The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-07-06


on another mans coat because itseems
to look well on the other man. Il
know Of lawyers who would be happy
if they were merely practicing law,
but their clients have money, SO they
want money. They have caught the
disease and they are not happy And
what is the disease they have caught?
1t is the malady of making money
easily. Mark the word easily" We
have heard for years that the Ameri-
can people worship the dollar. tell
you they are led astray by the easy
dollar" by the ease with which great
wealth is often accumulated. It is the
desire for unearned wealth which
sidetracks educated men and women
from their real careers. believe that
not twenty per- cent Of the educated
young men and young women of this
country are meant to be rich. They
are meant to be great physicians per-
haps, or great lawyers, or great
preachers, or great teachers, or great
painters; but when they go out into
the world probably eighty per cent
in the chase for what the other fellow
wants.
Causes of Graft
Graft is the advanced stage of the.
craze of unearned money. Primarily
it is not so much the desire to get
something for nothing, or, rather, it
is not only the desire to get something
for nothing, but it is an attempt to get
something for the CRATER in considera-
ton of his parting with something
that does not belong to him. The
legislator who is influenced by the ar
rather than to his sense of civic obi
cation, practices form of graft which
is dangerous to the community. The
public is awakened now to the danger
of this man. We know him; we under
stand him. Some day, and none to
soon, we shall refuse to vote for him,
and then he will pass away. Another
form of graft is that of the bank Off
cial, the officer in a financial institu-
ton who is influenced in the use of
the funds of the institution by any
reason other than the good of the in
stitution. Such a man is dangerous to
the community-as dangerous as the
political grafter-but we do not al
ways recognize him. His position is
SO high and his form of graft is so
insidiOus that it's existence Outlines
is not suspected until the explosion re-
sulting from his grating has injured
the community and made the man and
his practices notorious; but too late.
The dummy director of great COM
pany who dummyizes himself to pay,
whether by the year or by the job, who
uses his position to control the use
and disposition of other peoples
money for personal gain, is in no posi-
ton to criticize the clerk who falsifies
his accounts, or the employee who
embezzles.
souIese md Constituencies
The prac of doing things or per-
hitting thin 10 be done by men in
syndicates or as members Of cor
porate aggregation which the indi-
vidual would not do in his private life,
upon the theory that syndicate and
corporate morality is one thing, and
individual morality is another, results
in the total suppression of individual
honest and morality. The man who
inserts the plank in his theological be-
lief that@his corporate acts will be
judged by one standard and his indi-
vidual acts by another here or here
after, makes mistake. No man can
have two standards of morals, one for
his individual life, and the other for
his business life, without the inevita-
BILE result, that the baser standard
will prevail. AS man is in his bust
ness life so will he become in his nri- |