The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-03-27
Observation-Disclosures: !:
BY Leased Wire to The Tribune.

,
BY Leased Wire to The Tribune.
NEW YORK, March 26,-Is Ameri
can business life founded on graft7
In view of amazing disclosures of
wholesale corruption in Pittsburg, which
led one of the grafters to enter the
plea in justification that stgraft is the
American system of business the even
more amazing developments in the in
vestigations being carried on by the
New York insurance department which
show that the FIRE insurance companies
alone have expended fyellow pup -
fund OF half a million dollars to intlu-
ence legislation in Albany and the open
charge that the police of New York
have collected not less than $3,000.000
within the past few years has made the
question: care we nation of graft
ers7'' a pertinent one. :,
The Tribune correspondent requested
the opinions Of number of men whose
names arc known the country over and
whose opinions carry weight as TO
whether the epidemic of graft exposures
indicate that the business and public
life of the United States Is rotten;
whether they evidence that graft has
become habit which tends to under
mine the integrity Of the country. and
whether, as a matter of fact, there is
really more grating now than there has
been in the past,
Here is what some of these men think
about it:
Views of Gibbons.
Cardinal Gibbons, the highest Roman
Catholic prelate in the United States,
says. 49,,
L Ill - = e.,
tunate that the guilty can be. brought
to Justice and punished Misdeeds IN
high places weaken the fabric of our
civic life but. fortunately. exposures
come but seldom AT the present time
there seems to be an epidemic of ex-
posure, but believe that the law of
cleansing is always followed by high
resolve, ] do not wish to make COM
ments upon the scandals which are now
before the public, but / cannot think
they indicate worse condition of af
fairs than existed decades ago
1t is far better to have such expo
sures made when lawlessness is going
forward than to leave the cancerous
sore to expand without being influenced
by publicity. 1t is unfortunate that
the cause of scandals exist; but it is
better to have them exposed than to
allow them to Tester in secret There
will come time when men s hearts are
filled with the higher and purer life,
when such things will be but memories
of the past
Governor Hughes of New York state,
who has been a central figure for
number of years In graft Investigations,
is averse to discussion upon the expo
sures now under way,
- 1T is nv policy to abstain from talk
ing upon this subject said he. TsNoth-
ing. | could say at this time would
assist In the work which is going on.
You ask If the present exposures here
and elsewhere indicate a base founda.
tlon of our political, economic and civic
structure. That assertion must pass
without comment The work which is
oeIng done by reformers speaks for it.
self; the efforts of those who are ex.
posing wrongs and trying to have the
guilty punished do not require criticism.
The activity of public officials who arc
seeking out public men accused of
viciousness is monument to their in
tegrity.'
Young Rockefeller Evasive.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who will
hold the reins in the distribution of a
great portion of his fathers wealth
through the Rockefeller foundation,
said:
"The rule of business life today can
which have been made and which may
be under way. l do not believe that
the standard of civic life can be so
judged. Everywhere there are men who
are willing to stoop to questionable
means TO gain their ends, but these men
are outnumbered by men of unim.
peachable integrity.
Exposure is the only cure for such
ailments, The facts brought out may
ha nNa taI I,,t Al =.
may not. But / cannot see any cause
for widespread fear
Bishop David \. Greer. successor to
Bishop Henry C.. Potter of New York,
says;
The startling exposures of graft ,
do not indicate TO me. that the public
and commercial life of America has be-
come saturated by spirit of dishon-
esty. On the contrary, existing condi-
tions prove to my mind that the evils
are inconsistent with the ideals of
American life, and that it has made it.
self felt as a disease that must be
eliminated at no matter what cost,
The spirit of graft has over-reached
itself in its offenses against public
morality and the public conscience will
tolerate it no further. The American
conscience may. slumber at times, but
It's awakening always is terrible and the
offenders never fail to come to grief.
as we have seen IN the case of political
rings and Doodle aldermen more than
once or twice in our history"
Nathan Straus, merchant, capitalist
and philanthropist, says:
View Of Philanthropist.
"There would be no such widespread
condemnation of graft rs we perceive
in connection with the recent expos
ures If 1T were in any respect true that