The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 18, 1918, Page 8

© dustrial war service” -committees—the commit- Discredited Chamber Plans Powwow Special Interest Representatives From All Parts Called to Atlantic Clty on December 4—Wlll Plot for Domination of Government Washmgton Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader #INMASKED and discredited by 7| the senate investigation of its attempt to besmirch the char- acter of the federal trade com- mission, the Chamber of Com- summoned a national assembly of “from 2,000 to 3,000 indus- trial leaders,” to meet at At- lantic Clty on December 4 to 6, to frame a new line of campaign to get possession of the government. A. C. Bedford, chairman of the board of the Standard Oil company; James A. Farrell, presi- dent of the United States Steel corporatmn, Paul- Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and W. C. Redfield, secretary of commerce, are to be the headline speakers at this emergency conference of the in- _ dustrial and commercial masters of the nation. Redfield comes in, of course, because he has not taken the attitude toward the chamber’s crowd that has been maintained by the members of the fed- eral trade commission. His record of inability to punish the men responsible for the Eastland steam- ship horror at Chicago has apparently established his desirability as a chamber guest. Harry A. Wheeler, president of the chamber, has been in Washington recently in active daily con- ference with the msxders, with a view of restoring public confidence in the chamber. It is clear that if President Wilson is going to have a majority in congress with him during the coming two years of world reconstruction, the profiteering gang in the United States may be faced with lean and hungry: days. Big business must do somethmg to compel the administration to “go slow” in any reconstruc- tion program that would interfere with the syste- matic and customary robbing of the American peo- ple by the meat packers, the flour millers, the steel and copper and coal barons, and all of their allied special interests. SCARED ABOUT ; DEMOCRATIC TENDENCIES Wheeler’s crowd understands that the presxdent is encouraging the overthrow of a government in Germany which is composed of three elements— the old landed aristocracy, the military autocracy and the big business plutocracy. When one of these three fallg, in Germany, all will fall. President Wilson proposes that the common “Yolks in Ger- many shall set up a democratic government, and with such a government he will talk final peace terms. ' But if German big business is an enemy of civilization, as shown by this war, then what about the tendencies to be ex- pected of big business elsewhere? And, to come right home, what sort of loyalty is this at- tack on the federal trade commission by the Cham- ber of Commerce of the United States? Why does the chamber now call this national confer- ence at Atlantic City, to bring pressure to bear upon American public opinion just now, when the fate of German big business is in’ the bal- ance? More ‘than 1,100 com- mercxal clubs, local chambers of commerce and trade associations, through their national: councillors, will be repre- sented at this conference, along :with the members of the more than 300 “in- tees formed in each in- dustry by the chamber to control the distribution of war contracts. “The main purposes of merce of the United States has private business has scared the special How anxious the special interests are to co-operate with the government! For fear lest they have not done all that they possibly could, they are go- ing to hold a great conference under the auspices of the United States Chamber of Commerce to talk the matter over. It will be a very select ‘assemblage. The Nonpartlsan league farmers and labor unions have not been invited, nor any other trouble- some persons such as the members of the federal trade commission. The commission made the unforgivable er- ror of exposing the packing trust and some other profiteers. The chamber crowd is not planning to discuss co- operation with the federal trade com- mission, but how to destroy- it. What they mean by co-operation with the government is thorough submission of the government to the will of Wall street. The story on this pagé tells what the hidden purposes of the con- ference are and who will be there. the conference,” says an official statement by Wheeler’s executive committee, “will be the deter- mination of practical methods whereby industry may co-operate still more closely with the govern- ment through a more centralized scheme of organ- ization. This probably can be accomplished best by the creation of a federation of all the war service committees. Questions of reconstruction, too, will be taken up.” . So big business is going to try to federate all of its trade organizations among the war-contract ' beneficiaries, and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, which has been held up to public . contempt for its stealthy assistance to-the food profiteers, i§ To exhibit its brazen nerve in a pre- tense that it will “co-operate still more closely with . the government.” : Co-operation is the long suif of this Chamber of Commerce of the United States—especially the co- operation of special interest concerns in promoting THE ELEPHANT BUTTE DAM A part of the government’s Rio Grande arngation proiect. The success which the govemment engineets have had in direct development of waterpower and ir'rigltlon projects such as this without the help ot ests. - They are trying now to make such work impossible m the future by giving away all the nation’s public resources and a ‘nation-wide conference is to be' held - ‘zards’ [ in Deeember to plan ways and means of cutting ont what govemnentwmfip the chambe* Read this letter by Louis F.. Srm.ft for example: “Chlcago, June 28, 1915. “Mr. L. A. Carton: I attended a luncheon at the Midday club on last Wednesday, June 283, at the request of Mr. DeFrees. “Mr. John Fahey, president of the National Chamber of Commerce, was there, together with some other parties, including Mr. Forgan, Mr. Thomas Wilson and quite a few others. “Was considerably impressed with the pro- gram which they have laid out, and if they make any requests for financlal assistance, would like to know about it. “They maintain a burean i Washingtomand evidently get a good hearing on all legislation. “LOUIS F. SWIFT.” And then there is that famous “special list of one hundred,” dated October, 1915, which was gotten out by the chamber, naming those who had agreed to pay $1,000 a year each, for three years, to put the chamber on the map as a molder of public opinion and of the government. How they co- operated is.told by a few of those names: ALL SPECIAL INTERESTS WILL BE ON HAND Thomas F. Ryan, New York; Eastman Kodak company, Rochester, N. Y.; Harry A, Wheeler, Chicago; Packard Motor company, Detroit; J. P. Morgan & Co., New York; Great Northern rallroad General Electnc company, Schenectady, N. Y.; "American Telephone & Telegraph company; Ar- mour & Co., Chicago; National City bank, New York; Internahonal Harvester company, Chlcago, Kuhn Loeb & Co., New York; Southern Pacific rallroad John D. Rockefeller Jr. ; American Sugar Refining company, New York; New Jersey Zinc company; International Paper company; Swift & Co., Chicago; Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago; Corn Products Manufacturers’ association, Chicago; Quaker Oats company, Chicago; Curtis Publishing company, Philadelphia. - This three-year agreement of financial co-opera- tion between the chamber erowd and ‘the big in- dustrial profiteers and the Curtis Publishing com- pany is now expiring. Meanwhile the war has given the chamber a chance {oiorganize its 300 committees for distributing government orders and government money among American business men. The .time has come to. call them all together, poinf out the ‘danger of a world-wide disturb- ance of busmess security if the peace which terminates this war is dictated by the radical elements® .of the allied . “countries, and to call on ' the - business leaders to _dig up- more funds for the chamber, so that the chamber ma.y protect them. “Single mdustnes, act- _ing individually,” the Wheeler announce- ment, “can scarcely hope to prepare for recon- 6 that will be necesgary, and a federation of all - the war service commit- “tees of all the industries will be of inestimable with those agencies of created to deal with this subject.” Those agencies “to. be ‘created” are the schemes which the chamber hopes the reactionaries to sell out the ships and ship- yards, turn back the rail- in general to carry out the Weeks plan for re- _cial prmlege basis, - This gathering of says . _struction. on the scale’ value in co-operating ~' the government. to: be - will. be put through by - ." roads and the wires, and construction on the spe-’ Amerim business Imz- - ‘December % .,A—." 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