Evening star., 1909-06-17
brought lasting disaster on less fortu-
nately situated peoples.
Must Stand for the Ripht


nately situated peoples
Must Stand for the Right.
First and foremost we must stand
firmly on a basis of good sound ethics.
We intend to do what is right for the
ample and sufficient reason that 1t Is
right If business is hurt by the stern
exposure of crookedness and the result
of efforts to punish the crooked man, then
business must be hurt, even though good
men are involved in the hurting, until 1t
so adjusts itself that it Is possible to
prosecute wrongdoing without stampeding
the business community into terror
struck defense of the wrongdoers and an
angry assault upon those who have ex-
posed them. On the other hand. we must
beware, above all things. of being m;sled
by wicked or foolish men who would con-
done homicide and violence, and apollo
giZe for the dynamiter and the assassin,
because, forSooth, they choose to take
the ground that crime is no crime II the
wicked man happens also to have been
shiftless and unthrifty or lazy man who
has never amassed property. 1t is es-
sental that we should wrest the control
of the government out of the hands OF
rich men who use it for unhealthy per-
poses and should keep it out of their
hands, and to this end the first requisite
is to provide means adequately to deal
with corporations, which are essential to
cisions of the courts. and because of the
shortsightedness of the public, have be-
come the chief factors in political and
business debasement. But 1t would be
lust as bad to put the control OF the
government into the hands of demaeogues
and Missionaries who seek to pander 10
ignorance and prejudice by penahzns
thrift and business enterprise. and ruin
ing all men of means, with as an attend
ant result the ruin or the entire COM
munity.'
Mr.. Roosevelt quotes en- article by Ste
vens, an English journalist, on conditions
in the United States, written in ls96. IN
which it was declared that IL individual
ism is left absolutely uncontrolled as a
modern business condition the result Will
follow that all power of individual
achievement and individual effort in the
average man will be crushed out just as
effectively as If the state took absolute
control of everything. On this line MIR.
Roosevelt continues as follows:
Law to Control .'Big Men"
"Those who advocate total lack of regu-
lation, those who advocate lawlessness in
the business world. themselves give the
strongest impulse to what believe would
be the deadeninG movement toward state
socialism.
There must be law to control the big
men, and therefore especially the big
the interest of our industrial democracy
of today. This law must be efficient, and
therefore it must be administered by ex-
ecutive officers, and not by law suits IN
tie courts. If this is not done the agita-
tion to increase out of all measure the
share of the government in this work VIII
receive an enormous impetus The move
ment for government control of the great
business corporations is no more move
ment against liberty than a movement to
oil i. -ay1Hxa ANT
against liberty The huge, irresponsible
which demands liberty from
the supervision of government agents
stands on the same ground as the less
dangerous criminal of the streets who
wishes liberty from police interference
The ex-President closes with direct
reference to newspapers:
Yet another thing, he says. NO
movement ever has done or ever will do
good in this country where assault is
made not upon evil wherever found, but
simply upon evil as it happens to be
found in a particular class. The big
owned or controlled in wall
street, which is everldstingly preaching
about the iniquity of laboring men. which
is quite willing to hound politicians for
their nlfsdeeds. but which with raving
fury defends all the malefactors of great
wealth, stands on an exact level WITH
and neither above nor below, that other
newspaper whose whole attack is upon
denim, or else condemns in aDologetic per-
functory and wholly inefficient manner
outrages committed by labor.
Drawing the Line on Conduct.
This latter is the kind of paper which
by torrents of foul abuse seeks TO stir up
a bitter class hatred against every man
of means simply because he is man of
means. against every man of wealth.
whether he is an honest man who by in
dustry and ability has honorably won his
wealth. and who honorably spends ii, or i
man whose wealth represents robbery and
whose life represents either profligacy.
or at best an inane. useless and tasteless
This country cannot afford to let its
conscience grow warped and twisted, as
it must grow Ii IT takes either one Of
these Two positions. We must draw the
line. not on wealth nor on poverty, but on
conduct We must stand for the good
citizen because he is a good citizen,
whether he be rich or whether he be poor
and We must nlercilessly attack the man
who does evil, wholly without regard to
whether the evil is done in high. or low
places, whether ii takes the form of homi-
cidal violence among members of a fed
Grafton of miners or of inscriptions craft
and greed in the head OF some great Wal.
street corporation"