Life — January 25, 1912 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. LIN 15% JANUARY 25, 1912 N Pablished by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY JA. Mite A. MiLLnn, Sey and Treas. 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York Hib, Pret OUBTLESS a lay opinion on the details of the Monetary Commission Currency bill is not so valuable as though it were that of a financial expert, but even a lay- man can read and listen and come to some conclusion about matters about which he would not be competent to Jay down the law, and his conclusion is important, for it lies with laymen to pass on the findings of experts. Our conclusion, humbly attained, about the new currency bill is, in the first place, that it is very sorely needed, and, in the second place, that it is the work of men well qualified to plan and Craw it, working together to meet all reasonable objections and even preju- dices, and devise a scheme that will benefit us all. Bad money is bad, no matter who has it; bad for the rich and worse for the poor; bad for everyone except, sometimes, apparently, for some ras- cals, and bad really for them, because it helps them to cheat. So a bad cur- rency system is bad for all people, rich or poor. It is weak machinery that breaks down when a pinch comes; it is a boiler that blows up under pressure for lack of safety valves. It embar- rasses business when it is liveliest, and it facilitates panics. Our present currency system, inher- ited from Civil War times and based on war measures, was never first rate and has long been outgrown. It is bad. It cramps business and makes us sub- ject to panics, of which we have had a scandalous number as compared with other civilized and intelligent countries, and from which we have suffered very much, and would have suffered much worse but for the palliation of our troubles by improvised remedies. We ~DalAPik,* need a better system; it is high time we had it, and this bill of the Monetary Commission promises to give it to us. There is nothing before the country more important than this bill, It has been prepared with great care; it should be considered with care in Con- gress. If there are defects in it, it is a public duty to point them out. Surely there is brains enough in Congress, both ordinary, sound layman-brains, and fiscal intelligence, to say if this Commission’s bill is good or not, and to pass it if it is good. If it is a good bill we want it, and want it badly. For our part, we be- lieve it is a good bill, but that belief is largely matter of faith—of faith, not so much in Mr, Aldrich, its chief spon- sor, as in the men we know, who, be- ing qualified by training and charac- ter and concern for the interests of all the people, to pass on such a meas- ure, have examined this one and pro- nounced it fit. Bate newspaper agitation over Colo- nel Roosevelt's political inten- tions is getting a bit tiresome. Per- haps the Colonel is tired of it himself, but if so, he used a means that was very imperfectly adapted to quell it when he expounded his real position to a large company of diners at the Aldine Club, and solemnly bound them all not to tell. There is no better way to set folks digging than to announce that you have buried a treasure, and tell them where to look for it. That was about what the Colonel did. He turned loose in New York some hun- dreds of men, each one of whom was believed to have buried in his con- sciousness what the newspapers are pleased to consider a treasure of news. The subsequent digging was pretty lively, but the findings have been small. A great many people think, of course, that the Colonel is working his skilfullest to get the Republican nom- ination. Nobody can cure them of that conviction. For ourselves, we be- lieve that he is sincerely averse to be- ing a candidate again, and that he will not be nominated. But if we were in his boots and had a vociferous press yelling at us to say that we would never, under any circumstances, be a candidate for President again, or serve if elected, so help us!—we wouldn't say it. It would not be a proper thing to say, especially if we had said it once a HE apparent excitement of some of the newspapers over the resig- nation of Ambassador Bacon quite uncalled for. One journal had it that he was offended because he had not been consulted about the Peace treaty; another, that President Tait wanted his place. But there is no need of searching below the surface to find a motive for his resignation. On the whole, the most distinguished honor that can befall a Boston man is to be chosen a member of the Corporation of Harvard College. There are only five members besides the president and treasurer. They form a self-perpet- uating body that is the chief depositary of Harvard’s government. In Boston estimation the Harvard Fellows easily outrank ambassadors. Ambassadors are more or less accidents. Fellows are the real thing, in so far as the mind of Massachusetts can detect it. Mr. Bacon is a Boston man. Of course, he let the ambassadorship go when it stood between him and a seat in the Harvard Corporation. was [* is to rejoice that Princeton has a new president, and one apparently well adapted to u: all her jealous factions. Dr. Hibben comes out of the V.H. C. class to win the blue ribbon. Everybody speaks well of him, and praises him with signs of affection. Princeton had brains and talent in Dr. Wilson, and profited much by them, but she suffered some pretty hard jolts, and what she seems to need just now in her president's chair is a temperament, wise, tolerant and dis cerning, to hold fast and add to what she has that is good, without burst- ing her wide open to get rid of her defects.