The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1906-05-18
PUBLIC OPINION FEARED.
Magnates Striving 10 conceal
Their Doings from the
People.

Don't waste your time denounr,..
corporations. \ corporation can on.,
act through It's president and boarIaf
directors. To attack a corporate. Is
but waste OF breath, but the omrais
and directors are the ones that are sul.
ject To the penalties Of the law ma
Ia the great moral force OF public oniu.
ion. The coal trust is souiless. brf
Brother Baer and the directors az tia
railroads and coal companies who ar,
illegally combined 10 plunder tho nub-
lie and prey on the miners. can Ia
reached by the law and eventually Vii
be. Although trust magnates' skins
are wonderfully thick. yet they ara
amenable 10 public contempt, which IA
a wonderfully sharp weapon. Back az
the coal trust and the steel trust Is J.
Il. Morgan. hurl your shafts az him.
The standard oil corporation IA
really the Roekefellers and Rogers.
The sugar trus. is Havemcyer. Tha
New York Central railroad is the Van.
derbilis. The Pennsylvania and Bal
timore a Ohio railroads are entirely
controlled by Cassatt: the Great North
ern. the Northern Pacific and the Bur
lington by Hin. the Southern railway
by Morgan: the Southwestern railroads
by Hartman. and SO It Is with the
other systems. The Industrial trusts
are likewise mostly controlled by one
man.
President Roosevelt speaks Of good
and bad trusts. but the trusts and cor.
porations are only what their man.
ayers make them, and the honest 81
dishonest directors. or managers
should be praised or blamed.
How powerful public opinion IS %
those corporation officials who have
sinned is shown by the self banishmeui
of Rockefeller 70 avoid appearing as .
witness, and the fitting Of the insur.
u srafters. The corporation can.
lot be punished. If you fine II. The
money comes % u Of the pockets Of the
shareholders. SO that anathematizina
corporations is SO much vanity. Thai
Is where the efforts OF President Roose
welt against the trusts have failed Of
accomplishment. The case against the
Northern Securities company. which
resulted in its virtual dissolution. has
had no effect, but if the law had been
brought to bear on President Hill he
would probably have been glad 10 sea
competition resumed between the Great
Northern and Northern Pacific rail-
roads.
The administration has utterly failed
in all its antitrust contests. Every
trust. combine. or corporation is still
a monopoly. as far as II can be, and
continues 10 plumber the people as
much as the business sagacity OF this
managers consider desirable. VIII the
voters who are the victims Of rust
and corporation rapacity indorse the
feeble efforts or the administration az
trust-busting? A true refOrmer. with
all the great power OF the government
at his command. should nave beer
able to put the bodies Of some trust
magnates at hazard in the cOurts.
But not a trust magnate has been con-
victed.
Public opinion with its moral force
alone has lone more 10 curb the trust
magnates. and il the contempt OF the
people is centered on the persons and
not on the impersonal corporation. II
will have still greater effect.
Underneath all this. however. is the
cause that has fostered the trusts. and
that can only be removed by the adop'
ton Of the good old Democratic doc
trine OF Equal rights TO all and spe-
rial privileges 10 none"