Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1908-02-05

"Sweeping attacks upon all property,
upon all men of means. without regard
to whether they do well or i'll, would
sound the deathknell of the republic;
and such attacks become inevitable if
decent citizens permit those rich men
whose lives are corrupt and evil to
domneer in swollen pride, unchecked
and unhindered. over the destinies of
this country
Scores Work of "Hirelings.''
"There are ample material rewards
for those who serve with fidelity the
mammon of unrighteousness, but they
are dearly paid for by the people who
permit their representatives, whether in
public life. in the press or in the col
leges where their young men are taught,
to preach and to practice that there
is one law for the rich and another
for the poor. The amount of money
the representatives of certain great mon
eyed interests are willing to spend can
be gagged by their recent publication
broadcast throughout the papers of this
country from the Atlantic to the Pacific
of huge advertisements attacking with
envenomed bitterness the administra-
tion s policy of warning against success
full dishonesty and by their circulation
of pamphlets and books prepared with
the same object. while they likewise
push the circulation of the writings
and speeches of men who. whether be-
cause they are misled or because, seeing
the light, they yet are willing to sin
against the light. serve these their mas
tiers of great wealth to the cost of the
plain people.
"The books and pamphlets, the con-
trolled newspapers, the speeches by pub
lie or private men to which | refer are
usually and especially in the interest
of the Standard Oil trust and of GER
tain notorious railroad combinations, but
they also defend other individuals and
corporations of great wealth that have
been guilty or wrongdoing. 1t is only
rarely that the men responsible for the
wrongdOing speak or write. From the
railroad rate law to the pure food law
every measure for honesty in business
that has been passed during the last
six years has been opposed by these
men on its passage, and in its admins
tration, with every resource that bitter
and INSCRIPTIONS 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 administra-
ton of the law, especially through the
deparement of Justice, but also through
the interstate commerce commission and
the bureau of corporations.
Prison Where Possible
Gone of the favorite methods Of tic
latter class of assaiants is TO attack
the administration for not procuring
the imprisonment instead of the fin,
of offenders under these antitrust laws.
The man making this assault is usually
either prominent lawyer or an editor,
who takes his policy from the iinanciers
and his arguments from their attorneys.
If the former, he has defended and ad
vised many wealthy malefactors, and
he knows well that, thanks to the advice
of lawyers like himself a certain kind
of modern corporation has been turned
into an admirable instrument by which
to render it well-nigh impossible to get
at the head of the corporation. at the
man who is really most guilty. When
we are able to put the real wrongdoer
in prison this is what we strike to do;
this is what we have actually done with
come very wealthy criminals, who.
moreover, represented that most baneful
of all alliances, the alliances 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 misappli-
cation of funds in connection with Ger.
tain great banks in Chicago, in the land
fraud cases, where, as in other cases
likewise, neither the highest political
position nor the possession of great
wealth has avaiIed to save the offenders
from prison.
"The federal government does
scourge sin; il does bid sinners fear; for
it has put behind the bars with impair
tial severity the powerful fnancier, the
powerful politician, the rich land thief,
the rich contractor-all, no matter how
high their station, against whom crimi-
nal misdeeds can be proved.
Does It Hurt Business?"
"The keynote of all these attacks up
on the effort to secure honesty in bust
ness and in politics is well expressed
in brazen protests against any effort
for the moral regeneration of the bust.
ness world, on the ground that it is un.
natural, unwarranted and injurious, 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