Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-04-24
OUTSIDE, POINT OF VIEW
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
. ritlen FOE thl 'rlm.,- tsepaotI:4

"rtlen FOE tn, Fim.,-Ra )tf.ll
FRIEND Pessimist was on the point of
exploding. Fortunately the safety valve
was raised as follows: did YOU hear
that sermon last Sunday night on Sab.
bath observance" 1t seemed as tho
the audience present had failed To al
tend Well the idea of such stuff be-
ing preached these days" continued
Brother p. The preacher was espe
c1ally severe on the souIless corpora :
tlpls who run their passenger trains OH
Sunday He wanted the railroad men
to have rest. Probably didn't know
the railroad men don't know night from
day week day from Sunday; that their
rest comes between runs. He made mo
think of the insincerity of the people of
the whole state of Connecticut that
until within the past five years had 81
law, and enforced it. preventing any
steam railroad trains from running be-
tween sunrise and sunset on Sunday,
but from the day the trolley car was
started it ran Sunday the same as on
any other day, in fact had more bust
ness because the steam cars were not
allowed to run. And what makes me
mad is for that preacher to preach
such stuff when he knows that many of
his church members own railroad and
electric line stocks. that the dividends
come much from Sunday travel, and,
incidentally, the pastors salary and
church expenses are thus paid from
the Sunday work of the soulless cor
porations.'
"Mr. Pessimist, you've said some
thing continued this scribe. II have
often wanted to deliver lecture on
the individual VS.. the corporate con-
science To put in another way, the
sinless individual or the sinful corpor-
alton. BY corporations shall we include
the legislature. the banks the manu-
featuring institutions, the railroads,
steamboat lines and all associations OF
individuals where they act as a body?
forgot to include political party asso-
Citations. And now for the statement It's
this: All of these mentioned associa-
lions of men every day and everywhere
do things thye would be ashamed to do
as individuals. AS individuals they
sanction the acts of the corporation,
many of these acts verging closely on
infractions of law. AS individuals many
complacently pocket dividends that
they know are wrongfully obtained, but
the individual conscience throws all
this sin doing on the officials of the
corporation. AS an illustration. is ther..
today an individual stakeholder in any
trust or combine that has any hest
fancy about accepting financial results,
no matter what corporation action
brought about such a RESULT"
SIS
For once the speaker seemed to have
the floor without Interruption He con-
tinued: Here's an Illustration to prove
this argument. We read and hear OF
bribed legislatures. Such bill was
passed by the legislature.' Now every
body knows it was an outrageous
measure. but $50 men together made it
a law Does any stigma attach to your
county representative? When the east
ern college president seriously suggest
ed that the men and women who OBJ
tain their wealth from combines and
trusts be socially ostracised he was
laughed at for his pains. Yet it is fact
that as individuals men who acquire
great wealth by questionable methods
are socially ostracised. Perhaps no
more pointed Illustration can be given
than in the owners of some great ho-
tells, whose bar room pays more profit
than all of the other business. The
owners of such property are good
church members and received socially
everywhere, but any one of them as
the owner and bartender would be kept
out of the churches and society"
you're having a nice time hearing
yourself talk" said the travelling man.
You're republican,; you swear by the
party. Where was your individual con-
science when the notorious bribery and
ballot stuffing took place in Des
Moines during the Hull and Prouty
contest? Did your individual political
conscience trouble you when your par
ty or some of the leaders thereof ran
train loads of laborers, non-residents,
into Council Bluffs to vote at local
election? Have you got any such thing
at party headquarters as. conscience?
Do you know, Mr.. B, that once good
church member was called out or
church to receive telegram, to travel
all day and part of the night to place
In northern Iowa, to drive across coun-
try and See a man, to return secretly
home and to read in the papers the fol-
lowing Wednesday of how certain
county went" on election day? This
republican, this church member had no
prickings of his conscience for such
work and the party has no
Unquestionably many
members of Tammany are good citi-
zens. Men to be admired. loved and
trusted. Men of a large amount of self
respect. Have you ever heard of man
giving up his membership in Tammany
because Boss Croker male the society
and a power in politics by
receiving as a part of its income reg
ulaton donation from gambling hells
and houses of ill-fame?"
"There no individual or collective
,o,eoiapca IN, i,cine, IN time In this kind