The Topeka state journal., 1908-01-31

against any effort to punish or pre-
vent 1t. on the ground that any such
| erect will "unSettle business 1t is
they who by their acts have unsettled
business; and the very men raising
| this cry spend hundreds of thousands
| OF dollars by securing, by speech
| editorial. book, or pamphlet, the de-
tense by misstatements of what they
| nave done; and yet when public SER
wants correct their misstatements by
telling the truth they declaim against
them for breaking silence, lest values
| be depreciated." They have hurt hon.
est business men, honest workingmen
honest farmers; and now they
clamor against the truth being told.
Injury to Business
The keynote of all these attacks
upon the effort to secure honesty in
business and in politics is well ex-
pressed in brazen protests against any
effort for the moral regeneration OF
the business world, on the ground that
1t 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 plea is precisely as great as
If made on behalf Of the men caught
in the gambling establishment when
that gambling establishment is raided
by the police. If such words mean
anything they mean that those whose
sentiments they represent stand
against the effort to bring about a
moral regeneration of business which
VIII prevent a repetition of the in
surance. banking, and street railroad
scandals in New York; a repetition of
the Chicago & Alton deal; a repetition
Of the combination between certain
professional politicians, certain pro-
fessional labor leaders, and certain big
fnanciers, from the disgrace of which
San Francisco has just been rescued;
a repetition of the successful effort
by the Standard Oil people to crush
out every competitor, to overawe the
common carriers, and to establish a
monopoly which treats the public
with a contempt which the public de-
serves SO long as it permits men of
such principles and such sentiments
to avow and act on them with i'm
punity. The outcry against stopping
dishonest practices among the wrong
doers who happen to be wealthy is
precisely similar to the outcry raised
against every effort for cleanliness and
decency in city government, because,
forsooth, it will "hurt business The
same outcry is made against the de-
partment 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 wrong
doors among business men, public
officials. and labor leaders alike. The
principle Is the same in the two cases.
Just as the blackmailer and bribe
giver stand on the same evil eminence
of infamy, SO the man who makes an
enormous fortune by corrupting 1egis-
latures and municipalities and fleeing
his stockholders and the public, stands
on the same level with the creature
who fattens on the blood money Of
the gambling house and the saloon.
T. L, To-
kinds Of corruption are far more in
timately connected than would at first
sight appear; the wrong-d doing is at
bottom the same. Corrupt business
and corrupt politics act and react with
ever increasing ,debasement, one on
the other; the corrupt head of a cor
poration and the corrupt labor leader
are both in the same degree the enc
mics of honest corporations and hon
est labor unions; the rebate taker, the
franchise traff1cker. the enanipulator5ef
securities, the purveyor and protector
Of vice, the blackmailing ward boss,
the ballot box suffer, the demagogue,
mankiller-all alike work at the
same web Of corruption, and all alike
should be abhorred by honest men.
The business which is hurt by the
for honesty is the kind of
business which, in the long run, pays
the country to have hurt. It Is the
kind of business which has tended to
a term Of scandal to which all
honest American men Of bust
ness should join in putting
an end. The special pleaders for
business dishonesty, in denouncing the
present administration for enforcing
the law against the huge and corrupt
which have defied the
law, also denounce it for endeavoring
to secure sadly needed labor 1egisla-
ton. such as far-reaching law MAX
ng employers liable for injuries to
their employees. 1t is meet and f1t
should oppose every effort to relieve
weak and helpless people from crush |
ng misfortune brought upon them by |
injury in the business from which they |
gain a bare livelihood. The burden |
should be distributed. 1t is ,hypo- |
works in factory where the danger |
JUS machinery is unprotected as hav- |
ng the right freely to contract to |
expose herself to dangers to life and |
imb. She has no alternative but to |
suffer want or else to expose herself |
% such dangers, and when she loses
l. hand or is otherwise manned or
for life, it is a moral wrong
hat the whole burden Of the risk
incidental to the business
Ihould be placed with crushing weight
lpon her weak shoulders, and all who
profit by her work escape seot-free.
This is what opponents of a Just en-
,loyers' liability law advocate; and 1t
s consistent that they should usually
llso advo cate immunity for those most
dangerous members of the criminal
.1ass-the criminals of great wealth.
Criticism of Judges.
Our opponents have recently been Bit
erly criticising the two judges refer
ed to in the accompanying communica-
ions from the Standard Oil company
Ind the Santa Fe railroad for having
imposed heavy fines on these two cor
,orations; and yet these same critics
f these two judges exhaust themselves
n denouncing the most respectful and
autious discussion Of the official ac-