The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-05
FROM OTHER PENS

CORPORATIONS AND BLACKMAIL.
The line of demarcation between cor
poration bribery on the one hand or
submission to blackmail and extortion
/ on the other is almost too narrow to be
discovered. Who began the miserable
/ traffic? No one can tell. When the
railroads first offered brides or submit
1 ted to the bIackmafling attacks they
(piled up woe for themselves and for the
/ state and the cities. If, in the first in
stance, before the system had grown,
| the corporations had denounced the
/ strikers and appealed to the people,
| corrupt men would have been driven
| from public life. Perhaps it is too much
| to expect that the average human be-
| ings could have had the prescience or
| the courage to wait and fight especial
| ly when a request for a perfectly pro-
per privilege was asked. AT any rate,
| they did not wait, but plunged into the
mire. Once in the game they played to
the limit, and what was first mere
means of preservation became fin
ally an aggressive system.
| Let it be hoped that the end has come,
and that the people are to be appealed
to in every event. Every one who has
read the signs of the times will readily
believe that the corporations are with
drawing from politics, and that the rail-
roads especially for mere sef-portec-
ton became finally an aggressive sys-
TEN.
Let it be hoped that the end has come,
and that the people are to be appealed
to in every event. Every one who has
read the signs of the times will readily
believe that the corporations are with
drawing from politics, and that the rail-
roads especially, for mere self-protec-
court of public opinion with clean
hands. If it shall appear to the pub
lie that railroads and corporations have
ceased to deal with corrupt politicians,
I
form of drastic and unjust legislation
will lose their force and support.-PhiI-
adelphia Ledger.
TRIED IN HIS OWN COURT
The other day a New Jersey justice
was called upon to preside in a case
where the plaintiff sought to recover
damages from a fellow townsman
whom he charged with overdriving and
causing the death of valuable horse.
The defenant's attorney, when the case
] was called, arose and charged the jus
! tice with being prejudiced in the plain
tiff's favor and consequently unfit to
preside. The justice declined to admit
j his prejudice and then called to his as
sistance an old New Jersey statute.
! Looking over the audience in the court
room, he detected three citizens of local
repute and appointed them triers. Then
| he detailed to them the fact that he mad
| been charged with prejudice and asked
| them to make an exhaustive exaInina-
! ton into the evidence and announce
their finding The three triers there
upon assumed charge and called for
evidence. The justice appeared as
| witness in his own behalf, and the de-
| PENDANTS attorney directed the attack
| against him In due time the triers
| stated that they were ready to report
and then announced that there was no
| tangible proof that the justice was IN
any way untitled to sit in the case. The
| trial then proceeded, the justice finally
giving the plaintiff the full amount or
his cIaim.-Cleveland Plain Dealer.