The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-14

with corporations, is honesty. This
honesty can be no respector of per-
sons. There can be no such thing as
unilateral honesty. The danger Is not
really from corrupt corporations; 1T
springs from the corruption itself,
whether exercised for or against cor
porations. 9ts
The eighth commandment reads.
thou shalt not steal" It does not
read, thou shalt not steal from the
rich man." It does not read, thou
shalt not steal from the poor man."
It reads simply and plainly, thou
shalt not steal" No good whatever
Will come from that warped and mock
morality which denounces the mis-
deeds OF men of wealth and forgets
the mfsdeeds practiced at their ex-
pense; which denounces bribery, but
blinds itself to black maii;a which
foams with rage II corporation se-
cures favors by improper methods,
and merely leers with hideous mirth
If the corporation is itself wronged.
The only public servant who can be
trusted honestly to protect the rights
of the public against the misdeed of
corporation is that public man who
will just as surely protect the corpor-
alton itself from wrongful aggression
IL public man is willing to yield to
popular clamor and do wrong to the
men of wealth or to rich corporations,
1t may be set down as certain that if
the opportunity comes he will secretly
and furtively do wrong to the public
in the interest of corporation.
But, in addition to honesty, we need
sanity. No honesty will make public
man useful if that man is timid or
foolish, If he is hot-headed zealot
or an impracticable visionary. AS we
strive for reform we find that it is
not at all merely the case of 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
a runaway and an upset. The men of
wealth who today are trying to pre-
vent the regulation and control of
their business in the interest of the
public by the proper government au-
thorities will not succeed, in my judg-
ment, in checking the 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 excesses which
accompany a reform coming by con-
vulsion instead of by steady and natur-
al growth.
On the other hand, the wild preach
ers of unrest and discomfort, the wild
agitators against the entire existing
order, the men who ac.. croOkedly,
whether because of sinister design
or from mere puzzleheadedness, the
men who preach destruction without
proposing any substitute for what
they intend to destroy, or who pro-
pose a substitute which would be far
worse than the existing evil-all these
men are the most dangerous oppon-
ents of real reform. II they get their
way they will lead the people into a
deeper pit than any into which they
could fall under the present system.
If they fail to get their way they will
still do incalculable harm by pro-
voking the kind of reaction, which in
its revolt against the senseless evil
of their teaching, would enthrone more
securely than ever the very evils
which their misguided followers be-
lieve they are attacking.
More important than ought else is
the development of the broadest SYM
pathy of man for man. The welfare
of the wage worker, the welfare of
the tiller of the soil, upon these depend
the welfare of the entire country;
their good is not to be sought in pull
ing down others; but their good must