The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-02-01

wealth, mas avalleu 70 save the Or
tenders from prison. The Federal
Government does not scourge sin; i;
does bid sinners fear: for 1t has put
behind the bars with impartial sew
Gritty. the powerful financier, the
powerful politician, the rich land
thief, the rich contractor--all, no
matter how high their station against
whom criminal misdeeds can be
proved. All their wealth and power
can not protect them. But it does
often happen that the effort to inn
prison a given defendant is certain to
be futile, while it is possible to fine
him or to fine the corporation of
which he is head; so that. in other
words, the only way of Furnishing the
wrong Is by filming the corporation,
unless we are content TO proceed per-
sonally against the minor agents. The
corporation lawyers to whom I refer
and their employers are the men
mainly responsible for this state OF
things, and their responsibility is
shared with all who ingeniously OPP
tive laws, or who fail to execute them
when they have been put on the
statute books.
much is said, in these attacks
upon the policy of the present Admin
istration. about the rights of ''inno-
cent stockholders" That stockholder
Is not innocent who voluntarily pur-
chases stock in corporation whose
methods and management he knows
to be cofrupt; and stockholders are
bound to try to secure honest man
agement, or else are stopped from
complaining about the proceedings
the Government finds necessary in
order to compel the corporation to
obey the law. There has been in the
past grave wrong done innocent stock
holders by overcapitalization. stock
watering, stock jobbing, stock-mani-
pulation. This we have sought to
prevent, first, by exposing the thing
done and punshing the offender when
any existing law had been violated;
second by recommending the passage
of laws which would make unlawful
similar practices for the future. The
loudly proclaim their sympathy for
the innocent stockholders" when
great law defying corporation Is pun
ished, are the first to protest with
frantic vehemence against all efforts
by law to put stop to. the practice
,,bi oh, IA,
sources of the damage alike to the
stockholders and the public The
apologists of successful dishonesty al
ways declaim against any effort to
punish or prevent 1t, on the ground
that any such effort will "unsettle
business" 1t is they who by their acts
have unsettled business; and the very
men raising this cry spend hundreds
OF thousands of dollars In securing.
by speech, editorial, book, or pamph-
let the defense by misstatements of
what they have done and yet when
public servants correct their misstate-
ments by telling the truth they de-
claim against them for breaking sill
ence, lest values be deprecated.
They have hurt honest business men,
honest workingmen, honest farmers;
and now they clamor against the
truth being told.
'"The keynote OF all these attacks
upon the efforts to secure honesty IN
business and in politics Is well ex-
pressed in brazen protests against
any effort for the moral regenera-
ton OF the business world on the
ground that 1t is unnatural, unwar-
ranted and injurious. and that bust
ness panic is the necessary penalty
Tor such effort to secure business
honesty. The morality of such a plea
is precisely as great as If made on
behalf of the men caught in a gamb-
ling establishment when that gamb-
ling establishment is raided by the
police. III such words mean anything
they mean that those whose senti-
ments they represent stand against
the effort to bring about a moral
regeneration OF business which will
prevent repetition of the insurance
banking, and street railroad scandles
in New York; repetition of the Chi
cago and Alton deal; repetition OF
the combination between certain pro-
fessional politicians. certain profess
sional labor leaders and certain big
financiers, from the disgrace of
which San Francisco has just been
rescued repetition of the successful
effort by the Standard OIL people to
crush out every competitor. to over
awe the common carriers. and to es-
tablish monopoly which treats the
public with contempt which the
public deserves so long as it permits
men of such principals and such senti-
ments to avow and act of them with
impunity. The outcry against stop
ping dishonest practices among wrong
doers who happen to be wealthy is
precisely similar TO the outcry raised
against every effort for cleanliness
and decency in city government, be-
cause, forsooth. II will "hurt busl-
ness The same outcry is made
against the Department of Justice for
prosecuting the heads of co1ocaaJ cnr