Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-02-12

movement t6 Uphold honesty must be a
movement to frown ON dishonesty. We
attack only the corrupt men of wealth,
VINO md IN the purchased politician the
most efficient instrument of corruption
and in the purchased newspaper the
most efficient defender of corruption.
"Sweeping attacks upon all property
upon all men Of means. without regard
to whether they do vol or i'll. would
sound the dcathkncll of the republic;
| and such attacks become inevitable il
decent citizens permit those rich men
whose lives are corrupt and evil to
domincer 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 OF in the col
| ieges 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-
ton 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 tho 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 l 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 wear
the attack has been made with most
bitterness upon the actual administers
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
some of the favorite methods of the
latter class of assailants 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 u prominent lawyer or an editor,
who takes his policy from the financiers
and his arguments from their attorneys
If the former, he has defended and ad-
viscd many wealthy nalefactors, 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
some 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, rs in other cases
likewise, neither the highest political
position nor the possession of great
wealth has awaited to save the offenders
from prison.
"The federal government does
seourge sin; it does bid sinners fear; for
it has put behind the bars with impair
tial severity the powerful financier, the
powerful politician, the rich land thief,
the rich contraetor-all, no matter how
high their station, against whom criini.
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 braaen protests against any effoy:
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
of the men caught in gambling estab-
lishment when that gambling establish
ment 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
moral regeneration of business which
will prevent repetition of the insur-
ance, banking and street railroad sean
dals in New York; repetition of the
Chicago Alton deal; ii repetition of
the combination between certain profess
sional politicians, certain professional
labor leaders and certain big iinanciers,
from the disgrace of which San Fran
cisco has Just been rescued; a repetition
of the. successful effort by the Standard
Oil people to crush out every competitor,
to overawe the common carrier and to
establish a monopoly which treats the
public with a contempt which the pub
lie deserves so long us it permits men
of such principles and such sentiments
to avow and act on them with impu-
nifty. The cutlery against stopping dis.
honest practices ariong wrongdoers who
happen to be wealthy is precisely sim.
liar to the cutlery raised against every
effort for cleanliness and decency in
city government, because, forsooth, it
will hurt business.
"The business which is hurt by the
movement for honesty is the kind OF
business which, in the long run, it pays
the country to have hurt 1t is the kind
of business which has tended to make
the very name high finance term
of scandal to which all honest Ameri
can men of business should join in put
ting an end. The special pleaders fol
| business dishonesty, in denouncing the
present administration for enforcing thu
law against the huge and corrupt cor
porations which have defed the law
|