The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-09-02


the United States compared TO what
he owes the American people.
There are certain matters which
should never be treated as party
matters; and foremost among these
is the great and vital virtue OF
honesty. Honesty should be treated
as q prime necessity to our success
as nation. The minute that a
question of honesty as against dis
honesty is involved. then we must
all act together as Americans, with
out the slightest regard to party
Affiliations.
Honesty is not a party matter;
and the first man to attack
scoundrel OF any party should be the
honest men of that party. When In
office. 1 always proceeded upon the
theory that there would be no need
of my opponents raising the cry OF
Turn the rascals out" because l
would turn them out myself just as
soon as, by vigilant and intelligent
industry, 1 could discover them.
AS we dealt with the crooked pub
lie official, whether in Kansas or
Oklahoma, so we dealt with the
crooked private citizen; with the
rich swindler In New York or Chi
caeo as with the horse thief or
never attacked a man of one politt-
cal faith or another, because he did
or did not possess wealth; and we
never shielded him because he was
poor or rich, because he belonged to
any particular church or to any
particular party. But I also wish
YOU especially to remember that we
never hesitated to shield him and
stand UP for him once we were con-
WINGED that he was improperly at
tackled.
There is no greater foe of honesty
than the man who, for any reason,
in any capacity, attacks, or seeks
to attack, al honest man for crime
which he has not committed. False
" accusing an honest man of dis
honesty is an act which stands on
the same level of infamy with that
of the dishonest man himself; and
it is no higher duty to attack the
dishonest man than II is to eX-
onerate the honest man falsely ac-
cused; and 1 should be ashamed to
hesitate the fraction of a second
longer in one case than in the
other.
Remember that honesty can not
be unilateraL Good citizens should
cordially distrust the man who can
never see OlSDOneSly excepting III
men of the class he dislikes. The
reckless agitator who invariably
singles out men of wealth as furnish
ing the only examples of dishonesty
and the equally unscrupulous-but
no more nscrupulous-reactio
who can see dishonesty only in a
Matchmaking politician or crooked
labor leader; both stand on the same
plane of Consciousness.
You will never get honesty from
, politicians until you exact honesty
from the businessmen; on the other
hand, you brand yourselves as fools
or as hypocrites if you say that the
corporation owner. or the employer
is always the dishonest man, and
, the poor man never. that 1t is only
) the wealthy man who corrupts the
politician and never the politician
who blackmails the corporation.
Any man in his senses knows that
there are plenty of corporations in
this country who prosper by brib-
ing legislatures just as they pros
per by swindling 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 blackmaiI corpora :
, tions-and try to blackmail other
people as well.
II they doubt this, let them look
at the revelations of corruption in
my own state-New York-and in
yours, my hearers-here in Mis-
} souri,; let them look at what has
occurred in California and what has
occurred in Illinois. In Illinois, for
instance, one of the rascalities de-
Nv ha
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 inter
fered with their business.
Now. scoundrels who do these
kinds of things are, of course, the
very men who, on the one hand,
will blackmail a corporation, if they
get a chance, and, on the other
hand, will cheerfully, If the chance
occurs, sell themselves to that cor
poration against the interests of the
public. Their corruption is no more
, due to the action of the corpora
} tions than the corruption of the cor
porations is due 10 their action
and evil. and not good, is done by
the honest but misguided 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 man
who makes a trade or corruption;
our fight is against both the swind-
ling corporation and the blackmail-
ing or bride taking politician.
We can not 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 corporation out of business,
so far as concerns corrupting the
servants Of the public and betray-
} ing the rights of the public.
I believe that the great issue now
before the people is the doing away
with special privilege in all it's
forms; doing away with the power
of the big corporation to control
} legislation in its interests and tc
interfere in politics in order ia
secure privileges to which it is not
entitled. But / regard the essential
factor in this campaign as being
an aroused civic conscience which
will unsparingly condemn dishon-
! esty in every form and in every
man. high or low.
The reckless, would be. reformer
who in speaking or. writing seeks
10 persuade US that we need pay
) heed to corruption only when il
! shows itself in the rich man, is do
: ing as great a moral wrong as the
rich man whose low moral stand
ard tends to lower the mora
standard of the whole community
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