The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-04-26
Thieves and Robbers.

L lOLu LUPUS VI II L lillC-, Ill liz
February Century.
He who takes by stealth what be-
longs to another is a thief; be who
takes by violence what belongs 10
another is a robber. The robber is
properly supposed to disappear, with
other predatory animals, before the
progress of civilization but this is a
superficialjudgment. The force that
unlawfu1fy deprives men oftheir prop
erty passes through many transfor-
matt, ma, but no force is ore persist
ent. Men are plundercd nowadays in
America far more frequently and fla
GRAVITY than in England in the days
of Robin Hood there are men among
us besides whose robberies those of
the brigands Of Italy and Greece and
the Bedonins of the desert are mere
pieasantries, OF all the triulnphs of
invention none are more wonderful
than those by which the hard earned
gains of millions are forcibly convey
ed to the vaults of the robber princes.
No business is more highly organized,
more ~strenuously pursued, more sue
cessfully managed than all the bust
ness OF robbery. Yet, under this elab-
Grafton of method, it is robbery, moth
ing worse nor better.
The popularity of the modern meth
cd ofIobbery is the employment of
the robbers of the State as their en-
forced agent and ~accompiice. Some
times, but not often, they organize
their clients and retainers into armed
bands and seize the coveted booty,
combining to have the State confirm
possession. But the force OH which
they prefer to rely is the quiet and
resistless force of the laws and the
courts. By artful contrived legal
schemes they constrain courts to do
their bidding. The judges may be
un unwilling instruments, yet they are
bound to sanction, impartially. the
working of legal process. But what
shall we say when weak or corrupt
judges hasten to legalize schemes by
which great corporations are wrecked
or rehabilitated as suits the purposes
of the conspirators?
Ofthe gigantic fortunes now held
in this country, not a few have been
gotten by legal robbery. Twenty
years ago III millionaires could be
counted almost on tie fingers of foul
hands. To-day their enumeration
would carry rs into thousands. Since
the new system of robbery was per.
fected, about twenty men have amass.
ed fortunes, which taken together, cx.
coed the debt of the nation. Twenty
years ago many of these men were
poor. Some of the new mi lionaires
have grown rich honestly, but some
of them have led a raid upon the pro.
auctions and accumulated wealth OF
the country. So Napoleonic in its
boldness and success has been the
method of the master robbers, thai
rich mel of better instincts have beer
dazzled by it, and have adopted il
openly and independently, or have
lent indirect cooperation and socia
credit to the robber chiefs and have
shared in the plumber. Men of hon.
orable reputation, who have beer
crowned with public honors, have
countenanced these crimes as afford
ing the surest way of adding to theil
unsatisfying fortunes of ten, twenty
f or even thirty millions. 1t is by ne
means u purpose to throw discredi
upon the pursuit of wealth. Homes
production and honest gains of wealth
that is employed in the service of so
ciety are the bulwarks of civilization
But we do say that examples of pri
vate greed are sapping the sources o
public honor; examples of giganti
| and countenanced robbery are under
mining the foundations of public mo
. rality and c%orrupting the nationa
? character.
Our Legislators have filled to see
+ or, for private and corrupt reasons
= have winked at the fact, that the law
which were made to fit old-fashione,
, ideas of honor and morality, instea,
of protecting the public, are tn
strength and the protection ofdish0n
{. est men. The old code ofcommercia
honor is lost sight of in the compie,
transactions of stock jobbers, who re
+ main out of sight while .heir work i
being done by CONSCIOUSNESS factors
by lawyers skilled i'll discoverin.
loop-holes in the law and in jugglin!
with the law 4; by Hobbies with none,
at the doors of Legislatures by pape
shares and paper promises to pay; b,
cipher messages and spies, aud b,
!, some abusing the facilities of stool
exchanges.
, 1t is we'll that our Legislators ar
making at least the show of inquirin!
into the methods by which the publ
is robbed in the interest of stockhold
ers and they, in turn arc robbed b,
t corporate managers by which whole
sale robbery is cloaked with lega