Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-03-23

charged by popular olamor; that Is,
that by bribing members OF the legis
lature he has enriched himself and OPP.
pressed the people.
The legislators were corrupt or he
could not have bought them, and 1t Is
the boast of America that all her law
makers. municipal. state and national,
come UP out of the ranks of, and are
thoroughly representative OF. the peo-
pie. a stream will not rise higher than
it's fountain. a legislative body elected
under free institutions such as prevail
in the United States is likely to aver
age neither better nor worse than the
people that elects It. Generally speak
lng. the reputation which a candidate
for the legislature may have as u bribe-
taker will not prevent his election II
he has the support OF his party machln-
cry. 1t is a notorious and deplorable
feature of American politics that most
voters do not hesitate to cast their
ballots for a candidate for the reason
that he ls reputed to be venal. Where
then does responsibility for venality in
a Legislature primarily rest?
With the people. They cleave to party
machinery. They cover before the par
ty lash. They tamely submit to party
bosses. They act on the principle that
1t Is better for a scoundrel to be
elected by their party than for an hon
est man TO be elected by their OPP
ponents. They suffer themselves TO be
bought and sold like sheep by partisan
monlpulators; and the cheapest votes
on the American market are those cos
trolled by the very organizations that |
most voclfeTously denounce rich men |
as thieves and robbers.
If c. p. Huntington, for money or
other thing of value, bought the votes |
of legislators. he committed a crime as |
heinous as larceny or forgery, aud rich |
~ deserves to be punished. Equally |
guilty are the men who sold him their |
votes. The offcnse Of both buyer and |
seller is Of a character that is peculiar |
ly exempt from all palliation. But what |
of the people who deliberately placed |
corrupt men in power? Are they not |
participants In the crime? In the last |
analysis Of the whole matter, did not |
the people sell themselves for the |
pottage Of partisan victory? If all |
who share the guilt Of bribery are to
receive their deserts. what capacity |
must the prisons have?
Occasionally John ID. Rockefeller
is accused of bribery, but the Ameri-
can public does not ser-
ously entertain this charge against
him. His guilt in the eyes of most of |
those who hold him culpable consists |
rather In compelling competitors to |
sell out to him that he may control |
the entire product and make the price |
to suit himself, That he has az cumu-
lated an enormous fortune by this |
policy Is not denied. But is he there
fore a criminal? In the opinion of the |
News" unless something worse than |
this is proven against him. he deserves |
no such an appellation.
The people of the United States |
are free. They make their
own constitutions and statutes,
and they have irreyocably |
decreed that no man shall be deemed |
guilty of an offense against the public |
peace. dignity or welfare who has not |
the law. II Rockefellcr'9 |
operations have been within the law,
the makers of the law are sharers of the |
responsibility resulting from those |
operations, and the censure for such |
sins as he is charged with belongs, In |
part at least,to the civilization that rem
ders them unavoidable. The remedy |
lies not in denouncing the fiuancier as |
Il thief, but in correcting the civilization |
of the time, 1t may be said that ade-
quate correction of 1t Is impossible, |
Perhaps this Is and viii he true until |
the masses of the people are willing to |
adopt higher principles and crystallze
them into law.
In the meantime wrong and Injustice |
on one side will not be cured by the
OF wrong and injustice on
the other Under American institutions
the people have all things beneath
the heavens in their own hands and can
remedy the ills from which they suffer
IL they will. But TO do this they must
follow different teachers from those
who are leading them now.