The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1908-02-06

; scourge sin: IL does bid sinners {:
: fear; for II has put behind the 4:
: bars with impartial severity, the {:
powerful ~hnancier, the powerful :
: politician, the rich land thief, the A:
: rich contractor-au, no matter I:
: how high their station, against /:
; whom criminal misdeeds can be :
; proved. All their wealth and /:
; power cannot protect them. :
But IL often happens that the effort to
imprtson a given defendant Is certain to
be futile, while 1t is possible to fine him
or to line the corporation OF which he Is
head; 20 that. In other words, the only
way OF furnishing the wrong Is by filming
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,
n their responsibility is shared with ali
and effective laws, or who fail to execute
them when they have been put on the
statute books.
innocent Stockholders"
Much Is saiu, IT aIese attacks upon the
policy OF the present administration, about
the rights of innocent stockholders"
That stakeholder is not innocent who
voluntarily purchases stock in a corpora
don whose methods and management he
knows 70 be corrupt; and stockholders are
bound TO try to secure honest manage
ment, or else are estopped from complain
ing about the proceedings the government
nnds necessary in order to compel the
corporation to obey the law. There has
been In the past grave wrong lone inno-
cent stockholders by decentralization,
Btock-watering, stock-jobbing. stock-ma-
nlpuiation. This we nave sought to pre-
vent, first, by exposing the thing dom and
punishing the offender when any existing
law had been violated; second, by recon-
mending the passage of laws which woulo
make unlawful similar practices for the
LuIuTG. ThG nllhlin men Ia WVnrQ and
editors who loudly proclaim their SYM
patty for the innocent stockholders"
wnsn a great isw-defytng corporation Is
frantic Vehemence against all efforts by
law 20 put q stop TO the practices which
are the real and ultimate sources of the
damage alike to the stockholders and the
pubic. The apologists of successful dis
honesty always declaim against any ef-
Tort to punish or prevent II; on the
business" It Is they who by their acts
have unsettled business; and the very
men raising this cry spend hundreds of
speech, EDITORIAL book, or pamphlet, the
defense by mis-statements of what they
have done; and yet when public servants
the truth they declaim against them for
breaking silence, lest values be depreci-
ated" They have hurt honest business
men, honest w~orkingmen, honest farm
ers: and now they clamnr against the
truth being told.
The keynote Of all these attacks upon
the effort to secure honesty In business
and In politics Is well expressed in brazen
protests against any effort for the moral
regeneration Of the business world, on
the ground that It is unnatural, W
ranted. and injurious. and that business
panic Is the necessary penalty for such
effort to secure business honesty. The
m Rreat Ss r. m sSSe a on pi beba II P pr fbe me es
caught In. q gambling establishment when
that gambling establishment Is raided by
the police. II such words mean anything
they mean that those whose sentiments
they represent stand against the effort to
bring about q moral regeneration of BUSH
ness which will prevent a repetition OF
the insurance, banking, and street rail-
road scandals in New York: a repetition
OF the Chicago and Alton deal; a repe-
ttion of the combination between certain
professional politicians, certain profess
sinai labor leaders, and certain big fnan-
ciers, from the disgrace of which San
Francisco has just been rescued: a repe-
tttion of the successful effort by the
Standard OH people to crush out every
competitor, to overawe the common car
riers. and to establish a monopoly which
treats the public with contempt which the
public deserves so long as II permits men
of such principles and such sentiments to
avow and act on them with impunity.
+: The cutlery against stopping dis :
honest practices among wrongdoers
: who happen to be wealthy is precise
against every effort for cleanliness :
: and decency In city government, be-
{: cause. forsooth, 1t will hurt bust :
I: ness.
The same outcry is made against the
department Of justice for prosecuting the
heads of colossal corporations that has
been made against the men who In San
Francisco have prosecuted with impartial
severity the ~wrongdoers among business
-.-- I'll - 49,
alike. The principle Is the same in the
two cases. lust as the blackmailer and
bribe giver stand on the same evil mi
an enormous fortune by corrupting leg
islatures and municipalities and fleeing
his stockholders and the public. stands on
who fattens on the blood money of the
gambling house and the saloon. More
over, In the last analysis. both kinds Of
are fa5 more intimately con-
the wrongdoing Is at bottom the same.
Corrupt business and corrupt politics act
and react with ever increasing debase-
ment, one OF the other; the corrupt head
OF a corporation n the corrupt labor
leader are both in the same degree the en-
emies Of honest corporatiosn and honest
chise traff1cker, the manipulation of Sc
c~urtties, the purveyor and protector of
vice, the Matchmaking ward boss, the bal
leader, the hired bully, and mankiller-
all alike work at the same web of cor
ruption, and all alike should be abhorred
by honest men.
Hurts Right Business.
The business which is hurt by the
movement for honesty Is the kind OF bus
mess which, In the long run, 1t pays the
country to have hurt. 1t Is the kind of
business which has tended to make the
very name high nance" a term of scan
dal to which all honest American men Of
business should ION in putting an emu.
The special pleaders for business dishon-
esty, In denouncing. the present admin
istration for enforcing the law against
defed the law. also denounce It for en-
deaycrsng to secure sadly needed labor
legislation, such as a f~ar-reaching
law making employers liable for in
juries to their employees. II IS meet
and ut that the a~pologists for corrupt
wealth should oppose every effort to re-
lieve weak and helpless people from
crushing misfortune brought upon them
by injury In the business from which they
gain q bare livelihood. The burden shOu i