Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1905-01-17
Venaiity.

1es1ed Dy transportation corpora
tons is as rapacious and insatia-
bic as the grave. "All that the
traffic will BEAR" is their first
commandment. Their avarice
recognizes no law, human or
divine. Com binations are made
every day with bewildering
rapidity. Universal idolalry to
the 1nammon OF unrighteousness
has become the predominant
commercial character of transpor |
tation corporations We are
neither amazed nor startled by
any new exposures. The crimes
of corporations are as logical as
the elements of power incorpora-
ted within them. Their charters
give them fecundity without
moral concept. "a corporation
is soulless thing" and under
the guardian development of
railway officials 1t has become
moral mo strocity turned loose,
like vampire to prey upon the
people. 1t has no sense of self
reproach. Still the shameful
tact remains that corporations
elect their representatives to
state and federal Offices, which
are prostituted by the abuse of
official trust for corporate gain.
It is a notorious fact also that
corporations make combinations
to defeat the law, that may de-
fraud every citizen in the COM
monwealth. 1t is equally true
that corporations have regular
agencies established in every
state in the Union, as we'll as at
the capitol Of the Nation for
bribing legislative bodies in the
interests of corporations. This
monstrous corruption is both
sporadic and endemic. 1t is a
disease rot only of the surface
but of the heart. 1t has left its
virus working havoc with the
inprals of the whole body polite.
The abuse of official trust for
corporate gain is the most diff
cult TO deal with. It is often
concealed and protected by party
machinery. The success of
transportation corporation has
tempted all other corporations
composed in part by railroad
officials to use party politics as
a screen for the most powerful
combinations in defiance OF the
law and of the rights of all the
people.
Our statutes, written and en-
} acted by the ablest legal talen,
i'll the Nation have totally failed
!, to reach the chief conspirators
; and criminals in the whole cate.
CORY of corporation offenders.
The reason for this is as obvious as
, lit is humiliating. Such trans.
cendent legal talent is in the ser.
vice of corporations and make:
up the most potent factor of leg
islative, judicial and ad1ninistra
tive paraphernalia of transporta
, ton corporations in the Unitee
States. They tell US that the,
: are the government and tha
t we must accept such terms a
t the conquerors may be pleased t,
give US.
r That corporations have en-
: trenched their forces in nearl,
every official fortress in the Uni
: ted Statessave one, is undoubtedl,
S true. So was that other despot
ism sheltered behind the strong
/ est military works in the world
but the instrumentalities of
e Russian despotism have beel
# crushed as though the wrath 0
o God had closed his hand upol
1 them.
Transportation corporation will
o please take notice that our peopl
: occupy one citadel which vii
t never be surrendered to all th,
u combined corporations in th
}. world. The ballot box hereafte
t will be more perilous for corpoi
4 alton candidates to assail or seal
S than the heights of Port Arthur
d Our people are awakened to th
: consciousness of peril by th
S message of warning from th
2 President of the United States
e We shall heed that warning
Tive shall break the yoke of trans
! portation despotism as surely 2
the founders of this republi
,. hroLe the voke of RrifiSh deSno1