Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-08-12
Country Growing Better, Not Worse.

So much about graft" and "frenZied
finance" has been in the newspapers of
late that many writer's and speakers
have adopted a discouraged and
pessimistic tone. evidently driven
to the belief that the increasing
wealth and prosperity Of the
country have sapped public morals
and that the unhappy day is upon us
when public and private honesty is the
exception rather than the rule. These
persons should take off their blue glass
es and look at the sunshine instead OF
the shadow.
They should also look back into his
tory. and they will find numerous oc-
casions in the past when corruption on
a great scale was brought to light. ev-
en- in these times which people are
wont to refer to, as "the good old days
when the republic walked in ways that
were simple and severe.
II is not so much that graft or cor
ruption or fraud is rampant now in
public service, as that those guilty of
dishonest practices are being relent-
lessIy pursued and fearlessly punished
to the full extent of the law. Among
the thousands and thousands of public
servants, there are always some and Of
ten many who are dishonest but it is
probable that there are no more such
now than there were a decade ago or
half a century ago. 1t is a time how
ever. in national and municipal politics
when these corruptionists are being
mercilessly brought to light and prose-
cuted. We are witnessing a revival of
honesty, not boom of graft. The
public is less tolerant of rascality and
grafters than it used to be, and the
administration of Theodore Roosevelt
is running the government more hon.
estly than it was ever run before.
Back in the e-bellum days. there
was vastly more corruption in our ma
tional government. and it was largely
due to the fragrant dishonesty and to
widespread betrayaIs of trust in high
places that the South was enabled to be
so well prepared for the Civil War. Even
back in the times when Jackson was
President, there were defalcations in
the custom service. and stealings in the
post Office department which were
much larger in proportion to the
amount of business done than anything
known in this generation. The country
was poorer then, but Americans were
not more honest than today: in fact
they we're less honest then. and the
scandals exposed at that time did not
excite the general popular Indignation
that much smaller offences do today.
Undoubtedly, the business morals of
many financiers are not what they
should be, and disclosures regarding
certain insurance methods and fren-
zied finance in general show that there
is still need of a higher moral code in
business than now prevails. But there
is nothing like the "wildcat bank" in
dustry which was carried on so extern
sively i'm the earlier times. and there is
now no fear that states or municipal-
ties will repudate their bonds as used
to be done. The whiskey frauds of a
generation ago cost the government
much more than any frauds which have
been practiced upon it in recent years.
and yet the guilty men got out of it
much more easily than they would to-
day. There was no such general de-
mand for investigation of the whiskey
fraud, as there would be- today, were
such conspiracy to be exposed. Pub
lie and private morals are higher now
than they were at that time. There
will be still higher moral code pre-
vailing in the next generation. and a
still higher one a century hence. The
world is growing better and mankind
is more honest. Wealth is accumulat-
ing. but men are not decaying.