The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1909-01-01

lSdueI IN InOSe Gays. hChlnlSy Was
never dramatized as the hero of the
play. He was what dramatists might
call the walking gentleman" strong,
Of course; honest, certainly, but not
the hero Of the times. Hanna was
the man in the public eye. He was
the man who babe men come and go
at his beck and call. He was the boss
of the bosses and as the ruler OF the
superficial government, Hanna guarded
business; Mckinley as the head Of the
constitutional government preserved
the traditional constitution.
And so as United States Senators for
the most part truckled to Hanna, and
as the United States Senators had the
real choice Of federal officials, es-
pecially of federal judges and officers
of the courts, the United States Senate
became the organ-not of the tradi-
tional constitutional government but Of
the real government. And courts
judges, marshals, prosecutors and
clerks of the courts and various arms
of the law unconsciously took the color
of Hanna's cast of thought, and gave
allegiance to the court of Hanna and
prosperity, rather than to Mckinley
and the constitution. So district at
torneys were not bringing stock manip-
ulators to the bar of justice; judges
were not instructing grand juries to
probe into crooked railroad manage
ment; United States marshals were not
laying information before the courts
of the crimes of the trusts. For to do
those things would arrest prosperity.
And prosperity was the god of the
superficial government. Business was
above the unwritten law of prosperity.
And no one was to blame more
than the people themselves. They got
exactly the kind of a government they
desired. The hexibility of our con-
stitution was never more admirably
presented to the world. Public senti-
ment governed and the great mass of
the American people upheld the gov
eminent of Hanna honestly without
questioning its divine right to admin
lister the affairs of this country. For
if the Democrats had won in 1900,
they would have been expected to fol-
low in Hanna's footsteps, to maintain
prosperity at any cost, and to protect
business. For we were a money-mad
nation. And when stocks and repu-
tations began to shrink in 1908, when
great concerns began to totter and
their heads to die of shame, as they
met an awakened public conscience,
it is miserably sad that we should all
not have suffered with those in high
places, for we were as much to blame
as they were. They merely epitomized
success as we considered it. They
were our models, and our superior viz
tue was an after-thought-a result per-
haps of our failure to attain their
heights, or at least to meet their temp
tations. They suffered; We jeered, and
God judged.
But now conditions are changing.
Even when the knighthood of business
was in flower there was the worm in the
bud. There was the Spanish war. The
spirit of sacrifice overcame the spirit of
Hanna lost control;
the country declared war, and after
waiting to prepare for It as best he
could Mckinley proclaimed it. The
Of the Philippines which fol-
lowed war, offended some of the
quicker and more enlightened con-
sciences of the people, but the crowd
conscience OF the Nation saw with
deep subconscious wisdom Of National
genius that if we could learn to sacrifice
our own interest for those of weaker
people, we would learn the lesson
needed to solve the great question OF
democracy - to check our national
greed and to make business honest.
For business may not be made honest
by vicarious sacrifice, but only as each
man is willing to sacrifice himself. The
problem of democracy is at base the
problem Of individual seH-sacrifce.
Greed may not be cured in others
until it is cured in ourselves.