The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-05-09
GREAT FORTUNES.

President Roosevelt surprised the
country by declaring that check must
be put upon the great fortunes. says the
Advance. His proposition has been
promptly met by the question, how are
YOU going to prevent men from making
big money without interfering with
their natural constitutional rights?
But there is a question which comes
before this and when it is settled 1T
may be found that there is not much
left of the other question. Have men
been making these vast fortunes in
strict accordance with natural or con-
stitutional rights? If they have not.
it will put no strain on their right to
check their huge fortune building.
few years ago a prominent gentle
man declared that no man could hon
estly accumulate a million dollars. His
assertion was thought somewhat ex-
IRENE Grant that it was, nevertheless
II Is uOuUtlul WutlIcI d uOAoh PCOPiS
in this country really believe that such
fortunes as those of the Standard Oil
Earring some of the Ten Command
ments or defying laws of the land.
Many of the rights involved have been
neither natural nor constitutional, but
they have been that kind of right which
some of the American people have been
sophisticated into believing belongs to
men of predatory inclinations. We
shall do much to check the overgrowth
of fortunes when we rub the dust out of
our eyes and see clearly that no man
has no more right to prey upon his
fellow men than another. We have
| been too much persuaded that subtle
and ingenious forms of robbery are a
special privilege. Those who have
profited by such plumber have gone fur
| Their and persuaded themselves that it
| is their constitutional right. A little
clearing up of vision will clear away
| this part of the constitutional objec-
| ton.
| If we continue to rub the dust out
of our eyes we shall also find that the
government itself has been rather deep
ly engaged in this business of big for
tune building. Drop out all the legis-
lation in congress- In state legislatures
and in city councils, which has been
enacted in the special interest of mo-
nopolies. trusts, corporations and fran
chise grabbers, and it would put a
marked check on multi millionaireing.
An air-brake could hardly do better
Even the little matter Of forbidding
big interests to give big campaign
funds for the express purpose of get
ting back favorable action from the
government would slow up the wheels
| of fortune And if all the lobbyists
and big corporation lawyers, who help
their employers to outwit the law, were
sent to the island of St. Helena for the
rest of their natural lives, it would
work still greater wonders in the direc-
ton of the presidents desire. In a
word, if he can introduce a new era
in which the American government,
from the capital of the nation to the
/ city hall, can be taken out of the bust
ness of helping the money getters to
pile up immense fortunes, he will have
solved the greater part of his prob
lem.
| We started out with the idea that
the government ought to help the peo-
pie in their business. which was well
enough in its way. But the idea has
been perverted into the notion that the
government should help some few peo-
pie much more than all the rest of the
many, and the result is the evil of
vastly overgrown fortunes. Strip all
men of special privileges and favors,