St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-04

killed one or two men was criminal to
be punished by execution. The man
who, leading an army. killed 10000 men
was a hero to be honored with a crown.
Business transactions in the hands of
JAY GOULD were species of warfare.
In the beginning he WAS like medieval
baron in command of small body of
retainers. He laid siege to his neigh
borS' castles, captured them by strategy
Or trlekery, put their owners to the
sword and converted their possessions
he became his own RICHELIEU, and con-
soidated a thousand Independent sa-
trapieS into one empire. over which he
made himself king. For the past ten
years he has reignad in peace and
security, and every day has extended
the limits Of his power. Had he lived
a quarter of a century longer, he might
have attained position of strength
and command in comparison with which
ALEXANDER'S imperial dominion
would have had German princeling' s
weakness.
To express all this in somewhat diff
ferent way. JAY GOULD grew to be one
of the richest men in the world by
methods openly and admittedly dishon-
est, and yet the laws and the moral
sense of society were absolutely unequal
to the task OF checking his career. He
was thief Jn big scale, Just as Ma
POLEoN and CESAR were thieves and
murdererS on big scale. The history
of the Erie and the Wabash railroads
under his manipulation is history of
plundering and robbery which we can
read of nowhere else outside the annals
of military conquest. He invented all
the prevailing effective devices by which
investors in corporation securities can
be looted at the will of dishonest di-
rectorate. The Erie railroad when his
fangs were first fastened on it was a
grand and promising piece of property.
1t belonged to its stockholders and bond
holders. GOULD wrecked it, and by
wrecking it made it his own and made
himself rich. The experience he thus
acquired he applied still more extern
sively and skillfully to the Wabash sys-
TEN, and, with the aid of Subservient
courts. INSCRIPTIONS lawyers and pur-
chased legislatures, seized and con-
verted the product of other mems and
other women's honest savings which
had built it.
A full history of this Villains crimes
would require a volume for their detail
ing, and his subtleties were SO great
that none but the patient student
could follow them through all their
variety. His achievements could not be
told with the simple dlrectness which
is possible in recounting the adventures
of JACK CADE and other noted highway
men. He did not hold up ladies and
gentlemen Oh the road and take their
money and jewelry with unaffected
frankness. He chloroformed this victim
and hypnotlZed that one. He used dyna-
mite when an explosion promised him
spoils, and he could be sweeter than
honey If his path to pocket-picking
needed fabrication. The hollowness of
our moral standards and the ineffi
cheney of our moral safeguards could
have no more notifying exposure than
his career affords. He defied every
known principle of honesty and up,
and yet he triumphed in hiss
projects. Such men and such successes
are the fruitful authors of the anarch-G
lists existence, and the wealth. they
produce threatens the integrity of the
social fabric.