The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-11-30

full scene. But please remember that il
this world every thought and every act il
a mixture of the good and the bad: anc
the one or the other shows the more prom
inently according to ones point of view
There probably isn't a criminal In an,
cell, anywhere, no matter what he may
say in sniveling pretense in the hope O.
lighter sentence. who doesn't at the
bottom of his heart believe his crime OF
crimes somehow ju~stifiahle--and who
couldn't make out a plausible case fol-
himself.
AT that time I was stuffed with the
arrogance of my fancied membership In
the caste of directing financial geniuses;
L was looking at everything from the
viewpoint of the brotherhood of which
Roebuck was the strongest brother. and
of which l imagined myself a full and
equal member. l did not, / could not,
blind myself to the vivid reminders of his
relentlessness; but 1 knew too we'll how
necessary the iron hand and the fxed
purpose are to great affairs to Judge him
as Infatuated Walters, with his vanity
savagely wounded, was Judging him. 1d
as soon have thought of describing Gen
eral Grant as a murderer, because he
ordered the battles in which men were
killed or because he planned and led the
campaigns in which subordinates COM
mftted rapine and pillage and assassina-
ton. L did not then see the radical differ
ence-did not realize that while Grants
work was at the of patriotism
and necessity, there was no necessity
whatever for Roebucl's getting rich but
the command of his own greedy and cruel
, appetites.
Don't misunderstood me. My morals are
practical, not theoretical. Men must die,
old customs embodied in law must be
broken. the venal must be bribed and the
weak cowed and compelled, in order that
Ia ft-;Jiv n tfAy, m, W.
tabish a railway or a great industrial
system by rose-water morality. Blu 1
shall show, before 1 finish, that Roebuck
and his gang of so called "organizers of
industry" bear about the same relation to
industry that the boil weevil bears to the
cotton crop.
III withdraw this, If one can
show me that, as the result of
the activities of those parasites,
anybody anywhere is using or is able to
use q single pound or bushel of yard moro
oil any commodity whatsoever. I'll with
draw 1T, if 1 can not show that but for
those parasites, bearing precisey the same
relation to our society that the kings and
mobiles and priests bore to France before
the revolution, everybody except them
would have more goods and more money
than they have under the system the en-
apies these parasites to ~overshadow the
highways of with their strong
NOES and TO clog them with their toll
gates. They know little about producing,
about manufacturing. about distributing,
ABOUT any process of industry. Their skill
is IN temptation, in trickery and in terror.
On that day, however, \ sid~ed-honesuy,
as L thought-with Roebuck. What I saw
ana heard increased my admiration of the
man, my already profound respect for his
master mind. And when, just after Wal
ters went out, he leaned back in his chair
ana sat silent with closed eyes ard NOV
lips, Ives. I, Matt Blackjack, Black
Matt as they call me-was awed in the
of this great and good man at
How he and hat God of his must have
laughed at me! So infatuated was I that,
Clear as it is that he'd never have let me
De present at such a scene without a
stIoHS ulter-or motive, not until he him
sen long afterward made it impossible for
me TO deceive myself did I penetrate to his
teai purpose-that he wished to fill me
a prudent dread and fear OF him
a sense of the absoluteness of his
power and of the hopelessness of trying to
it. But at the time I thoupb+-
lmoecile thai my vanity had made meat
the time 1 thought he had let meat
present because he genuinely liked. adj
mired and trusted me!
is III not amazing that one who could fall
INTO such colossal blunders should SIR
we to tell OF them? I would not have
had not Roebuck and his crowd
oeen at the same time making an even
more colossal misestimate Of me than
making of them. My attack was yio-
lent, but temporary; theirs was equally
violent. and chronic and incuraple to boot.