The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-07-01
Informs Graduates That the
Real Deceivers, Grafters and
Men of the Most Dangerous
Stripe Found Among Edu-
Gated Men and Educated
Women.
Graft is Well Nigh Universal.
Its Most Common Form is
the Illicit Use of Power or
Authority Greatest Danger
F. Then is in the Man Rather
Than in the Corporation.

I
Then is in the Man Rather
Than in the Corporation.
=, musicians, or painters, to teach, to
preach, to write, to plead and to paint
] unsWerved by the tremendous influence
of the great majority, I should have
J done sufficient service for this day
But that is not my thought. What I
want to tell you must do If you are to
save yourselves and this country is
to avoid the pursuit of unearned
wealth, the accumulation of easy
money. That is graft. The man who
gets dollar without earning it does
| himself an injury and the world a
wrong Such a man is an abstractor.
He is not a producer. He seeks to sup
port himself by the sweat of another
mans brow. He first does himself an
| injury, because he disables himself He
! doses the ability to create, to produce,
! to earn. He becomes a CRATER And
he does the world wrong because the
! man who gets his neighbor's money
without earning it, without giving his
neighbor full return, is not only a rob-
Der; he makes the world a graft"
Danger No. 3.-Graft.
Graft is the advanced stage Of the
| craze for unearned money Primarily
! it is not SO much the desire to get
something for nothing, or, rather it is
not only the desire to get something
for nothing, but it is an attempt to
get something for the CRATER in con-
sideration of his| parting with some-
| thing that does not belong to him.
It Is wrong greater than that Of
the counterfeiter who merely makes
and passes counterfeit coin. The graft
er Is a man who robs the counterfeiter
who made the coin; the CRATER then
passes the spurious coin to the public
as genuine.
The CRATER is double william.
The essential element of graft is a
isbreachs Of trust. .5 S<, s - y d.. ..
t an iitsssal .s.aalHe
meet r III fts Various forms every
where. It's most common form, how
ever, is the illicit use of power or au-
thority The legislator who is in
f1uenced by the argument which ap-
peals to his pocket rather than to his
sense of civic obligation, pratices a
the community. The public is awakened
now to the danger of this man. We
know him; we understand him. Some
day, and none too soon, we shall re-
fuse to vote for him and then he will
pass away.
Another form Of graft is that of the
bank official, the officer in financial
institution who is Influenced in the use
of the funds of the institution by any
reason other than the good of the in
stitution. Such a man is dangerous to
the community-as dangerous as the
political grafter-but we do not always
recognize him. His position Is so high
and his form of graft is so insidious
that its existence ofttimes is not sus-
pected until the explosion resulting
from his grating has injured the COM
munity and made the man and his
practices notorious; but too late.
The director of a corporation who
directs the affairs of a company from
the viewpoint Of his own pocket rather
than from the standpoint of the stock
holders interest, although he may not
be indicted by a grand jury, Is none
the less a social highwayman.
The officer of company who is in
dividually or as member of a firm the
seller, and in his representative capac-
ity acts for his company, the buyer,
may be guilty of legal as we'll as a
moral crime.
And this crime Is common. It is an
everyday occurrence 1t is an ordi-
nary form of graft.
There is ground for the assertion
that because the men who do these
things are too high up, because they
have too much money and too much
influence back of them, their acts are
designated Operations" rather than
"crimes"; and as such they are ap-
plauded, not punished.
The dummy director of a great COM
pany who dummyizes himself for pay
whether by the year or by the job,
who uses his position to control the
use and disposition of other peoples
money for personal gain is In no posi-
ton to criticize the clerk who falsifies
his accounts or the employe who en-
bezzles Yet we all know of instances
where men have stolen a million have
sent to Jail employees who took only
hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Now whose fault is this? It is ours
1t is the fault of public opinion and
public opinion is our opinion, yours
and mine-yours of me, mine of you,
ours of all the rest. We have to learn
to recognize graft and the CRATER,
however respectable their Disguise
and to punish them, not alone by i'm
prisonment and fine, but with all the
might of the terrible scorn of society.
We have to recognize that the seeds
of socialism, anarchy and revolution
are sown by the man of our own class
and kind who pretends to be what he
is not; they the cultivated BY the bank
and the insurance officer, by the man
in power in financial organizations In
short by any. CRATER who nhis deal
@ings with the public departs openly or