Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/691

 The Editor's Bag mocracy‘s task is twofold; it must secure for the state. the public, the people, some kind of effective, ultimate control over the natural sources of all wealth; and it must also secure, in an industrial system no longer controlled by competition. pro tection and opportunity for the individual.

Mr. Brown here contents himself with indi cating the issues of the new politics. His analysis, however, leaves something to be

desired in the way of penetration.

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The attorney was a very corpulent person, and laughed till his sides ached, and he replied, "I am one of the directors of this company you are working for, and shall see what can be done." Sure enough, it was not long before the old employee was pensioned on full pay.

Without SIMPSON'S ARTIFICIAL POSE

the aid of the principle of free competition, the industrial combinations could never have intrenched themselves in their present power ful position, and it is by virtue of that prin dple that they maintain their supremacy, for it is by underselling competitors that they

HE late Chief Justice Fuller used to de light in telling a story about a lawyer he remembered as a boy at Augusta, Maine. “It was back in the days when portraits in oil were the fad," said the Chief Justice, with

thrive, rather than as the beneﬁciaries of

that familiar merry twinkle in his eye, "and

special favors from the government. Repeal of the tariff law might weaken monopoly, but could not abolish it. The popular demand is not so much for the extirpation of powerful combinations as for sodal amelioration, and it would be difficult to prove that the lot of the ordinary workingman has deteriorated rather than improved during the past cen

Lawyer Simpson, the town's Daniel Webster, had his painted in his favorite and character istic attitude, standing with one hand in his trousers pocket. His friends and clients all went to see it, and everybody remarked on its wonderful likeness. “But there ﬁnally came one, an old farmer, who dissented. ‘Tain't like Simpson,’ he said dryly. ‘No tain’t.‘ "‘Tain't like?’ cried those present. ‘Just show us wherein tain't like I' "‘Tain't like,’ repeated the old man, shak ing his head. ‘Simpson's got his hand in his own pocket. 'Twould be more natural if he had it in somebody else's.’"

tury; his demand for social amelioration, in

fact, has largely been created by that im provement in his lot which has already come about through industrial expansion. The special privileges derived from monopoly may present a serious problem, but that problem can scarcely be called the chief one now fac ing American society. The workingman has already come to long for much more than per fect freedom of competition, with the in equalities naturally attendant upon it in every stage of economic history. Mr. Brown's diagnosis of social ills is thus siiperﬁcial. and he fails to prescribe suitable remedies for those ills, or even to suggest sound statesman like policies for the "New Politics" of which he writes. HE MADE A SLIM LIVING

ONE of the prominent attorneys having charge of the Western Union Telegraph Company was up in Cape Breton ﬁshing, when he asked a raw-boned old man who had charge of the lines of the telegraph company about the ﬁshing places and how the people got along ﬁnancially. The old man replied, “Well we climb poles in sleet and bad weather up here, fish a little, hunt some, and all in all we make a slim

living. We do not make much, it is true, but we get along, that is about all. Our living is not exactly fattening, it is ﬁlling.”

A LEGAL DEFENSE OF THE DOG HE Ohio Humane Society has made public an interesting case of the legal defense of the dog. As they tell the story, Senator Vest had been “retained as the attorney of a man whose dog had been wantonly shot by a neighbor." "It is said the plaintiff demanded $200. “When Vest ﬁnished speaking, the jury awarded 8500, without leaving their seats. The speech in full, is as follows:— "‘Gentlemen of the Jury:— "‘ The best friend a man has in this world, may turn against him and become his enemy. “ ‘His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us,

those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. "‘The money that a man has, he may lose. It ﬂies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most.