The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-15

feeling is to be heartily welcomed as a If, on the other hand, 1t turns into a mere crusade of appetite against ap, petite. of a contest between the brutal
 greed of the have e-no,s. and the @ brutal tai l significance for good, but only for evil. If it seeks to establish a line of cleav- | age. not along the line which divides
 other line, running. at right angles thereto. which divides those who are well off from those who are less well | on, then 1t will be fraught with inn
 measurable harm to the body polite. We can no more and no less afford to condone evil in the man of capital than | evil in the man of no capital The Is a failure of justice in the effort to bring some trust magnate to an ac- count for his misdeeds is as bad as,
 and no worse than. the so-called labor leader who clamorously strives to .ex | cite a foul class feeling on behalf of | some other labor leader who is impli-
 eated in murder ntbs ons atttade s | each case the accused is entitled to ex- act justice; and in neither case is there | need of action by others which can be construed into an expression of sym pathy for crime.
 It is a prime necessity that If the nent good the emotion shall be trans lated into action, and that the action
 shall be marked by honesty, sanity, and
 self,restraint There is mighty little e | reform that counts is that which comes through steady. continuous growth; {;
 violent emotionalism leads to exhaus- | tion.
 | It is important to this people to grapple with the problems connected | with the amassing of enormous for | tunes, and the use of those fortunes, both corporate and individual, in bus mess We should discriminate in the sharpest way between fortunes well
 won and 1 fortunes ,nn'dsn} iiliw3n; between between | ing great services to the community as
 whole, and those gained in evil fash
 ion by keeping just within tho limits amount of charity in spending such | fortunes In any way compensates Tor
 misconduct in making them As 2
 without pretending to discuss the de; tails or formulate the system, l feel that we shall ultimately have to con
 sider the adoption of some 1.x sucn oc M sore tunes, beyond a certain amount, either given in life or devised or bequeathed upon death to any individuals tax of the owner of one of these enormous | fortunes to hand on more than cer- l tain amount to any one individual; National and not the State government Such taxation should of course be aim ] ed merely at the inheritance or trans
 mission In their entirety, of those for
 Again, the National Government must | in some form exercise supervision over corporations engaged in interstate bus | iness--and all large corporations are engaged in interstate business | whether by license or otherwise. so as
 to permit us to deal with the. the Tar lar | This year we are making a beginning | in the direction of serious effort to set
 tie some of these economis problems
 by the ra'1%ay,raes Policy of tssi.0"' controi.
 Such legislation. If so framed. as am sure 1t will be. as to secure def-
 mite and sangRts1 rssuifi: r,tssif snd w, st wiiI | amount to a great deal more in so far as it Is taken as a first step In the | direction of policy of superlnten1ae,- 10, | engaged in interstate commerce this | superintendence and control not to be | exercised in a spirit of malevolence to-
 ward the men who fia nave s Greaseo ho1h o9b | to do justice to them and to see that | they in their turn do justice to- the l public at large.
 wants who are to deal in this shape
 with corporations, whether as legisla- | tors or as executives, is honesty. This
 There can be no such thing as unilat- l eral honesty. The danger is not really from corrupt corporations; 1t springs 1 from the corruption itself, whether ex- 1 erclsed for or against corporations
 The eighth commandment reads.
 Thou shalt not stead" It does not read, Thou shalt not steal from the
 rich man" It does not read. Thou
 Il reads simply and plainly. Thou | shalt not steal" x.
 that warped and mock morality which | denounces the misdeeds Of men or
 wealth and forgets the misdeeds prac- | ticed at their expense; which denounces
 bribery but blinds itself t to hlacKmaal' acEnora
 ton secures favors by improper meth | ods, and merely leers with hideous
 mirth if the corporation Is itself wrong
 be trusted honestly to protect the rights | of the public against the misdeed of a | corporation is that public man who
 % just fTo surely 'ae | If public man Is willing to yield to l popular clamor and do wrong to. the | men of wealth or to rich corporations | 1t may be set down as certain if the l opportunity comes he will secretly and | furtively do wrong to the public in
 the interest of a corporation.
 Honesty and Sanity.
 | But, In addition to honesty, we need | sanity No honesty will make a public man useful If that man is timed or fool | ish, if he Is a hot-headed zealot or an | i'm cticable visionary. As we strive i for reform we find that 1t Is not at all merely the case of a long uphill pull | On the contrary. there Is almost as much of breeching work as of collar
 work; to depend only on traces means that there will soon be runaway and an upset. The men of wealth who to- day are trying to prevent the regula- ton and control of their business in | the interest of the public by the proper government authorities will not sue ceed, in my judgment. in checking the 1 progress of the movement But if they ! did succeed they would find that they | had sown the wind and would surely reap the whirlwind. for. they would ultimately provoke the violent excess es which accompany reform coming | by convulsion instead of by steady and | natural growth.
 On the other hand. the wild preachers | of unrest and disconrent, the wild agi- | tators against the entire existing order, | inc men who act crookedly. whether 70 a