THE WAR PLOTTERS OF WALL ST.
BY CHARLES A COLLMAN
BY CHARLES A COLLMAN
X.
THE MEN WHO TOASTED THE CZAR.
A few weeks ago I was a guest in one of the leading clubs of Philadelphia. We sat at a table in the grill room. One of my
friends related a shameful story. It was the life story of a man
who had won a nation-wide reputation as a philanthropist. He
was the reputed owner of a great newspaper, through which his beneficence's flowed. One day a will was probated in Philadelphia,
and it was then revealed that the man who had been
regarded throughout the country as a generous benefactor had
been merely the tool of a powerful banker, who had used him,
under the guise of philanthropy to work his own ends. When
this will was probated, the revelations broke the heart of the
philanthropist, and he died.
The philanthropist I mention was George W. Childs. The
banking family bears the name of Drexel.
I left the club that night and walked down Broad Street. The blood had surged to my face, and my ears were ringing. I had said nothing when I heard that story, but alone, with only
the black night and the deserted street between me and my
thoughts, I knew how that tale had burned into my heart. For,
you see, I was born in Philadelphia. A man loves the place
where he was born and I had just listened to my native city's
shame.
And the name of Drexel had recalled so very much to my
mind. In 1904, when I first went to Wall Street, that name was
cut in marble over the door of a great banking house at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, "J. P. Morgan & Company,
in the Drexel Building. " Young Morgan has built a new house,
and the name of Drexel has vanished. But sons of the Drexel
family are fighting at the front in France with Turcos and
Senegal Negroes, to wipe out the race from which their father
sprang, for Drexel was of German blood.
And I could not help exclaiming :
''There is infamy in everything
connected with the name of Morgan." For Drexel had been the Elder Morgan's partner. When his puppet, Childs,
died, A MASK HAD DROPPED, AND HIS COUNTRYMEN
KNEW HIM FOR WHAT HE WAS.
THE BANQUET OF THE BANKERS
An extraordinary scene occurred in the banquet room of the
Hotel Knickerbocker on the afternoon of October 1st, 1915. Two
hundred men assembled there at a luncheon given to the foreign
bankers who had come to this country at the invitation of J. P. Morgan, England's war agent, to receive the $500,000,000 credit for the war munitions sent to England, France and Russia, which
those countries found themselves unable to pay.
At this dejeuner, a toastmaster arose. His name is William
D. Guthrie. He is a Wall Street corporation lawyer, whom I have known for many years. In Who's Who, Mr. Guthrie has
given this information about himself: "Educated in Paris and
England." And at the dejeuner, speaking in the French tongue,
this Wall Street corporation lawyer made this remarkable statement, to which I wish to call the attention of every American
citizen :
(Reported from the New York Sun of October 2nd, the organ
of J. Pierpont Morgan.)
(Words of William D. Guthrie) :
"That country (France), according to reliable historians,
having expended in behalf of the American colonies, between
1776 and 1781, the great sum of $772,000,000, for which she
afterward refused payment, it was time now for the United
States to create a credit for the French Republic to a similar
amount to be repaid when France can do so."
"These words of the speaker, the climax of an impassioned
address, aroused every man present and profoundly affected M.
Octave Homberg and M. Ernst Mallett, the French commissioners."
(Still quoted from Morgan's Sun.)
The two French commissioners were impressed. AND NO
WONDER.
What shocking debtors we Americans are! And we never
suspected until Guthrie (educated in Paris and England), informed us that we owed Frenchmen the sum of $772,000,000.
Now you know I had always had a much different impression of our obligations to France, but that is probably due to the
fact that I was not "educated in Paris and England'' and
merely went to the little country school in northern Kentucky,
where I received my primal education. I recall quite plainly our little country school ma'am apprising us of the fact that,
during the French and Indian War, the French race in this country incited the savage Indian tribes upon us and with their
aid, massacred the white inhabitants of North America. This
is a national trait of the French race, which may be recognized
to this day, for, instead of fighting their own battles in their
native land, they have imported thousands of African Turcos
and Senegal Negroes to defend their land against the Germans.
THE TWO HEROES
Furthermore, I have walked up Riverside Drive, in New
York, and seen the bronze statues erected there to the heroes of the American race, who have fought for and saved the integrity
of the country.. And there, in vain I looked for tributes to Frenchmen, Englishmen, Russians, Italians, Servians, Belgians.
No, I could see only two bronze statues erected to two men who
fought for their country in the Civil War, and shame to tell it, BOTH OF THEM WERE GERMANS GENERAL CARL
SCHURZ AND GENERAL FRANZ SIGEL.
Nevertheless, the Wall Street corporation lawyer asked his audience to arise and drink to his toast : ''The King of England,
the King of Belgium (betrayed by the English), the President of France (whom the English have failed to help), the King of
Italy (who betrayed his Allies, and now betrays the English),
and the RUSSIAN CZAR."
Yes, incredible as it may seem to us Americans, Guthrie
toasted the Russian Czar. And the New York Sun records the
fact that, by the men present, the toast was "enthusiastically
drunk."
THE MEN WHO TOASTED
THE RUSSIAN CZAR
The same newspaper recorded the men who were conspicuous
by their presence at the dejeuner, and who toasted the Russian
Czar:
HENRY CLEWS Born in England, President of the American Peace and Arbitration League.
ROBERT A. C. SMITH Chairman of the board of directors of the White Rock Mineral Water Company. Director of the Holmes Electric Protection Company.
ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON Vice-President of the New York Peace Society, of which Andrew Carnegie is President.
JOHN HARSEN RHOADES Trustee of the? Greenwich Savings Bank.
ROBERT BACON Director of the Steel Trust. Trustee of the Bank for Savings. Former member J. P. Morgan & Co. Once Ambassador to France.
THOMAS W. LAMONT Partner of J. P. Morgan, England's war agent.
BRADLEY MARTIN Educated at Oxford, England. Director Metropolitan Trust Company. Director Security Bank, New York.
LEWIS L. CLARKE Secretary of Morgan's Navy League. Director of the American Locomotive Company.
ALTON B. PARKER Director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Wall Street corporation lawyer. Vice-President of Morgan's National Security League.
PAUL FULLER Member of the firm of Coudert Brothers, counsel for the French government.
OGDEN MILLS REID President New York Tribune Association.
FRANK A. VANDERLIP President National City Bank. Director of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company.
ELBERT H. GARY Chairman of the Steel Trust.
MICHEL OUSTING A subject of the Czar's.
TAKASHI NAKAMUDA America's yellow friend ( ?).
WILLIAM D. GUTHRIE Educated in Paris and England. Wall Street corporation lawyer.
As in the case of the stalking horse of Drexel, Morgan's partner, THE MASK HAS DROPPED, AND OUR COUNTRYMEN KNOW THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE.
Yes, these are the men who toasted the Czar ! To me it seems a dreadful thing to toast the Czar, and yet I am not a Russian Pole. Poor Polish race, poor Polish Jews, victims of the pogroms of Kishinef and Gomel. The Russian Czar, the Romanov, sprung from the loins of a fanatic priest, now the mental slave to an ignorant peasant pope. Is it possible for a citizen of our great Republic to drink health and success to the man whose Cossack's lash their whips on the backs- of Russia's Slavic workmen?
No! For it is we, the Americans, who abrogated our commercial treaty with the Romanov's because they would not respect the passports of American citizens, because we could bear no longer the recital of the outrages of the Black Hundreds.
So what do those hundreds of thousands of Slavic workmen, the Poles, the Polish Jews, who have become our citizens, think of these men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR? "What do the Americans who worked for the abrogation of the treaty with Russia think of the men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR ? What does the man with human sympathy and human love think of the men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR? What do the thirty millions in this country, sprung from German blood, think of the men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR ?
To these I shall merely give a hint of the dreadful story that shall yet break upon the world,* of the dreadful deeds performed by England 's ally in East Prussia, of the massacre at Santoppen, where twenty-one innocent men and women were dragged from church and shot by brutal Cossack's ;some of the women burned to death in the village of Dembenofen, of the outrages in Ortelburg and Bischofstein !
* Report of Russian atrocities suppressed by the Money Trust newspapers of New York, and their syndicate services, for fear lest it might awaken sympathy for Germany and defeat the loan for the Allies.
The list is headed by Mr. Henry Clews. I once had a different idea of this man, whom I have known for many years. Yet,
as I have investigated and followed the machinations of this English stock broker of Wall Street, I am amazed that he has
been permitted freely and without public censure, for so many
years to pursue his disloyal English propaganda. Clews, born
in England, is in evidence, as we have seen, everywhere where
disloyalty thrives. We have seen him years ago in Carnegie
Hall, trying to force upon the American people an arbitration
treaty favoring England and aimed at Germany. We see him
made President of the American Peace and Arbitration League,
backed by the Morgan group in England 's interest. We see him
at public dinners, toasting England's king and EVEN THE RUSSIAN CZAR, SINCE THROUGH THE ATROCITIES OF RUSSIA'S CZAR, ENGLAND HOPED TO WIN.
Clews, naturalized as an American, I hope, has nevertheless worked for years in the interest of the country of his birth.
Mr. Henry Clews, it was at you, and Englishmen like you, that President Wilson aimed his words, when, on October llth, he said, at a public gathering:
"Every political action, every social action, should have for its object in America at this time to challenge the spirit of America; to ask that every man and woman who thinks first of America should rally to the standards of our life. There have been some among us who have not thought first of America, who have thought to use the might of America in some matter not of America's originative. I would not be afraid upon the test of 'America first' to take a census of all the foreign-born citizens of the United States. I am in a hurry to have an opportunity to have a line-up and let the men who are thinking first of other countries stand on one side Biblically, it should be the left and all those that are for America, first, last, and all the time, on the other side."
Mr. Clews, ponder well these words of our President, of the head of the nation of which you have become an adopted citizen, and to which you have sworn loyalty. I warn you in all seriousness and in the best of good will, to cease at once your English propaganda, which you and your fellows have been inciting for so many years. The days of immunity have passed, and the day of reprisal is in the dawn.
Let us stop to think for a moment. Nearly every newspaper and magazine in this country has been wrong in all its predictions of the European war for the last fourteen months. We Americans have let England steal our brains.
Great events are impending. A tremendous empire has gone thundering down into the abyss of its own making. Another empire is crumbling to pieces and stands with outstretched hands, pleading for help from the races it has wronged. A sham republic is buried under the debacle of its shame. An embryo kingdom has died in still birth.
Let us gird up our loins to meet the new day. Our thoughts are all to be changed, our ideas to be reversed. In the next hundred years the world shall advance more than in the last two thousand.
WALL STREET AGAIN DEFIES THE LAW in GAMBLING WITH THE
SAVINGS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
The Law ☛☛☛ Insurance Law of New York.
in the ☛☛☛ Chapter 28 of the Consolidated Laws. the Case ☛☛☛ Paragraph 36, Page 50.
OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES NOT TO BE PECUNIARILY INTERESTED IN TRANSACTIONS
No director or officer of an insurance corporation doing business in this State shall receive any money or valuable thing for negotiating, procuring, recommending or aiding in any purchase by or sale of such corporation of any property, or any loan from such corporation, nor be pecuniarly interested, either as principal, co-principal, agent or beneficiary, in any such purchase} sale or loan. . . . Any person violating any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Is it possible that the same group of Wall Street bankers and banking institutions, who were exposed by the Armstrong Committee in 1905, and by the Pujo Committee in 1913, are again fastening their greedy hands on the savings which the people of this country have deposited in the great life insurance companies ?
Yes, it is true. Like birds of prey they still gather about the hoarded savings of the people. Restrictive laws cannot drive them away. State and Congressional investigating committees meet every few years to devise means to safeguard the people's money. But the plotters of Wall Street laugh at such laws. Their corporation lawyers show them the ways to evade all man made enactments. The Money Trust must juggle with the public's hoard. Without it, it is powerless; with it, it is the sinister organization of conspirators that holds government and people under its ruthless thumb.
As this is read by the policyholders of the great life companies, I warn them that, if they value the future and happiness of their wives and children, they must write to their respective congressmen, calling attention to the conditions that are here exposed, and urging the immediate punishment of those men who have betrayed the confidence of the public and defied its laws.
For again Wall Street is gambling with the public savings, and on a scale hitherto unprecedented, FOR IT IS USING THE LIFE INSURANCE MONEY IN DISPOSING OF THE $500,000,000 BONDS WHICH IT HAS FAILED TO UNLOAD ON THE PUBLIC.
These bonds are unsafe as insurance investments. They are issued by the countries of France and England and pay five per cent. Yet in the open market of Wall Street yesterday (October 23rd) these securities sold as low as 97 3/4. What high-class American railroad bond sells so far below par when paying five per cent.?
Five per cent, bonds of the St. Paul are selling at 104 3/4, while the first mortgage fives of England and France are below par.
