The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-29
COMMANDMENTS.
Editor Of McClure's Gives Some
Plain Talk.
BOOdIers and Grafters Should
Be Called by Right Names.
ROB THE PUBLIC TILL.
Bribery Is Corrupting the
Fountains Of Justice.
Rate Discrimination the Source
of Business Monopoly:

Kansas City. No. oct. 2s.-"If
boodlers were called simply thieves
and grating was called Stealing
much good would result" said S. S.
Mcclure, editor of AfcCIure's maya
zine, this morning. Mr.. Mcclure Is in
Kansas City to join A. E. stIlweu's
party to Mexico.
Through the ages the meaning of
the words thief and steal have never
been furnished" Mr. Mcclure con-
tinued. The popular meaning Of
many words change, but a thief has
always been a man who stole. And
the boodlers and grafters are simply
| thieves and they merely steal. The
machine in Philadelphia which com
bined with the gas company and set
out TO steal a hundred million dollars
from that city We're simply thieves
and what they did was plain stealing.
II the words Doodle and graft were
put out of business and the words
thief and stealing brought back it
would be great gain.
Some years ago a Missouri judge
said that bribery was a conventional
crime. and think that people do not
realize the terrible nature of bribery
/ even yet. The briber is a man who
/ degrades another mans soul, who de-
stroys another mans conscience for
1 the sake of robbing a third party.
/ That is, for the sake of making some
money out of town a man viii bribe
an official. He destroys this mans
moral nature. he degFades the man
/ so that he may rob from the third
I party, which is the town. Jesus said
! once that it were better for a man TO
/ have a milestone hanged to his neck
and to be cast into the sea than to
/ offend one of His little ones. Every
/ briber does the thing which Jesus
| said were better for him to have a
milestone hanged to his neck and he
be cast into the sea than to do. He
! n Fla4r 70 e-r-
merely for the sake of making some
money.
There are two methods of making
money that are equally horrible. One
is by that which results in the degrade
ton of the souls of both men and
women, and the other is by bribery.
A burglar, who breaks into q bank
and robs the bank commits a lesser
crime than man who enters into a
conspiracy with officials and robs, be-
cause in such a conspiracy he de-
/ grades the souls of the officials. There
are two fields in which bribery Is en-
! ployed where the results are the most
serious: One is when public officials
| or city or state officers enter into
conspiracy for the purpose OF robbing
| the city or state, and the reason why
| bribery is so terrible here is that not
Il only does the briber destroy these
mems conscience, but destroys con-
1 sciences of men whose duty 1t Is to
make laws, thereby corrupting the
very IOunuduOn OF 3uSIlCS.
ct can easily be seen that the
crimes of such men produce more
terrible results than men who bride
the officials of bank to rob the bank.
Again, the other most terrible
method is where men bribe or by
other means compel the officials of
/ railroads to grant special privileges to
them and because these special privi-
leges result in enabling a very few
people to nIonopolize whole industries.
Any man with special privileges with
the railroads can get the property of
all his competitors who have not these
privileges. Nearly thirty years ago
there were twenty-six oil rehneries in
! Cleveland, o. One man got special
privileges and within six weeks they
NEARLY all went out of existence. The
I others either became bankrupt or sold
out at a very small price or became
| partners in thievery in other parts of
the United States
yet we are told that this was mere
/ ~ business. Some go so far as to say
it was grating. But suppose that
everyone spoke of it as plain stealing
and of the men who did it as plain
thieves! Don't you think that would
have deterrent effect2"