Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1908-02-05

Of high finance. This Is what we have done in the Gaynor and Greene case, in the case of the misapplication 4 funds in connection with certain great banks in Chicago. in the land fraud cases, where, as in other cases, like. wise, neither the highest political po- sitiOn nor the possession of great wealth, neither availed to save the offenders from prison. The federal government does discourage sin; 1t does bid sinners fear, for it has put behind the bars with impartial sever. ity. the powerful financier, the power. full 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 cannot protect them. But 1t often happens that the effort to imprison given defendant Is certain to be futile, while 1t is pos sible to fine him or to fine the cor. poration of which he is head: so that. in other words. the only way of pun. ishing the wrong is by so fining the corporation. unless we are content to proceed personally against the minor agents. The corporation law.
 
 ployers are the men mainly respon. sible for this state of things, and their responsibility Is shared with all who ingenuousy oppose the passage of just and effective laws, or who fail to execute them when they have been put on the statute books.
 Much is said, in these attacks upon the present administration. about the rights of innocent stockholders. The stockholders are not innocent who voluntarily purchase stock fin cor. poration whose methods and manage ment they know to be corrupt, and stockholders are bound to try to 5e- cure honest management. or else are stopped from complaining about the proceedings the government finds necessary in order to compel the cor. porations to obey the law. There has been in the past grave wrong done in. nocent stockholders by overcapitaliza ton. stock watering, stock jobbing stock manipulation. This we have sought to prevent. first. by exposing tue thing and punishing the offender when any existing law has been vio lated; second. by recommending the passage of laws which would make unlawful similar practices for the fu ture.
 The public men. lawyers and edi tors. who loudly proclaim their sym pathy with the innocent stockhold ers," when some great law-defyine corporation is punished. are the first to protest with frantic vehemence against all efforts by law to put q stop to the practices which are the real and ultimate sources of damage alike to the stockholders and thf public. The apologists of successful dishonesty always proclaim against any effort to furnish or prevent 1t or the ground that any such effort will "unsettle business" It Is they
 who, by their acts, have unsettled Sbusiness. and the very men arising this cry spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in securing. by speech. edi
 torial, or pamphlet, the defense b,
 mis-statements of what they have done, and yet, when public servants correct their mis-statements by telling
 the truth. they disclaim against then for breaking silence. lest values b' depreciated." They have hurt thu honest business men. honest working
 men, honest farmers, and now the!
 clamor against the truth being told.
 The keynote of all these attacks
 upon efforts to secure honesty n
 business and in politics. is well ex
 pressed in brazen protests agains
 any effort for the moral regeneration
 of the business world. on the groun'
 that 1t Is unnatural. unwarranted, am | l..s nd hat hn
 the necessary penalty. for such ei forts to secure business honesty.
 The morality of such plea is prf
 cisely as great as If made on behal : of the men caught in gambling e' tablishment when the establishment , Is raided by the police. If such word mean anything, they mean that tho3 whose sentiments they represen stand against the effort to bring abo'l moral regeneration of bushes which will prevent repetition in tn [ insurance, banking, and political scar dal in New York; repetition of tn , Chicago X Alton deal; repetition ( - the condemnation between certa. f professional politicians, certain pr' . fessionai labor leaders, and certai 5 big hnanciers. from the disgrace ( r which San Fracisco has just been rei l cued; repetition cf the snccessfl , effort by the Standard oil people { crush out every competitor, to ovc , awe the common carriers. and to e 3 tablish monopoly which treats tl - public with contempt which th ! public deserves sc long as l. permit men of such principles and such SCI r timents to nvow and act on them wit E impunity. Tn, outcry against ntol F riLg dishonest practices among th E wro' gdoers w. hap >tH tC b" w"a! Il s is reciss'v eiw liar z. ''- "'ici 0 ., .sad a ysins every e1 "r for cl' nnl | ness and decency in city governmen 8 because, forsooth. 1t will hurt bus 0 ness"
 d The same outcry Is made again r. the departmen, of justice for prosec ting the heads oi ooossal corporation '' that has been inndo against the me F. who in San Francisco have prosec ted with impartial severity the wror
 doers among business men, publ II officials and labor leaders alike. TT