And the dangerous Anglo-French bonds are selling in Wall Street at this ridiculously low price, while at this very moment 1,000 bond salesmen, personally hired by J. P. Morgan- in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, are going through the- country trying to unload them at 98. Wall Street bond houses and banks have already sent out more than 1,000,000 circulars, unduly flattering the bonds, and it is estimated that more than $500,000 has already been spent in full-page newspaper advertisements for the same purpose, and to prevent the newspapers from exposing this tremendous game.
Even corporation lawyers and the officials of great life insurance companies have boomed the bonds at public banquets in New York. Joseph II. Choate, trustee of the Equitable Life, at the recent Pilgrims' dinner given to the foreign bankers at Sherry's, besought every man, woman and child in the country to invest at least $100 in these bonds, and said they represented only
a "first installment" of further billions yet to be loaned to England Letters were addressed to the heads of the leading life insurance companies of the country, requesting information whether
they had invested their policyholders
' savings in these bonds, and
desiring to know how many millions of such savings were in the
hands of the Morgan banks of Wall Street, that are the syndicate
underwriters to the loan, and are now holding the $500,000,-
000 bonds secured, not by their own money, but by the public's
savings.
We publish in this story the replies of these life insurance presidents, BY THEIR WORDS SHALL YE KNOW THEM.
At this point I wish to recall to public memory that, on the night of September 11, 1915, a secret call was issued by J. Pierpont Morgan to the heads, officers and trustees of the life insurance companies to assemble in his private museum, the Morgan Library, situated in the rear of his home on Murray Hill, to meet the foreign banking delegation sent here by England and France to execute a loan of at least a billion dollars for those two warring nations.
How many life insurance officials were present in response to Morgan 's call ? I cannot tell you, for the list of names has been kept secret. But I can tell you that the following men were there that night : Charles A. Peabody, president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company : George F. Baker, trustee of the Mutual Life ; William A. Nash and Francis L. Hine, directors of the Home Life Insurance Company; John R. Hegeman, president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company ; Otto T. Bannard and Albert H. Wiggin, trustees of the Metropolitan Life, and Lewis Cass Ledyard, one of the three trustees of the Equitable Life.
What were these men, the custodians of the people's savings, doing in the library of Morgan that night ? Had they forgotten that the Armstrong Committee in New York, and the Pujo Committee of Congress, only a few years before, devised laws to prevent the banks and trust companies controlled by the Morgan group from handling the life insurance funds?
I shall quote now the response from Mr. Charles A. Peabody to the question of how many millions of his policyholders' savings he has invested in the Anglo-French bonds, and how many millions of such funds are on deposit and in the hands of the members of the Morgan loan syndicate. The Mutual, remember, is not a proprietary company. It is the absolute property of the policyholders, of whom Mr. Peabody is merely the representative. Read carefully his words :
Dear Sir :
Your letter in relation to this company's investing funds in the Anglo-French loan has been duly received.
I beg to say in reply that the company has purchased $3,000,000, par value, of the bonds in question. We regard them as a sound investment and as paying an exceptionally high rate of interest under present conditions. The law and the duties of the trustees of the company require that its investments should be made in their best judgment and in the interests of the whole body of the policyholders. We have policyholders of many nations and races and in due proportion to their holdings of our obligations they are entitled to our best judgment from the point of view of security and interest rates. The interests of any one policyholder, or of any group of policyholders, cannot properly be used to influence the company in its judgment as to investments, either in favor of or against, a particular form of investment, but the interests of the whole body must be duly considered by the company.[I think he is saying something like One mans junk,is another man's gold,and we lend it as such DC]
It is proper that I should say in connection with the bonds to which you refer that this company -on December 31, 1914 (that being the date of our latest annual statement) held among its investments Government Bonds of Austria and Germany to the amount of $5,776,000 ; it also held a real estate mortgage in the City of Berlin amounting to $150,000. These two amounts, together with other investments, constituted the reserves against outstanding policies on the lives of Austrian and German citizens, which at that time amounted to about $21,000,000. All of these investments were deposited with the Governments of Austria and Germany for the protection of their policyholders. In England and France we had at the same time outstanding policies on the lives of English and French citizens amounting to about $95,000,000, the reserves on which, held by us, amounted to about $37,500,000. Of this amount we held English Government Bonds of the par value of $150,861, and of French Government Bonds we held none ; so it would appear that the Austrian and German policyholders have already on deposit in their countries the funds which they have contributed to our general assets, while we hold about $37,500,000 contributed by the English and French policyholders over and above any investments in the securities of their respective, nations. I mention this particular phase of the case simply to make clear that there might be a considerable investment made in the Anglo-French Bonds, without there being any undue investment of the company's funds in such securities. Yours very truly,
I call upon Mr. Charles A. Peabody to resign, and at once, his presidency and trusteeship of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, on the grounds that he is no longer conducting the company in the interests of its policyholders.
This letter of Mr. Peabody has evasion, dis-ingenuousness and insincerity in every line. "We all know there is no question here of the investments made by the Mutual in England, France, Germany and Austria on behalf of its branches there, in compliance with the respective laws of those countries. The question here is raised by American policyholders as to investments in the war bonds of France and England, made in this country, and purchased from a Morgan bank. The $3,000,000 investment in Anglo-French bonds has no relevancy with the compulsory investments made by the foreign branches. Mr. Peabody knows this as well as I.
Mr. Peabody states : "We regard them as a sound investment
and as paying an exceptionally high rate of interest." They do
pay "an exceptionally high rate of interest'' for government
bonds, and they are selling at an exceptionally low price, which
fact alone shows that they are not a "sound investment."
I would ask Mr. Peabody if he is cognizant of the statement
made by Sir George Paish, on October 14th, in London, the
highest financial authority of the British Empire : ''England is carrying the financial burden of the war. If we go on spending our money as we are now, we shall see another break in American
Exchange. This probably would mean the suspension of specie
payments, and we should have to tell the world we were unable
to pay our debts."
Another break in sterling exchange has already begun. Will England suspend specie payments? Shall she soon tell the world she is unable to pay her debts? Is this $3,000,000 in Anglo-French bonds then a "sound investment"? Is Mr. Peabody a better judge of this investment than Sir George Paish?
I would say to Mr. Peabody : You, sir, are a director of the following Wall Street financial institutions that are members of the Morgan syndicate in the $500,000,000 Anglo-French war bonds :
Farmers' Loan & Trust Company.
Guaranty Trust Company.
National Bank of Commerce.
These institutions pay great dividends to their director- stockholders in profits derived from their syndicate operations. I would ask Mr. Peabody whether it was in his capacity as director in these banks of the Morgan syndicate that he bought the $3,000,000 bonds for the Mutual Life, of which he is President and trustee ? In that case, I wish to call to his attention the Insurance Law printed at the head of this story :
Chapter 28, Par. 36. "No director or officer of an insurance corporation . . . shall be pecuniarily interested, either as principal, co-principal, agent or beneficiary, in any such sale or loan."
If this is not a violation of the law, it surely is an evasion of the intents and purposes of the law enacted in 1906 by the Legislature of New York.
The Morgan syndicate buys its Anglo-French bonds for 96 and sells them to the insurance companies at 98. It makes a huge profit. Before the Law of 1906 was enacted, the Mutual could have been a member of the syndicate and have obtained its bonds at 96. But Paragraph 100 of the new Law prevents the Mutual from syndicate participation's . Therefore, the law, instead of having benefited the policyholders of the Mutual, merely serves the purpose of giving greater profits to the banking group of Wall Street.
Mr. Peabody, to whom did the two per cent, profit go when the Mutual bought those $3,000,000 bonds? To the banks of the Morgan syndicate?
Referring back to Mr. Peabody 's letter, we see that at the request of one of the Mutual policyholders, who is clearly entitled to learn what Mr. Peabody is doing with the policyholders' money, the President ABSOLUTELY IGNORES THE MAIN QUERY HOW MANY MILLIONS HAVE YOU PLACED ON DEPOSIT WITH THE BANKS THAT ARE MEMBERS OF THE MORGAN SYNDICATE ?
Why does Mr. Peabody refuse to answer this question? On September 15, 1905; officials of the Mutual Life testified before the Armstrong Committee that the Mutual kept on deposit for two years with the National Bank of Commerce the enormous sum of $7,000,000, and kept still more millions on deposit with the First National Bank, Merchants' Exchange National Bank, Guaranty Trust Company, United States Mortgage & Trust Company, Central Trust Company, and Bank of Montreal.
The policyholders of the Mutual Life are entitled to know how much of their money is in the hands of the directors of those companies which are members of the Morgan syndicate, and being used for the purposes of the Morgan gamble in the war bonds. This question shall be answered, sooner or later. The money of life insurance companies cannot be imperiled in the hazardous syndicate speculations of the Morgan group.
These same questions I must address to George F. Baker, Mutual Life trustee, and director of the First National Bank, Farmers' Loan & Trust, Guaranty Trust all members of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I address them to Charles S. Brown, Mutual Life trustee, also director of United States Mortgage & Trust Company member of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I address them to Edwin S. Marston, Mutual Life trustee, President of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company member of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
To all those policyholders of the Mutual Life Insurance Company who have written to me from every section of this country, wishing to know the facts which have been just disclosed, I give this advice :
Write to the Board of Trustees of the Mutual Life demanding The resignation of Charles A. Peabody.
The withdrawal immediately of every dollar of their money which has been placed on deposit in the banks and trust companies of the Morgan syndicate for use in the $500,000,000 war loan gamble.
The return to the Morgan syndicate of the $3,000,000 bonds purchased. Any reputable bond house is at all times willing to take back from the purchaser the bonds it has sold, and at the price at which it sold them. If these demands are refused, I shall further advise the policyholders as to their action in regard to the Mutual, for the law protects their interests in the company.
"Many of our policyholders have made inquiry whether we have participated in any of the loans put out by the countries now at war in Enrope ; and doubtless similar inquiries have been made to you.
"No matter how safe as an investment or remunerative such loans may be we feel that an institution engaged in the conservation of human life ought to confine its investments to the ordinary character, and therefore we have not participated in any European loans offered in this country since the beginning of the war"
It is a matter of satisfaction to the Equitable policyholders to learn that the Society will buy none of the war bonds. But it is lamentable, indeed, that no statement is forthcoming from the Equitable officials in response to the inquiries as to the amounts of the surplus funds of the Society that may be on deposit with the banks and trust companies of Wall Street, Morgan's syndicate members, and thus used in the flotation of this $500,000,000 bond deal. It is disquieting that these great life insurance concerns of Wall Street persist in maintaining a singular reticence on this important question.
The Equitable is a proprietary company, the sole property of one man, who bought it on June 13th from Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. This man is General T. Coleman DuPont, whose for- tune comes from the manufacture of powder, of which a rich harvest has been sent to the Allies since the war in Europe began. Three powerful trustees represent Mr. DuPont in the management of the Society three men whom he has so far retained since he bought control of the property.
These trustees elect the directors of the Society, of whom there are, I believe, fifty or so. So it may well be imagined what power is exercised by these three men, who hold in their hands, so to speak, $525,000,000 of the savings of the American people.
The first of these trustees is former Judge Morgan J. O'Brien, a gentleman of probity and integrity, against whom no objections have been raised.
The second trustee of the Equitable is Mr. Lewis Cass Ledyard.
Mr. Ledyard is an old Morgan lawyer. He is director in the United States Trust Company, one of the syndicate participants
in the Morgan bond loan.
He is now (October, 1915) on trial in the Federal Courts of this city, charged with violation of the Sherman Law, in the scandalous New Haven case, he having been a director of that railroad when the Elder Morgan "financed" it.
A trustee of the Equitable, the custodian of such a volume of the public savings, should be, as Caesar's wife, above suspicion. He was a visitor in the Morgan library on that eventful night of September 11th. In the present circumstances Mr. Ledyard is absolutely disqualified from being an Equitable trustee, and should be at once removed.
The third trustee is Joseph H. Choate, who has reached an
extreme age eighty-three years. As a result of education and
association, his tendencies are vehemently English.
Mr. Choate, at the dinner of the Pilgrims to the foreign bankers, held at Sherry's on October 1st, displayed his intense pro-English feeling in the following words: "Lord Reading is going back home with $500,000,000 in his pocket. And now I hope that every man, woman and child in the United States, who has got a hundred dollars, will invest it in this loan, and what 's more, I hope that this is only the first installment.''
And this, despite the fact that Sir George Paish had said that if England kept on expending her resources, she would have to suspend specie payments and tell the world she could no longer pay her debts.
Is it to be supposed in the circumstances that Mr. Choate has any more regard for the savings of the Equitable policyholders than he has for the savings of every man, woman and child in this country?
Mr. Choate is certainly not qualified to remain longer a trustee of the Equitable, a custodian of the public's savings.
