Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1906-07-23
CALAMITY HOWLERS
some VERY DISTINGUISHED GEN.
TLEMEN NOW AT 1T.
Eminent Men in All Walks of Life
Condemn the Prevalence of Seek
ing for Graft. Notes of Warning
From Distinguished Sources, Not
From Democrats or POpuIiStS.

Only a few years ago men who COM
planned OF the tendency in this country
toward corporation domination and in
Justice generally to the masses, were de-
nounced as calamity howlels." But all
the complaints made by democrats
popu!ists or Independents in 1896 would
not compare with the complaints now
registered by men OF AL political parties
against the grave conditions with which
the people are confronted, conditions
everywhere recognized as menace to
popular government.
From every source where the American
system is respected, comes words OF
warning to the American people that
they must arouse themselves if they
would not lose all that is worth having
in republic. 1t is noticeable, too, that
some of the strongest notes of warning
are sounded in this day by men who
only few years ago were denouncing as
"calamity howlers" those men who fore.
saw conditions with which America is
now face to face.
Of course newspaper readers have OBJ.
served that these protests from thinking
men are coming thick and last, but one
is better able to understand the widei
spread feeling OF fear for the safety OF
our institutions when looking over sim
gle copy Of daily newspaper he com
piles these notes of warning from differ
ent sources.
AS hint along this line, the following
extracts concerning recent instances will
be interesting:
Jacob. Gould Schurmann, speaking at
s Cornell University said: "The idle rich
aseAsAAsssescence in any properly organ.
lied community. And in democratic re-
public, in which every man hi vote, be
assured that the righa which conven-
I con grants to properf 9ould be swept
away if the propertied asses become
idle, luxurious. selfish. hard. .hearted and
Indifferent to the struggles and tolls of
less fortunate citizens. The vice of the
age is that men. want wealth without
undergoing that Toll by which alone
wealth is created ,ths love Of money
I and the reckless pursuit Of II is under.
pining thgnational character, But the
nation, thank God, Is beginning to per-
{eive the fatal danger. The reaction
caused by recent revelations testiffes TO
ia moral awakening At heart the nation
I is still sound, thoughts moral sense has
been too long hypnotized by material
prosperity. We must restrain the brutal
and predatory pursuit OF wealth by laws
! tor the protection OF the weak and for
Z the equalzing Of opportunity.
"Among the rich and well-to.d do bust.
ness and professional classes grating
) has been SO common that the very idea
of commerciaism has become byword
and reproach. Financiers, capitalists,
corporations may be the most conspicu-
Gus. sinners; but equally guilty is the
merchant who cheats Ills customers, or
the lawyer whQ shows, his client how to
circumvent the laws, or the scholar who
glorifies his~patron's success in business
irrespective Of the methods by which
that success was achieved, or the preach.
ers who transfgures the ruthless op.
pressor and robber OF six days into the
| exemplary Christian of the seventh.
"We are dealing with the viris of
universal infection. The whole nation
needs neNsbaptism OF the old virtue of
honesty. The love of money and the
efeckless pursuits Of it are undermining
[the national character"
Stewart l.. Woodford was the orator at
the Northwestern University commence
ment. Mr.. Woodford was the American
minister to Spain, prior to the Spanish.
American war. In his address he said :;
1T is not in the slum, the tenement
house, the fetid atmosphere OF the places
where the poor half live that anarchy
and socialism are bred. 1t is the way
hat you and l treat the poor, the way
we spend our money, make use of our
money, the disregard of law on the part
great corporations, the business prn-
Fiple that might make right that fosters
hese creeds and endangers the state.
"The rich man who uses the influence
his wealth to evade the law ia above
II Others in the community traitor to
he best interests OF our land. Upon the
ich falls the heaviest responsibility for
pholding the law. Their wealth has
cen earned under the law, and is secured
them by law.
Corporations exist as creatures Of the
lw; they have no natural, no inevitable
ersonal existence. They exist for the