Arizona republican., 1908-06-18

1 Great individual fortunes and rich
 men are, it is true ,as old as recorded ! history. Nearly two thousand years
 ago the tax farmers of Rome formed a | trust for their own profit and pro- | lection; the English people, three cen | turies ago, revolted against the patents and monopOlies granted by Elizabeth ann James to their courtiers and mo- i lnopolists, forestallers and spectators i in the necessities of life were a curse
 in our revolution and bitterly denounc- ! ed by Washington. Yet, it is none the | less true that the same things today present questions different in kind as
 well as in degree from their predeces- sOrs
 Tt is the huge size of private for tunes, the vast extent and power of modern combinations of capital, made possible by present conditions, which have brought upon us, in these later years. problems portentous in their possibilities, and threatening, rot only our social and political welfare, but even our personal freedom, if they are not boldly met and wisely solved.
 New Economic Conditions.
 "The great body of the American people, neither very rich nor very poor the honest, the thrifty, the hard-work- ing, the men and women who earn and have, have no base envy, no fanatic hatred of wealth, whether individual or corporate, if it has been honestly gained and is wisely and generously employed with a sense of respOnsibil- ity to the public. But this great body CT ot- people, by habit and instinct alike, wisely conservative, these peO- pie. who are the bone and snew of our country and upon whom its for tunes and it's safety rest, began to ob- serve, with deep alarm, the recent manifestations of the new economic conditions More and more they came to believe that these vast fortunes and these huge combinations of capital were formed and built up by tortuOus and dishonest means and through cynical disregard of the very laws which the mass of the people were compelled to obey. They began to fear that political power was being reft from their hands and put into the possession of the money holders, that their dearest rights were in danger, that their hopes of success and ad- vancement were cut off by business systems which they could not under stand but which the individual was sacrificed and held down.
 "To those who looked beneath the surface and ominous unrest was ap- parent. The violent counsels of vio- lent men, who aimed at the destruc- tion of property and the overthrow of law, began to be heard and hardened to. The great order loving. industri- ous masses of the American people turned away from these advocates of violence but, at the same time, de manded that their government should give them, in lawful, and reasonable ways. the protection to which they were entitled, against the dangers they justly apprehend.
 The great duty of fulfilling these righteous demands, like all the great public services of the last half century was imposed upon the republican par ty and they have not tflinched from the burden. Under the lead of the presi- dent, the republican party has grap- pied with the new problems, born of the new conditions. It has been no light task. Dangerous extremes threatened on either hand. On the one side were the radicals of reaction, who resisted any change at all; on the other side were the radicals of destruction who wished to change everything. These two forms of radi-