[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
14
Editorial Comment
of employees. The last great work of his life had been as the head of a strong committee to speak for the lumber interests in the revision of the tariff,, tyt Washington.
In ffiejdvicffand commercial life of the city he was a leader and co-worker in all of the organizations working for expansion and improve-
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A portion of ,his time was given to caring for several religious publications, all without charge and often at his own expense. He was a director of the Y. M. C. A. and a founder of several successful church missions, as an officer of the Forty-first Presbyterian church from which he was buried.
Mr. Defebaugh was born in Williamsburg, Pa., in 1854 and came to Chicago in 1877. At his death he was practically the sole owner of the American Lumberman, the greatest trade publication in the West. He leaves a wife, Mrs. Anne Carhart Defebaugh, and Carl W., a son of 15 years. His death is a loss to the public as well as to a host of friends who loved him.
Crush Competition
Editor Chicago Banker.—I have been reading, with much interest, the talks of Senator Aid-rich, hoping to get from them something as to his recommendation for the improvement of our banking system. All I get, and that is largely by reading between the lines, is that he is in favor of a central bank. He has been studying the banking systems of Europe, and he seems to think their systems, modified to some extent, is what we must have. It seems to me that a central bank is simply the “entering wedge” to a system having great banks in the large cities and the balance of the country furnished with branches. Some paper remarked about the Senator’s visit to Chicago—“that it was his first trip West to stop anywhere in twenty years.” A Kansas City paper published what purported to be an interview, in which he said that he had gone West at a certain time, but didn’t remember that he had gone through Kansas City.
It seems to me that a study of the Great West —its possibilties and its demands—might be as much a factor in solving this problem as a study of the methods of Europe. This subject has been before the bankers for many years, and while we admit that our system is not perfect— maybe inadequate—yet I think the majority of the Western bankers would much prefer some system other than the central bank idea, with what must necessarily follow. It will be very hard to put upon people the idea of so much centralization as the European theory would involve.
Every town and community in this country seems to think it their right to handle their own business, and it has proven that they are able to do it. The “central power” idea and its influence was threshed out and pretty well settled at “The Tea Party” in Boston many years ago, and the same idea seems to be on trial now' in what is denominated “Cannonism,” and the “revision of the tariff! upward.” The verdict may be:	“They are all right,” but I am inclined to
the belief that as far as the West is concerned, they will be turned down unless they can be presented much modified.
75he
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but not one word about sending the robbers to Leavenworth, where they belong. Thieving employees of the government are being dismissed, probably only to be transferred to the sugar payrolls. In a large way the national government is in the hands of the robbers just as is the city of Chicago, in letting and paying for supplies and for work on and under the streets.
Mr. MacVeagh in his talk on the subject indicated that he recognized very fully the fact that the customs service had taken on within the past few years an exceedingly low tone, and that he did not believe that mere changes in the personnel of the service or alterations in the type of organization would reach the bottom of the evil. He was of the opinion that in order to rectify the conditions completely it would be necessary to alter the mode of administration that has been employed and to apply the tariff in a more reasonable as well as more honest way.
The tone of the service to which exception is understood to be taken by those now in authority in the federal administration is the favoritism to certain interests which has grown up, the disposition to apply over-severe methods of examination and interpretation in interest of overprotected industries and generally the indisposition to be perfectly open and impartial in the application of the customs of the United States. Secretary MacVeagh is exceedingly emphatic in his description of the scope which the process of rehabilitation would assume at his hands and if he can retain the support of the president there is every probability that a thorough administrative cleaning up will be had.
The scandal is national and the cabinet should not be above going into at least executive session over it. Any false idea that the trusts which pay the campaign expenses should enjoy perpetual robbing franchise will not be approved at any coming election. Clean up, is the advice of the public, and while you are at it punish the big thieves as well as the little ones.
Death of James E. Defebaugh
By the death of James Elliott Defebaugh, editor of the American Lumberman, the state and the nation have lost a force for good which will be replaced with difficulty. Mr. Defebaugh had brought his paper to a point where it was the arbiter of the great industry involving so many millions of capital and the welfare of thousands
Back to the Soil
Practically all of the big men of the country are convinced that the present era of high cost of living will injure the country beyond immediate recovery. Back to the soil is the cry. Mr. Hill told the bankers at the Chicago convention that boys must be kept on the farm and that colleges should teach agriculture in a practical way. The great Pennsylvania railroad is buying up abandoned farms in its Eastern territory and establishing experimental stations to show how to re-vitalize the soil.
The present prosperity is certain to increase demand for all food products to an extraordinary degree, and unless larger production is secured prices will continue to go higher. The cost of living is telling heavily upon the people in every section of the country, and only the steady employment of labor gives many the means to exist. A chill in trade, a depression to even any degree that would throw our workers into enforced idleness, would mean distress and suffering under present supplies of agricultural products.
President Brown, of the New York Central, would build up solidly and intelligently the agriculture of this nation.
In a recent address he says:
“I would make our agricultural colleges in fact what they are in name, to the end that the graduates of these colleges should be first-class farmers, thoroughly equipped and vitally interested.
“I would double our rural population by more than doubling the product per acre of the nation’s farms.”
When the railway men of the country go to work systematically and earnestly upon these lines indicated by President Brown they will not only insure prosperity to their roads, but they will be the benefactors of the people of the nation to an extent that will give them the most cordial co-operation of the entire population of the Union. City, town and country will unite in supporting the expressed views of President Brown, of James J. Hill and of President Mc-Crea of the Pennsylvania. Bankers can be of great help by advising boys to stick to the farm. They can help the farmer by financing him more liberally. The soil is the life and the prosperity of the nation.
The Sugar Trust Frauds
Robbing a pal, even among thieves, might be described as the meanest of crimes. After the government conspirators gave the Sugar Trust a legal right to “rob” the consumers by adopting a dishonest tariff schedule the Sugar Trust dives still deeper into the dark by robbing its pal, the government, on the weights. Been doing it systematically as a business. All the secretaries of the treasury have known about it, but failed to correct it. Mr. Shaw offered $100,000 for a thief-proof automatic scale. Now comes MacVeagh, promising “rehabilitation” of the service