The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-04-26
Gov. Stone Is Right.

it stands when, in criticising Gov
Stone, il takes the position that the
people of Missouri are favorable tC
accepting money from Mr.. Andrew
Carnegie with which to put in q
library in connection with the state
university at Columbia. Just that
period in its career where the Republic
became sponsor for the democratic
party Of this state would be hard tc
settle upon definitely outside the
editorial rooms of that newspaper.
In c~riticising Gov Stone, who said
in a public interview that Missouri
was amply able to take care of its
own state educational institution, the
Republic makes a fearful defense of
Mr.. Carnegie and asserts that he has
no connection with trusts; hence the
implied meaning that the great piles
of money accumulated by the steel
king were honestly gotten and that
instead Of a master Of finance by
virtue Of class legislation the Scotch
millionaire is the pOsseSsor Of fabulous
wealth acquired through legitimate
and honest trade channels.
1t seems passing strange to us that
the Republic could consider the
people Of Missouri so gullible that
they are expected to swallow this
mess Of commercialized rot. There
is not a well posted man in this
country, whose eyes are not dimmed
by self interest or who is not ruled by
outside influences that hold where
democracy is alleged to abide, who
does not know that Carnegie's wealth
was amassed through the unholy
workings Of protection, a system Of
legalized robbery that the democratic
party opposes and will continue to
oppose until the great tariff wall is
razed and the people ridded Of this
class legislative leech that is sucking
their very life blood away. In most
Of the states of the union there are
statutory enactments against receiv-
ing stolen property, and we cannot
see why the rule should not apply as
well to the state as to the individual.
If it be criminally wrong for the
citizen to come into the possession of
property which is the product Of
larceny, why does it not logically
follow that a state so acting comes
within the puryiew Of the same
principle?
If it be true-as the Republic
would have us belieye-that every
dollar owned by Mr.. Carnegie was
honestly acquired, then the theory
that no man can amass such fabulous
wealth through the ordinary channels
Of trade in a lifetime is knocked out
in toto.
The INTELLIGENCER believes that
the position assumed by Gov. Stone,
/. e.: that Missouri is able to take
care of its own university without
the aid of Carnegie and his ill-gotten
millions, is right; and we further
believe that Gov. Stone will be rather
slow to modify the Kansas City
interview merely to please the man.
agement of a newspaper which, though
claiming to be democratic, has, dur
ing its history, dubbed the party OF
Jefferson and Jackson as "a putrid
Renaissance" and has often sulkeG
on issues declared to be paramount
after the national democracy has
spoken in convention assembled.
In one of Shakespeare's plays one
member of the dyamatiS persona,
advises another to put money in hi
purse, honestly if he can, but put il
there. This fellow was then moved
by that same spirit Of commercialisn
which has since reached out and taker
hold Of the world until today we hay,
great newspapers, sailing on the hlgl
seas Of journalism and flying the fial
Of democracy, condoning the accumu
lation of fabulous wealth through
channels Of class legislation ant
adducing arguments in favor Of tn,
millionaire beneficiary that point Il
him more as the object Of patriotism
than as an enemy to the people
which he is.
We do not believe that Missouri
needs Mr.. C~arnegie's money 70
library purposes-moneY rung from
the pockets of the American peopl
through indirect taxation which, wer