The newspaper., October 06, 1905, Image 6

About The newspaper. (Paonia, Colo.) 1904-1910

Image provided by: History Colorado

                
THE NEWSPAPER.
C. T. RAW ALT, Publisher.
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY.
Subscription Rates $2.00 Per Year.
Entered at the postotiice in Paonia for transmis
sion through the mails as second class matter.
In Memoriam.
Just two years ago today, at
11:45 p. m„ Hon. C. M. Hammond,
passed into the other world. His
works live after him and it is but
right that his name be kept in
that fond remembrance that it
deserves.
Mr. M’Call, the insurance
company looter, claims that he is
not very wealthy as a result of
his misdoings. That is generally
the case with those who get
money without work. They blow
it as fast as they get it.
The brazen admission by high
insurance officials that they have
spent huge sums in debauching
legislatures should alone operate
to put them in the penitentiary
for the balance of their lives.
The crimes they are confessing
go to prove them so dangerous to
the public that life long imprison
ment is the very lightest penalty
that can in justice be given them.
About the only real measure
for increasing the revenues of the
state is the much abused revenue
bill introduced by B. F. Mont
gomery in the Thirteenth Gen
eral Assembly. The Supreme
court has upheld one of the most
important sections, the flat tax,
and as about all its other provis
ions have been tested it may be
regarded as settled that the bill
will stanch
Harry A. Leonard, a bank
clerk in New York, by a clever
forgery obtained possession of
$359,000 worth of securities. He
claims that the coup was run tor
the express purpose of showing
how loose were the banking
methods of the metropolis.
Strange to relate the bankers do
not take his object lesson in the
kind spirit that might have been
expected, and are doing their
best to send their youthful teacher
to the penitentiary.
There is considerable talk just
now in democratic circles to the
effect that Milton Smith should
and must retire from the chair
manship of the State central
committee. It might be a good
thing for the party but it does not
follow. The question is who
would be his successor? The
only tip we have received was
that Harry liisley, Bob Speer’s
representative would be pushed
tor the place. In our opinion
that will not go with outside
democrats. The only object in
displacing Smith is to get rid of a
Denver man and fill the place
with an outsider.
The railroad pressure became
too heavy for the Board of
Equalization and they accommo
dated their friends by cutting off
a little over a million dollars from
their valuations. The increase
when distributed around among
the people will not be noticed.
True, the reports of earnings show
that Colorado roads were never
so prosperous before but that did
not seem to strike the g. o. p.
equalizers as a reason why they
should pay their taxes cheerfully.
Great thing to have a set of offi
cials selected by the corporations
and the Supreme Court. They
know who elected thfcm.
THE COUNTRY'S PROBLEM.
This week’s investigation of the
big insurance companies is ex
pected to proceed along the line
of uncovering the use of money
to influence legislation by con
gress and state legislatures. It
has been shown that very large
sums of money were intrusted to
Judge Hamilton, an attorney in
the employ of the New York Lite,
for purposes which have not been
explained, and that the same man
also acted in a confidential capac
ity for the Equitable and Mutual
Lite companies, thus indicating
that the three companies were of
one mind and had identical in
terests as to the matters which
he handled. The heads ol the
companies, while on the witness
stand, have professed astonishing
ignorance concerning the funds
which were placed in the hands
of Hamilton and the books of
the companies shed no light upon
the reasons why they were in
trusted to him. In a word, every
effort has been made to cover up
the Hamilton account as some
thing mysterious and beyond
explanation.
Such a pose, of course, is
absurd. The heads of the com
panies know exactly what Hamil
ton got the money for and what
he did with it, and the task of the
investigators is to force them to
tell or to take refuge behind the
statement, itself incriminating,
that to tell the truth would in
criminate them.
Current report in New York
has long connected insurance in
terests with an expensive lobby
at Albany and with an individual
who is in constant attendance up
on the sessions of congress and
who lives in luxury, though he
has no visible means of support.
While the committee of the
New York legislature has been
hammering at the methods of the
companies, the executives of six
