The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1907-10-03
WR0NGD0ER MUST SUFFER
President Declares That the Law Will
Be Enforced.

Keokuk, a., Oct. 2.-In his address
at Rand park here President Roose-
welt said, in part:
AT intervals during the last few
months the appeal has been made to
me not to enforce the law against GER
tain wrongdoers of great wealth be-
cause to do so would interfere with
the business prosperity of the coun-
try. Under the effects of that kind Of
fright which when sufficiently acute
we call panic this appeal has been
made to me even by men who or
dinarily behave as decent citizens.
One newspaper which has itself
strongly advanced this view gave
prominence to the statement of a GER
tain man of great wealth to the effect
that the sO-called financial weakness
was due entirely to the admitted in
tention of President Roosevelt to pun
1sh the large moneyed interests which
had transgressed the laws do not
admit this has been the main cause of
any business troubles we have had;
but it is possible that it has been a
contributory cause If SO, friends, as
far as I am concerned it must be &C.
cepted as a disagreeable but unavoid-
able feature in a course of policy
which as long as I am president will
not be changed. In any great move
ment for righteousness, where the
forces Of evil are strongly intrenched,
it is unfortunately inevitable that some
unoffending people should suffer in
company with the real offenders. This
is not our fault It is the fault of
those to whose deceptive action these
innocent people owe their false posi-.
ton. A year or two ago certain rep
resentatives of labor called upon me
and in the course of a very pleasant
conversation told me that they re-
garded me as the friend of labor l
answered that certainly was and that
I would do everything in my power
for the laboring man
Except Anything That Is Wrong.
I have the same answer to make to
the business man. I will do every
thing I can do to help business con-
ditions except anything that is wrong.
And it would be not merely wrong
but infamous to fail to do all that can
be done to secure the punishment Of
those wrOngdOers whose deeds are
peculiarly reprehensible because they
are not committed under the stress of
want. Whenever serious effort is
made to cut out what is evil in our
political life, whether the effort takes
the shape of warning against the gross
and sordid forms of evil in some mu-
nicipality, or whether it takes the
shape of trying to secure the honest
enforcement Of the law as against
very powerful and wealthy people,
there are sure to be certain individ-
uals who demand that the movement
stop because it may hurt business. In
each case the answer must be that we
earnestly hope and believe that there
will be no permanent damage to busi-
ness from the movement, but that if
righteousness conflicts with the fan
cied needs of business then the lat
ter must go to the wall. We can not
afford to substitute any other test for
that OF guilt or Innocence, OF wrong
doing or welldoing, in judging any
man. If a man does we'll, if he acts
honestly, he has nothing to fear from
this administration. But so far as in
me lies the corrupt politician, great
or small, the private citizen who
transgresses the law-be he rich or
poor-shall be brought before the i'm
partial justice of a court. Perhaps l
am most anxious to get at the poll
tician who is corrupt, because he be-
trays a great trust; but assuredly
shall not spare his brother corruption
list who shows himself swindler in
business life; and, according to our
power, crimes of fraud and cunning
shall be prosecuted as relentlessly as
crimes of brutality and physical vio-
lence." al.
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