Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1883-01-26

us beside whose robberies those of the
brigands Of Italy and Greece and the
Bedouns Of the desert are mere pleas
;,ntries. OF all the triumphs of inven.
ton nom are more wonderful than
| those by which the hard earned gains
of millions are forc,bly conreyed,o the
vaults of the robbtr princes. No busi-
ness is more highly organized, more
stfenously pursued. more successfully
managed than the business OF robbery.
Yet. under all this elaboration OF
method, it is robbery. nothing worse
ror better.
! The peculiarly of the modern meth
od ofrobbery is the employment, by
:he robbers, of the State. as their en-
forced agent and accomplice. Some.
times. but not often, they organize
their clients and retalners into armed
bands and seize the coveted booty,
combining to have the State confirm
possession. But the force on which
they prefer to rely is the quiet and re-
sistle>s force of the laws and courts.
BY artfnl'y contrived legal schemes
thcv cons,rain courts to do their bid
ding. The JUDGES may be unwilling
instruments. yet they are bound to
sanction. impartially the workings OF
legal processes. But what shall we
say Wi tn weak or corrupt judges
hasten to legalize schemes by which
great corporations are wrecked or re-
habllitated as suits the purposes OF the
co spirators!
Of the gigantic fortunes held in this
country, not few have been gotten by
legal robbery Twenty years ago our
millionaires could be counted almost
on the fingers of four hands. To-day
their enumeration would,carry us into
thousands. Since thesnew system of
robbe.ywas perfected, abou: twenty
men have amassed fortunes. which,
taken together. exceed the debt of the
nation. Twenty years ago these men
were poor. Some of the new Million
aires have grown rich honestly, but
some of them have led a raid upon the
production and accumulated wealth of
the country. So Napoleanic in its
boldness and success has been the
method of the master robbers, that
rich men of better instincts have been
dazzled by it. and have adopted it
openly and independently, or lent in
direct cooperation and social credit to
the robber chiefs and have shared in
the plumber. Men of honorable rep
utations. who have been crowned
with public honols, have countenan-
ced these crimes as affording the sur
est way of adding to their unsatisfying
fortunes of ten, twenty, or even thirty
millions. 1t is by no means our pur-
pose TO throw dlscredit upon the pur-
suit of wealth. Honest production
and the honest gains of wealth that IS
employed in the service of society are
The bulwarks of civilization. Bu, We do
say that examples of private CRED acre
sapping the sources of public honor:
examples Of gigantic and coun;enan-
ced robbery are undermining the foun-
dations of public morality and corrupt
ing the nationa! character.
Our legislators have tailed to see, or
for private and corrupt reasons, have
wlnked at the fact, that the laws which
were made to fit old-fashioned ideas of
honor and morality, instead of p1otect-
Ing the public, are the strength and the
pro,ee ton of dishonest men. The old
code OF commercial honor is lost sight
of in the complex transactions of stock
jobbers, who remain out of sight while
their work is being done by conscience
less factors by lawyers skilled in d.s-
covering loop-holes in the law and in
juggling with the law; by lobbles with
money at the doors Of legislatures by
paper shares and paper promises to
pay; by cipher messages and spies,
ane by abusing the facilities of the
stock exchanges.
1t is well that our legislators are
making at least show of ipqulrlng in
to the methods by which the public Is
robbed in the interest of stockholders,
and they, in turn are robbed BY corpo-
rate managers; by which wholesale
robbery is cloaked with legal forms of
consolidation" Reorganization" ""re-
ceiverships,' and "watered stocks >
ty which men may safely couspire to
pervert the natural course Of produc-
ton and trade, and rob the public by
the artihce of "corners ;" by which a
man is allowed to control rival or doub.
lie systems of railways, and with impu-
nlty array one against the other, as
suits his varying purpose, thereby de.
spelling the public with the ease Of
gambler playing with marked cards.
What have the people say to these
practicess They do not appear as yet
to have anything to say. The robber
princes are held IN high esteem; they
20 about to the colleges, some Of them.
and Doctors of Law and Doctors Of
Divinity grovel at their feet. If any
Mordecai has refused to bow down be
tore them, his name has not been re
ported. Men whose riches have been
increased by spelling their neighbors,
are held up as shining examples for the
imitation of our youth. So long as
teachers of morality silently indorse
such lniquitles. it is not to be expected
that the people will cry out against
them. But the day is sure to come
.,la.., .,ox, mill coz, IL .,x,