping in every paragraph.
No teacher, clergyman, laborer, leg
farmer, can afford not to
own the book.
H. L. MAURY.