Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1907-10-11
WILL NOT LET UP.

| AS our readers know tho President
has been making tour down the Mis-.
sissippi river to determine whether be
can consistently urge Congress to build
a canal from the Lakes to the Gulf.
On this tour he has made speeches, and
amongst others he made one at KeO
kuk, Iowa He said In part:
At intervals the appeal be
been made 20 me not to enfore the law
against certain wrOngdoes OF great
W ealth because to do 80 would inter-
| fere with the business prosperity of tie
country. IL 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 reprehenslble be-
| Cd use they are not committed under
the stress of want. Perhaps
am most anxious to get at the poll
tician who is corrupt; but
assuredly shall not spare his brother
corruptionist who shows himself a
swlndler in business life.
To the above the New York World
adds:
These are just words. There is no
need Of alarming the business commu-
nifty by the proposal of new and I'M
imagined Federal laws, powers. duties.
interferences. But no man in his
senses will ask the President to cry
truce to the master thieves of high
finance.
Nothing would do more to restore
confidence in the square deal" and to
put prosperity upon the only enduring
foundation of justice than to carry out
this strong pledge to the very letter.
1t Is significant that the Trust pa
pers. especially in New York. have
printed little about this trip. They do
not take to it for two reasons. One is
that they are not in love with the
president or his views. aud they think
they see in such canal diversion of
trade from New York.
When the President said, ut would
not be merely wrong, but infamous to
fail to do all that can be done to Sc
cure the punishment of those wrong.
doors whose deeds are peculiarly rep
rehensible because they are not com
mitted under the stress of want" be
touched raw flesh, he hit with approx
ed severity a wound that has been laid
bare and will not heal until conditions
in the body polite change. For the
first time in our national history has
the whole power of the government
been employed to run down villiany,
and the work has just been begun.
High Finance was not only never
before checked, but it has never before
been touched by the hand Of the Gov
ernment. Reveling in the knowledge
that it had elected president in 1896
and again in 1900, II indeed not again
in 1904. it felt itself immune from crit
icism much less attack. Drunk with
these victories, unrestrained by law
as heretofore administered. or by con-
science, it began to pillage and plum.
der, continuing with increased feroci
ty and greed until it began recently to
realize that there must be halt, when
it began to beseach the president not
to enforce the laws lest it irjlre ''the
business prosperity of the country. "
Business with them is continuation
of their old methods. 1t is relief to
know that he has declared that
"crimes of fraud and cunning shall be
prosecuted as relentlessly as crimes OF
brutality and physical violence. This
is repetition of bis pledge to ''shackle
cunning as we have shackled force. .
Nothing could be more straightforward
or reassurlng. May he never let up.