F. J. McRae, the expert of the Stanley Committee, has rendered his report to that body. He states that the J. P. Morgan company received $69,300,000 in cash as fees and profits for organizing the big steel trust. The steel trust made net earnings, during a period of nine years, of $1,029,685,389. Such figures as these show without any mistake how rapidly and surely the wealth of the country is being drawn into the hands of a very few men. And it is the definite knowledge of these things that is causing so much discontent among the masses of the people. And any one ought to be able to see that since the great money interests of the world are determined to hold their own and to continue to pile up their wealth, the mass of the people will become more and more discontented and turbulent. The law of gravity is not surer in its action than will be the results that will follow the greed that is seizing all the resources of the world. The reforms that many men are so loudly talking, are only touching the edges of the disease. Superficial legislation can not meet the demands of this time. There must be a work done down deep in the hearts of men if we would be saved from the destruction that is brooding over the world.
Mexico seems to plunge deeper and deeper into revolution. She is said to be in the most turbulent and unsettled state that she has known for thirty years. Earnest appeals have been sent to the Government at Washington from the citizens along the border in Texas to send troops to protect lives and property, and equally earnest appeals have come from citizens living in Mexico. Reports had been given out that the Government could do nothing in the matter, at least at the present, for there was no reason why the United States should invade Mexican territory. And persistent reports kept coming from the Madero government, threatening to institute a general massacre of all American citizens within the borders of Mexico the moment the United States troops should step across the border. It was also given out that the United States could not protect the residents of other nations in Mexico, and therefore the French government decided to send a cruiser at once to the scene of strife to protect French interests, and other governments will likely follow. And this has caused the United States to make public extensive plans to put an army of 100,000 men on the borders of Mexico, ready to act promptly if events continue to develop so that it will seem necessary. It appears from present despatches that Uncle Sam has not been unmindful of his subjects, even tho contrary reports had been circulated, and he is abundantly equipped to strike quickly and strike hard.
Copyright by Paul Thompson, New York
The strikers at Lawrence, Massachusetts, have sent a delegation to Washington to appear before Congress with their grievances. The labor battle there seems to continue unabated. Among the recent occurrences was the finding of nineteen sticks of dynamite attached to the truck of a freight-car loaded with woolen goods. Life has become very cheap in the minds of many men. Of course both sides will charge the other with having placed the dynamite in this position; but whoever did it, the deed was a violently dastard one. Many innocent persons were endangered in order to wage this secret, underhanded warfare. And it is only one of the many incidents that are multiplying in all parts of the world which show that scenes of violence are to follow the tense feeling of ill will that is growing up between the classes that have been formed.
Despatches from London and also from Australia indicate that both Capt. Robert F. Scott, the British explorer, and Capt. Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian, have reached the South Pole.
The Italian Chamber of Deputies has passed a bill annexing Tripoli. There was slight opposition to it among the Socialists and a few others, but in the main the city "went wild with joy."
In discussing the amount of money necessary for a well-dressed American woman to spend on clothes, Mrs. C. H. Anthony, of Muncie, Indiana, stated that $50,000 is about the right sum. She then proceeded to give an itemized account of how she was able to get along on that much money for her annual clothes supply.
Altho Hiram C. Gill, the man who was deposed from the mayor's office by the recall in Seattle two years ago, ran ahead in the primaries, he was defeated in the election. Let this be said to the credit of the city that refuses to place a man in office who believes in running a town with saloons and every other kind of dive without any restriction.
Just as it seemed that China was about to end her war by the establishment of a republic, and when all the world was congratulating her, a large number of her soldiers mutinied and began a general massacre. To protect the lives and property of citizens of other nations who are residing there, foreign troops are being rushed in, and some kind of intervention may become necessary. A spirit of war is rife in the world that seems hard to suppress.
Secretary Knox has been received very cordially in the main during his tour through Central America. The crowds turn out to cheer him, and he is banqueted and treated most royally. But a despatch from Nicaragua states that certain newspapers published letters with big head-lines, suggesting that dynamite should be used against the secretary. It is to the credit of the Nicaraguan government that these anarchistic teachers were promptly arrested, and the celebrations in honor of Mr. Knox went on in gala style among enthusiastic people.
The women of England who believe in female suffrage, having noticed that the laboring men were able to awe the government by force and threats, started in on a campaign of breaking show-windows in one of the leading business districts of London. Women came up in their automobiles to join in the window smashing, and others had already preceded them on foot. Before they could be arrested and taken away by the police, they broke a large number of windows and did much damage. Two days later they appeared en masse to hold a great meeting in Parliament Square; and an army of 9,000 police, infantry, and cavalry was called out before they were dispersed. With the strikes and other matters that are confronting England she certainly has her hands full of domestic troubles.
Much has been said in the papers of late in regard to the "money trust," and many have denied that there was any such thing in existence. But the House of the United States Congress seems to think that there is sufficient evidence of such a trust to warrant the passing of a resolution directing the Committee on Banking and Currency to probe the matter thoroly. The money trust, by combining the large banks, is able to control firmly all money matters. And whenever it is to their best interests to do so, they can hold the money in their great coffers, and thus create a panic, and force their schemes through. To be sure many innocent people will be made to suffer, but this is not the concern of the money power. Its concern is to control things so that it can pile up more and more billions into its vast hoards. The heaping together of great aggregations of wealth is one of the leading topics of discussion in these times. It is significant, and we should study to know what will be the real outcome of these intensifying conditions. Did you ever study the first part of the fifth chapter of the book of James in connection with the facts of the gathering of the wealth of the world in a comparatively few hands?
