The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-09-26
THAT CLEAN COMPAlGN.

Several weeks ago we expressed the homo u
the present campaign for the presidential Of
would be a clean campaign 1t Is far NOR. arIcl.
enng to have a discussion Of the issue rrr,;v.i
with acidity than one Of abuse. We ar. asnr.
say that so far as the principals in r.- comic.
are concerned, there has been no acr.r.ary IL
played. Mr.. Taft and Mr.. Bryan hav. -r,f,,mr-
spoken of their rivals as men of sterling WORT, o
integrity and though the presentatior. .t the +.
sues necessarily involves the candidate there b..
been pleasing freedom from disagreeaa.- aer.or.
alities.
But while these principals have carried .a did,
nifed campaign, the new third party of Mr. William
Randolph Hearst has stirred up a hornets Nest
Mr.. Hearst has what he calls proofs of iatimat.
business relations existing between members ~
the United States senate and the Standard OH
company, which, if true undoubtedly will have II.
effect of shaking the faith in the two old parties
if it does not shake the faith of the people in
representative form of government. In prosecuting
his campaign for Mr.. Hisgen, Mr.. Hearst has read
from the platform certain letters from John D
Archbold, called in the dispatches the STANDARD
Oil corruptionist" to Senator Joseph B. Forsk.o
of Ohio, erstwhile candidate for the Republican
nomination for president, in which Mr. Hearst
sees the corruption of Mr.. Foraker and artemDts
to make it appear that Mr.. Foraker was in the
employ of the Standard Oil company at the same
time he was acting as the senatorial representative
of the people of the Buckeye state.
Mr.. Hearst also shows up Mr.. John c. SbIe7.
representative in congress from Pennsylvania and
Governor Haskell of Oklahoma, at present treas
urer of the Democratic national committee Sen
ator Joseph Bailey of Texas is also gried unmerci
fully. Ever since the reading of these letters,
which Mr.. Hearst claims definitely show an init
macy between the representatives of the people in
congress and "the most criminal trust in the
world" there have been several busy gentlemen
denying and explaining.
The gravity of the charges makes it impossible
to pass over them lightly If all. or even half. Of
the charges of Mr.. Hearst are true the expose is
the most sensational in the history of presidential
campaigns in the United States if indeed it is
not the most sensational that has ever developed in
the political history of the nation. The political
pretend to believe that the seriousness
of the charges constitutes their weakness and that
the only effect on the chances of thefrlcanddates
viii be for good. That the expose of Mr. Hearst
will act boomerang against the newspaper
man and his Independence league is the happily ex
pressed belief of the Republican and Democratic
But the letters of Mr. ArchboId to the repre-
sentatives of the people in Washington Will have
to be disposed of very effectually if the faith Of
the people is not shaken in the men who have been
engaged to take care of their interests against the
of illegal wealth" To the lay
man, any correspondence between the Standard Oil
and senators and representatives in con-
gress viii awaken suspicion of crookedness And
the passing of checks between those parties will
very generally be received as prima face evidence
of guilt among the representatives and the oil
trust.
People are asking each other if the American
is really in the power of the gigantic
trusts and they will demand most positive assur-
ance that such is not the case or they viii vote new
men into Office, and bring disgrace not only upon
the persons directly involved, but the whole Amerl-
can people will feel shame at the corruption Of their
chosen representatives.