The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-15
SANDERS NAILS A LIE
He Never Made the Statement
Attributed to Him.
HE RESCUES HIS NAME
Men Who Expose Corruption Are En-
titled to the Lasting Gratitude of
All Their Countrymen - Swift
Should Be Retribution.

The Helena correspondent of the Butte
Miner quotes Colonel Sanders as fol-
lows: Il have no admiration for bood-
lers or political corruptonists of any de-
rage crook-poitical crook, if you please
as a white-winged angel Of peace and
sublime morality. when compared to a
creature who boastingly admits of be-
ing a liar, a thief and Judas Iscariot."
In answer to this Colonel Sanders
writes the Standard as follows:
ITO the Editor Of the Anaconda Stand
ard:
"Sir--T perceive that a morning paper
has sought to place me in the cata-
logue of persons now pernciously ac-
tive in trying to belittle the transcend
ant crime of this generation, by criti-
cising the methods by which. in a single
instance, it is said to have been ex-
posed, by attributing to me an inter
view. wholly apocryphal, in which it is
said I used certain language which 1
declare I never did in form or sub
stance use to any one. / do not affirm
in the instance indicated any ones
guilt or innocence. but I make haste
to rescue my name from the imputation
implied in the interview mentioned
Having for nearly half a century
been engaged in the prosecution and
defense of criminals, more or less, I am
wholly fa mi1iar with tbo oopc;5a,o 81, nc,
which that alleged interview implied,
and think I know precisely what it is
worth. The crime which is said to have
been committed is one of such atrocity.
and places so much in peril, that when
ever, in any civilized state, it shall be
| once clearly ascertained, the swift in
dignation of every decent citizen will
visit upon it punishment at once con-
dign and instant 1t has brought about
the ruin of republics whenever it has
invaded them, and their melancholy
wrecks are landmarks of a most pa
| thetic history. It's appearance during
the last days of the nineteenth century
in this republic has excited the pro-
| foundest solicitude of every good citi-
zen and is rapidly sapping the founda.
lions of public virtue and civic pride
If it shall not be stamped out by the
hot Indignation of our countrymen
| then the dry rot has already invaded
| the republic and we are on the high
way to a swift and deserved ruin ir
| the precise pathway of the republics of
ancient times. If it shall be allowed
| to become chronic, the lesson which il
| will teach to the mothers of our young
| men will be not to instruct their sons
| in the pathways of science and virtue
not to send them to church or schools,
| not to enlighten their minds by morals
and philosophy, but to equip them fol
the duties of life by furnishing them a
bit and brace and skeleton keys and the
other implements which constitute the
kit of burglar. Why should she
squander thousands of dollars to equip
when she can more surely help him to
the high places of the republic by buy
ing him a crow bar and jimmy
for $40?
Notably in this republic there are no
rewards so inspiring to a sensate hu-
man being as the honors which these
commemorative have to bestow, and if
they are to be put into the market place
and sold to the highest bidder for cash.
then ambition has ceased to be virtue
A great commonwealth browning one
of its sons with the honors which he has
bought is not merely itself crime, but
is a travesty which all civilization will
scorn.
1T is grateful to recur, in periods like
this, to some of the warning voices of
voice and, over the lapse of % centuries,
speaks to us as follows:
Most of all, fellow citizens, if your
sons ask whose example they shall imi-
tate, what shall you say? For you know
well it is not music nor the schools that
mould young men. 1t is more the public
example. If you take one whose life
has no high purpose and crown him in
the theater every boy who sees it is cor
rupted. When a bad man suffers his
deserts the people learn. Beware, there
fore, my countrymen, remembering pos
terity will reiudge your judgments and
| that the character of a city is deter
mined by the character of the men it
| crowns and the deeds it glorifies.'
These words of Aeschines are worthy
| to be worn as a frOntlet by every man,
whether he be citizen or representative,