The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-04-28

do not wish to see an embittered effort
made to destroy it. 1t is unwise stub
bornly to refuse to provide against
repetition of the abuses which have
caused the present unrest. In a de-
mocracy like ours it is idle to expect
permanently to thwart the determine
ton of the great body of our citizens.
1t may be and often is the htgheS< duty
of a court, q legislature, or an execu>
tive, to resist and defy gust Of popu-
lar passion; and most certainly no
public servant, whatever may be the
consequences to himself, should yield
to what he thinks wrong. But In
question which Is emphatically one OF
public policy. the policy which the
public demands is sure in the end to
be adopted; and persistent refusal to
grant to a large portion of our people
what is right is only too apt In the
end to result in causing such 1rr1ta-
ton that when the right is obtained 1t
is obtained in the course of move
ment so Ill considered and violent as
to be accompanied by much that Is
wrong. The process of injunction In
labor disputes, as We'll as where state
laws are involved. should be used
sparingly, and only when there is the
clearest necessity for it; but it is one
so necessary to the efficient perform
ance of duty by the court on behalf OF
the nation that 1t is in the highest de-
gree to be regretted that 1t should be
lldDlo TO T6CkIeSS use, IOI ILLS iOChiCoo
use tends to make honest men desire
so to hamper its execution as to de-
stroy its usefulness.
Glass Consciousness.
Every farsighted patriot should pro-
test first of all against the growth In
this country Of that evil thing which
is called "class consciousness" The
demagogue, the sinister or foolish So
cialist visionary who strives to arouse
this feeling of class consciousness in
our working people, does a foul and
evil thing; for he is no true American,
he is no self-respecting citizen of this
republic, he forfeits his right to stand
of entire equality with all other citi-
zens who bows to envy and greed,
who erects the doctrine of class hatred
into a shibboleth, who substitutes
loyalty to men of particular status,
whether rich or poor. for loyalty to
those eternal and immutable principles
of righteousness which bid us treat
each man on his worth as man with
out regard to his wealth or his power
ty. But evil though the influence of
these demagogues and Missionaries is,
it is no worse in it's consequences than
the influence exercised by the man of
great wealth or the man of power and
position in the industrial world. who
by his lack of sympathy with, and lack
of understanding of, still more by any
to. the millions Of our working people,
tends to unite them against their fell
low Americans who are better off in
this worlds goods. 1t is a bad thing
to teach our working people that men
of means, that men who have the
largest proportion of the substantial
comforts of life, are necessarily greedy,
grasping. and cold-hearted, and that
they unjustly demand and appropriate
more than their share of the substance
nf hn to-
should be visited upon demagogue and
visionary who teach this untruth, and
even Sterner upon those capitalists
who are in truth grasping and greedy
and brutally disregardful of the rights
of others, and who by their actions
effectively than any mere preacher of
unrest. A "class grievance" left too
long without remedy breeds "class
consciousness" and therefore class re-
The strengthening of the antitrust
law is demanded upon both moral and
economic grounds. Our purpose in
strengthening it is to secure more
effective control by the national gov
eminent over the business use of the
vast masses of individual. and es-
pecfally of corporate, wealth, which
at the present time monopolize most
of the interstate business Of the coun-
try; and we believe the control can
best be exercised by preventing the
growth of abuses, rather than merely
by trying to destroy them when they
nave already grown. In the highest
sense of the word this movement for
thorough control of the business use
of this great wealth is conservative.
We are trying to steer a safe middle
course, which alone can save us from
a plutocratic class government on
the one hand, or a Soc.alistic class
government on the other, either of
which would be fraught with disaster
10 our free institutions, state and ma
tlonal. We are trying to avoid alike
the evils which would flow from gov
eminent ownership of the public
utilities by which interstate commerce
Is chiefly carried on, and the evils
Wnlch now from the riot and chaos of
unrestricted individualism. There is
grave danger to our free institutions
In the corrupting influence exercised
by great wealth suddenly concern