The Colorado statesman., 1906-04-21
NEED MUCK RAKE
BUT REFoRMERS MUST ALWAYS
BE TRUTHFUL.
THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS
Deals With Greed, Dishonesty and Cor
ruption-WouId Curb Excessive For
tunes by Progressive Taxation.

tunes by Progressive Taxation.
Washington.-The laying of the cor
erstone of the office building for the
house of representatives with solemn
Masonic ceremonies Saturday after
noon was made notable by the pres
ence of the President of the United
States and many of the Cabinet, by
the Supreme Court, by the representa-
tives of foreign governments, by Con-
gress and large proportion Of Wash
ington's population.
A number of ladies were on the
Presidents stand, among them being
Mrs. Roosevelt, Mrs. Nicholas Long
worth, Mrs. Cowles, sister of the
President, and Mrs. Fairbanks. Upon
the arrival of the grand lodge of
Masons of the District of Columbia,
with Walter A. Brown, grand master,
at their head, the ceremony of laying
the cornerstone began.
A hermetically sealed box con-
tanning and inside copper box with
glass top was then placed in position
so that the stone would completely
envelop it. The box contained numer-
Gus articles, books, pictures, auto
graphs, etc.
After music and an address by
Grand Master Brown, the President
was Introduced by Speaker Cannon
and delivered an address on THE
Muck Rake Brigade" saying:
I'm Pilgrims Progress the man
with the muck rake is set forth as the
example of him whose vision is fixed
on carnal instead of on spiritual
things. Yet he also typifies the man
who in this life constantly refuses to
see aught that is lofty, and fixes his
an,
that which is vile and debasing.
Now it is very necessary that we
should not finch from seeing what is
vile and debasing. There is filth on the
floor, and it must be scraped up with
the muck rake; and there are times
and places where this service is the
most needed of all services that can
be performed.
But the man who never does any
thing else, who never thinks or
| speaks or writes, save of his feats
with the muck rake, speedily becomes
not help to society not an Indictment
| to good but one of the most potent
forces for evil.
There are in the body polite, eco
| nomic and social, many and grave
| evils, and there is urgent necessity for
| the sternest war upon them.
lnGTt Dt ItlOhlleoo cApOouiC
| of, and attack upon every evil man,
whether political or business man.
every evil practice, whether in politics.
| in business or in social life. / hail as
| benefactor every writer or speaker,
| every man, who on the platform, or in
| book, Magazine or newspaper, who
| with merciless severity makes such at
tack, provided always that he in his
turn remembers that the attack is OF
use only if it is absolutely truthful.
'"The liar is no whit better than the
thief, and if his mendacity takes the
form of slander, he may be worse than
| most thieves.
ct puts a premium upon knavery
untruthfully to attack an honest man,
! or even with hysterical exaggeration to
assail a bad man with untruth. An
| epidemic of indiscriminate assault
upon character does no good, but very
| great harm. The soul of every scoun-
! drel is gladdened whenever an honest
man is assailed, or even when a scoun-
drel Is untruthfully assailed.
cat this moment we are passing
| through a period of great unrest-so-
cial, political, and industrial unrest.
| 1t is of the utmost Importance for our
| future that this should prove to be
not the unrest of mere RIGHTEOUSNESS
against life, of mere dissatisfaction
with the inevitable inequality of condi-
tions, but the unrest of resolute and
eager ambition to secure the better
ment of the individual and the nation.
so far as this movement of agita-
tion throughout the country takes the
| form of fierce discomfort with evil,
whether in industry or politics, the
| feeling is to DE heartily welcomed as
| n sign of healthy life
'It is important to this people to
! grapple with the problems connected
with the amassing of enormous for
tunes, and the use of these fortunes.
| both corporate and individual, in busi-
ness. We should discriminate in the
| sharpest way between fortunes we'll
| won and fortunes ill won; between
| those gained as an incident to perform
| ing a great service to the community
as a whole, and those gained in evil
| fashion by keeping just within the linn
| it's of mere law-honesty.
"Of course no amount of charity in
spending such fortunes in any way
| compensates for misconduct in maxi
ing them.
"As a matter of personal conviction
and without pretending to discuss the
details, or formulate the system, feel
| that we shall ultimately have to
consider the adoption of some such
scheme as that of a progressive
tax on all fortunes beyond a certain
amount, either given in life or devised
or bequeathed upon death, to any in
| dividual-a tax so framed as to put it
| out of the power of the owner of one
| of these enormous fortunes to hand
on more than certain amount to any
one individual; the tax, of course, to
be imposed by the national, and not
| Che state government.