Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-02-06
POWER FOR EVIL IS GONE.
Walter Wellman Says Financiers
Recognize Their Defeat and
Pray Only for Peace.

DDS and evil policies. 1t has learned
humility in the bitter school of expert
ence
There has been q great revolution In
Wall street-a revolution as deep, as
far-reaching as the upheaval in France
more than a century ago. There has
been publication by deserved destruc-
ton. Many proud heads have gone
to the guillotine. Others are in exile.
Many men, supposed to have been
strong and brave, have been shown to
be small in body and soul. A few real
ly big men have grown bigger.
Wall street has been destroyed as a
great force in the affairs of the nation.
1t exists, subdued, changed, softened.
1t is now mere mart 1t is no longer
the leviathan, no longer the power,
which in theory at least, in tradition,
In the minds and fears of men, domi-
mated the country. The October crisis
disrupted Wall street, changed it for
the better. weakened it, to some extent
reformed it. This crisis and the con-
demnation of public opinion and the
policies of President Roosevelt, sup
ported by the great majority of the
American people of all political parties,
have combined to produce moral
awakening in Wall street, a realization
that defiance of public opinion and the
moral sense of the people does not pay !;
that high-handed recklessness and
winking at thievery and condoning Of
fraud is bad business.
From without and within has come
the double pressure which has caused
Wall street to pause, take moral stock
Of itself and be appalled, at the inven-
tory. 1t has found itself a diseased
body and it is in the hospital 1t not
only realizes, as never before, what the
remainder of the country thinks of It,,
but it finds that opinion largely justi-
fed. Gone is the old arrogance, the old
feeling that Wall street ruled America
and could do what it liked. Now there
is the cry enough" In the past Wall
street has been defiant of public opin-
ion. Now it fears public opinion. 1t
has been neither good nor careful !;
now it wishes to be both. The ferO-
cious beast we used to know, truculent
toward all the remainder of the coun-
try from its lair within the shadow Of
Trinity's spire, is now tame enough to
eat out of your hand.
oc nth af
the past few years so important, so
broadly significant in the life of the
American nation as this conquest and
regeneration or the great power, which
street. 1t is a conquest which bodies
good to the nation, and, In the end. to
Wall street itself. 1t is a conquest
made by the American people who
have deliberately and persistently set
the stamp of their disapproval upon
many of the methods which have OBJ
tanned here. 1t Is a conquest which
has been won under the policies ard
leadership of the President of the Unit
ed States, and which means simply, in
the last analysis, that no one in this
country is rich or powerful enough to
defy the law and escape punishment.
1t is not in human nature to love the
hand that chasteneth. In financial
New York there are still hundreds of
men who give fierce vent to their ha-
tired of President Roosevelt and all who
stand with him, including the stupid
majority Of all the people, But the
process of regeneration that has been
going on during the last two years has
left but a handful of men whose op.n-
ion counts for much. And l happen to
have accurate information as to what
these really large and truly powerful
few-the surviving riumvirs-think of
the broad field and their relations
thereto.
Down In their hearts they realize
that the reforms advocated by Presi-
dent Roosevelt-respect for law, stop
ping of rebates, greater measuer of
federal regulation Of interstate corpor-
ations--were bound to come. They
think this might have been brought
about more gently, with fewer hard
words, but the inevitability, the justice
of the thing itself, they do not deny.
There are unregenerates like Harri-
man who kick against the pricks; who
hate the President with such an in
tense, bilious hatred that their judg-
ment is warped; who refuse to ac-
knowledge that they have been over
come by the country and that the voice
of the people is the voice of God who
wish to go on fighting Roosevelt and
do fight him, and would, if they could,
undo all that has been done and go
back to the days of old. There are
malevolent dead ones" as they are
known in Wall street, like vitriOlic
III. H. Rogers and the soured William
Rockefeller, who think America has
gone to the bowwows and that Presi-
dent Roosevelt should be inpeached
and that we should have a king who
never interferes with his rich subjects
SO long as they pay their taxes, and
host Of small fry, composed of men
WuO dTc uOt Ttldllftiy us large dS Iuey
weer six months ago-men too narrow
TO understand how big the United
States is, unable to keep pace with the
step of progress which the American
people are making in their public poll
cies and activities-echo the cry
1t is within my knowledge that the
men of real power and leadership are
accepting the sitution. More or less
gracefully they are bowling submission
to the inevitable. 1t would be going
too far to say that they like the Presi-
dent and would not be glad to rebuke
him by thwarting his plans, but they
realize that only petty men I've for re
venge and that the man who accom-
plishes revenge never accomplishes any
thing else. But they are not organic
ing to defeat the President; they are
not wasting any time in venture so
Quixotic. AS practical men, holding
leadership In gyaat practical affairs OF