The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-10
The Real Rate Question.

II is a most disqueting Inconsistency
this which makes possible a pursuit OF
guilty corporations so passionate ana
radical in It's character as 10 disturb
the very foundations of the Government
and at the same time invites to seat
in the Cabinet a man who il the very
impersonatlon of the law breaking and
law deryng element among the corpora
lions themselves Itisa mos discourage
ing spectacle
We indulge in no special criticism OF
the Secretary Of the Navy He is per-
haps no better, and no worse than his
opportunities and environment. There
were others than he concerned and i'm
plcatcd in the nefarous proceedings
that have been unveiled and which are
of the type that has so aroused MIR
RoosEyEI1'S resentment, the type of
the criminal rebate
This, in all humility we regard rs the
blacklist offence of our time against the
body polite Stringent laws there are
a-plenty to repress and punish IT, but
there is no one to enforce them. In
stead, we are urged with frantic and
unseemly haste TO enact other laws of
sweeping and revolutionary effect, to
pass them in whirlwlnd OF popular
thoughtlessness and passion when we
are blind to their ominous import
For our part we are thankful that the
Senate has not lost its reserve or its
dignity, that it retains its character as a
81 thf.
ment, and that it will not cast aside it's
traditions as a tribunal of delberatlon
and permit itself to be swept away by
any wave of fictitious clamor. 1t Will
be an evil day for the American people
when the Senate brings upon itself the
reproach and obloquy achieved yester-
day by the House of Representatives
How much more useful and inspiring
a spectacle it would be if the President,
out of his great power coupled with the
plain reading of the law, should send
even one railroad malefactor 10 Jail
Why not probe the very case that wears
30 domestic an aspect? Why not deter
mine what were the nature and charac-
ter of the rebates given. not by the Secre-
tary OF the Navy-his person is sacred
but by the officials of his railroad? What
interest did those officials personally own
and hold in the beneficiary Of those Grim
inal rebates? How much of the rebates
came back to the grantors Of those re-
bates by reason of their, the grantors
stockholding in the grantee? Let the
public have n glimpse of the real anatomy
of the various and several transactions
and of the distinguished personages in
volved in them. and we warrant il will
be more Of an illumination and of more
practical benefit than a hundred such
discreditable manifestations as that
which the House furnished yesterday.
Besides, no thoughtful and prayerful
observer would be sobered by the renec-
ton that the action of the House and the
influences leading thereto were very
much in the nature OF cuttefsh cloud
of ink and mighty obscuring To the public
perception
The public is like to be disheartened at
the whole performance. It would be far
more impressed by the enforcement Of
q law than by the passage of law, and
it would tighten mems hearts TO see n
railroad offender invited into the dock
instead of into the Cabinet of the Presi-
dent Of the United States.