The Ely miner., 1908-02-07
The administration and those who sun

port its views are not only not engaged
in an assault on property, but are siren
uous upholders of the rights of property.
Under no circumstances would we
property 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 being the
proper standard by which to judge the
actions OF men. For ehe honest non est man OF
Just as we have hearty regard for the
honest politician and honest newspaper.
But part of the movement TO uphold hon.
esty must be movement to frown on
dishonesty. We attack only the corrupt
men of wealth, who find In the purchased
politician the most efficient instrument of
corruption and in the purchased newspa-
per the most efficient defender of cor
ruption. Our main quarrel is not with
these agents and representatives of the
They deTs pster ne1g nendrsp meI 1a
stand behind them. They are but pup
pets who move as the strings are pulled.
1t is not the puppets, put tne strong cum
for evil behind and through the puppets,
with whom we have to deal We seek to
control law-defying wealth; In the first
the republic, and in the next place to
avoid the vindictive and dreadful radi-
calism which, if left uncontrolled, it is
eertain in the END TO Snon S eg
of means without regard to whether they
do well or i'll, would sound the DEATH
knell OF the republic; nt ano safh itiaoa attacks
NIT those rich men whose lives are cor
rupt and evil to domineer in swollen
pride, unchecked and unhlndered, over
the destinies of this country. We act in
no vindictive spirit, and we are no re-
specters of persons. Ii labor union
does wrong, we oppose II as hrmly, as
wrong; and we stand equally stoutly for
the rights of the man of wealth and for
the rights Of the wage-worker. We seek
to protect the property OF every man who who
represents wealth honestly accumulated
and honestly used. We seek to stop
wrongdoing, and we desire to punish the
wrong doers only so 1ar as Is necessary
to achieve this end.
Campaign of Lawbreakers
Against Governments Policy
There are ample material rewards for
those who serve with fidelity the mann
mon of unrighteousness; but they are
dearly paid for by the pe9pte patb VINO 10 per per
lie life, in the press, or In the colleges
where their young men are taught, to
preach and to practice that there is one
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 advertise
ments attacking with envenomed bitter
ness the administrators policy or
warning against successful dishonesty,
and by their circulation of pamphlets and
books prepared with the same object;
while they likewise push the circulation
A. of yhY
whether because they are misled, or be-
cause, seeing the light, they yet are will
ing to sin against the light, serve these
of the plain people. The books and
pamphlets, the controlled newspapers, the
speeches by public or :, private men to
which ! refer, are usually ana espeGlally
in the interest of the Standard Oil Trust
and of certain notorious railroad COM
binations, but they also defend other in
dividuals and corporations of great
doing 1t is only rarely that the men re-
sponsible for the wrongdoing themselves
speak or write. Normally they hire 9th
ers to do their bidding, or find others who
road-rate law to the pure-food law, every
measure for honesty in business that mas
been passed during the last six years has
been opposed by these men on its pas
sage and in it's administration with every
resource that bitter and unscrupulous
craft could suggest and the command OF
the last year the attack has been made
with most bitterness upon the actual ad-
ministration of the 8 law, especially
also through the Interstate Commerce
Commission and the bureau of corpora
tons. The extraordinary violence of the
assaults upon our policy contained In
vertisements, and pamphlets, and the
enormous sums of money. spent in these
various ways, give a fairly accurate
our public actions have caused the cor
rupt men of vast wealth to feel in the
very marrow of their being. The attack
enforcing the law, and sometimes with a
certain cunning, for not trying to en-
force it in some other way than that
which experience shows to be practical
One of the favorite methods of the lat
ter class of assailant is to attack the ad-
ministration for not procuring the i'm
prisonment instead of the fine OF Offend
ers under these antitrust 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. If the
many wealthy malefactors, and he knows
well that, thanks to the advice OF lawyers
like himself. certain kind of modern
corporation has been turned into an ad-
mirable instrument by which to render 1T
well-nigh impossible to get at the head
of the corporation, at the man who is
really most guilty. WHSh Wo are cplC
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. repre-
sented 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 misapplcation Of funds in
connection with certain great banks in
Chicago, in the land-fraud cases, where,
as in other cases likewise, neither the
highest political position nor the possess
sion of great wealth, has availed to save
the offenders from prison. The federal
government does scourge sin; 1t does bid
sinners fear; for 1t has put behind the
bars with impartial severity, the powerful
financier, the powerful politician, the rich
land thief, the rich contractor-all, no
matter how high their station, against
whom criminal misdeeds can be proved.
All their wealth and power can not pro-
tect them. But it often happens that the
effort to imprison given defendant is
certain to be futile, while 1T is possible
to fine him or to fine the corporation of
which he is head; so that, in other words,
the only way of Furnishing the wrong is
by fning the corporation, unless we are
content to proceed personally against the
minor agents. The corporation lawyers
to whom refer and their employers are
the men mainly responsible for this
state of things, and their responsibility is
shared with all who ingeniously oppose
the passing of just and effective laws, or
who fail to execute them when they have
been put on the statute books.
~N-r. -