Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-10-21
industrial fabric are interviewer

industrial fabric are interviewer In
such complex fashion that what
strengthens or weakens part also
strengthens or weakens the whole. If
we penalize industry we will our
selves in the end have to pay con-
| siderable part of the penalty. If we
make conditions such that the men OF
exceptional ability are able to secure
marked benefits by the exercise Of
that ability, then we shall ourselves
benefit somewhat. 1t Is our interest
no less than our duty to treat them fair
~ On the other hand it is no less
their interest to treat us fairly by
U.s. mean the great body of the PEG.
PIE, the men of moderate or small
fortunes, the farmers, the wage-work.
ers, the smaller business men and
professional men. The man of great
means who achieves fortune by crook
cd methods does wrong to the whole
body polite. But he not merely does
wrong to- he becomes source Of i'm
mlnent danger to, other men Of great
means; for his ill-won success tends
to arouse feeling of resentment,
which if it becomes inflamed fails to
differentiate between the men Of
wealth who have done decently and
the men of wealth who have not done
oecently.
Public Conscience Shocked.
The conscience of our people has
been deeply shocked by the revela-
lions made of recent years as to the
way in which some of the great for
tunes have been obtained and used,
and there is, think. in the minds Of
the people at large, strong feeling
that serious effort must be made to
put stop to the cynical dishonesty
and contempt for right which have
thus been revealed. believe that
something, and l hope that a good
deal, can be done by law to remedy the
state of things complained Of. But
when all that can be, has thus been
done, there will yet remain much
which the law can not touch and
which must be reached by the force Of
public opinion. There are men who do
not divide actions merely into those
that are honest and those that are
not, but create third subdivision
that of law honesty; of that kind Of
honesty which consists in keeping
clear of the penitentiary. 1t is hard
to reach astute men of this type save
by making them feel the weight Of an
honest public indignation. But this
indignation, If it is to be effective,
rust be intelligent. 1t is, of course,
to the great advantage of dishonest
men Of wealth If they are denounced,
not for being dishonest, but for being
wealthy, and if they are denounced in
terms so overstralned and hysterical
as to invite reaction In their favor.
We can not afford in this country to
draw the distinction as between
rich man and poor man. The distinc-
ton upon which we must insist is the
vital, deep-lying, Interchangeable dis
tinction between the honest man and
the dishonest man, between the man
who acts decently and fairly by his
neighbor and with quick sense Of
his obligations, and the man who &C
knowledges no internal law save that
Of his own will and appetite. Above
all we should treat with peculiarly
contemptuous adherence the man
who in spirit Of sheer cynicism de-
bauches either our business life or our
political life. There are men who. useA
the phrase practical politics. as
merely euphemism for dirty poli-
tics, and it is such men who have
brought the word politician into dis.
credit There are other men who use
the noxious phrase business is BUSH
ness as an excuse and justification
for every kind Of mean and crooked
work; and these men make honest
Americans hang their heads because
of some of the things they do. 1t is
the duty of every honest patriot to re-
buke in emphatic fashion alike the pol
itician who does not understand that
the only kind of practical politics
which nation can with safety toler-
ate is that kind which we know as
clean politics, and that we are as Sc
we're in our condemnation of the bust
ness trickery which succeeds as of the
business trickery which fails. The
scoundrel who fails can never by any
possibility be as dangerous to the COM
munity as the scoundrel who sue
ceeds; and of all the men in the coun-
try the worst citizens, those who
should excite in our minds the most
ccntemptuous adherence, are the
men who have achieved great wealth,
or any other form Of success. in any
save clean and straightforward man
ner."