other important states have
thought it advisable to undertake
special inquiries of their own, and
the insurance commissioners of
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Nebraska and Texas
are now in New York city for the
purpose of investigating and re
porting to their governors in
order that recommendations may
be made to the next legislatures
of the states named.
The questions involved are of
the very first importance. As
yet they have hardly been sug
gested above a whisper. Can the
life insurance business be con
tinued along the same lines? Is
not use of company money for
private profit inevitable when a
company grows to such a size
that its assets are counted in
hundreds of million? How large
should a company be permitted
to become? Will it become
necessary to establish government
ownership of the life insurance
business?
The Times long ago pointed
out what was meant by the ex
traordinary growth of the big in
surance companies. Being con
tinuing institutions, it was in their
power and was part of their plan
to utilize the principles oi com
pound interest to an extent far
beyond its utilization by the house
of Rothschild. No prophet was
needed to foresee the time, less
than a century distant, when the
accumulated assets of each of the
great companies would rise into
the billions instead of the
hundred millions, and the wealth
at their disposal would place in
their hands a power so vast as
to be almost beyond comprehen
sion.
There is a problem here more
HAMMOND’S ADDITION
TO PAONIA
Clark Avenue
27
**
® 25 ®
E fe £ s 3 8 3 gSSfiSfcssg&S S
■P 24 **
(0 (0
.
22
111 I II 111 I I 21
20
c
0 - “ " —|- " • ■* " “ 8 B 5 5 s 5 ~ 18 i
0 c
* >7 h
I I 1 j I 1 I 1 I • i I I 1«
0
M i n neaota Avenue
Nearly all of the above lots are now sold
and if you want one or more you had best
call in the very near future. The remaining
lots embrace some of the best locations.
GUY O. HAMMOND
serious than any yet touched up
on in the investigation.—Denver
Times.
THE RETAIL MERCHANT.
In an interview in New York,
Sept. 1(5, James R. Keen, who has
thrice lost and regained a fortune
in Wall Street, says:
And another bad feature of our
enormous industrial corporations
is the deplorable tendency to de
stroy or vitiate, our mercantile in
dependence as individuals. It is
my firm conviction that Mie day
is coming when the individual
small merchant will cease to ex
ist. In his place will be millions
of persons working for wages and
salaries, whereas yesterday and
today they were, and are, proprie
tors. In other words, I believe
the time is coming when practi
cally all mercantile and industrial
affairs will be conducted by cor
porations.
The Appeal has been declaring
this for years, as the only and in
evitable outcome of the present
era of concentration. Not only
the small merchant must go, but
the owner of small business prop
erties will have no tenants, foi
the big stores will require big
buildings and they will be owned
by the corporations who own the
stores. And those who are now
living off these rents will find
themselves with property bring
ing no income, and, therefore,
worthless. If the men of small
means will not see this before it
hits them, they will see it when
they find themselves up against
it and helpless. Already the
great corporations arc selling all
their small properties. They see
it coming. Appeal to Reason,
Colorado dailies arc shrieking
over the fear that the tariff on
sugar will be removed and cheap 1
Oriental sugar admitted. This is I
one of the advantages of owning
distant islands and ten million
yellow niggers whom our trust
magnates desire to farm. They
will probably succeed as the trusts
own both the Philippines and U. S. J
THE COMMONER
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN'S PAPER
Now is tliu time to secure Mr. Bryan’s paper. All
democrats need the paper and Mr. Bryan needs the
support and co-operation of all true friends of reform.
The Commoner has commenced to organize the dem
ocratic hosts for 1908. Mr. Bryan’s advocacy through
The Commoner of public ownership of railroad and
telegraph systems, the election of I'. S. judges and
l*. S. senators by popular vote, direct legislation, the
overthrow of private monopolies, tarilT reform and
other issues, insures entertaining and instructive
reading as well as new life to the party. The Com
moner and The Nkwhpapkk, both one year for the
low price of $2.25 WHEN PAID IN ADVANCE
Regular price of The Commoner $l.OO. This offer
applies to both new and renewal subscriptions.
Address all orders to
THE NEWSPAPER
PAONIA, COLORADO
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Somthing You All Need
WE WILL
Tell you about it in this space next
week.