Otherwise the situation in the Equitable is similar to that which prevails in the Mutual Life. Many Equitable directors are also directors of the banks and trust companies which are participating in the Morgan loan syndicate.
C. B. Alexander, Equitable Life director, is also director of the Equitable Trust Company member of the Morgan syndicate.
Henry W. de Forest, Equitable Life director, is also director
of the Metropolitan Trust Company, United States Mortgage &
Trust, National Bank of Commerce all members of Morgan's war loan syndicate.
E. B. Thomas, Equitable Life director, is also director of the
United States Mortgage & Trust Co. member of the Morgan
war loan syndicate.
Valentine B. Snyder, Equitable Life director, is also director of the Guaranty Trust Company, National Bank of Commerce both members of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I would advise those policyholders of the Equitable who have written to me, that they address General T. Coleman Du Pont, asking him to remove Messrs. Choate and Ledyard from their trusteeships. They should remember, however, that General Du Pont, as sole owner of the Society, cannot be compelled to execute these removals unless he wishes to do so.
However, the request should also be made upon General Du Pont, that if any of the Equitable millions are on deposit with the banks and trust companies in the Morgan syndicate, they should at once be withdrawn, and in this General Du Pont can be compelled to take action.
THE METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE Co.
JOHN R. HEGEMAN, President. New York,
HENRY CLEWS Born in England, President of the American Peace and Arbitration League.
ROBERT A. C. SMITH Chairman of the board of directors of the White Rock Mineral Water Company. Director of the Holmes Electric Protection Company.
ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON Vice-President of the New York Peace Society, of which Andrew Carnegie is President.
JOHN HARSEN RHOADES Trustee of the? Greenwich Savings Bank.
ROBERT BACON Director of the Steel Trust. Trustee of the Bank for Savings. Former member J. P. Morgan & Co. Once Ambassador to France.
THOMAS W. LAMONT Partner of J. P. Morgan, England's war agent.
BRADLEY MARTIN Educated at Oxford, England. Director Metropolitan Trust Company. Director Security Bank, New York.
LEWIS L. CLARKE Secretary of Morgan's Navy League. Director of the American Locomotive Company.
ALTON B. PARKER Director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Wall Street corporation lawyer. Vice-President of Morgan's National Security League.
PAUL FULLER Member of the firm of Coudert Brothers, counsel for the French government.
OGDEN MILLS REID President New York Tribune Association.
FRANK A. VANDERLIP President National City Bank. Director of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company.
ELBERT H. GARY Chairman of the Steel Trust.
MICHEL OUSTING A subject of the Czar's.
TAKASHI NAKAMUDA America's yellow friend ( ?).
WILLIAM D. GUTHRIE Educated in Paris and England. Wall Street corporation lawyer.
As in the case of the stalking horse of Drexel, Morgan's partner, THE MASK HAS DROPPED, AND OUR COUNTRYMEN KNOW THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE.
Yes, these are the men who toasted the Czar ! To me it seems a dreadful thing to toast the Czar, and yet I am not a Russian Pole. Poor Polish race, poor Polish Jews, victims of the pogroms of Kishinef and Gomel. The Russian Czar, the Romanov, sprung from the loins of a fanatic priest, now the mental slave to an ignorant peasant pope. Is it possible for a citizen of our great Republic to drink health and success to the man whose Cossack's lash their whips on the backs- of Russia's Slavic workmen?
No! For it is we, the Americans, who abrogated our commercial treaty with the Romanov's because they would not respect the passports of American citizens, because we could bear no longer the recital of the outrages of the Black Hundreds.
So what do those hundreds of thousands of Slavic workmen, the Poles, the Polish Jews, who have become our citizens, think of these men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR? "What do the Americans who worked for the abrogation of the treaty with Russia think of the men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR ? What does the man with human sympathy and human love think of the men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR? What do the thirty millions in this country, sprung from German blood, think of the men who TOASTED THE RUSSIAN CZAR ?
To these I shall merely give a hint of the dreadful story that shall yet break upon the world,* of the dreadful deeds performed by England 's ally in East Prussia, of the massacre at Santoppen, where twenty-one innocent men and women were dragged from church and shot by brutal Cossack's ;some of the women burned to death in the village of Dembenofen, of the outrages in Ortelburg and Bischofstein !
* Report of Russian atrocities suppressed by the Money Trust newspapers of New York, and their syndicate services, for fear lest it might awaken sympathy for Germany and defeat the loan for the Allies.
THE CASE OF HENRY CLEWS
Clews, naturalized as an American, I hope, has nevertheless worked for years in the interest of the country of his birth.
Mr. Henry Clews, it was at you, and Englishmen like you, that President Wilson aimed his words, when, on October llth, he said, at a public gathering:
"Every political action, every social action, should have for its object in America at this time to challenge the spirit of America; to ask that every man and woman who thinks first of America should rally to the standards of our life. There have been some among us who have not thought first of America, who have thought to use the might of America in some matter not of America's originative. I would not be afraid upon the test of 'America first' to take a census of all the foreign-born citizens of the United States. I am in a hurry to have an opportunity to have a line-up and let the men who are thinking first of other countries stand on one side Biblically, it should be the left and all those that are for America, first, last, and all the time, on the other side."
Mr. Clews, ponder well these words of our President, of the head of the nation of which you have become an adopted citizen, and to which you have sworn loyalty. I warn you in all seriousness and in the best of good will, to cease at once your English propaganda, which you and your fellows have been inciting for so many years. The days of immunity have passed, and the day of reprisal is in the dawn.
Let us stop to think for a moment. Nearly every newspaper and magazine in this country has been wrong in all its predictions of the European war for the last fourteen months. We Americans have let England steal our brains.
Great events are impending. A tremendous empire has gone thundering down into the abyss of its own making. Another empire is crumbling to pieces and stands with outstretched hands, pleading for help from the races it has wronged. A sham republic is buried under the debacle of its shame. An embryo kingdom has died in still birth.
Let us gird up our loins to meet the new day. Our thoughts are all to be changed, our ideas to be reversed. In the next hundred years the world shall advance more than in the last two thousand.
XI
WHO IS USING OUR LIFE
INSURANCE FUNDS?
The Law ☛☛☛ Insurance Law of New York.
in the ☛☛☛ Chapter 28 of the Consolidated Laws. the Case ☛☛☛ Paragraph 36, Page 50.
OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES NOT TO BE PECUNIARILY INTERESTED IN TRANSACTIONS
No director or officer of an insurance corporation doing business in this State shall receive any money or valuable thing for negotiating, procuring, recommending or aiding in any purchase by or sale of such corporation of any property, or any loan from such corporation, nor be pecuniarly interested, either as principal, co-principal, agent or beneficiary, in any such purchase} sale or loan. . . . Any person violating any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Is it possible that the same group of Wall Street bankers and banking institutions, who were exposed by the Armstrong Committee in 1905, and by the Pujo Committee in 1913, are again fastening their greedy hands on the savings which the people of this country have deposited in the great life insurance companies ?
Yes, it is true. Like birds of prey they still gather about the hoarded savings of the people. Restrictive laws cannot drive them away. State and Congressional investigating committees meet every few years to devise means to safeguard the people's money. But the plotters of Wall Street laugh at such laws. Their corporation lawyers show them the ways to evade all man made enactments. The Money Trust must juggle with the public's hoard. Without it, it is powerless; with it, it is the sinister organization of conspirators that holds government and people under its ruthless thumb.
As this is read by the policyholders of the great life companies, I warn them that, if they value the future and happiness of their wives and children, they must write to their respective congressmen, calling attention to the conditions that are here exposed, and urging the immediate punishment of those men who have betrayed the confidence of the public and defied its laws.
For again Wall Street is gambling with the public savings, and on a scale hitherto unprecedented, FOR IT IS USING THE LIFE INSURANCE MONEY IN DISPOSING OF THE $500,000,000 BONDS WHICH IT HAS FAILED TO UNLOAD ON THE PUBLIC.
These bonds are unsafe as insurance investments. They are issued by the countries of France and England and pay five per cent. Yet in the open market of Wall Street yesterday (October 23rd) these securities sold as low as 97 3/4. What high-class American railroad bond sells so far below par when paying five per cent.?
Five per cent, bonds of the St. Paul are selling at 104 3/4, while the first mortgage fives of England and France are below par.
And the dangerous Anglo-French bonds are selling in Wall Street at this ridiculously low price, while at this very moment 1,000 bond salesmen, personally hired by J. P. Morgan- in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, are going through the- country trying to unload them at 98. Wall Street bond houses and banks have already sent out more than 1,000,000 circulars, unduly flattering the bonds, and it is estimated that more than $500,000 has already been spent in full-page newspaper advertisements for the same purpose, and to prevent the newspapers from exposing this tremendous game.
We publish in this story the replies of these life insurance presidents, BY THEIR WORDS SHALL YE KNOW THEM.
At this point I wish to recall to public memory that, on the night of September 11, 1915, a secret call was issued by J. Pierpont Morgan to the heads, officers and trustees of the life insurance companies to assemble in his private museum, the Morgan Library, situated in the rear of his home on Murray Hill, to meet the foreign banking delegation sent here by England and France to execute a loan of at least a billion dollars for those two warring nations.
How many life insurance officials were present in response to Morgan 's call ? I cannot tell you, for the list of names has been kept secret. But I can tell you that the following men were there that night : Charles A. Peabody, president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company : George F. Baker, trustee of the Mutual Life ; William A. Nash and Francis L. Hine, directors of the Home Life Insurance Company; John R. Hegeman, president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company ; Otto T. Bannard and Albert H. Wiggin, trustees of the Metropolitan Life, and Lewis Cass Ledyard, one of the three trustees of the Equitable Life.
What were these men, the custodians of the people's savings, doing in the library of Morgan that night ? Had they forgotten that the Armstrong Committee in New York, and the Pujo Committee of Congress, only a few years before, devised laws to prevent the banks and trust companies controlled by the Morgan group from handling the life insurance funds?
I shall quote now the response from Mr. Charles A. Peabody to the question of how many millions of his policyholders' savings he has invested in the Anglo-French bonds, and how many millions of such funds are on deposit and in the hands of the members of the Morgan loan syndicate. The Mutual, remember, is not a proprietary company. It is the absolute property of the policyholders, of whom Mr. Peabody is merely the representative. Read carefully his words :
PRESIDENT'S OFFICE
THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE
COMPANY OF NEW YORK
Nassau, Cedar, Liberty and William Streets
New York, October 19, 1915.
Your letter in relation to this company's investing funds in the Anglo-French loan has been duly received.
I beg to say in reply that the company has purchased $3,000,000, par value, of the bonds in question. We regard them as a sound investment and as paying an exceptionally high rate of interest under present conditions. The law and the duties of the trustees of the company require that its investments should be made in their best judgment and in the interests of the whole body of the policyholders. We have policyholders of many nations and races and in due proportion to their holdings of our obligations they are entitled to our best judgment from the point of view of security and interest rates. The interests of any one policyholder, or of any group of policyholders, cannot properly be used to influence the company in its judgment as to investments, either in favor of or against, a particular form of investment, but the interests of the whole body must be duly considered by the company.[I think he is saying something like One mans junk,is another man's gold,and we lend it as such DC]
It is proper that I should say in connection with the bonds to which you refer that this company -on December 31, 1914 (that being the date of our latest annual statement) held among its investments Government Bonds of Austria and Germany to the amount of $5,776,000 ; it also held a real estate mortgage in the City of Berlin amounting to $150,000. These two amounts, together with other investments, constituted the reserves against outstanding policies on the lives of Austrian and German citizens, which at that time amounted to about $21,000,000. All of these investments were deposited with the Governments of Austria and Germany for the protection of their policyholders. In England and France we had at the same time outstanding policies on the lives of English and French citizens amounting to about $95,000,000, the reserves on which, held by us, amounted to about $37,500,000. Of this amount we held English Government Bonds of the par value of $150,861, and of French Government Bonds we held none ; so it would appear that the Austrian and German policyholders have already on deposit in their countries the funds which they have contributed to our general assets, while we hold about $37,500,000 contributed by the English and French policyholders over and above any investments in the securities of their respective, nations. I mention this particular phase of the case simply to make clear that there might be a considerable investment made in the Anglo-French Bonds, without there being any undue investment of the company's funds in such securities. Yours very truly,
(Signed) CHARLES A. PEABODY,
President.
I call upon Mr. Charles A. Peabody to resign, and at once, his presidency and trusteeship of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, on the grounds that he is no longer conducting the company in the interests of its policyholders.
This letter of Mr. Peabody has evasion, dis-ingenuousness and insincerity in every line. "We all know there is no question here of the investments made by the Mutual in England, France, Germany and Austria on behalf of its branches there, in compliance with the respective laws of those countries. The question here is raised by American policyholders as to investments in the war bonds of France and England, made in this country, and purchased from a Morgan bank. The $3,000,000 investment in Anglo-French bonds has no relevancy with the compulsory investments made by the foreign branches. Mr. Peabody knows this as well as I.
