Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1906-03-03

4
articles on the beef trust, on municipal
corruption and on the iniquities of in
surance, have opened the eyes of
the most guileless to the man
ner in which liberty has been turned
to license and freedom of opportunity
to predatory finance. Many thoughtful
men hail these exposures as a harbin-
ger of better things and as tending to
prevent similar facility for wrong in
the future. We believe that the use of
periodical literature to expose .corrup-
ton has demonstrated the tremendous
power of the printed word, but we hold
also that unless the result be to make
wrong-doing abhorred and to- make
wrong-doers despised, unless the moral
conscience of the people is awakened
to logical action, the ultimate effect
will be distinctly bad. If we are mere
ly to be made familiar with the work.
ings of corruption and the machina-
tons of the INSCRIPTIONS, if people in.
high places are to De pilloried by the
press simply to make passing sensa-
ton, then we shall become morally
callous. Unless exposures of wrong
serve to prevent their repetition, they
will only blunt the sensibilities of peo-
pie and may even suggest to the evil
disposed the use of methods which were
previously unknown. 1t will be al
together bad for the youth of the
country if this or that man, whose nef-
arious practices have been laid bare,
continues to hold his social position and
resumes his business prominence, as
soon as the storm has blown over. If
the president of railroad company
steals by the rebate system, or if the
director of the insurance company robs
the shareholders by using a position of
trust to feather his nest, is it to be
wondered if the train conductor pockets
fares or the Office clerk empties the till?
The actions of the small men are held
to be contemptihly wicked, while those
of the big fellows are deemed clever
merely because of the difference in the
scale of the operations. If you borrow
SIS from an acquaintance and fail to re-
pay, you are anathena, quite properly;
but if you get $780, from him and
others, by skillful misrepresentation,
under cover of business, circumventing
them by legal proceedings, you may. be
labeled shrewd and successful.
The fact is that two standards are
recognized, ione for personal affairs and
one for business. Business is business
is the modern buccaneer' motto. There
are two codes; and people play hanky-
pahky between them. Tt is proper to
play the game according to Hoyle with
your friends, but When you step into
the outer arena of the financial world,
it is deemed right tar lay, aside. nice
sensihilities and to deal from the bottom
Of the pack; the, eedsa is that of the
Eruffian in Arizona, or sfthe bad mar
from BodieiY People smile at the arti.
Gle in a newspaper which demonstrates
that an acquaintance stole asnillior
from the city, by bribing its officials Of
by failing to carry out a contract IL
honest fashion, They think such a mar
smart and do not hesitate to, invite hin
to, dinner. If he stole their watch O,
the. silver spoons on their mahogan,
table, they would rate him an unspeak
able scoundrel. BAH! The highway
man who took his life in his hand whel
held up the wayfarer was a sportsman
compared to the financial magnate WIN
: sandbags his associates under cover o
business; the pirate, who Haunted hi
black flag and took the risk of beini
sunk by the first frigate he encountere
Il was hero compared to the trustee
who, under cover of his. directorship
secured loans for himself on films
security. The buccaneers of today ar
t not finer gentlemen than those VIII
iourished in Raleigh's time Not ver
| long ago Mr.. Hadley of Yale suggeste
! that trust .magnates and others who dc
bauched the public life of the countr
: should be socially ostracized. Yet MI
Depew is a trustee of Yale Universit
: and presents of money have been az
!. cepted by Mr.. Hadley officially frol
S Rockefeller. The links of social lii
: are strong and the danger lies in tn
: inability of the people to muster suff
a cient courage to break them. The tai
i of Furnishing the great corruptionists
e theatrical; it lacks sincerity. Until
VI is recognized that stealing on a b