The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1909-07-08

ration enjoys offers spectacle which is both sad
and repellent. The brutal arrogance and grasping
greed of the man is in reality the thing as
the bitter envy and hatred and graspng greed Of the
other. That kind of have and that kind of have
not stand on the same eminence of infamy 1t is
as important fol- the one as for the other to learn
the lesson of the true relations of lfe OF course,
the fret duty Of any is to pay his own way, to
be able to earn his livelihood, to support himself
and his wife and his children and those dependent
upon him. He must be able to give those for whom
it is his duty to care, food and clothing, shelter,
medicine, education, legitimate chance for
reasonable and healthy amusements, and the OPP
poruuity to acquire the knowledge and power which
will fit them in their turn TO do good work in the
world. When man has reached this point,
which of course will vary greatly under different
conditions, then he has reached the point where
other things become immensely important
than adding to his wealth. It is emphatically
right, indeed tempted to say it is emphatically
the first duty of each American to get dollars, for
this is only another way of saying that it is his first
duty to earn his own living. But it lie not his only
duty, by great dea and after the living has been
earned, getting dollars should come far behind
many other duties.
"Yet another thing. No movement ever has
done or will do good in this country where as.
saut is made not upon evil wherever found but
simply upon evil as it happens to be found in
particular class. The big newspaper owned or con.
trolled in Wall Street. which is everastingly preach
ing about the inlquity of laboring men, which is
quite willing to hound politicians for their misdeeds
but which with raving fury defends all the male
factors of great wealth. stands an exact level with
and neither above nor below, that other newspaper
whose whole attack IS upon men of wealth. which
declines to condemn or else condemns in apologetic
perfunctory, and wholly inefficient manner, out
RACES committed by labor. This latter is the kind
of paper which by torrents of foul abuse seeks to
stir up 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 industry and ability has honorably won his
wealth, and who honorably spends it, or man
whose wealth represents robbery and whose life
represents either proaigacy, at best an inane
useless and tasteless extravaganza. This country
cannot afford to let it's conscience grow warped and
twisted, as it must grow if it takes either one of
these two positions. We must draw the line. not
on wealth on poverty, but conduct. We
must stand for the good citizen because he is good
citizen, whether he be rich whether he be poor.
and we must mercessly attack the man who does
evil wholly without regard to whether the evil is
done in high low places, whether it takes the
form of homicidal violence among members of
federation of miners, or of unscrupuous craft and
greed in the head of some great Wall Street corpo-
ration
The above is what is known in the newspaper
parance of the day as "hot stuff" Coming as it
does from one who for seven and onehalf years oc-
cupied the most exalted executive position in the
world of politics and craftsmanship they sound
harsh and discordant. That the charges are all
true none will deny President Woodrow Wilson
address along similar lines. As Elk President
Cleveland said of another issue years ago. sit is
condition not theory which confronts u.s.
Trusts and combinations are the order of the
day, sitting and crushing out competition and yet
these things are going more vigorously now than
ever before. It is not shooting over the mark to
predict that within ten fifteen years from now all
of the railroad mileage in this country Mexico and
China will be in the control of one syndicate.
Seven eighths of the steam roads of the countries
pamed in that situation now Next will come
the absolute central control of the electrics
then what?
Gov. Hadley says he has found the remedy
which President Roosevelt failed to find. In an
address at the Northwestern University in Chicago
the chief magistrate of Missouri said that the
Government had fallen into the hands of the wrong
men all along the line. That the real men of brains,
ability and action refuse to chase accept Office of
any kind but devote their superior knowledge and
energies to scientific, commercial and professional
pursuits. He said that great railroad and corpora
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