Another break in sterling exchange has already begun. Will England suspend specie payments? Shall she soon tell the world she is unable to pay her debts? Is this $3,000,000 in Anglo-French bonds then a "sound investment"? Is Mr. Peabody a better judge of this investment than Sir George Paish?
I would say to Mr. Peabody : You, sir, are a director of the following Wall Street financial institutions that are members of the Morgan syndicate in the $500,000,000 Anglo-French war bonds :
Farmers' Loan & Trust Company.
Guaranty Trust Company.
National Bank of Commerce.
These institutions pay great dividends to their director- stockholders in profits derived from their syndicate operations. I would ask Mr. Peabody whether it was in his capacity as director in these banks of the Morgan syndicate that he bought the $3,000,000 bonds for the Mutual Life, of which he is President and trustee ? In that case, I wish to call to his attention the Insurance Law printed at the head of this story :
Chapter 28, Par. 36. "No director or officer of an insurance corporation . . . shall be pecuniarily interested, either as principal, co-principal, agent or beneficiary, in any such sale or loan."
If this is not a violation of the law, it surely is an evasion of the intents and purposes of the law enacted in 1906 by the Legislature of New York.
The Morgan syndicate buys its Anglo-French bonds for 96 and sells them to the insurance companies at 98. It makes a huge profit. Before the Law of 1906 was enacted, the Mutual could have been a member of the syndicate and have obtained its bonds at 96. But Paragraph 100 of the new Law prevents the Mutual from syndicate participation's . Therefore, the law, instead of having benefited the policyholders of the Mutual, merely serves the purpose of giving greater profits to the banking group of Wall Street.
Mr. Peabody, to whom did the two per cent, profit go when the Mutual bought those $3,000,000 bonds? To the banks of the Morgan syndicate?
Referring back to Mr. Peabody 's letter, we see that at the request of one of the Mutual policyholders, who is clearly entitled to learn what Mr. Peabody is doing with the policyholders' money, the President ABSOLUTELY IGNORES THE MAIN QUERY HOW MANY MILLIONS HAVE YOU PLACED ON DEPOSIT WITH THE BANKS THAT ARE MEMBERS OF THE MORGAN SYNDICATE ?
Why does Mr. Peabody refuse to answer this question? On September 15, 1905; officials of the Mutual Life testified before the Armstrong Committee that the Mutual kept on deposit for two years with the National Bank of Commerce the enormous sum of $7,000,000, and kept still more millions on deposit with the First National Bank, Merchants' Exchange National Bank, Guaranty Trust Company, United States Mortgage & Trust Company, Central Trust Company, and Bank of Montreal.
The policyholders of the Mutual Life are entitled to know how much of their money is in the hands of the directors of those companies which are members of the Morgan syndicate, and being used for the purposes of the Morgan gamble in the war bonds. This question shall be answered, sooner or later. The money of life insurance companies cannot be imperiled in the hazardous syndicate speculations of the Morgan group.
These same questions I must address to George F. Baker, Mutual Life trustee, and director of the First National Bank, Farmers' Loan & Trust, Guaranty Trust all members of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I address them to Charles S. Brown, Mutual Life trustee, also director of United States Mortgage & Trust Company member of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I address them to Edwin S. Marston, Mutual Life trustee, President of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company member of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
To all those policyholders of the Mutual Life Insurance Company who have written to me from every section of this country, wishing to know the facts which have been just disclosed, I give this advice :
Write to the Board of Trustees of the Mutual Life demanding The resignation of Charles A. Peabody.
The withdrawal immediately of every dollar of their money which has been placed on deposit in the banks and trust companies of the Morgan syndicate for use in the $500,000,000 war loan gamble.
The return to the Morgan syndicate of the $3,000,000 bonds purchased. Any reputable bond house is at all times willing to take back from the purchaser the bonds it has sold, and at the price at which it sold them. If these demands are refused, I shall further advise the policyholders as to their action in regard to the Mutual, for the law protects their interests in the company.
THE CASE OF THE EQUITABLE
LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY
Statement sent to the managerial staff of the Society by Mr.
John B. Lunger, First Vice-President : "Many of our policyholders have made inquiry whether we have participated in any of the loans put out by the countries now at war in Enrope ; and doubtless similar inquiries have been made to you.
"No matter how safe as an investment or remunerative such loans may be we feel that an institution engaged in the conservation of human life ought to confine its investments to the ordinary character, and therefore we have not participated in any European loans offered in this country since the beginning of the war"
It is a matter of satisfaction to the Equitable policyholders to learn that the Society will buy none of the war bonds. But it is lamentable, indeed, that no statement is forthcoming from the Equitable officials in response to the inquiries as to the amounts of the surplus funds of the Society that may be on deposit with the banks and trust companies of Wall Street, Morgan's syndicate members, and thus used in the flotation of this $500,000,000 bond deal. It is disquieting that these great life insurance concerns of Wall Street persist in maintaining a singular reticence on this important question.
The Equitable is a proprietary company, the sole property of one man, who bought it on June 13th from Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. This man is General T. Coleman DuPont, whose for- tune comes from the manufacture of powder, of which a rich harvest has been sent to the Allies since the war in Europe began. Three powerful trustees represent Mr. DuPont in the management of the Society three men whom he has so far retained since he bought control of the property.
These trustees elect the directors of the Society, of whom there are, I believe, fifty or so. So it may well be imagined what power is exercised by these three men, who hold in their hands, so to speak, $525,000,000 of the savings of the American people.
He is now (October, 1915) on trial in the Federal Courts of this city, charged with violation of the Sherman Law, in the scandalous New Haven case, he having been a director of that railroad when the Elder Morgan "financed" it.
A trustee of the Equitable, the custodian of such a volume of the public savings, should be, as Caesar's wife, above suspicion. He was a visitor in the Morgan library on that eventful night of September 11th. In the present circumstances Mr. Ledyard is absolutely disqualified from being an Equitable trustee, and should be at once removed.
Mr. Choate, at the dinner of the Pilgrims to the foreign bankers, held at Sherry's on October 1st, displayed his intense pro-English feeling in the following words: "Lord Reading is going back home with $500,000,000 in his pocket. And now I hope that every man, woman and child in the United States, who has got a hundred dollars, will invest it in this loan, and what 's more, I hope that this is only the first installment.''
And this, despite the fact that Sir George Paish had said that if England kept on expending her resources, she would have to suspend specie payments and tell the world she could no longer pay her debts.
Is it to be supposed in the circumstances that Mr. Choate has any more regard for the savings of the Equitable policyholders than he has for the savings of every man, woman and child in this country?
Mr. Choate is certainly not qualified to remain longer a trustee of the Equitable, a custodian of the public's savings.
Otherwise the situation in the Equitable is similar to that which prevails in the Mutual Life. Many Equitable directors are also directors of the banks and trust companies which are participating in the Morgan loan syndicate.
Valentine B. Snyder, Equitable Life director, is also director of the Guaranty Trust Company, National Bank of Commerce both members of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I would advise those policyholders of the Equitable who have written to me, that they address General T. Coleman Du Pont, asking him to remove Messrs. Choate and Ledyard from their trusteeships. They should remember, however, that General Du Pont, as sole owner of the Society, cannot be compelled to execute these removals unless he wishes to do so.
However, the request should also be made upon General Du Pont, that if any of the Equitable millions are on deposit with the banks and trust companies in the Morgan syndicate, they should at once be withdrawn, and in this General Du Pont can be compelled to take action.
THE CASE OF THE METROPOLITAN LIFE
We are in receipt of the following communication from Mr.
John R. Hegeman, President of the Metropolitan Life: THE METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE Co.
JOHN R. HEGEMAN, President. New York,
October 18, 1915.
Dear Sir: Replying to your favor of the 16th inst. This
Company is prohibited by the laws of this State from investing
in securities in countries in which it does not do business. It does not do business in Great Britain or on the Continent of Europe. Yours truly,
(Signed) JOHN R. HEGEMAN, President.
We see that Mr. Hegeman also ignores completely the question
whether the company which he is the proprietor has on
deposit with the banking institutions of the Morgan underwriting
syndicate any of the millions which his policyholders have en- trusted to his care. This question, so vital to them, must be
answered; all the more since, as we have seen, Mr. Hegeman
was one of those who went to the Morgan library on the night
of September 11th.
Conditions in the Metropolitan Life also resemble those in the Mutual and Equitable companies. Many of the trustees are
also officers or directors of the banks and trust companies making
up the syndicate underwriters to the Morgan loan.
Haley Fiske, Vice-President of the Metropolitan, is also trustee
of the Metropolitan Trust Company member of the Morgan
syndicate.
Robert W. de Forest, director of the Metropolitan Life, is also director of the New York Trust Company member of the Morgan
syndicate.
Otto T. Bannard, Metropolitan Life director, is also President
of the New York Trust Company member of the Morgan syndicate.
Albert H. Wiggin, Metropolitan director, is also President of
the Chase National Bank, director Bankers ' Trust, director
Guaranty Trust, director National Bank of Commerce all members
of the Morgan war loan syndicate.
I would advise the policyholders of the Metropolitan Life to address Mr. Hegeman on this question, so important to them,
whether funds of the Metropolitan are on deposit with any of the Morgan syndicate banks, of which so many of his directors are officers and directors.
THE CASE OF THE NEW YORK LIFE
We publish the following reply from the Second Vice-President
of the New York Life :
NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
346 & 348 BROADWAY, NEW YORK
Office of Second Vice-President
October 19, 1915.
Dear Sir : We are in receipt of your 'communication of the
16th instant.
The matter to which you refer has never been presented to our Finance Committee. The policy of this Company has always
been to invest only enough in foreign securities to maintain our
reserve requirements in foreign countries according to law. We
have no reason to believe that the investment policy of the Company
in this respect will be changed by our Finance Committee.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) JOHN C. McCALL,
Second Vice-President.
The reply of Mr. McCall can scarcely be regarded as satisfactory, since he also completely ignores the query whether his company has its surplus funds on deposit with the Morgan syndicate
underwriters of the $500,000,000 to the Allies. Conditions
in this company also resemble those of the Mutual, Equitable and
Metropolitan Life companies. Directors of the company are also directors of the banks and trust companies in the Morgan syndicate.
John
G. Milburn, New York Life director, is also director in the National Park Bank member of the Morgan syndicate.
A. Barton Hepburn, New York Life, director, is also Chairman
Chase National Bank, director Bankers * Trust Company,
director First National Bank all members of the Morgan war
loan syndicate.
I must advise the policyholders of the New York Life to insist upon a definite reply to the question whether the funds are being
held on deposit in any of the Morgan syndicate banks, where they
would undoubtedly be used for the purposes of the $500,000,000
loan. The New York Life is a mutual company, and its policyholders
are entitled by law to know what the officers, their employees,
are doing with their savings and surplus.
THE PRUDENTIAL
INSURANCE COMPANY
We are in receipt of the following reply from the Prudential :
FORREST F. DRYDEN, President
THE PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE
COMPANY OF AMERICA
Home Office, Newark, New Jersey
October 11, 1915.
Dear Sir: In answer to your letter of October second, I would say that The Prudential Insurance Company of America
does not now own, and has never held, any securities of any
European country.
The Prudential is forbidden by law to invest in the securities of any country where it is not doing business, and it is not operating in any European country.
I remain,
Very truly yours,
(Signed) FORREST F. DRYDEN,
President.
I wish to reassure the anxieties of the Prudential policy- holders. I REGARD THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY AS SATISFACTORY.
THE PRUDENTIAL HAS NO AFFILIATIONS
WITH THE MORGAN WAR LOAN SYNDICATE.
We are in receipt of the following reply from the Travelers :
THE TRAVELERS'
INSURANCE COMPANY
SYLVESTER C. DUNHAM, President.
Hartford, Conn., October 18, 1915.
The Travelers is a stock company with a capital and surplus
of over $13,000,000, by which its obligations to its policyholders
are abundantly secured, in addition to the legal reserves required
for that purpose. It does not bear the same relation to its policyholders
that is borne by a mutual company, but I do not for
that reason deny the right of policyholders to inquire for and
receive information respecting the company's investment policy,
which has always been extremely conservative as the investments
of a life insurance company should be.
The specific inquiry in yours of the 15th relates to the purchase
of the Anglo-French bonds about to be issued.
The Travelers will not invest in them because it is its well- settled policy to invest its resources in the states and communities
from which it derives its premium income. The Travelers transacts
no foreign business except in Canada, and following the
practice noted, its investments are limited to the United States and Canada. In Canada it makes only such investments as are required by the laws of the Dominion for the maintenance of its reserves for that country. All the rest and the vast majority of
its resources are invested in the United States. It is not necessary to go elsewhere for such securities as the Travelers requires,
which are chiefly state, municipal and corporate bonds and first mortgages on real estate.
