Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1905-10-21
decently.
Revelations Shock Our People.

Revelations Shock Our People.
The conscience Of our people ha
been deeply shocked by the reyela
tions made of recent years as to tht
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 a 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 | hope that a good deal,
can be done by law to remedy the state
of things complained of. aEut w1en
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 VINO do not divide ac-
tiOns merely into those that are hon
est and those that are not, but create
third ub-divisiOn-that of law hon.
esty; of that kind of honesty whicl
consists in keeping clear of the peni-
tentiary. 1t is hard to reach astute
men of this type save by making them
feel the weight of an honest public in
dignation. But this indignation, if it
| is to be effective, must 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 de-
nOunced in terms so OVerstrained and
! hysterical as to invite a reaction in
| their favor. We con not afford in
this country to draw the distinction
! as between rich man and poor man.
The distinction upon which we must
insist is the vital, deep-lying, unchange-
able distinction between the honest
man and the dishonest man, between
the dishonest man, between the man
VINO acts decently and fairly by his
neighbor and with quick sense of his
obligations, and the man who acknowl-
edges no internal law save that of his
own will and appetite. Above all we
should treat with a peculiarly con-
| temptuous adherence the man who in
a spirit of sheer cynicism debauches
| either our business life or our political
| life. There are men who use the
| phrase practical politics" as merely
an euphemism for dirty politics, and
| it is such men who have brought the
word politician" into discredit. There
|
| phrase business is business" 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 rebuke in en-
| phatic fashion alike the politician who
| does not understand that the only kind
| of practical politics" which a nation
| can with safety tolerat els that kind
| which we know as clean politics, and
that we are as severe in our condemn
| alton of the business trickery which
| succeeds as of the business trickery
| which fails. The scoundrel who fails
| all the men in the country, the worst
! citizens, those who should excite in
| our minds the most contemptuOu sob
horrence, are the men who nave
form of success, in any save a clean
| and straightforward manner.
Remarks About Our Great Staple.
So much for the general subject of
| industrialism. Now, just a word in
reference to one of the great staples
of this country, which is peculiarly a
staple of the southern states. OF course
/ mean cotton. / am glad to see di-
versifcations of industry in the south,
| the growth of manufactures as we'll as
the growth of agriculture, and the
| growing growth Of diversiication of
crops in agriculture. Nevertheless
| it will always be true that in certain
| of the southern states cotton will be
the basis of the wealth. the mainstay
of prosperity in the future as in the
| past. The cotton crop is of enormous
consequence W the 6uIlE6 country. II
was the cotton crop of the south that
! brought four hundred million dollars
of foreign gold into the United States
| last year, turning the balance of trade
| in our favor. the soil and climate OF
| the south are such that she enjoys a
practical monopoly in the production OF
raw cotton. No other clothing mate
| rial can be accepted as a substitute for
| cotton. | welcome the action of t
| planters in forming a cotton associa-
ton, and every assistance shall be Civ
en- them by the national government
Moreover, we must not forget that the
work Of the manufacturers in the south
is an advantage to manufacture the
| raw material here and sell to the world
| the finished goods. Under proper
methods of distribution it may well be
| doubted whether there can be such a
| thing as overproduction of cotton Last
years crop was nearly fourteen mil
| lion bales, and yet the price was suf.
| ficiently high to give handsome prof
| it to the planter. The consumption Of
cotton increases each year, and new
uses are found for it,
| Well Known Journalist Dead.
Richmond, Mo, Oct. 20.-Colonel
1 Jacob I, Childress, a we'll known Mis-.
1 SOuri inurna a1iCt who bo1d ~ ..1.:4.