Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-06-14
Facts For Candid Men.

lONlS
The gospel as given by st. Mathew
says: mo man can serve two mas
tiers; for either he will hate the one
and love the other; or else he will hold
to the one and despise the other. YeI
cannot serve God and Mammon.
All human experience and observa-
tion has not only demonstrated that
no man can serve two masters but it
has also shown that no man, the agent
of q quasi-public, quasi-private cor
poration, can render the best of ser
vice to the public, especially when he
holds his position subject to the will
of private stockholders. In looking
over the long list Of men in public
life who have gone wrong, we find full
Ter and stronger continuation of the
general principle enunciated above.
Burton, senator from Kansas, was the
attorney of a fraudulent wheat con-
Germ in Chicago, the Rialto Grain
Company, from which he received five
checks Of $500 each-$2, 500-for SER
vices which his position as senator
should have precluded him from rem
dering. This position was given him
by the ''private stockholders" of that
concern, and his service instead of
having been to "God was given to
Mammon.'
DIETRICH, of Nebraska is in the
same category. briggs and Latta-
uer,' the latter a special friend Of
President Roosevelt, also Perry Heath
Oberlin M. Carter, Russell A. Alger,
A. w. Machen, etc. In Minnesota,
Ames, the bribe taker, and in st. Lou
is, Butler, the briber each had their
court, in Nebraska, Dietrich his
Judge so that matters are but little
changed from what they were when
Tweed in New York had his, and de-
family asked the public when expos
ing his crimes: "What are you going
to do about it?"
How the public interests are sacri-
feed to public gain and greed by our
public servants is very fairly illus
trated in an extract from the letter
Of an Iowa congressman who served
several terms IN the house but to
whose fingers no tar ever attached.
This letter bears the date of Wash.
ington, March 81, 1896, and after its
Introduction says: Il nate and detest
as violently as you do all public plum
der and can denounce it in my own
party as fearlessly as you have been
ready to do in yours. I never realiz-
ed as fully as I have during my last
service here, the hold the great cor.
porations have upon both houses OF
congress and upon members of both
parties. | see it every day where ]
cannot prove it but I am just as Ger.
tain OF it as I am of the sunrise. Fol
example, in the last congress, set Of
capitalists conceived the idea of an
electric railroad from Washington tc
New York. Their line would neces.
sarily go through the District of &c.
lumbia, Pennsylvania. Maryland and
Delaware, New Jersey and New York.
To obtain charters from all these
states, and the right of eminent do
main required great effort. They
asked no aid except the right to d.
the work and make the experiment Al
their own expense. 1t might be {
total failure. 1t expected to make
the trip in an hour or two, and if sue
cessful would absorb the passenger
traffic. Instantly on the committee
rose a fellow here and there, and, tt
my establishment, the proposition wal
killed. On examination OF the rec
ords OF the opponents, I found then
along the lines of the various road
whose business would be affected i
the experiment. were successful.
could give you scores of such instan
ces If I had the time. 1t is astonjsh
ing how these corporations fool tn,
people. They attach themselves Il
the dominant party, select candi
date for nomination whose selection
Is pretty sure, and without the knowl
edge of the people, by secret influ
ences, he gets the party nomination
and is the tool of the man who mad,
him."
How humiliaiing and yet how full
Of truth. Over forty years ago th'
writer, with horse and buggy, drov,
to Des MONIES, by the way of Charlie
City, Clarksville, Butler Center, Acl,
ley, Steamboat Rock, Eldora and Ne
vada and found ourself at Des Moine
simply to ratify the work that th
wire pullers OF the party had prepare,
for MS in advance of our coming. La
ter large representation from North
ern Iowa drove across the country t
Des Moines to place in nomination