'Signed) S. C. DUNHAM,
President.
The courteous reply from Mr. Dunham must be HIGHLY
SATISFACTORY TO HIS COMPANY'S POLICYHOLDERS.THE TRAVELERS HAS NO ALLIANCE WITH THE MORGAN
WAR SYNDICATE.
THE CASE OF THE HOME
LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
We are in receipt of the following telegram :
Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 26.
During cur absence from city we noticed in recent issue that
you have connected Home Life Insurance Company of New York
with foreign war loans. This Company confines its business
solely to United States and its investments to American securities. Under the law, companies which transact no foreign business are prohibited from investing in foreign securities of any nature. Please make this correction, as above publication has been the cause of much annoyance.
W. A. R. BRUEHL AND SON,
General Manager.
I regret personally that this publication has been of annoyance
to Mr. Bruehl, but I have no correction to make. I emphasize and repeat: Messrs. William A. Nash and Francis L. Hine, directors of the Home Life, attended the conference in the
Morgan Library on the night of September llth. Mr. Hine is closely identified with many banks that are syndicate participants
in the Anglo-French loan.
I fear Mr. Bruehl has sent his telegram to the wrong address. He should send it to the President of the Company, and ask him
to issue an unqualified denial that any surplus funds of the Home
Life are on deposit in any of the Morgan banks participating in the Anglo-French loan.
When men and women address me from every section of this country, asking me to advise them in safeguarding their savings
in the life insurance companies, on which they depend as a provision for the future of themselves and their families, I cannot
conscientiously advise them to place confidence in companies
whose managing directors are close associates of J. Pierpont
Morgan in his syndicate operations. What Morgan management
means, we have seen in the New Haven. Such life insurance
companies must clear themselves by unequivocal statements that not a dollar of their policyholders' money is being used for
syndicate participation's in any of the Morgan syndicate banks.
A sentiment, peculiar and distinctive, hedges about the moneys deposited in savings institutions. These sums represent the self-denial of families, thrift, frugality many of the best qualities of human kind. This fact is recognized by the State, which has sought for many years to so safeguard the savings of the public that they should be immune to any of the dangers the human mind could foresee. The State strictly imposes on the officers of such institutions, the mandate to invest their funds only in certain classes of the safest securities. Every few years these laws are revised to enforce greater care in the handling of the funds of savings banks.
These precautions are taken to prevent the use of the public savings by reckless and unscrupulous gamblers. But such is human ingenuity, when whetted by cupidity, that laws fail of their purpose where vast sums of money on public deposit are concerned. So we see that today, again, the Wall Street bankers are burying their arms to the elbows in the funds which thrift and self-denial have accumulated.
It is self-evident that the savings banks have no right to maintain these huge "surplus funds'' The deposit in Wall Street banks of immense sums is merely an evasion of the banking laws. The funds in question should be invested in safe securities as ordered by the banking laws of the State. They should not be permitted to accumulate in the great reckless gambling institutions of Wall Street.
What is being done with them there ? At this very time they are being used to make call loans on the dangerously inflated war stocks ; they are being used in the flotation of the hazardous $500,000,000 loan to the Allies ; they are being used more secretly in individual loans to Russia, France and England.
It is a difficult matter for the public to realize how their safely guarded savings can come into the hands of the great banking group of Wall Street, that has been guilty of the many great financial evils from which this 'country has suffered. In order to gain a clear comprehension of this matter it is necessary to observe the intermediaries in these transactions, the men who act as the connecting links between the savings banks on the one hand, and the syndicate banks and trust companies of the Morgan group on the other.
It seemed a dreadful thing to contemplate that men of reputed standing in New York should be conscienceless enough to use the funds entrusted to their care by hundreds of thousands of families, in Wall Street's speculative gamble "in loans to half- bankrupt foreign countries, to facilitate the sale of war munitions. So the editor of this publication first wrote a letter to the savings banks of New York telling the heads of those institutions of the floods of inquiries that 'had reached this office from depositors who had been made uneasy by the alarming rumors afloat, and asking them if they would not issue statements, whether their funds were being used directly or indirectly in the foreign loans, and whether they had on deposit with the Morgan banking syndicate any of the money of their depositors which, in that case, could be used in the Anglo-French $500,000,000 loan, or the less public loans that are now being made by the syndicate to Russia, France and England in the form of ninety-day acceptances, renewable at stated periods.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your inquiry of October 21st, I beg to advise you that savings banks in the State of New York are, by the Banking Laws of the State, permitted to invest deposits only in securities designated by such laws. The securities referred to by you in your communication are not among them.
We have not inquired of the different banks and trust companies, where we keep on deposit our reserves, whether they have participated in the Anglo-French loan or not. We would not keep our deposit in institutions where we did not have entire confidence in their ability to invest their money safely, and to the best advantage. If we did not have this confidence, we would withdraw our deposits, and if the depositor in any savings bank has not confidence in the management of the institution, he should close his account. Yours truly,
I must confess that when this letter was turned over to me I read it with a feeling of distress at its tone of flippancy. I had heard the many stories now current, of the presidents of savings banks, when approached by depositors who had become worried over the banking situation, refusing to give them any assurances how their savings were being used, and bluntly telling them to withdraw their accounts if they were not satisfied. I had heard in particular the one story of the New York savings bank President, who actually told his inquiring depositors that, if they withdraw their accounts, he would foreclose 5,000 mortgages on the homes of American citizens if they objected to the use of their money in a foreign war loan. These stories seemed incredible to me, for in all my experience in the banking world, I had never encountered their like. In the past days nothing could exceed the courtesy and personal sympathy with which the bank official met his inquiring depositor. I can account for this change that has come over the New York bankers only by the pro-foreign influence that has been infused into the banking world since the advent of the present Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan.
Mr. Roome lightly writes that he does not know whether the banks or trust companies in which he keeps his bank's reserves, have participated in the Anglo-French loan. The reserves in his bank are intended to safeguard the savings of his depositors. Certainly, he, as President, should be keenly alive as to what is being done with such reserves, whether they are being loaned on war stocks, used in the flotation of the Anglo-French bonds, or in the ninety-day advances to the Russian and French governments. I shall here give Mr. Roome the information of which he pleads ignorance, namely, the banks and trust companies of the .Morgan syndicate, engaged'in the transactions I have enumerated above :
LIBERTY NATIONAL BANK
MANHATTAN COMPANY
BANK OF AMERICA MECHANICS ' AND METALS ' NATIONAL BANK
BANK OF NEW YORK
CHEMICAL NATIONAL BANK MERCHANTS ' NATIONAL CHASE NATIONAL BANK
NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
NATIONAL CITY BANK
HANOVER NATIONAL BANK
NATIONAL PARK BANK
IMPORTERS' AND TRADERS' NATIONAL
SEABOARD NATIONAL BANK
UNITED STATES MORTGAGE AND TRUST CO.
IRVING NATIONAL BANK
BANKERS' TRUST COMPANY
FARMERS' LOAN & TRUST COMPANY
EQUITABLE TRUST COMPANY
GUARANTY TRUST COMPANY
METROPOLITAN TRUST COMPANY
TITLE GUARANTEE AND TRUST COMPANY
UNION TRUST COMPANY
UNITED STATES TRUST COMPANY
CENTRAL TRUST COMPANY
Mr. Roome, if you have your reserves on deposit in any of the above institutions, you may now know that they are being used in the Morgan syndicate flotations and the loans to the warring nations of Europe. I do not know how close a study you make of banking matters, but, in view of your expressed blind confidence in the institutions in which you keep your reserves, I would call to your attention the statement only recently made by Sir George Paish, the financial authority of the British Empire that, if Great Britain keeps on spending money as she is doing, she may have to suspend specie payments and tell the world she is unable to pay her debts. I would also call your attention to the statement more recently made by Lord Charles Beresford, that England is headed toward bankruptcy. In view of these warnings by Englishmen of prominence, Mr. Roome, do you not think it would perhaps be wise if you were to inquire what is being done with your reserves? You say your depositors should have confidence in your management, or close their accounts. But surely, some assurances are due them. Must they have " blind " confidence in your management?
Many of your depositors have addressed inquiries to me concerning the attitude your bank has adopted toward loans to foreign and warring nations. I feel a deep responsibility in answering the query of a man or woman regarding the safety of his or her life 's savings. Conscientiously I cannot advise such inquirers to have blind confidence in any bank official who refuses to tell them what he is doing with their money, and who tells them that if they don't trust him they should remove their accounts.
This is a case, not for me, but for the Superintendent of the State Banking Department.
My dear Sir :
In reply to your letter of inquiry of October 21st I would say that no savings bank in the State of New York is authorized by law to invest in either the Anglo-French loan mentioned by you or in any foreign loan.
I would also say, in answer to your second question, that any depositor calling here and producing his bank-book will undoubtedly be satisfied with our replies to his inquiries.
The Greenwich Savings Bank bears one of the most honored names in New York City's banking world. It has been noted in the past as a model of sound and conservative management. Mr. Quinlan's reply is kindly and courteous, but it is a matter of regret that he will not respond publicly to the second query addressed to him on behalf of his depositors. Savings bank depositors have informed me of the rebuffs they have met, in making personal inquiries at institutions on these questions. They are kept waiting in outer offices, in fruitless efforts to see the bank's officials, or else they are roundly scolded by the bank's paying tellers. Since Mr. Quinlan will not publicly reply to the question whether the Greenwich is keeping its surplus funds on deposit in the Morgan banking institutions participating in loans to Russia, France and England, I must lay the following information before my inquirers :
LOWELL LINCOLN, director in the Mechanics & Metals National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
B. AYMAR SANDS, director in the New York Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
BRADISH JOHNSON, director in the Equitable Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
GATES W. MCGARRAGH, President of the Mechanics & Metals National Bank; director in the Bankers' Trust, Guaranty Trust: All Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
WILLIAM WOODWARD, President of the Hanover National Bank; director in the Union Trust Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
ARTHUR ISELIN, director in the Chemical National Bank; member of A. Iselin dr Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
JOHN HARSEN RHOADES, member of Rhoades & Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
E. S. MARSTON, President of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
ALBERT H. WIGGIN, President of the Chase National Bank; director in the Bankers' Trust Company, Guaranty Trust Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
In view of the fact that we have here nine trustees of the Greenwich Savings Bank, who are identified so prominently with seventeen Wall Street banking institutions, all of which are participating, under J. Pierpont Morgan's leadership, in the Anglo/French loan syndicate, is it not a reasonable question to have answered, whether any of the reserves are kept on deposit with the above-named banking institutions?
Personally, I think that a statement on this matter should be forthcoming promptly. All the more so in consideration of the following facts. Mr. John Harsen Rhoades, one of the trustees of the Greenwich, on September 17th published an open letter in the New York Times, addressed to Dr. Charles J. Hexamer, President of the National German-American Alliance, in which he said :
"While Americans cannot but be jealous of England's prestige in her control of the seas, I am bound to say that I am quite satisfied with the way in which she has exercised that control. As a banker and a citizen, I see no reason why we should not loan the Allies such money as they desire, without collateral, for ten years at five per cent.''
I was astounded when I read that statement, coming from Mr. Rhoades, who has occupied so honorable a position in the banking world, and whose name has been so strongly identified with the Greenwich Savings Bank for many years. I cannot understand how Mr. Rhoades, as a banker and a citizen, can be satisfied with the way in which England has exercised her control of the seas. In that he stamps with his approval the confiscation of $15,000,000 in American meat cargoes, in violation of the Declaration of London. He lends his approval to the tremendous financial and industrial losses which England has brought upon the South by her violations of international law in seeking to destroy American commerce. I cannot conceive how an American citizen can stand with foreigners against his own countrymen. I cannot conceive how a conservative banker can be willing to loan the Allies all the money they desire without collateral.
When I read statements such as these from one of my countrymen, I do not believe that he is any longer qualified to be entrusted with the savings of the American people.
We have seen that several of the trustees of the Greenwich Savings Bank are directors of the Guaranty Trust Company. In this connection, I quote the following lines from the financial page of the New York Times, of October 29th :
Negotiations by France, Great Britain and Russia for separate credits are proceeding, though in the case of France and Great Britain they are being held up pending action on the report carried home by the Anglo-French Commission. France is to get $15,000,000 through 90-day acceptances, for which she will pay a discount rate of 5 per cent., and 1/2 per cent, for acceptance or commission. These bills will be renewable for a year, making the total commissions paid 2 per cent, and the return to the banking syndicate which will advance the money, 7 per cent. Russia has obtained $5,000,000 from the Guaranty Trust Company on 90-day bills, which are renewable five times, making their possible life a year and a half. It was understood in financial circles that this money cost the Russian Government well over 7 per cent. Bond dealers are of the opinion that when the Anglo/French loan is distributed, the investment market will take a large amount of Russian bonds on a good interest basis.
