The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-25

Replying to q pessimistic correspond ent who seems to think the entire coun. try is going to wreck on account oi some recent disclosures, The New Hn' ven Register says:
 We admit. as of course. we must, that the situation Is q serious and deplora, bie one. Well may men sit down ant think harder than they ever thought even though the, chances are favorable for a safe return to the port of homes, dealing. Their confidence has weak ened and in their despair they ask, as our correspondent dces, are there any honest men left? We answer without the sli ghtest hesitation that the ma for ity of men are as honest today as they were honest, ten. twenty or more wears ago The great mass of the people are at work as they have always been al work. and in their private lives they have been exemplary.
 It must be admitted that facts which have been brought out in connection with banks. with insurance companies and in many departments of govern ment, national, State and municipal, have been discouraging and might have shaken the faith Of people in the hon. esty of officials, both public and pri- vate. Whether we have fallen on an era of graft and corruption in all their varied forms. or whether dishonesty comes something like epidemics do, we are not prepared to say, but the pres ent has the appearance of being a special visitation of rsscality.
 If this venality and corruption were confined to the insurance companies, or eye1 to the banking institutions of the counry, we might take heart of grace and lay 1t to the temptati ms that beset men who handle large sums of money and who believe they can enrich them- selves without being found out, but that is not the case. The same microbe of thievery, bribery and corruption is to be found among officials and law makers In various sections of the Union. Some of the high oflcials of the dis credited insurance companies explained that many thousands of dollars had been spent in Albany in order, as they claimed. to prevent the ensction of un- favorable legislation. In plain words, they had to buy members of the LeKls- lature to Keep them from passing laws which might have made it harder to rob the people. Nor is New York alone in thie disreputable business. The Pittsburg (Pa.) Post says that 1t "has been source of wonder to many unso- phist: cated citizens why some of the legislators should 90 to Harrisburg poor and that in q short time after wards they should become owners of real estate and capitalists. The reve- lations now being made concerning the large expenditures of the insurance companies for influencing Legislation will help to answer such questions. The people of Pennsylvania and of all the States should insist upon making it a heavy offense for any corporation to pay out any money for campaign pur- poses, or for the influencing of legis- lation or the conduct of any public off, ficial. Further than that, however. they should take pains to elect only honest men as legislators and State ofl- cials, for in this way alone can real reform be assured"
 It Is not very difficult for a legislator to become a capitalist if he can always get his price, and in both New York ana Pennsylvania there seem to have hAan plenty of men who were ready to sell out and plenty of others standing ready to buy them. and in other States of tha