The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-08-24
OUR MORAL AWAKENING.

Whatever course our nation may take in mat
tiers political sociological, there is sure to be
divided opinions to the justice and merits of its
action. As the motives of individuals are i'm
pugned, so those of the nation. The people of
America have undergone great moral awakening
during the past few years; they have read in the
papers and magazines that nearly everybody was
imposing everybody else but that few had
the imposition reduced to a system, while the
many were struggling to learn that system The
moral awakening consists largely of finding out
that few have been shrewder than the rest, the
struggling looking up as in mirror and
seeing a satirical reflection from high places of
their own boosted virtues.
The federal government has seen fit to place
restrictions on trade between the states. as this
seemed a simple way of extending federal author
ity over what are essentially state questions In
terstate in foods and drugs is limited by
the pure food law, and no one, seemingly, has
raised protest against or cried out at the fed-
eral usurpation of state rights" 1t is generally
recognized that the enactment of the food and
drug law will result in benefits which it would be
difficult to derive if action by each state were
awaited.
1OuI IL ulls principe Sn0uld be extended to
ufactures and products not included in the pure
food law, no doubt vigorous protest would fol-
low against the usurpation of the vested rights of
the states, and the question might once more fur
nish plank in the platform of at least one of the
great political parties 1t is viewed now as the
manifest destiny of the federal government to ex-
ercise such authority as has been exercised The
people were being buncoed too openly, so it was
moral necessity more than political expediency
that called the law into being. The opposition to
the law comprised only the few manufacturers
whose goods were deceptive, and they evidently had
not learned to take the high moral grounds that it
was usurpation of state rights and thus to have
the law declared unconstitutional
Then the interference by the national govern
ment in railroad, trust and rebate matters is an
other question which stirred up the moral sense
of the people, though those most thoroughly
stirred may be and very likely are practicing in
smaller way the very things which they so elo-
quently condemn in others.
For instance, we will assume that business
may charge whatever he pleases for his
wares; there is law against it. He may sell on
10 per cent 500 per cent profit basis, and
do it legally. But if stove is marked S42 and
the customer demures, does not the business man
give rebate if he finally sells the stove for $3S
And isn't the moral question involved in this
hypothetical case as that in the famous suit
against Standard Oil for which it was recently
fined $29,O0OOOO?
And wouldn't it seem preposterous that both
the customer and the business man should de-
nounce rebates when somebody else was involved
in the transaction?
The trouble with our moral awakening seems
to be that we do not recognize the intimate rela-
ton existing between ourselves and our fellows
and that sustained between large corporations and
the people What is ilegitimate in corporation |
rebate is essentially not moral function of bust