We see here that the syndicate members are making huge profits, "well over 7 per cent'' in the case of Russia, which is paying bankrupt's toll. The bankers who make these profits are not risking their own money. They are risking in these foreign ventures THE MONEY PLACED ON DEPOSIT WITH THEIR INSTITUTIONS.
How many millions of savings bank deposits are being used in these great gambling transactions
New York, N. Y., October 21st, 1915.
Dear Sir :
Replying to your favor of the 20th inst., I would say that this bank has not participated either directly or indirectly in the Anglo-French loan. Yours very truly,
Mr. Kinnan's letter is one of the few satisfactory replies received, since it undoubtedly implies that none of the reserves of the Union Dime are being used in the Morgan banks of Wall Street for their syndicate operations.
Dear Sir:
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th and to say that I should regret it exceedingly if any of the depositors of this bank were apprehensive as to the safety of their money or the soundness of the institution. There is absolutely no occasion for any such fear. Any such of our depositors who may make inquiries of you kindly refer to the bank, which is the place for them to seek and get all the information to which all depositors are entitled. Very truly yours,
Mr. Trimble's sympathetic letter is deeply appreciated. We
have received, perhaps, more inquiries from depositors of the
Bank of Savings than from any other savings institution in
New York City. I would therefore advise them to take advantage
of the generous offer of the President, and place before him
the following facts :
AUGUST BELMONT, director in the National Park Bank; member
of August Belmont & Company: Members of the Morgan
Syndicate.
C. S. BROWN, director in the Title Guarantee & Trust Company, United States Mortgage & Trust: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
HENRY W. DE FOREST, director in the Metropolitan Trust Company, National Bank of Commerce, United States Trust Company: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
CHARLES A. PEABODY, director in the Farmers' Loan and Trust, Guaranty Trust, National Bank of Commerce: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
JAMES S. ALEXANDER, President of the National Bank of Commerce, director in the Bankers' Trust Company: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
GEORGE F. BAKER, JR., Vice-President and director in the First National Bank, director in the Chase National Bank: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
I reproduce these interlocking directorates only for the guidance of the depositors of the Bank for Savings, and in full confidence that the President of the savings bank will give them the assurance that no funds of his institution are on deposit in the Morgan syndicate institutions mentioned.
Dear Sir :
Your communication of the 20th instant just received, and in reply we beg to say that this institution is purely a savings bank and under the law we are prohibited from investing in the character of securities you mention.
It is a matter of regret that Mr. Ramsay was not more explicit in his statement, and did not give the assurance that any of the reserves of his institution were being used by the Wall Street group in their syndicate operations. But, with one or two doubtful exceptions, there is not much evidence that any of the trustees are identified with the Morgan syndicate operations.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your favor of the 21st inst. I beg to advise you that the bonds you mention are not legal investments for New York savings banks.
Mr. Bird ignores the question whether any funds of his institution are on deposit with the Morgan banks of Wall Street. In the circumstances I must advice inquirers that I can give them no assurances in this respect with regard to this institution. However, it is only just to call attention to the fact that the composition of the Board of Trustees gives no evidence of affiliation with the Morgan banks.
GERMAN SAVINGS BANK FOURTEENTH STREET GERMAN SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN
These are the only savings banks in New York (Manhattan) that have made public frank statements that they will not permit the use of any of their reserve funds by the syndicate banks of Wall Street, in syndicate operations in behalf of foreign loans to the warring countries of Europe.
It is a matter of surprise to this publication that many of the heads of the leading savings bank institutions of New York have declined to make any reply to the queries addressed to them on behalf of their depositors. Among these we note :
MR. STEPHEN BAKER, director in the Bankers' Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
ROBERT M. GALLAWAY, President of the Merchants' National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
WILLIAM A. NASH, trustee of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
Another institution regarding which we have had many queries from our readers is the
PRESIDENT DANIEL BARNES, director in the Mechanics' and Metals' National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
P. A. S. FRANKLIN, director in the American Exchange National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
EDWARD W. SHELDON, President of the United States Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
SAMUEL SLOAN, director in the Fanners' Loan and Trust Company, National City Bank: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
EVERIT MACY, director in the Mechanics' and Metals' National Bank, trustee in the Union Trust Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
It cannot be too strongly impressed upon these custodians of the public savings that they do not own the money which their depositors place in their institutions. State and Federal laws only too clearly show that they merely represent their depositors, whose interests they must guard, and to whom they must render strict accounting as to the handling of their money.
We counsel patience to those who have written letters to us regarding these savings banks in which they have deposited their funds. We advise them not to withdraw their deposits, at least not before interest dates, since the banks would only reap the benefit of such steps. We promise them that we shall not let this matter rest, that in the end these gentlemen shall be compelled to acknowledge to their depositors' just what disposition they are making of the savings the public has confided to their care.
XII
IS WALL STREET USING SAVINGS BANK DEPOSITS IX
SECRET LOANS TO RUSSIA, FRANCE AND ENGLAND?
Probably nothing has so accentuated the growing distrust of Wall Street throughout the country as the recent revelations that
many of the great savings banks of New York City were again
keeping vast sums of their "surplus funds" on deposit with the Morgan banks and trust companies, whose officers were using
these tremendous accumulations of the people 's savings in widespread
syndicate operations. A sentiment, peculiar and distinctive, hedges about the moneys deposited in savings institutions. These sums represent the self-denial of families, thrift, frugality many of the best qualities of human kind. This fact is recognized by the State, which has sought for many years to so safeguard the savings of the public that they should be immune to any of the dangers the human mind could foresee. The State strictly imposes on the officers of such institutions, the mandate to invest their funds only in certain classes of the safest securities. Every few years these laws are revised to enforce greater care in the handling of the funds of savings banks.
These precautions are taken to prevent the use of the public savings by reckless and unscrupulous gamblers. But such is human ingenuity, when whetted by cupidity, that laws fail of their purpose where vast sums of money on public deposit are concerned. So we see that today, again, the Wall Street bankers are burying their arms to the elbows in the funds which thrift and self-denial have accumulated.
It is self-evident that the savings banks have no right to maintain these huge "surplus funds'' The deposit in Wall Street banks of immense sums is merely an evasion of the banking laws. The funds in question should be invested in safe securities as ordered by the banking laws of the State. They should not be permitted to accumulate in the great reckless gambling institutions of Wall Street.
What is being done with them there ? At this very time they are being used to make call loans on the dangerously inflated war stocks ; they are being used in the flotation of the hazardous $500,000,000 loan to the Allies ; they are being used more secretly in individual loans to Russia, France and England.
It is a difficult matter for the public to realize how their safely guarded savings can come into the hands of the great banking group of Wall Street, that has been guilty of the many great financial evils from which this 'country has suffered. In order to gain a clear comprehension of this matter it is necessary to observe the intermediaries in these transactions, the men who act as the connecting links between the savings banks on the one hand, and the syndicate banks and trust companies of the Morgan group on the other.
It seemed a dreadful thing to contemplate that men of reputed standing in New York should be conscienceless enough to use the funds entrusted to their care by hundreds of thousands of families, in Wall Street's speculative gamble "in loans to half- bankrupt foreign countries, to facilitate the sale of war munitions. So the editor of this publication first wrote a letter to the savings banks of New York telling the heads of those institutions of the floods of inquiries that 'had reached this office from depositors who had been made uneasy by the alarming rumors afloat, and asking them if they would not issue statements, whether their funds were being used directly or indirectly in the foreign loans, and whether they had on deposit with the Morgan banking syndicate any of the money of their depositors which, in that case, could be used in the Anglo-French $500,000,000 loan, or the less public loans that are now being made by the syndicate to Russia, France and England in the form of ninety-day acceptances, renewable at stated periods.
THE CASE OF THE
EXCELSIOR SAVINGS BANK
One of the first letters received was the following :
EXCELSIOR SAVINGS BANK
Corner 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue
New York, Oct. 22, 1915.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your inquiry of October 21st, I beg to advise you that savings banks in the State of New York are, by the Banking Laws of the State, permitted to invest deposits only in securities designated by such laws. The securities referred to by you in your communication are not among them.
We have not inquired of the different banks and trust companies, where we keep on deposit our reserves, whether they have participated in the Anglo-French loan or not. We would not keep our deposit in institutions where we did not have entire confidence in their ability to invest their money safely, and to the best advantage. If we did not have this confidence, we would withdraw our deposits, and if the depositor in any savings bank has not confidence in the management of the institution, he should close his account. Yours truly,
(Signed) WILLIAM J. ROOME,
President.
I must confess that when this letter was turned over to me I read it with a feeling of distress at its tone of flippancy. I had heard the many stories now current, of the presidents of savings banks, when approached by depositors who had become worried over the banking situation, refusing to give them any assurances how their savings were being used, and bluntly telling them to withdraw their accounts if they were not satisfied. I had heard in particular the one story of the New York savings bank President, who actually told his inquiring depositors that, if they withdraw their accounts, he would foreclose 5,000 mortgages on the homes of American citizens if they objected to the use of their money in a foreign war loan. These stories seemed incredible to me, for in all my experience in the banking world, I had never encountered their like. In the past days nothing could exceed the courtesy and personal sympathy with which the bank official met his inquiring depositor. I can account for this change that has come over the New York bankers only by the pro-foreign influence that has been infused into the banking world since the advent of the present Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan.
Mr. Roome lightly writes that he does not know whether the banks or trust companies in which he keeps his bank's reserves, have participated in the Anglo-French loan. The reserves in his bank are intended to safeguard the savings of his depositors. Certainly, he, as President, should be keenly alive as to what is being done with such reserves, whether they are being loaned on war stocks, used in the flotation of the Anglo-French bonds, or in the ninety-day advances to the Russian and French governments. I shall here give Mr. Roome the information of which he pleads ignorance, namely, the banks and trust companies of the .Morgan syndicate, engaged'in the transactions I have enumerated above :
THE MORGAN SYNDICATE
AMERICAN EXCHANGE NATIONAL LIBERTY NATIONAL BANK
MANHATTAN COMPANY
BANK OF AMERICA MECHANICS ' AND METALS ' NATIONAL BANK
BANK OF NEW YORK
CHEMICAL NATIONAL BANK MERCHANTS ' NATIONAL CHASE NATIONAL BANK
NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
NATIONAL CITY BANK
HANOVER NATIONAL BANK
NATIONAL PARK BANK
IMPORTERS' AND TRADERS' NATIONAL
SEABOARD NATIONAL BANK
UNITED STATES MORTGAGE AND TRUST CO.
IRVING NATIONAL BANK
BANKERS' TRUST COMPANY
FARMERS' LOAN & TRUST COMPANY
EQUITABLE TRUST COMPANY
GUARANTY TRUST COMPANY
METROPOLITAN TRUST COMPANY
TITLE GUARANTEE AND TRUST COMPANY
UNION TRUST COMPANY
UNITED STATES TRUST COMPANY
CENTRAL TRUST COMPANY
Mr. Roome, if you have your reserves on deposit in any of the above institutions, you may now know that they are being used in the Morgan syndicate flotations and the loans to the warring nations of Europe. I do not know how close a study you make of banking matters, but, in view of your expressed blind confidence in the institutions in which you keep your reserves, I would call to your attention the statement only recently made by Sir George Paish, the financial authority of the British Empire that, if Great Britain keeps on spending money as she is doing, she may have to suspend specie payments and tell the world she is unable to pay her debts. I would also call your attention to the statement more recently made by Lord Charles Beresford, that England is headed toward bankruptcy. In view of these warnings by Englishmen of prominence, Mr. Roome, do you not think it would perhaps be wise if you were to inquire what is being done with your reserves? You say your depositors should have confidence in your management, or close their accounts. But surely, some assurances are due them. Must they have " blind " confidence in your management?
Many of your depositors have addressed inquiries to me concerning the attitude your bank has adopted toward loans to foreign and warring nations. I feel a deep responsibility in answering the query of a man or woman regarding the safety of his or her life 's savings. Conscientiously I cannot advise such inquirers to have blind confidence in any bank official who refuses to tell them what he is doing with their money, and who tells them that if they don't trust him they should remove their accounts.
This is a case, not for me, but for the Superintendent of the State Banking Department.
THE CASE OF THE
GREENWICH SAVINGS BANK
We shall next consider the following letter from the head of the Greenwich Savings Bank :
THE GREENWICH SAVINGS BANK
(Incorporated 1833)
246 and 248 Sixth Avenue, Borough of Manhattan
New York, Oct. 22, 1915.
My dear Sir :
In reply to your letter of inquiry of October 21st I would say that no savings bank in the State of New York is authorized by law to invest in either the Anglo-French loan mentioned by you or in any foreign loan.
