Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-07-29
TILE PLEA OF THE PTRATEs
forsronlan edltorlal.l

(Oregonian editorial.)
Had Governor l. Toilette made the
nar1s remark few years ago which he
made at Galesburg the other day, he
uvould have been numbered thenceforth
amspE ineendiary anarchists. 81
shonld like,'' said the governor, "to
have hand in hanging stuyvesant
Fish. - The nation does not shudder;
it merely wonders why Mr.. La Fol
Ictte uhouid limit his sanguinary i'm
pulse 30 Stuyvesant Fish out Of the
great multitude who are ripe for the
halter. Indeed, very audible sigh
Of regret aseends from the American
people that the belligerent rerormor
cannot proceed from the wish to it's
KnlhIlmeni. Nevertheless Stuyvesant
Fish is great mar aad Mrs. Stuyves-
ant Fish is something more than a
great lady. He is president Of the
Illinois Central railroad and she has
declined to be the wife Of the presi-
dent OF the United States. To bo
sure, she declined without being ASH.
cd, but II is tho feeling Of the heart,
we must remember, that counts, not
ths external circumstances.
Later, and at Chautauqua assem-
bly,, too, where incendiary utteranees
must fall upon the timidly correct
congregations, one would suppose, like
n band OF pirates upon a nunnery, Mr..
Ia Toilette violently denounced that
pillar OF the church, the college and
society, John ID. Rockefeller. II isI
added in the account that what he
said was appiauded. Trifiing in them
selves, such facts as these are far
from trivial when they must be TAX
en- as symptoms Of n profound ethical
revolution In the nation. They are
the surface waves which tell some
thing OF deep disturbance in the
OCEAN Of society. II is not unlikely
that the American people are feeling
Just now the initial STRINGS Of n tre-
mendous revival. Not a revival of &C.
elesiastieism, or Of any kind Of fetich
worship, but Of vital and efficient
Tighteousness. That this is coming
there are many signs. The enduring
Of President Roosevelt,
who is righteous man In the sense
of Matthew Arnold and the Hebrew
is ono sign. II is another,
most ominous for evildoers in high |
places, that the wrath OF the people |
against them does not burn itself out. |
The public does not weary Of the con
tinnous food Of exposure and denun.
citation in the newspapers As people
waken TO the meaning Of II, they are
fascinated and enraged. They are
stricken with the wholesome, old
fashioned convictions OF sin, not in
the grafters only, but in themselves.
A whole nation Is crying, ''Lord, be
mer>iful unto as miserable sinnersh
The belief is coming home to all Of
rs that II Riogenes were 90 set out
with his candle today to and an hon
est man, he would be still less success
f0i than he was in Athens 1000 years
ago. The nation sickens OF its moral
nth.
How will II fare with pillars of so
ciety like Fish and Rockefeller in that
day Of wrath which seems to be at
handf No sane person looks for a
bloody, and, possibly, richly deserved,
rotribution upon these mem but there
Is going TO be a fearful coming to
Judgment Of some Sort What can
they say In their defensei They can
eay, FOR one thing, that they are symp-
toms, rather than causes, OF the ma
tional disease, Rockefeller can sue
eessfully plead In reply 10 Miss Tar
bell, for example who indiets him
again In the August MeClure's that
ne has not made the nation dishonest
but, rather, that the dishonesty Of the
sation gave him his opportunity to