Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1905-07-06
DenunCianOn and Ch8SHSemenf.


mencement exercises last week Pres
ident Roosevelt, in his plain yet
forcible style, among other things
had this to say relative to the rich
who evade the law and their lawyers
employed to aid them in doing so:
"This nation never stood IN greater
need than now Of having among its
leaders men of lofty idtals, which
they try to live up 10 and not merely
to talk OF. We need men with these
ideals in public life, aud We need
them Just as much in business ana
in such II profession as the law.
"A great many people in the ranks
OF life from which most college men
are drawn seem to forget that they
should condemn with equal severity
those men who break the law by
committing crimes Of mob violence,
and those who evade the law, or who
actually break it, but so cunningly
that they cannot be discovered, the
crimes they commit being not those
of physical outrage, but those of
greed and craft on the largest scale.
"The very rich man who conducts
his business as if lie believed that he
were a law unto himself, thereby i'm
mensely increases the difficulty of
the task of UNFOLDING order when
the disorder is Il menace To men Of
property; for If the community feels
that rich men disregard the law
where 1t affects themselves, then the
community il apt To assume the
dangerous and unwholesone atti-
tude of combining crimes of vio-
ests which IN the popular mind
these rich men represent.
I'VE have "A right to appeal to the
alumni of Harvard and to the alumni
of every institution of learning in
this Iaud, to do their part in creating
IA public sentiment which shall de-
maud Of all men of means, and es-
peciully Of the men Of vast fortune,
that they set an example to Il cir
scrupulpus heed not only to the let
ter hut TO the spirit of the laws and
by acknowledging in the heariest
fashion the moral obligations which
cannot be expressed in law, but
which stand hack and above all laws.
at is far more important that they
should conduct their business at-
fairs decently than that they should
spend the surplus of their fortunes in
philanthropy. Every man of great
wealth WHO runs his business with
cynical con apt for those prohibit
tons of the law which by hired cum
ming he can escape or evade, is n
menace to our community, and the
community is not to be excused If 1t
does not develop a spirit which
actively frowns on and dscounte-
nances him.
"The great profession of the law
should be that whose members ought
to take the lead in the creation of
Just such spirit. We all know that,
as things actually are, many of the
most influential and most highly re-
Enumerated members of the bar in
every center of wealth make it their
special task to work out bold and in
genious schemes by which their very
wealthy clients, individual or cor
porate, can evade the laws which are
made to regulate in the interest of
the public the use of great wealth.
Now, the great lawyer who employs
his talent and his learning in the
highly remuneratlyo task of enabl-
ing very wealthy client to over
ride or CirCumvent the law is doing
all that in him lies to encourage the
growth in this country Of a spirit of
dumb anger against all laws and of
disbelief in its efficacy. Such spirit
may hree. the demand that laws
shall be made even more drastic
against the rich, or else it may man
fest itself in hostility to all laws.
But together with devotion to
what is right must go practical eff
cheney in striving for what is right
There can be nothing worse for the
community than To have the men
who profess lofty ideals show them
selves so foolish, SO narrow, SO inn
practicable, as to cut themselves otf
from communion with the men who
are actually able TO do the work of
governing, the work of business, the
work of the professions 1t is a sad
and evil tijag If Jhu lne0 with Ii
moral sense group themselves as inn
practical zealots, while the men of
action gradually grow to discard and
laugh at all moral seNse as IN evil
denco Of impractical Weakness
Philadelphia s Mayor.
John Viewers life has its romance