The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1907-10-04

England the ltst ROYAL ccrimissien OF
Railways, Of which that great psriia,
aentary and popular leader wflllanI
,Ewart GIadstones sses chairman. sat
forth as fandame THE very prine.s
piles which here have at last been en-
acted into lay or which. asa ;1frmlsI
believe. viii speedily be enacted OF
course, In any movement Ike this In,
which We are now engaged In any,
movement looking to the regulation
Of vast corporate wealth engaged. ii
interstate business; and to the cutting
out.of all abuses connected Herewith
there will at times be suffering In;
which. unfortunately. many innocent
people will be involved. But such ;suf.
fering Of the innocent Is unavoidable
in every great movement OF lie. Able
and interruptions men are, sure to de.
ceiye certain innocent outsiders and
persuade them to invest In ventures
under conditions which render loss
certain when the force of the law is
asserted. ! am exceedingly sorry III.
these innocent people; but It is not
possible, becapse Of them; to refuse to.
proceed against the men who have vic.
timizeil them. 1t is Just such case
as would occur II an INSCRIPTIONS
man with counterfeit money visited
some remote village spent his money,
and then disappeared. The local inn.
keeper and livery stable keeper; the.
shopkeeper and the neIghboring farm.
er, would all have been victlmized;
they would have lodged and fed the
man, have supplied him with goods
from the store and the farm, have hir.
ed horses and wagons to him. and in
return would find themselves loaded
with counterfeit money. III under
such circumstances, the government
found oat what had happened 1t would
have no alternative save to stop the
circulation Of the counterfeit money,
though those possessing It were limo.
cent. l would, OF course. try to secure
the conviction of the thief, but II he
had escaped the Jurisdiction Of the
law, 1t would nevertheless be impossi.
Bile to let his innocent victims continue
to pass his by no means innocent coun.
terfelt money. Wen, Just the same
thing is true when 1t comes to enforc.
ing the law against business men Of
great wealth who have violated It. Peo-
pie are always beseeching me not to
enforce 1t against them, because limo
cent outsiders may be hurt, or, only
to enforce 1t with n gentleness that
would prevent anybody, good or bad,
from being hurt. 1t Is not possible
to comply with such requests, even
when they are made in good faith.
This is a government Of law. law
which applies to great and small alike.
l am sorry indeed when It happens
that big men who do wrong have in.
volyed smaller men with no bal in.
tentions to such an extent that they
suffer when we force the undoing OF
the wrong. But we can not hold our
hands for such a consideration. The
responsibility for the suffering OF
those innocent outsiders lies, not with
us who put stop to the wrong and
punish the wrongdoers, but with these
wrongdoers who mislead their victims,
In conclusion, friends, let me i'm.
press upon you one thing Good laws
can do much good: indeed, they are
often indispensable. There is urgent
need that we should have honest and
efficient legislation and honest and eff.
man is to helm him to helm himself.
It is to put the LEGISLATION into effect
But there is Infinitely more need Of a
high Individual average Of character.
The only permanent way to helm any
do him harm and not good Let no
To teach him permanently to depend
on anything save his own; powers is to
their strength Of body .mind and soll