Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-02-01

| in these speeches, editorials, articles,
! advertisements, and pamphlets, and
| the enormous sums of money spent in
| these various ways, give a fairly ac-
| curate measure of the anger and ter
| ror which our public actions have
| caused the corrupt men of vast wealth
| to feel in the very marrow of their be-
| ing. The attack is sometimes made
| openly against us for enforcing the
law. and sometimes with q certain
! cunning, for not trying to enforce il
in some other way than that which
| experience shows to be practical. One
OF the favorite methods of the latter
class of assailant is to attack the adj
| minlstration for not procuring the in-
| prisonment instead of the fine of Of
| tenders under these antitrust laws.
! The man making this assault is usual
ly either prominent lawyer or an cd
| itor who takes his policy from the fl
nanciers and his arguments from their
| attorneys. If the former, he has de-
| Tended and advised many wealthy
| malefactors, and he knows we'll that,
| thanks to the advice of lawyers like
| himself, certain kind of modern cor
| poration has been turned into an ad-
| mira, Bile in itrument by which to rem
| der it We!l-nlgh 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 wrong
doer in prison, this is what we strive
| TO do; this is what we have actually
! done with some very wealthy crimi-
! mails. who, moreover, represented that
most baneful Of all alliances, the alli-
of
lied politics and the corruption of high
| finance. This is what we have done in
| the Gaynor and Green case, in the case
of the misapplication of funds in con-
nection with certain great banks in
Chicago, in The land fraud case. where,
as in other cases likewise, neither the
highest political position nor the pos
session of great wealth, has awaited to
save the offenders from prison. The
federal government does scourge sin:
it does bid sinners fear; for it has put
behind the bars with impartial sever
ity. the powerful financier. the power
full politician. the rich land thief, the
rich contractor-all. no matter how
high their station, against whom Grim
i1.al misdeeds can be proved. All their
wealth and power can not protect
them. But it often happens that the
effort to imprison given defendant
Is certain to be futile, while it is pos
| sible to fine him or to fine the cor
p0ration Of which he is head: so that,
il other words, the only way of pun
ishing the wrong is by filming the COR
poration, unless we are content to pro-
coed personally against the minor
! agents. The corporation lawyers to
whom l refer and their employers are
the men mainly responsible for this
| state of things, and their responsible
ity Is shared with all who ingeniously
oppose the passing of just and effec-
tive laws, or who fail to execute them
wren they have been put on the stat
| ute books
Much is said. in these attacks UPON
the policy Of the present administra-
| tion, about the rights of "innocerr
stockholders That stakeholder is not
innocent who voluntarily purchases;
! stock in corporation whose methods
| and management he knows to be cor
! rupt; and stockholders are bound to
try to secure honest management, 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 stockholders by Overcapitali-
cation, stock-watering. stock Jobbing.
stock-manipulation. This we have
sought to prevent. first, by exposing
the thing done and Furnishing the Of
fender when any existing law had
been violated; second, by recommend
nf "a n 4
make unlawful similar practices for
the future. The public men, lawyers.
and editors who loudly proclaim their
sympathy for the innocent stock
holders" when great law-defying
corporation is punished. are the first
to protest with frantic vehemence
against all efforts by law to put a stop
to the practices which are the real
and ultimate sources of the damage
alike to the stockholders and the pub
lie. The apciogists of successful dis
honesty always declaim against any
effort to punish or prevent it, on the
ground that any such effort will "un-
settle 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, ofbOk, or
pamphlet, the defense by misstatc-
ments Of what they have done; and
yet when public servants correct their
Ini5statemerts by telling the truth they
dcclaim against them for breaking
silence. lest values be deprecated. -
They have hurt honest business men.
honest wcrllngman, honest farmers:
and now they clamor against the truth
being told.
The Keynote Of all these attacks up
on the effort to secure honesty in
business and in politics is we'll ex-
pressed in brazen protests against any
effort for the moral regeneration of the
business world. on the ground that II
is unnatural unwarranted. and in
furious and that business panic is the
necessary penalty for such effort to
secure business honesty. The morality
OF such n plea is precisely as great as
if made on behalf of the men caught
in q gambling establishment when that
gambling establishment is raided by
the police. If such words mean any