The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-01-31

mate sources of fhc damage ssI4s ~
\ the stockholders aud tue public ~
| apologissa of successful dishonesty 81
ways declain against ans effort g
punish d prevent 4 90 the ground
at fany such effort will "unsetfle
a ness" II Is they who b. their
have unsettled bufiness. and the
ve<} Men raising this cry spend bum
dreo4 1l.ihousands Of dollars IN secur-
ing. BY Nbeech, editorial. book OF pam
phIet, the u1tense BY misstatemsnts Q
what they haze done, and yet when
public servants correct their misstate-
ments by telling the truth they de-
claim against them for breaking 81
lence lest values be deprecated"
They have hurt honest business men,
honest workingmen, honest farmers,
and now they clamor against the truth
being told
Business World Needs Regeneration.
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 unnatu-
raj. unwarranted AID injurious and
that business panic is the necessary
penalty for such effort to secure BUSH
ness honesty. The morality Of such a
plea is precisely as great as II made
on behalf OF the men caught In a gam
bling establishment when that gam
bling establishment is raided by the
police. If such words mean anything.
they mean that those whose senti-
ments they represent stand against
the effort to bring about moral re-
generation OF business which viii pre-.
vent repetition Of the Insurance.
banking and street railroad scandals
IN New York, a repetition Of the Chi
cage and Alton deal, a repetition Of
the combination between certain pro
fessonal politicians, certain profes
sional labor leaders and certain big
hnanciers from the disgrace Of which
San Francisco has just been rescued. q
repetition of the successful effort by
the Standard Oil people to crush out
every competitor. to overawe the com
mon carriers and to establish q mo-
nopoly which treats the public with
contempt which the public deserves so
long as 1t permits men Of such princi-
pies and such sentiments to avow and
act on them with impunity. The out
cry against stopping dishonest prac-
tees among wrongdoers who happen
to be wealthy is precisely similar to
the outcry raised against every effort
for cleanliness and decency In city
government, because, forsooth, IL will
"hurt business The same outcry il
made against the department OF tus-
tice for prosecuting the heads Of coles
sal corporations, thar has been made
against the men who in San Francisco
have prosecuted with impartial severi-
n tic wrongdoers among business
men, public officials and labor leaders
alike. The principle Is the same in the
two cases. Just as the blackmailer
and bride giver stand on the same
evil emInence OF infamy, so the man
who makes an enormous fortune By
corrupting legislatures and municipali-
ties and fieecing his stockholders and
the public stands on the same moral
level with the creature who fattens on
the blood money Of the gambling house
and the saloon Moreover, In the last
analysis, both kinds Of corruption are
far more intimately connected than
would at first sight appear The
wrongdoing is at bottom the same.
Corrupt business and corrupt politics
act and react with ever increasing de-
basement one on the other: the cor
rupt head Of corporation and the cor
rupt labor leader are both in the same
degree the enemies OF honest corpora
tons and honest labor unions. the re-
bate taker, the franchise traficker.
the manipulation of securities. the pur-
veyor and protector OF vice, the black
mailing ward boss, the ballot box
suffer the demagogue, the mob lead
er, the hired bully and man killer all
alike work at the same web Of corrup.
ton, and all alike should be abhorred
by honest men
Justice Of Proposed Liability Law.
The business" which is hurt BY the
for honesty is the kind OF
business which in the long run it pays
the country to have hurt IT is the
kind OF business which has tended to
make the very name high finance
term OF scandal to which All honest
American men Of business should join
Ia putting an end. The special plead
ers for business dishonesty Id denounc-
ing the present administration for en-
forcing the law against the huge and
corrupt corporations which have defied
the law also denounce it for endeavor-
ing to secure sadly needed labor leg
islation, such as a farreaching law
making employers liable for injuries
TO their employees. II is meet and 6t
that the apologsts for corrupt wealth
should oppose every effort TO relieve
weak and helpless people from crush
ing misfortune brought upon them BY
injury IN the business from which they
gain a bsSe livelihood. The burden
should be distributed. It is hypocrit-
ical baseness to speak OF a girl who
works in a factory where the danger
GUS machinery is unprotected as hav-
ing the right freely to contract 20
expose herself to dangers to life and
limb. She has no alternative but
suffer want or else to expose herself
to such dangers. and when she loses
hand or Is otherwise manned or dis
figured for life 1t Is q moral wrong that
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