The Elbert County tribune., 1906-04-19
NEED MUCK RAKE
BUT REFoRmERs Musr ALWAYS
BE TRUTHFUL
THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS
Deals With Greed. Dishonesty and Cor
ruption-Would Curb Excessive For
tunes by Progressive Taxation.

tunes py progressive dNdtio".
Washington-The laying of the cor
erstone Of the office building for tho
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:
"In Pilgrims Progress the man
with the muck rake is set forth az 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
eyes with solemn intentness only ON
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 n help to society not an incitementi
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.
There should be relentless exposure
| 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
a 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 1t is absolutely truthful.
''The liar Is no whit better than the
| thief and IL his mendacity takes the
form of slander, he may be worse than
most thieves.
ut puts premium upon knavery
untruthfully to attack an honest man,
or even with hysterical exaggeration to
assail 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
"At 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 rebelliousness
against life, of mere dissatisfaction
with the inevitable inequality Of condi-
tions, but the unrest of a 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 be heartily welcomed as
a sign of healthy life.
ut 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 a. 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 lin
its of mere law-honesty.
"Of course no amount Of charity in
| spending such fortunes in any way
compensates for misconduct In max
ing them.
"As a matter of personal conviction
and without pretending to discuss the
| details, or formulate the system. l feel
that we shall ultimately have to
consider the adoption of some such
scheme as that of a progressive
tax on all fortunes beyond certain
amount, either given In life or devised
or bequeathed upon death, to any in
dividual-a tax so framed as to put 1t
cut 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
the state government.
such taxation should. of course. be
aimed merely at the inheritance or
transmission in their entirety OF those