The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-31
TRB COMING CRISIS
AND TIE MAN.


were boys and young men in those
days, little over a half century
ago, when the Republican party be-
gan its ephoc-malting existence. They
may remember the splendid courage
and magnetic enthusiasm of the
party in those early days. Their first
presidential nomonee was a spectacu-
lar character who seemed very en-
bodlment of this splendid courage
and enthusiasm. Whittier, an inspir-
ed prophet of freedom, wrote a poem
entitled, "The Pathfinder which
well voiced these feelings It's closing
stanza was:
Rise up, Fremont and go before !
The hour must have its man;
Put on the hunting-shirt once more
And lead in freedoms van"
There were then ominous mutter-
ings of storm destined not long af-
ter to burst in fury. on our land. A
crisis was not then far away When
that crisis came the man was there
Ipredestined of Providence to meet H.
1t mattered little that his name was
assuredly not John C. Fremont.
Nearly half century has elapsed
since those trying days. To one who
watches the signs of the times today
he is not likely to seem rash or vain
alarmist who seems 10 see another
and perhaps greater crisis, nation
wide, it may be worldwide, rapidly
approaching. The upheaval of our
earthquake in the '60s was felt the
world around. The force of the up
heaval then was directed against one
great institution that fell before it. In
the wake of that great movement
other great institutions have come in
to being, amassed vast fortunes, be-
come engines of mighty efficiency
and while existing as the agents OF
an advanced civilization have become
human selfishness menace to the
Iperpetuity of that civilization itself
, 1t is needless to specify individual in
stances of a fact which has become
very commonplace, whose full IL
lustration would require catalogue
of nearly every great form Of indus.
try today.
With a speed as Of lightning this
crisis has been approaching. A few
years ago the late Henry d. Lloyd in
his book, Wealth VS.. Common
wealth" called attention to the
methods by which the Standard Oil
company gained and kept its grip on
its business. Later Ida 'Tarbell told
the same story substantially anc
many more heard it. Other voices be,
gan to be raised in protest against
oppression and greed of gain on the
part of interests that had begun Il
be predatory" and to use the needs
OF their fellow men to extort enor,
nous gain and to heap up colossa
fortunes Labor was becoming or.
ganized in order to protect the toll
er against the oppression that com
binations Of capitaI were making
possible.
The sensational entrance of Thorn.
as w. Lawson as a protagonist
against the predatory interests
marks destinct era in the events
that are Fastening on a crisis. lie
was Saul among the prophets. II
was his personality and the manner
more than any novelty or value in
what he said that drew attention.
In the wake of Lawson came a
very avalanche of revelations, show
ing the working of that same spirlt
of selfish greed in every department
of business. THE trail of the serpent
is over them all" Competing inter
ests no sooner enter into combina.
tion than all rivals are to be bought
out starved out, thrown. into bank
ruptcy-put out OF the way by any
means, fair or foul. Then with tbs
public at its mercy, the greedy trust
exacts from consumers the last posi-
BILE farthing. Schemes cunningly de
vised defraud the government thai
protects them of its revenue. II
short, that trust by its very nature
grasplng and predatory. amasses
gain by every means that its vast