The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-02-01


Capital does not go into state where
reprisals are taken or vested interests
are injured, 1t comes only where wise.
conservative, safe treatment is assured,
and it should be our policy to encourage
and secure corporate rights and the best
interests of stock and bond holders conf
mitted to our legal care
Regard For Honesty.
Under no circumstances would we eoun-
tenance attacks upon law-abiding prop
erty, or do aught but condemn those
who hold up rich men as being evil men
because of their riches. On the contrary,
our whole effort is to insist upon con-
duct and neither wealth nor property
nor any other class distinction, as be-
ing the proper standard by which 10
judge the actions of men. For the honest
man of great wealth we have a hearty
regard just as we have a hearty re-
gard for the honest politician and honest
newspaper But part of the movement to
uphold honesty must be a movement to
frown on dishonesty We attack only the
the corrupt men of wealth. who find in
/ the purchased politician the most effici-
ent instrument of corruption and in the
purchased newspaper the most efficient
defender of corruption. Our main quar-
rel is not with these agents and rep
resentatives of the interests. They de-
rive their chief power from the great sin
lister offenders who stand behind them.
They are but puppets who move as the
strings are pulled. 1t is not the puppets,
but the strong cunning men and the
mighty forces working for evil behind and
through the puppets, with whom we have
10 deal We seek to control law-defying
wealth; in the first place to prevent its
doing dire evil to the republic and in
the next place to avoid the vindictive
and dreadful radicalism which, if left
uncontrolled, it is certain in the end
TO arouse. Sweeping attacks upon all
property. upon all men of means. with
out regard to whether they do well or
Ill, would sound the death-knell of the
republic; and such attacks become inevi-
table If decent citizens permit those
rich men whose lives are corrupt and
evil to domineer in swollen pride, I'M
checked and unhindered over the des-
TIMES of this country We act In no.
yindictive spirit. and we are no respec-
tors of persons. If a labor union does
wrong. we oppose it as firmly as we OPP
pose corporation which does wrong;
and we stand equally stoutly for the
rights of the man of wealth and for
the rights of the wageworker. We seek
to protect the property of every man
who acts honestly, of every corporation
that represents wealth honestly accumu-
lated and honestly used. We seek to ston
wrongdoing, and we desire to punish the
wrongdoers only so far as is necessary
Rewards For Dishonesty.
There are ample material rewards
for those who serve with fidelity the
mammon of unrightousness; but they
are dearly paid for by the people who
permit their representatives, whether
in public life, in the press, or in the
colleges where their young men are
taught, to preach and to practice that
there is one law for the rich and an
other for the poor The amount of
money the representatives of certain
great moneyed interests are willing to
spend can be gauged by their recent
publication broadcast throughout the
papers of this country, from the At
lantic to the Pacific, of huge adver-
tisements attacking with envenomed
bitterness the administra tons policy
of warning against successful dishon-
esty, and by their circulation of pamph-
let's and books prepared with the same
object; while they likewise push the
circulation of the writings and speeches
of men who whether because they are
misled or because, seeing the light
they yet are willing to sin against the
light, serve these their masters of great
wealth to the cost of the plain people
The books and pamphlets, the controlled
newspapers, the speeches. by public or
private men to which | refsr, are usual
Standard Oil trust and of certain noto-
rious railroad combinations. but they
also defend other individuals and COR
porations of great wealth that have
been guilty of wrong doing. 1t is only
rarely that the men responsible for
the wrong doing themselves speak Or
write. Normally they hire others to do
their bidding, or find others who will
do it without hire. From the railroad
rate law to the pure food law every
measur for honesty in business that
has been passed during the last six
years has been opposed by these men on
it's passage and in its administration
with every resource that bitter and un-
scrupulous craft could suggest and the
command of almost unlimited money
secure But for the last year the at
tack has been made with most bitter
ness upon the actual administration of
the law, especially through the de-
partment of justice, but also through
the interstate commerce commission
and the bureau of corporations. THE
extraordinary violence of the assaults
upon our policy contained In these
speeches, editorials, articles, advertise
ments, and pamphlets, and the enor-
nous sums of money spent in these
various ways, give fairly accurate
measure of the anger and terror which
our public actions have caused the COR
rupt men of vast wealth to feel In
the very marrow of their being. The
attack is sometimes made openly
against us for enforcing the law, and
sometimes with a certain cunning, for
not trying to enforce 1t in some other
way than that which experience shows
to be practical One of the favorite
meth DDS of the latter class of assailant
is to attack the administration for not
procuring the imprisonment instead
of the fine of offenders under these
antitrust laws. The man making this as
sault is usually either a prominent
lawyer or an editor who takes his
policy from the financiers and his ar
gument from their attorneys. II the
former, he has defended and advised
many wealthy malefactors, and he
knows we'll that, thanks to the advice
of LAWYERS like himself. a certain kind
of modern corporation has been turned
into an admirable instrument by which
to render it well-nigh impossible to
get at the head of the corporation. at
the man who is really most guilty.
When we are able to put the real
Wrongdoer in prison, this is what we
strive to do; this is what we have
actually done with some very wealthy
criminals, who, moreover, represented
that most baneful of all alliances the
alliance between the corruption OF or
ganized politics and the corruption or
high finance. This is what We have
done in the Gaynor and Greene case.
in the case of the misapplication of
funds in connection with certain great
ri. IL, a