The Topeka state journal., 1908-01-31

| We seer 70 control laW-defy1ng wealth /,
IN the hrst place to prevent its doing
dire evil to the republic, and in the
next pace to avoid the vindictive and
dreadful radicalism which, if left lun-
! controlled 1t Is certain in the end to
arouse Sweeping attacks upon all
! property, upon all men of means, with
out regard to whether they do we'll or
| III, would sound the death-knelI Of the
| repupnc; and such attacks become in
| eV1taDIe II decent citizens permit tn ose
| rich men whose lives are corrupt ana
| ev1l TO dom1neer in swollen pride. un-
| checked and unhindered, over the des-
TIMES of this country. We act in no
| VlndlctlFe spirit, we oppose it as firmly
| as we oppose a corporation which does
| wrong; and we stand equally stoutly
| Tor the rights of the man of wealth and
Tor the rights of the wageworker. We
| seek to protect the property of every
| man who acts honestly, of every cor
| porat1on that represents wealth hon.
| estly accumulated and honestly used.
We seek to stop wrongdoing, and we
| desire to punish the wrongdoers only
so lar as is necessary to achieve this
end.
There are ample material rewards
for those who serve with fidelity the
mammon of unrighteousness; but they
i 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 gagged by their recent
publication broadcast throughout the
papers of this country, from the At
lantic to the Pacific, of huge adver-
t1sements attacking with envenomed
bitterness the administrators policy
of warning against successful dishon-
esty, and by their circulation of pam
phlets 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 1 refer
are usually and especially in the inter-
est of the Standard Oil trust and of
certain notorious railroad combina-
tions, but they also defend other indi
viduals and corporations of great
wealth that have been guilty of wrong
doing. 1t is only rarely that the men
selves 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
in business that has been passed dur
ing the last six years has been op-
posed by these men on its passage and
in its administration with every re-
source that bitter and unscrupulous
craft could suggest and the command |
of almost unlimited money secure. But !
for the last year the attack has been |
made with most bitterness upon the |
actual administration of the law, espe- |
cially through the department of JUS |
tice, 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, advertisements. and pam
phletS, and the enormous sums of |
money spent in these various ways, |
give a fairly accurate measure of the |
anger and terror which our public ac-
tions have caused the corrupt men of
vast wealth to feel in the very marrow
of their being. The attack is some
times made openly against us for en-
forcing the law, and som etimeS with a
certain cunning, for not trying to en-
force it in some other way than that
which experience shows to be prac-
tical. One of the favorite m methods of
the latter class of a.ssailant is to at
tack the administration for not procur-
ing the Imprisonment instead of the
fine Of offenders under these antitrust l.
laws. The man making this assault is
usually either a prominent lawyer or
an editor who takes his policy from
the financiers and his arguments from
their attorneys. II the former, he has
defended and advised many wealthy
and he knows we'll that. |
thanks to the advice of lawyers like
himself, a certain kind of modern cor
poration has been turned into an ad-
rnirable instrum ent by which to render
it we'll nigh impossible to get at the
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
who moreover. represented that most
baneful of all alliances. the alliance
between the corruption of organized
politics and the corruption of high
finance. This is what we have done in
the Gaynor and Greene case. in the
case of the misapp1ication of funds in
with certain great banks in
Chicago, in the land fraud cases.
where, as in other cases likewise, neith-
sr the highest political position nor the
possession of great wealth, has availed
to save the offenders from prison. The
federal government does scourge sin;
It does bid sinners fear; for 1t has put
behind the bars with impartial sever
eul politician, the rich land thief, the
rich contractor-all. no matter how
high their station. against whom
criminal misdeeds can be proved. All
.ect them. But 1t often happens that
The effort to imprison given defend
ant is certain to be futile, while it is !
possible to fine him or to fine the cor
ooration of which he is head; SO that,
n other words, the only way of pun
shing the wrong is by filming the cor
unless we are content to pro-
,eed personally against the minor
agents The corporation lawyers to
whom I refer and their employers are
he men mainly responsible for this ,
state of things, and their responsibility ,
S shared with all who ingeniously OPP
pose the passing Of just and effective .
avs or who fail to execute them ;;
when they have been put on the statute ,,
BOOKS.
Innocent Stockholders. :
Much is said. in these attacks upon {