El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-09-02

500 dishonesty except in men of the
class he dislikes The reckless aglta-
tor who invariably singles out men OF
wealth as furnishing the only examples
of dishonesty; and the equally uhscru-'
puIous-but no more unscrupuIous-re-
dictionary who can see dishonesty only
in a Matchmaking politician or a crook
ed labor leader; both stand on the same
plane of Consciousness. You Will never
get honesty from politicians until you
exact honesty from business men. On
the other hand. YOU brand yourselves
as fools or as hypOcrites IL you say
that the corporation owner, or the en-
ployer, is always the dishonest man and
the poor man never, that it is only the
wealthy man who corrupts the politi-
clan and never the politician who black
mails the corporation.
Corrupt Legislature.
ANY man in his senses knows that
there are plenty of corporations IN TINS
country who prosper by bribing legis-
latures, just as they prosper by swim
ding the public: and any man in his
senses ought to know, In addition, that
there are plenty of corrupt men OF
small means who. in legislative or other
bodies try to bIackmail corporations
and try to blackmail other people as
we'll. If they doubt this, let them look
at the revelations of corruption in my
own state-New York-and in yours.
nv hearers-here in Missouri; let them
look at what has occurred In Califor-
MIA and what has occurred In Illinois.
In Illinois, for instance. one OF the ras-
caIitfes developed by the recent investi-
CATION was the existence of a combina-
ton of legislators who blackmailed
fishermen along a certain river, forcing
them to pay to prevent legislation
which would have interfered with their
business.
The Real Dangerous Men.
Now. scoundrels who do these
things are, of course, the very men who,
on the one hand, will blackmail cor
poration, If they got chance, and on
the other hand, Will cheerfully, If the
chance occurs. sell themselves to that
corporation against the interests of the
public Their corruption Is no more
due TO the action of the corporations
than the corruption of the corporations
is due 10 their action; and evil, and
not good, is done by the honest but mis-
guided man who would persuade you
, that either fact is true. Our duty Is
TO war with equal sternness against the
corrupt man Of great wealth and the
small who makes a trade of corrup-
ton; our fight is against both the
swindIing corporation and the black
/
MIST Campaign Equally.
| I'VE cannot afford to limit a cam
paign against corruption to those who
| happen to have a certain social status.
We need laws which shall put the cor
| poration out of business, so far as con-
| Germs corrupting the servants or the
public and betraying the rights OF the
public l believe that the great issue
now before the people is the doing
! cnaofS1 nriX-ilQQp In all Its
| forms; doing away with the power OF
the big corporation to control legisla-
4 ton in its interests and to interfere
| in politics in order TO secure privileges
j to which il is not entitled. But L re-
gard the essential factor in this cam
paign as being an aroused CIVIC con-
science which Will unsparingly condemn
dishonesty in every form, and In every
man, high or low.
Reckless RefOrmers.
The reckless wOuld-be reformer,
who. in speaking or writing, seeks TO
| persuade us that We need pay heed 10
J corruption only when it shows itself IN
! the rich man, is doing as great a moral
| wrong as the rich man whose low moral
standard tends to lower the moral
standard of the whole community. The
people of this country will get justice
from the corporations only If they both
do Justice to them and rigidly exact II
from them.
UNLESS they do justice to rich men,
| they put premium upon injustice and
| dishonesty among rich men Let us
hold them TO the strictest accountability
for any wrong doing; but let US insist
upon honesty in our own ranks, no less
! than theirs; let us war on crookedneSs
i of every kind in the man OF small
means as well as the man of large
means Let US judge each man by his
conduct, and not by his social or finan-
cial condition