The Mena weekly star., 1906-11-15
PLACING THE RESPONSIBILITY

PLACING THE RESPONSIBILITY
 Many people who are heartily in accord with Mir. Hearst's denuncia- tion of predatory corporations and their methods, are not sorry that he was defeated in his race for gover- nor of New York believing that he is too radical and too impulsive and lacking in that stability of character necessary to cope with such power.
 Had he been elected governor he would have become a power to be reckoned with as presidential can didate and weakened the chances of MT. Bryan who, with all his pro- nounced advanced views is con sidered a much safer man, more sound and sancas it were.
 It is well, however, when consid- ering dangers that might beset society by the election of such man as Hearst to place the responsibility of sucha contingency where it right ly belongs.
 Several New York papers are be- coming wide awake to the situation since the election and the World dis cussing Mir. Hearst's near approach to victory says:
 "A policy of continued provoca- tion, of cold-blooded. defiance of the prevailing popular spirit, will pres ently bring them face to face W tn more serious troubles than in the past have confronted them. It is for them to mix some reason and consideration with their schemes for power and gain.
 If they are men of sense they will take as a special warning Mir. Hearst's uncomfortably near ap- proach to a victory.
 "The Press (Rep.) bitterly de- nounces Secretary Root and Post master General Cortelyou for com ing into the state when he (Root) is regarded by Republicans as well as by Democrats and independent Leaguers as the faithful servants of the trusts xxx
 
 If Cortelyou had been at work a week longer, to the knowledge of the general public, and if Root had made his speech week earlier, nothing could have saved Hughes.
 There must be no more Standard Oil direction of legislation; no more Transit Trust theft of Mayoralty elections; no more gas monopoly annulment of statutes and of court judgments; no more Platt and De Pew domination in politics"
 The Kansas City Star moralizine on the situation says:
 ''The lesson of the Hearst contest is that if an intemperate appeal tc the masses can almost carry a great state like New York there must be serious faults and defects in the system that Hearst attacked. And don't forget that these points of weakness are tremendously empha- sized by the vulnerability of Hearst himself, who presents, in his person. ality and record, most of the quail. ties that are odious to good people and to right citizens. It is of the greatest importance to remember that a candidate who has outraged most of the requirements of decorum which underlie society could never gain the..decendaacy as which Hearst has achieved except for the power which Platt, DePew Aldrich, Knox, Lodge and the rest have manifested in exalting special interests above the rights of the people.
 'If the people of New York had felt any confidence in the sincerity of Hearst or had believed that he would be equal to his professions as an enemy of the trusts, Hughes would have been defeated by an enormous plurality"
 It is clear that if this country would escape conditions, bordering even remotely, upon those existing in France at the time of her great revolution when Robspiere swayed her destinies, the powers that be must free the people from the pow CT of the corporations and to do so corporation attorneys must be de posed from the high positions they hold in the management of polite Il parties and national affairs.