I would also say, in answer to your second question, that any depositor calling here and producing his bank-book will undoubtedly be satisfied with our replies to his inquiries.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) JAMES QUINLAN,
President.
The Greenwich Savings Bank bears one of the most honored names in New York City's banking world. It has been noted in the past as a model of sound and conservative management. Mr. Quinlan's reply is kindly and courteous, but it is a matter of regret that he will not respond publicly to the second query addressed to him on behalf of his depositors. Savings bank depositors have informed me of the rebuffs they have met, in making personal inquiries at institutions on these questions. They are kept waiting in outer offices, in fruitless efforts to see the bank's officials, or else they are roundly scolded by the bank's paying tellers. Since Mr. Quinlan will not publicly reply to the question whether the Greenwich is keeping its surplus funds on deposit in the Morgan banking institutions participating in loans to Russia, France and England, I must lay the following information before my inquirers :
TRUSTEES OP THE
GREENWICH SAVINGS BANK
LOWELL LINCOLN, director in the Mechanics & Metals National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
B. AYMAR SANDS, director in the New York Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
BRADISH JOHNSON, director in the Equitable Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
GATES W. MCGARRAGH, President of the Mechanics & Metals National Bank; director in the Bankers' Trust, Guaranty Trust: All Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
WILLIAM WOODWARD, President of the Hanover National Bank; director in the Union Trust Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
ARTHUR ISELIN, director in the Chemical National Bank; member of A. Iselin dr Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
JOHN HARSEN RHOADES, member of Rhoades & Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
E. S. MARSTON, President of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
ALBERT H. WIGGIN, President of the Chase National Bank; director in the Bankers' Trust Company, Guaranty Trust Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
In view of the fact that we have here nine trustees of the Greenwich Savings Bank, who are identified so prominently with seventeen Wall Street banking institutions, all of which are participating, under J. Pierpont Morgan's leadership, in the Anglo/French loan syndicate, is it not a reasonable question to have answered, whether any of the reserves are kept on deposit with the above-named banking institutions?
Personally, I think that a statement on this matter should be forthcoming promptly. All the more so in consideration of the following facts. Mr. John Harsen Rhoades, one of the trustees of the Greenwich, on September 17th published an open letter in the New York Times, addressed to Dr. Charles J. Hexamer, President of the National German-American Alliance, in which he said :
"While Americans cannot but be jealous of England's prestige in her control of the seas, I am bound to say that I am quite satisfied with the way in which she has exercised that control. As a banker and a citizen, I see no reason why we should not loan the Allies such money as they desire, without collateral, for ten years at five per cent.''
I was astounded when I read that statement, coming from Mr. Rhoades, who has occupied so honorable a position in the banking world, and whose name has been so strongly identified with the Greenwich Savings Bank for many years. I cannot understand how Mr. Rhoades, as a banker and a citizen, can be satisfied with the way in which England has exercised her control of the seas. In that he stamps with his approval the confiscation of $15,000,000 in American meat cargoes, in violation of the Declaration of London. He lends his approval to the tremendous financial and industrial losses which England has brought upon the South by her violations of international law in seeking to destroy American commerce. I cannot conceive how an American citizen can stand with foreigners against his own countrymen. I cannot conceive how a conservative banker can be willing to loan the Allies all the money they desire without collateral.
When I read statements such as these from one of my countrymen, I do not believe that he is any longer qualified to be entrusted with the savings of the American people.
We have seen that several of the trustees of the Greenwich Savings Bank are directors of the Guaranty Trust Company. In this connection, I quote the following lines from the financial page of the New York Times, of October 29th :
Negotiations by France, Great Britain and Russia for separate credits are proceeding, though in the case of France and Great Britain they are being held up pending action on the report carried home by the Anglo-French Commission. France is to get $15,000,000 through 90-day acceptances, for which she will pay a discount rate of 5 per cent., and 1/2 per cent, for acceptance or commission. These bills will be renewable for a year, making the total commissions paid 2 per cent, and the return to the banking syndicate which will advance the money, 7 per cent. Russia has obtained $5,000,000 from the Guaranty Trust Company on 90-day bills, which are renewable five times, making their possible life a year and a half. It was understood in financial circles that this money cost the Russian Government well over 7 per cent. Bond dealers are of the opinion that when the Anglo/French loan is distributed, the investment market will take a large amount of Russian bonds on a good interest basis.
We see here that the syndicate members are making huge profits, "well over 7 per cent'' in the case of Russia, which is paying bankrupt's toll. The bankers who make these profits are not risking their own money. They are risking in these foreign ventures THE MONEY PLACED ON DEPOSIT WITH THEIR INSTITUTIONS.
How many millions of savings bank deposits are being used in these great gambling transactions
THE CASE OF THE UNION
DIME SAVINGS BANK
I next submit the following letter:
UNION DIME SAVINGS BANK,
701 Sixth Avenue, Corner 40th Street
New York, N. Y., October 21st, 1915.
Dear Sir :
Replying to your favor of the 20th inst., I would say that this bank has not participated either directly or indirectly in the Anglo-French loan. Yours very truly,
(Signed) A. P. KINNAN, President.
Mr. Kinnan's letter is one of the few satisfactory replies received, since it undoubtedly implies that none of the reserves of the Union Dime are being used in the Morgan banks of Wall Street for their syndicate operations.
THE CASE OF THE BANK FOR SAVINGS
THE BANK FOR SAVINGS
In the City of New York,
280 Fourth Avenue
October 22, 1915.
Dear Sir:
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th and to say that I should regret it exceedingly if any of the depositors of this bank were apprehensive as to the safety of their money or the soundness of the institution. There is absolutely no occasion for any such fear. Any such of our depositors who may make inquiries of you kindly refer to the bank, which is the place for them to seek and get all the information to which all depositors are entitled. Very truly yours,
(Signed)
WALTER TRIMBLE, President.
TRUSTEES OF THE BANK FOR SAVINGS
C. S. BROWN, director in the Title Guarantee & Trust Company, United States Mortgage & Trust: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
HENRY W. DE FOREST, director in the Metropolitan Trust Company, National Bank of Commerce, United States Trust Company: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
CHARLES A. PEABODY, director in the Farmers' Loan and Trust, Guaranty Trust, National Bank of Commerce: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
JAMES S. ALEXANDER, President of the National Bank of Commerce, director in the Bankers' Trust Company: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
GEORGE F. BAKER, JR., Vice-President and director in the First National Bank, director in the Chase National Bank: All members of the Morgan Syndicate.
I reproduce these interlocking directorates only for the guidance of the depositors of the Bank for Savings, and in full confidence that the President of the savings bank will give them the assurance that no funds of his institution are on deposit in the Morgan syndicate institutions mentioned.
THE EAST RIVER
SAVINGS INSTITUTION
THE EAST RIVER SAVINGS INSTITUTION
291-293-295 Broadway
New York, Oct. 21, 1915.
Dear Sir :
Your communication of the 20th instant just received, and in reply we beg to say that this institution is purely a savings bank and under the law we are prohibited from investing in the character of securities you mention.
Very truly yours,
THE EAST RIVER SAVINGS INSTITUTION.
(Signed) D. S. RAMSAY, President.
It is a matter of regret that Mr. Ramsay was not more explicit in his statement, and did not give the assurance that any of the reserves of his institution were being used by the Wall Street group in their syndicate operations. But, with one or two doubtful exceptions, there is not much evidence that any of the trustees are identified with the Morgan syndicate operations.
THE MANHATTAN
SAVINGS INSTITUTION
THE MANHATTAN SAVINGS INSTITUTION
644 and 646 Broadway, Corner Bleecker Street
New York, October 22, 1915.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your favor of the 21st inst. I beg to advise you that the bonds you mention are not legal investments for New York savings banks.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) JOSEPH BIRD, President.
Mr. Bird ignores the question whether any funds of his institution are on deposit with the Morgan banks of Wall Street. In the circumstances I must advice inquirers that I can give them no assurances in this respect with regard to this institution. However, it is only just to call attention to the fact that the composition of the Board of Trustees gives no evidence of affiliation with the Morgan banks.
GERMAN SAVINGS BANK FOURTEENTH STREET GERMAN SAVINGS BANK, BROOKLYN
These are the only savings banks in New York (Manhattan) that have made public frank statements that they will not permit the use of any of their reserve funds by the syndicate banks of Wall Street, in syndicate operations in behalf of foreign loans to the warring countries of Europe.
It is a matter of surprise to this publication that many of the heads of the leading savings bank institutions of New York have declined to make any reply to the queries addressed to them on behalf of their depositors. Among these we note :
THE BOWERY SAVINGS BANK
In the list of trustees of the Bowery is MR. STEPHEN BAKER, director in the Bankers' Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
ROBERT M. GALLAWAY, President of the Merchants' National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
WILLIAM A. NASH, trustee of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
Another institution regarding which we have had many queries from our readers is the
SEAMAN'S BANK FOR SAVINGS
Among its trustees are PRESIDENT DANIEL BARNES, director in the Mechanics' and Metals' National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
P. A. S. FRANKLIN, director in the American Exchange National Bank: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
EDWARD W. SHELDON, President of the United States Trust Company: Member of the Morgan Syndicate.
SAMUEL SLOAN, director in the Fanners' Loan and Trust Company, National City Bank: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
EVERIT MACY, director in the Mechanics' and Metals' National Bank, trustee in the Union Trust Company: Members of the Morgan Syndicate.
It cannot be too strongly impressed upon these custodians of the public savings that they do not own the money which their depositors place in their institutions. State and Federal laws only too clearly show that they merely represent their depositors, whose interests they must guard, and to whom they must render strict accounting as to the handling of their money.
We counsel patience to those who have written letters to us regarding these savings banks in which they have deposited their funds. We advise them not to withdraw their deposits, at least not before interest dates, since the banks would only reap the benefit of such steps. We promise them that we shall not let this matter rest, that in the end these gentlemen shall be compelled to acknowledge to their depositors' just what disposition they are making of the savings the public has confided to their care.
XIII.
THE GREAT NEWS CONSPIRACY HOW UNSCRUPULOUS
NEWSPAPER OWNERS, AT THE BEHEST
OF WALL STREET, DELIBERATELY DECEIVED
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
A PRAYER IN BROADWAY.
One frosty winter afternoon, it was January 19th, 1904, a small group of persons assembled on the triangle in Forty-second
Street, that separates Broadway from Seventh Avenue. Suddenly
all heads were bared. An elderly man in clerical vestments
began to speak, I think most of us remember his resonant voice.
It was the Rt. Rev. Henry Codman Potter, Bishop of the Protestant
Episcopal Diocese of New York :
"Almighty God, we 'beseech Thee to pour down upon this building and upon all the undertakings for which it has been
erected, Thy divine benediction.
"Do Thou grant to those who are concerned in this enterprise
Thy divine guidance and benediction, so that they may be enabled
to do Thy will and speak Thy truth throughout this city and
nation."
It was the dedication of the Times Building.
It is a peculiar trade, this newspaper business. It shapes the
lives of members of its craft. Few of them ever make much
money, and still fewer ever make a name. "We wash the dirty
linen of the public," as Gaboriau had his detectives say. But
newspaper men have an ideal.
Yes, do not laugh, you who meet and deal with newspaper
men, you who hate them because they have antagonized you ; or you who use them for your own purposes, and laugh at them
in your sleeves. Newspaper men have an ideal. And that ideal
is, to publish the news.
That phrase is a technical term with men of the craft. In
using it, they signify, to publish the truth. "Truth, truth and no lie, though a whole celestial lubberland were the price of apostacy.''
In the old days in New York, we, who toiled at the craft. were very proud of our newspapers. They had their faults,
heaven knows. Many were vulgar, and badly written, so much
so as the New York World is to this day, but none of them was
venal.
Then Mr. Adolph S. Ochs came here from some southern
town and took hold of a moribund daily. Gifted with industry
and intelligence, he built it up to a paying basis. It was a hard
struggle for him at times, I believe, as in 1907, when he had to
call in the assistance of some Wall Street bankers to finance him.
But it was a good newspaper, and we all, I think, were glad to see him succeed.
The circulation grew, the advertising multiplied, the paper
inspired the public confidence and approval, and then suddenly
Mr. Ochs saw himself at the head of a great organ that spelled
power. Now often power works strange transformations in a man.
In July, 1914, Mr. Ochs was publishing a series of articles on Russia, written by Kurt Aram, a German journalist. One of them told the terrible story of Warsaw. I doubt whether I shall ever forget it. One paragraph haunts me to this day :
"You meet old and young men, dressed in the long caftan,
their faces corpse like, their eyes like dying coals, running restlessly to and fro, like animals in a cage, to earn ten kopecks
somewhere anywhere in order to buy an old herring and some moldy bread, so that their wives and children may have something
to eat. From morning to night they pursue one idea, one hope only : to earn those ten kopecks.''
