Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-20

right which have thus been revealed. pc"
| good deal. can be done by law to remedy
| the state Of things complained of. But
when all that can be has thus been done
| there will yet remain much which the law
cannot touch. and which must be reached
| by the force OF public opinion.
There are men who do not divide actions
merely into those that are honest and those
that are not. but create third subdyision-
\ that of law honesty. Of that kind of hon.
esty which consists In keeping clear or the
| penitentiary. 1t Is hard to reach astute
men OF this type save by making them feel
the weight of an honest public Indignation.
But this indignation, IL It is to be effective.
must be intelligent.
| 1t Is. of course. to the great advantage OF
dishonest men of wealth II they are de-
/ being wealthy. and IL they are denounced
in terms so overstrained and hysterieal as
to invite reaction In their favor.
| Only Distinction Among Men
We cannot afford in this country to draw
| the distinction as between rich man and poor
| man. The distinctiee uaon which must
| insist is the vital, de,p-lying, Interchangeable
| distinction between the honest man and the
| dishonest man, between the man who acts
| decently and fairly by his neighbor and
| with quick sense of his obligations and
| the man who acknowledges no internal law
! save that of his own will and appetite.
Above all. we should treat with a peculiar
ly contemptuous adherence the man who
| In spirit of sheer cynicism debauches
| either our business life or our political nfe
| There are men who use the phrase ..prac-
| teal politics" as merely euphemsm for
dirty politics and 1t is such men who have
| brought the word politician into DIS
| credit.
| There are other men who use the noxious
| phrase business Is business as an excuse
| and justification for every kind of mean
l x-npIy =, L.
| honest Americans hang their heads because
| of some of the things they do. 1t is the
cuty of every honest patriot to rebuke in
| emphatic fashion alike the politician who
| does not understand that the only kind of
| practical politics" which a nation can with
| safety tolerate is that kind which we know
| as clean politics, and that we are as severe
| IN our condemnation of the business trick
| cry which succeeds as of the business
| trickery which fails.
| The scoundrel who fails can never by any
| possibility be as dangerous to the COM
| munity as the scoundrel who succeeds; and
| OF all the men in the country. the worst
citizens. those who should excite in our
| minds the most contemptuous adherence
| are the men who have achieved great
wealth. or any other form of success in
| any save a clean and straightforward
manner.
| The Cotton Industry
So much for the general subjec' of In
ouoti idioH ANo"p just WOIu III TtItTeUc6
| to one of the great staples of this country,
which Is peculiarly staple of the southern
| states. OF course / mean cotton. l am
| glad to see Investigations of industry In
| the south, the growth of manufactures as
well as the growth of agriculture, and the
| growing growth OF diversifcation of crops
| In agriculture. Nevertheless it will always
| be true that in certain of the Sout hern
| 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 conse-
quence to the entire country. 1t 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 soft
| and climate of the south are such that she
| enjoys practical monopoly in the produce
ton of raw cotton.
No other clothing material can be ac-
cepted substitute for cotton. / well
| come the action of the planters In forming
| a cotton association. and every assistance
| shall be given them that can be given them
| by the national government Moreover, We
| must not forget that the work of the manu-
| facturers in the south supplements the
| work of the planter.
The Manufacturers Advantage.
| 1t is an advantage to manufacture the
| raw material here and sell to the world the
| finished goods. Under proper methods of
! distribution 1t may we'll be doubted whether
| there can be such a thing as overproduction
of cotton. Last years crop was nearly
| fourteen million bales, and yet the price
was sufficiently high to give a handsome
! profit to the planter The consumption of
| cotton increases each year, and new uses
| are found for It,
! This leads me to a matter of our foreign
relations, which directly concerns the cot
| ton planter. At present our market for
| cotton is largely in China. The boycott of
! our goods in China during the past year
| was especially Injurious to the cotton
| manufacturers. This government Is doing,
| and will continue to do. all it can to put a
! stop to the boycott. But there is one meas
| ure to be taken toward this end in which /
| shall need the assistance of the Congress.
| We must insist firmly on our rights; and
| China must beware of pers!sting in a
| course of conduct to which we can not hon.
| orably submit. But we In our turn must
| recognize our duties exactly as we insist
upon our rights. We can not go into the
| international court of equity unless we go
| in with clean hands. We can not expect
! China to do us justice unless we do China
| Justice The chief cause in bringing about
the boycott Of our goods in China was un-
| doubtedly our attitude toward the Chinese
| who come to this country.
The Chinese Boycott.
| This attitude of ours does not justify the
! action of the Chinese In the boycott and
| especially some of the forms which that
| action has taken. But the fact remains
| that In the past we have come shore Of our
| duty toward the people of China.
1t is our clear duty, in the interest of our
| own wage-workers. to forbid all Chinese
| or coolie class-that is, laborers, skilled or
| unskilled-from coming here. The greatest
| of all duties is national self-preservation,
| and the most important step in national
| self-preservatlon is to preserve In every
| way the well-beng of the wage-worker
| / am convinced that the well-being of our
| wage-workers demands the exclusion of the
| Chinese coolies, and it is therefore our
| duty to exclude them. just as 1t would be
! the duty of China to exclude American
| laboring men If they became in any way a
| menace to China by entering into her coun-
| try. The right is reciprocal, and in our
| last treaty with China 1t was explicitly
| recognized as inhering in both nations.
But we should not only operate the law
| with as little harshness possible. but
| we should show every courtesy and consid-
| Grafton and every encourag ement to all
| Chinese who are not of the laborilg class
| to come to this country.
| Every Chinese traveller or studert. basi-
| ness man or professional man, should be
| given the same right of entry to. and the
| same courteous treatment in. this country
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