Courier Democrat., 1904-11-10
TRuSTSD0N'TF FEAR Hlm
They Are For Roosevelt With
Purse and Speech.
NOT LIKELY TO BE D1sAPpo1nTED

His Reputation ~ q Corporation
Buster IL About the Thlnnest Bua,.
Bile OF the Campaign-Brasen indie.
cency OF the Cortelyou Matter.
Commenting on the attitude of the
Republican press over the exposure of
the Cortelyou scandal. the New York
Times says in part:
In one of the smaller cities of eastern
Massachusetts there once lived young
man. then quite unknown to fame, but
who later became parsonage of much
distinction in the old commonwealth
One day this young mans wife an
nounced to him that she had In some
way come BY the knowledge that
very prominent member of their
church had been guilty of scandalous
misdoing, and, for her part, she felt
that she ought to tell the parson and
everybody else. Don't you do it,
said her husband. who was wise far
beyond his years. "1f you do. the whole
church will be about your ears like a
hornets nest, and they will drive you
and me out of this town." "But why
should they drive us out Of the town
when he is guilty?" inquired the in
genuous wife. "His guilt has nothing
to do with the case," replied the h,ls-
band; ''it is the exposure that makes
them mad.'
This is precisely the attitude of the
Republicans toward the Cortelyou scan
dal. They speak not word in re-
proach of Cortelyou. Not so much as
a whisper is heard against the presi-
dent, but they rage like hyenas against
anybody who alludes to the disgrace
full affair. Our neighbor, the Tribune,
has become almost inarticulate in it's
fury. The Republican press all over
the country is shocked and indignant
that the Times, the World and the
Brooklyn Eagle should have ''stirred
up" this scandal.
This is an astonishing attitude for
such lofty moralists as the Republican
party is made up of, according to the
president. The Times, the World and
the Eagle are not responsible for the
scandal. They did not take Mr.. Cor
telyou out Of the department Of COM
merce where he has been accumulat-
ing secret inside information about the
trusts and corporations, and put him
at the head Of the national committee,
where it Is his duty to gather in CAM
paign funds from these same trusts
and corporations. That is the scandal;
that is the disgrace. 1t passes compre-
hension how the eyes of honest men
can be so blinded by partisanship or
by the worship Of the Republican can
didate that they fail to see that the
scandal lies in the putting Of Mr.. Cor
telyou into the craftsmanship, not in
the criticisms passed upon that act.
The Republican party seems to be
altogether insensitive to the indecency
Of the spectacle. The president himself,
we think, fails altogether to see that it
Is indecent. He is temperamentally so
organized that he stands apart from
other men. The standards they OBJ
serve cannot be set up for him. His
| N0AOCA PAOSCOO6 OHOA SAS OAVoNS 6OASA@
al, subjective assumption Of the recti-
tude of all his acts, past, present and
future. In that popularity Of the exec
utive we think lies the possibility of
grave disappointment to the corpora
tions that have so generously contrib
uted to the Republican fund. If Mr..
Roosevelt does not now see that it is
wrong, scandalous and improper for
his late secretary of commerce to be
begging money of the great corpora
tions, there is no certainty that If
elected he may not take peculiar and
individual view of his obligations to
the contributing trusts and begin a
crusade against them. We do not at all
believe he will begin such crusade.
His reputation as "trust buster" is
about the thinnest bubble of the whole
campaign. His single exploit in that
field is the destruction Of the Northern
Securities company, which was not q
trust and mot in the slightest degree a
restrainer of trade. The trusts no Ion
ger fear him; they are for him heartily
with purse and speech. We do not