The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-01

light, serve these their masters of great wealth to the cost of the plain people. | The books and pamphlets, the controll- | ed newspapers, the speeches by public | or private men to which I refer, are usually and especially in the interest of the Standard oil trust and of certain | notorious railroad combinations, but | they also defend other individuals and corporation of great wealth that have been guilty of wrongdoing. It is only rarely that the men responsible for the wrongdoing themselves speak or write, Normally they hire others to do their bidding or find others who will do it without hire. From the railroad-rate law to the pure food law, every meas use for honesty in busness that has been passed during the last six years has been opposed by these men on its passage and In its administration with every resource that bitter and un- scrupulous craft could suggest and the command of almost unlimited money secure. But for the last year the at- tack has been made with most bitter ness upon the actual administration of the law, especially through the depart ment of justice but also through the interstate commerce commission and the bureau of corporations. The extra ordinary violence of the assaults upon policy contained in these speeches, edi- torials, articles, advertisements. and pamphlets, and the enormous sums of tx. a,tA,
 give & fairly accurate measure of the anger and terror which our public ac- tions have caused the corrupt men of vast wealth to feel in the very marrow of their being. The attack is some times made openly against us for en- forcing the law, and sometimes with certain cunning, for not trying to en- force it in some other way than that which experience shows to be practi- cal. One of the favorite methods of the latter class of assailant is to attack the administration for not procuring the imprisonment instead of the fine of of lenders under these. antitrust laws. The man making this assault is usually either prominent lawyer or an editor who takes his policy from the finan- ciers and his argument from their at torneys. If the former, he has defend- ed and advised many wealthy malefac- tors, and he knows we'll that, thanks to the advice of lawyers like himself a certain kind of modern corporation has been turned into an admirable instru- ment 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 strive to do: this is what we
 have actually done with some very
 wealthy criminals, who, moreover, rep
 resent that most baneful of all alli- ances, the alliance between the corrup-
 ton of organized politics and the cor tion of high finance. This is what
 we have done in the Gaynor and
 pication of funds in connection with
 certain great banks in Chicago, in the land-fraud cases, where, as in other
 cases likewise, neither the highest po-
 'tical position nor the possession oi
 great wealth, has availed to save the offenders from prison. The federal
 government does scourge sin, it does
 bid sinners fear; for it has put behind the bars with impartial severity. the powerful financier, the powerful politi-
 tician. the rich land thief the rich con.
 tractor-all no matter how high theii
 station, against whom criminal mis-
 deeds can be provide. All their wealth
 and power cannot protect them But ii
 often happens that the effort to i'm.
 prison a given defendant is certain to
 be futile while it is possible to fine
 him or to fine the corporation of which
 he is head; so that. in other words. tn,
 only way of punishing the wrong is h,
 fining the corporation, unless we are
 content to proceed personally agains
 the minor agents. The corporation |; lawyers to whom I refer and their em
 ployers are the men mainly responsihl,
 for this state of things. and their re
 sponsibility is shared with all who in. geniously oppose the passing of ius , and effective laws. or who fail to exc cute them when they have been put ol , the statute books.