About ten days after this series ended, came the great war
in Europe. Ten short days, and on the tenth, Ochs, who had
been picturing the horrors of Russian rule, had suddenly become
the friend and supporter of the Romanov's, those cruel Czars,
who wink at Jewish pogroms and smile as the Cossack knout
lashes the backs of their unhappy people.
OCHS, FRIEND OF THE CZAR
He is still the Czar's friend. He said the other day: ''Something
hieratic, symbolic, Byzantine clings to the Czar of all the Russia's A stimulation of patriotism, a half-religious fervor
creeping through all that mighty mass of men and races, may
be stirred thereby."
"What dreadful cataclysm can occur in a man's life, that in
ten short days he is made to swing to the side of his father's
persecutors, renounces his father's people and his father's blood?.
Adolph S. Ochs had heard the voice of his Master and obeyed
his Master's bidding. His Master is the Money Trust.
In order to gain a clear conception of what Mr. Ochs has done
during the past shameful year, we must inspect carefully the
extraordinary table on page 134.
Here is conclusive proof that for the last six months, Mr. Ochs
has been printing in his New York Times a daily series of "fake"
stories in furtherance of an ignoble end. ''The Turks are shooting their German officers," and "There is panic in Constantinople."
Nobody has been trying to deceive Mr. Ochs. These
are all "special cable dispatches" from his English correspondents
in Athens, Geneva, Rome, Cairo, Copenhagen, Petrograd.
But this fake English news is directly contradicted by the
truthful reports sent in by the neutral American correspondents
of the American Associated Press.
At the very time when the lying English correspondent says
that the Turkish Sultan is fleeing from Constantinople, the
Sultan gives an interview in his palace in Constantinople to the
American Associated Press correspondent, praising in unmeasured
terms the Germans, whom the English would have us
believe are being "shot by the Turks."
Why does Mr. Ochs subordinate the honest American dispatches of the Associated Press and play up the "fake" news of
the venal British propaganda? If his correspondent in Paterson
or Albany were to send in "fake" stories, he would discharge
him on the spot. Why, then, does he not discharge his English
correspondents, who have been sending him "fake" dispatches for more than six months?
Is this intelligent journalism? Yes, because it is corrupt
journalism.
These fakes are printed in the New York Times in order to sustain the waning British credit. England is bankrupt, and
needs our money. The American people must not be permitted
to realize that England has been defeated at the Dardanelles, or they would refuse to let Morgan, Britain's agent, take their money from the banks to pay the debts of England. So, after she has lost five warships at the Dardanelles, or has had 50,000 men slaughtered by the Turks, we read the next day that "the
Turks are shooting their German officers so that we may be
persuaded that England will win somehow, after all, because
"there is a panic in Constantinople."
And now, in the day when the bitter end has come to England,
the truth is out at last, as it must always come out in the end, and we hear Lord Milner say in Parliament: "Our campaign at the
Dardanelles has failed. We must withdraw our troops." So all this lying was in vain. What do the readers of the New York
Times think of the paper's owner, who so long deluded them?
In the days of Horace Greeley, Dana, or the elder Bennett,
public opinion was molded by means of the old-fashioned editorial.
But the news columns were held sacred. Now in the days
when newspapers are ruled by international banker public
opinion is poisoned by news corrupted and faked at the fountain
source, and sent out from Athens, Rome, Geneva, Cairo, Copenhagen,
Petrograd. Unscrupulous financiers make their coin by
duping their fellow-countrymen.
AMERICAN JOURNALISM DEGRADED
To this depth of degradation has American journalism sunk !
Mr. Ochs, himself, is not deceived. He is an intelligent man,
and not so thoughtless as the men who manage what old Mayor
Gaynor used to dub "the rag-bag newspapers." Ah, how simpleminded
are these, and how cunning are the others !
Mr. Ochs, do you recall the words the aged Bishop who spoke
that day when you bared and bowed your head as he blessed your
building in Forty-second Street ?
"Almighty God, we beseech Thee to grant to these men Thy
divine guidance and benediction, so that they may be enabled to do Thy will and SPEAK THY TRUTH."
Mr. Ochs, that prayer to God has been unheard.
The New York Times, in its dispatches edited by the London
Censor, has tried to make us believe that neutral countries, like Sweden, are hostile to the Germans. It quotes alleged extracts from Sweden's government organ, the Stockholms Tidningen, to convey this impression.
A month or so ago, I sent to Mr. Ochs an editorial from the
Stockholms Tidningen, in which this grave charge was made :
"As concerns England, it has lately exercised a peculiar form
of influence which one may characterize as worse than criminal,
since it is so idiotic. A very well known advertising bureau, in London, G. Street & Co., one of His British Majesty's representatives
in the Board of Trade, offers to pay for the insertion in our
editorial columns of accusations against the Germans, which it has agreed to distribute.
"For Swedish newspaper men it is a sad disillusionment to witness in such quarters a belief that they can shape newspaper
opinion by such methods.''
I called the attention of Mr. Ochs to this editorial, since it explained why truthful Associated Press dispatches are contradicted by English correspondents in Athens, Geneva, Rome,
Cairo, Copenhagen, Petrograd. There, newspapers have accepted
the money of the British propagandists, which was indignantly
refused by Swedish journalists.
But Mr. Ochs ignored my communication. "Why did he not
publish it? I offered to show him the original Swedish newspaper that made the charges. What had he to fear from the publication of the truth
Mr. Ochs, do you remember how, some months ago,you featured the story of an English ship captain who 'arrived here and
said: "At my home in England are two golden-haired Belgian
children, whose hands have been cut off by German Huns. Such
fiendishness is inconceivable." Men in New York sent a cable dispatch that day to the captain's wife in England. She sent back word indignantly that there were no such golden-haired
children at her home, nor had she ever heard of them.
Did you then, Mr. Ochs, print an editorial on this story,
condemning the English dastard who would circulate so base
a tale against a brave and noble race ? NO, YOU WOULD NOT FEATURE THE TRUTH
Mr. Ochs, you published in extenso the Bryce charges of
atrocities against the Germans, and the faked Armenian atrocities of this "atrocity expert"; you printed the Belgian charges of
atrocities against the Germans, the French charges, even the Russian charges. But when the German Government printed its volume, with affidavits of the sickening enormities practiced by Russians against the German populations of East Prussia, YOU
SUPPRESSED THE BOOK!
Why did you suppress it, Mr. Ochs? I shall tell the public
why. You knew that the English at the very beginning of the war raised the atrocity cry because they feared the enormities
their allies, the Russians, would commit and the barbarities their own Indian and African mercenaries are perpetrating in France
today. They raised a false clamor to conceal the truth. You
feared to publish the German charges against the Russians
BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT BY THEIR PUBLICATION,
AMERICAN SYMPATHY MIGHT BE AWAKENED FOR
THE GERMAN RACE.
Mr. Ochs, in these acts, were you guided by the benediction
of that Almighty God to whom you prayed 'that Winter's afternoon, that you might be enabled to do His will and speak His
truth
Mr. Ochs, the people of this city trusted you and placed
power in your hand. You have abused that power. Why have
you introduced among us that hideous product of decadent hands,
the engine that has ruined the British Empire and caused its downfall, the CLASS NEWSPAPER ? The Class Newspaper is that dreadful organ that secretly works in the interests of a corrupting class, and always against the best interests of the
people.
THE EXPATRIATE
There was, many years ago, another man in New York City,
who held great power in his hands through a newspaper which
his ingenious father had built up. Every New Yorker knows to whom I refer Mr. James Gordon Bennett, once well known in the gayest annals of our city.
Mr. Bennett, like all the rest of us, has his good qualities, and
others that are not so good, such as certain idiosyncrasies he
imposes on the management of his newspaper, one of these being,
as I recall, that no employee of Jewish blood may work on the New York Herald. Mr. Bennett has no liking for the Hebrew
race, and that seems strange when one considers it, since he
derives his not inconsiderable income from the advertising of members of that very race. 'There is some old biological law,
I believe, that accounts for the attraction of like for unlike. And that may account for the fact that Jewish merchants persist in patronizing a property whose owner will positively not have a Jewish employee.
But no, I am mistaken, and not for the world would I seek
to do Mr. Bennett an injustice. There once was a Jewish employee
on the Herald. He was one of the men in the composing
room. This fact was of great grief to one of Mr. Bennett 's department managers, and he studied how to remedy this un- toward situation in the general office scheme of the Herald. It was learned, one day, I believe, that the Jewish compositor had
remained out ten minutes too long for luncheon, or had violated some other office regulation, and he was promptly dropped.
Mr. Bennett has very little fear for anyone, but there is one body of men for whom he has a wholesome respect, and that is Big Six, the New York Union of compositors, who have a very
strong organization. Big Six did not view with favor this discharge from the Herald of a man whose only dereliction was his racial or religious tie. A committee of Big Six took up this matter, and decided that Mr. Bennett must pay to his one-time
compositor his full wages during his six weeks of absence, and
reinstate him, the alternative being that the Herald Chapel would
be called upon to walk out in a body unless this were done.
And Mr. Bennett complied with the recommendations of Big
Six.
Mr. Bennett has some other peculiarities. He published some
very unpleasant advertisements for some years, until the Federal
Government admonished him sharply to desist. The circumstances
surrounding this affair became extremely distasteful to Mr. Bennett, and he went abroad to make his home in foreign
lands.
He became an expatriate. He makes his home in Paris, having
conceived an immense fondness for the French race. And, in
fact, I am convinced that France is the only country that Bennett
loves today.
The great war came, the French armies were defeated, the
country was invaded and the land lies in waste and ruin. This
has been a great sorrow to the owner of the Herald. A purpose
grew in the heart of this expatriate, he dreamed that, by the use of his power, he could rule the destinies of nations. He said
to himself :
' ' I shall save France. I shall make the United States fight for her. Hundreds of thousands of Americans may die, but
France must be saved, if I have the power to save her.''
Mr. Bennett then began to publish inflammatory stories on
the war, intended to awaken the hatred of his former countrymen
against the Germans, just as he had once before published such
stories against an ex-President of the United States. He used
the same machinery, disgusting cartoons, and basely fabricated
tales, in order to mislead men, and instill hatred into their hearts. And this is how he did it :
THE HERALD'S CAMPAIGN OF HATE
The sentiments of James Gordon Bennett, who loves France
better than he does his country or his countrymen:
⎆Herald, July 16. The United States* cannot permit
France to be struck down, even if we have to go to war with Germany to prevent it.
⎆Herald, May 10. The naturalized citizen of German
birth or parentage, who sympathizes with the Kaiser,
is a traitor to the United States.*
⎆Herald. May 20. Professor Henderson of Yale, as a German sympathizer, has no right to claim America*
as his country.
⎆Herald, May 11. Worse things can happen to the
United States than war.
⎆Herald, May 19. Prepare for the worst possible con- tingency.
⎆Herald, May 30. Sink any German vessel that attempts to leave New York.
⎆Herald, May 31. Germany is a red-handed murderer. "
⎆Herald, June 1. Germany's hands are dripping withal
American blood.
⎆Herald, June 2. The American* people want no friendship with Germany.
*Who authorized Mr. Bennett to speak for Americans?
⎆Herald, June 1. Germany has invited her doom.
There is a terrible place in Europe today, a place more
terrible than ruined cities, wasted countrysides, or battlefields where the bones of dead men lie bleaching. It is in France, on the heights overlooking Lake Geneva, Evain-les-Bains they call
it, THE REFUGE OF EUROPE'S GAY SET.
American expatriates are there, indulging in extravagant
revels, that rival, they say, those of Monte Carlo in other days.
Among these expatriates I noticed the other day the name of
Mr. Bennett. Yes, James Gordon Bennett was there, walking
to and fro in the Casino Gardens, past the throngs of demimondaines
who once dazzled the Paris race courses and the Bois. And as he walked, slowly walked, for he is an aged man, he smiled
to himself at times, for he was waiting, waiting, to see his former
countrymen plunged into Europe 's war.
THE NESTORS OF
NEW YORK JOURNALISM
Here, then, we have the two Nestors of New York's journalism.
On the one hand
Adolph S. Ochs, of the New York Times.
On the other
James Gordon Bennett', of the New York Herald.
I do not think these two men have been fair to the thousands
of newspapermen of this country, who do the work that builds
up the great newspaper properties, who toil the long hours, take
all the harsh words and the hard blows, but working in the public
interest in the furtherance of their ideal : To publish the news. For Mr. Ochs and Mr. Bennett have not "published the news."
They have deliberately misled, with system and persistence, the
American people, who are entitled to know the news.
Among newspapermen, when one among them has disgraced
his craft, it is customary to say : " He fouled our nest.''
Speaking on behalf of the conscientious newspapermen of my
country, and I think I know their views, I feel that I must say
to Mr. Ochs and Mr. Bennett : "Gentlemen, you two have fouled our nest."
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