The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-03
GOV. FOLK SPEAKS
DEMOCRATIC BANQUET AT IOWA
 CAPITOL.
Says the Party Must Carry on The Fight of The People. Against Graft and
 CorruptiOu.

Des Moines. Iowa, April 2.-Governor Folk of Missouri was the chief speak CT at the Jefferson banquet tonight under the auspices of the Iowa Demo- cratic Club Governor Folk, respond ing to the subject Good government, spoke in part as follows:
 We are in the midst of one of the most dramatic periods of American his tory, the period in which the peoples rights are to be defined and observed as. they never have been before. There are some who see danger to our insti- tutions in the agitations resulting from the exposures in official and business life. I do not share this view. To my mind, the hope for the perpetuity of | this Government by the people was never brighten than now. The fact that this awakening has come at time of unusual prosperity. shows that it does not proceed from a spirit of discomfort, but springs from the moral sense of the people. It is simply de- termination to stamp out the things that dshonor in public life and the
 things that oppress In private life--a firm resolve that Government shall be representative of the good, not of the bad.
 The energies of this public con science have been extended from the
 domain of the public wrong-doer to that of the private wrong-doer, and probing into the carvings on of graft
 CTS of every kind. It is not insurance companies the people complain of. but the breaches of trust on the part of some of those running the insurance
 companies; the people understand these things and know that while some in
 surance people and some bankers are crooked just as some oftcials are
 crooked, it does not follow that all in-
 surance men or all bankers and off cials are without honor. The people are dis
 eliminating between the good and the bad. This movement against grant is not a crusade against wealth, but against the abuses whereby some ob- tain great wealth. It is a demand for common honesty in public life and private business.
 No man that is doing an honest busi- ness need fear the arousing of the con- science of the people against wrongs. The distinguishing characteristic of this crusade for higher ideals is the con- servatism of the people. They do not oppose riches honestly acquired, but they do object to special privileges out of which tainted riches grow.
 The agitation against ill-gotten gains does not mean a rabid socialism or the destruction of vested rights Of any one The man who would retard ltS lIluuSlIId utNSicPhNIeS '' as much a public enemy as he who would oppress the people beneath the golden heel of monopoly
 The cry Is not for socialism or an archy. but that the corporation mag nate respect the law that governs the conduct of the corporation as he asks others to respect the law that protects the property of the corporation The anarchy of capital breeding lawlessness is no more to he tolerated than the an archy of labor breeding riot and dis order This Government does not rest. | either upon the idle rich or the idle poor, but upon the energy and patri- | otism of the middle classes. This is the class that suffers under the reign | of special privileges. Men may acquire wealth hy any form of lawlcssness or graft. but it is the wealth of the buc- cancer and the pirate and not that ob- tained through natural means
 The elimination of special prlVi- leges is the great question before the people of this country-the railroad re- bate special privilege; the tarin so ar ranged as to give special privilege and create monopoly. and every special priv ilcge founded on graft. There is room in this country for only two great po- liticai parties Our form of govern mcnt naturally makes one the party of
 special privileges and the other the party of equal rights; one the party ot the classes, tEe other the party ot tne masses No CTander mission can De m
 store for ji,r Democratic party than
 to continue tho fight for the rule of the
 people against graft and special privl-
 lego Clothed in the armor of a right eous cause. the attack of Democracy
 upon the citidel of graft and monopoly if aggressive enough for just tfl-
 umph in tho end fc" the principles ot
 true Democracy, are enduring because they are just and invincible because
 they are right