Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1905-11-30

h~eedlessness and disregard of the
duties Of trusteeship. Searching
Investigations and hints Of legal per-
suasion have already resulted in the
restitution Of large sums rightfully
belonging to n Of these companies
and nearly all who were directors
at the time Of the misfeasances
occurred have been summoned into
court to give IN account OF their
stewardship.
The recital thus made, showing
a ctivity and certainty of punishment
correction and restitution, where
specific wrongful acts have affected
the public, or other wildly extended
interests, furnishes pregnant evil
dence that no adverte conditions
thus far developed havs weaken the
strength and residence of American
character.
An army of teachers in our schools
and colleges are, by their lives of
selfsacrificing and conscientious
devotion to the cause of education,
making unremitting protest against
prevailing selfishness and ~avarice,
and are, by example as well as pre-
cept, teaching the young men or our
generation the worth of patriotism
and intellectual living as against the
sordidness and soul blight of on
s~cienceless Accumulation.
For many thousand pulpits
throughout the land is ceaselessly
enforced the inspired assurance,
better is a little with righteousness
than great reverence without right"
accompanied by solemn warnings
against the covetousness and sinful
intent which disregard the moral
law and violate the golden rule.
The extent and acceptance of these
truths and warnings give encourage
ment and assurance that the worship
of the golden calf is by no means
dangerously universal. 1t was only
very lately that those interested III
the spread of the gospel in heather
lands engaged in a spirited discus
sion. touching the propriety of
accepting in aid of their work a con
tribution from funds acquired by
questionable business methods. 1t
is possible that the expression
tainted money, which had its birth
in this discussion, originated in a
somewhat franciful idea, but in
American Technology it will always
suggest the moral sensitiveness and
redemptive qualities of American
character.
1t would be an inexcusiable folly
to assume that there are no destruc-
tive germs in our national atmo-
sphere. As a vitiated environment
may undermine the strongest con
stitution, SO unwholesome moral con
dition in our social, political and
business surroundings cannot be neg
lected without inviting perlious
enfeeblement of our national strength
and vigor.
The dangers we have most to fear
are not those which arise from the
sudden attack and palpable and
discoverable wrongs, nor yet those
arising from the deleterious infu-
ence of false Standards of conduct
which are open to patriotic watch
fulness. They are, instead, those
which are the progeny Of a stealthy
and insidious growth which little by
little poisons the atmosphere and
distorts the moral vision.
We need have no quarrel with
wealth. In a country Offering such
boundless opportunities as ours its
accumulation cannot be sorbidden
nor its opportionment decreed. We
should not, however, be unmindful
of the fact that the getting of riches
is apt to lead to the adoption Of a
code of morals which though suited
to its purpose does not furnish the
best guarantee of national security
and the general welfare and happi-