Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-04-26
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT.
In 'Muck Rake" Address Rabid Writers Excorated
and Inheritance Tax AdvocatedI
~O@

| ceedings are innumerable and Inevitable
they nave not ordinarily the Judgment to
This truth should be kept constantly in
mlnd by every free people desiring TO pre-
| serve the sanity and poise Indispensable to
the permanent success of self government
| let on the other hand, 1t is vital not to
permit this spirit of sanity and seIf-cou
/ mand 10 degenerate into mere mental stag
nation Bad though a state of hysterical
| excitement is and evil though the results
are which come from the violent osciIls ttons
| such excitement invariably produces vet
sodden acquiescenee in evil is even worse
In Period of Great Unrest.
Al r, tnis moment we are passing through
and industrial unrest 1t is of the n+most
| Importance for our future that this shonId
prove to be not the unrest of mere rebel
!iolSness against life, of mere dissatisfac-
dltions, but the unrest of a resoIute and
| eager ambition to secure the betrerment
, OF me individual and the nation So far
| as THIS movement of agitation throughout
the country takes the form of a fierce dis
| content with evil, of determination to
! punish the authors OF evil, whether In in
uuAFy or politics., the feeling is to be
heartily welcomed as sign of healthy life
H. on the other hand, it turns into
mere crusade of appetite against appetite
| of a contest between the brutal greed az
| the haVe-nots and the brutal greed of the
| 'haYes, then it has no significance for
| good, but only for evil.
| II 1t seeks to establish a line of cleay.
| age, not along the line which divides good
| men from bad, but along that other line
running at right angles thereto. which dI.
Vldes those who are well of from those
VINO are less well off then 1t will be fraught
| with undesirable harm to the body DO
| little.
| One Law for Rich and Poor.
| we can no more and no less afford to
| condone evil In the man of capital than evil
| Ia the man OF no capital The wealthy
ltc hano
| or Justice in the effort to bring some trust
! magnate to an account for his misdeeds is
| as PAD as and no worse than the so-called
| labor leader who DANGEROUSLY strives fo az
| cite foul class feeling on behalf of soma
other labor leader who is implicated in
| murder. -
| One attitude is as bad as the other and
| no worse; in each case the accused is en-
| Titled to exact justice and in neither case
Is there need of action by others which can
| be construed into an expression OF sympathy
| for crime.
1t is prime necessity that If the pres
| ent unrest Is to result in permanent good
| the emotion shall be translated into action
| ana that the action shall be marked by
! honesty, sanity and self-restraint There Ia
| mighty little good in q mere spasm of re-
form. The reform that counts is that which
| comes through steady, continuous growth
violent emotionalism leads to exhaustion
Must GrappIe with Problems.
1t is important to this people to grappIe
with the problems connected with the amass
| ing of enormous fortunes and the use of
| those fortunes, both corporate and indiyid
ual, In business. We should discriminate in
the sharpest way between fortunes well won
and fortunes Il! won, between those gained
| as an incident to performing great services
| to the community as whole and those
| gained in evil fashion by keeping Just with
| in the limits of mere law honesty
OF course, no amount of charity in spend-
| ing such fortunes in any way compensates
| for misconduct in making them AS a mat
| wit
| tending to discuss the details or formulate
| the system, | feel that we shall ultimately
have to consider the adoption of some such
| scheme as that of progressive tax on all
| fortunes beyond a certain amount either
! given in life or devised or bequeathed upon
| death to any Individuals tax so framed as
| to put 1t out of the power of the owner of
! one of these enormous fortunes to hand on
more than a certain amount to any one in
| dividual; the tax of course, to be imposed
| by the national and not the state govern
| ment Such taxation should of course be
| aimed merely at the Inheritance or trans
| mission in their entirety of those fortunes
| swollen beyond all healthy limits.
Must Control Corporations
Again. the national government must in
some form exercise supervision over corpor-
ations engaged in interstate business-and
| all large corporations are engaged In inter
| state buSineSs-whether by license or other
| wise, to permit us TO deal with the
far-reaching evils of overeapitalization.
This year we are ma21ng a beginning in
the direction OF serious EFFORT to settle
of these economic problems by the railway
rate legislation Such legislation If so
| framed, as | sure it will be- as to secure
definite and tangible results will amount to
something of itself, and it will amount
| to great deal more in so far as IL Is tax
| en- as first step In direction of policy
| OF superintendent and control corpor-
! ate wealth engaged In Interstate commerce,
| this superintendent and control not to be
| exercised in spirit of malevoence toward
the men who have created the wealth, but
with the firm purpose both to do justice to
| them and to see that they in their turn do
| justice to the public at large
Honesty First Requisite.
The first requisite in the public servants
who are to deal in this shape with corpor-
ations, whether as legislators or as execu-
respecter of persons. There be no such
! thing unilateral honesty. The danger is
| not really from corrupt corporations. 1t
springs from the corruption itself whether
exercised for or against corporations.
The eighth commandment reads, Thou
shalt not steal 1t does not read Thou
does not read, Thou shalt not steal from
the poor man" 1t reads simply and plainly,
Thou shalt not steal
No good whatever will come from that
warped and mock morality which denounces
the misdeeds of of wealth and forgets
the misdeeds practiced at their expense;
which denounces bribery, but blinds itself
to blackmail; which foams with rage If a
corporation secures favors by improper
methods and merely leers with hideous mirth
if the corporation Is itself wronged.
The only public servant who can be trust
ed honestly to protect the rights Of the
public against the misdeed of corporation
is that public man who will just surely
protect the corporation itself from wrong
full aggression If a public man Is willing
to yield to popular clamOr and do wrong to
the of wealth or to rich corporations
it may be set down as certain that If the
opportunity comes he will secretly and fur
lively do wrong 10 the public in the inter-
est of a corporation.
Need Sanity Well as Honesty.
But, in addition to honesty, we need san
ity, No honesty will make public man
useful If that is timid foolish, ii he
is a hot-headed zealot or an impractical
visionary. As we strive for reform we find
that it 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 a runaway and an
upset.
The men of wealth who to-day trying
to prevent the reguls ton ard control Of
their business in the interest of the pubic
by the proper government authorities VIII
not succeed. in my judgment, in checking
the progress of the movement. But II they
did succeed they would find that they had
sown the wind and would surely reap the
whirlwfnd, for they would ultimately pro-
woke the violent excesses which accompany
a reform coming by convuIsion instead of
by steady and natural growth.
On the other hand, the wild preachers
of unrest and discomfort, the wild agita-
tors against the entire existing order the
men who act crookedly, whether because OF
sinister design or from mere puzZleheaded-
ness the men who preach destruction with
out proposing any substitute for what they
intend to destroy who propose substi-
tute which would be far worse than the
existing evils-aIl these men are the most
dangerous opponents of real reform
Would Lead Into Deeper Pit.
If they get their way they will lead the
people into a deeper pit than any into
which they could fall under the present
system Ii they fail get their way they
will still do incalculable harm by proYo&-
ing the kind of reaction which. in its re-
| volt against the senseless evil of their
teaching. would enthrone more securely than
| ever the very evils which their misguided
| followers believe they are attacking
More important than aught else is the
development of the broadest sympathy of
man for man The welfare OF the wage