The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-09-17

" In the new forR- Evening PoBt OF
Friday, August 26, there appeared in
inn. editorial article the following state
iments:
saT will make the corporations come
70 time, shouted Roosevelt to the
mob, But did he not really mean
that he would make them come down
with the cash to elect him, as he did
before? For o man with Mr.. .Roose.
/ yelts proved record 1t is simply dis
Egigting humbug for him to rant about
the corporations upon whose treasur-
ers he.f awned when he was president
/ and wanted their money for his cam.
paign. Does he think that nobody has
q 'memory which goes back to the life
insurance Investigations, and that
everybody has forgotten the $4,000
taken from Widows and orphans and
added to Theodore, Roosevelt's polit.
lcal corruption fund? Did he not take
a$big check from the Beef trust, and
glad to getaitf And now he Is going
to make the corporations come to
lttimei One can have respect for sim
cere radical, for an honest fanatic; for
an agitatorS or leveler who believes
that he Is doing Gods will; but it is
hard to be patient with man who
talks big but acts mean, whose eye is
always to the main chance politically,
land who lets no friendship no gen:
crosby. no principle, no moral scruple
! stand for amoment between himself
and the goal upon which he has set
his overmastering ambition.
"'This champion OF purity. this roar
er' for political virtue, is the man who
was for years, when in political life,
hand in glove with the worst political
'corruptionists. Of his day; who toaded
to Plat, who praised Quay, who paid
court to Hanna; under him as presi.
Edent Aldrich rose to the height Of his
power, always on good terms with
Roosevelt; It was Roosevelt who; in
1906, wrote an open letter urging the
reelection Of Speaker Cannon, against
whom mutteringsg had then begun to
rise; It was Roosevelt who asked Har.
-riman to come to,:the White House
secretly, who took his money to buy
votes In New York, and who. after
wards wrote to my Dear Sherman
yes, the same Sherman-reviling the
capitalist to whom he had previously
written saying: "You and ], are prac.
teal men,
The Evening Post Is not In itself sui.
lflciently important to warrant an an.
swer. but as representing class with
whose hostility It is necessary to reck.
on in any genuine movement for de-
cent government, 1t is worth while to
speak of It There are plenty Of
wealthy people In this country, and of
intellectual hangers-on of wealthy PEG.
pie. who are delighted to engage in
any movement for reform which does
not touch the wickedness OF certain
great corporations and of certain men
of great wealth. People of this: class
will be in. favor Of any aesthetic move.
ment; they will favor any movement
against the small grating politician,
against the grating labor leader, or
any man Of that stamp; but they can
not be trusted the minute that the re.
form assumes sufficient dimensions to
jeopardlze so much Of the established
order Of things as gives an unfair and
improper advantage to the great cor.
poration. and to those directly and In.
directly responsive to its wishes and
dependent upon,it. The Evening Post
and papers of the same kind, and the
people whose views they represent.
would favor attacking a gang of small
bosses who wish to control the Re-
publican party: but. they would, as the
Evening Post has shown, far rather
see these small bosses win than see a
movement triumph which aims not
merely at the overthrow Of tho small
political boss, but at depriving the
corporation of It's improper influence
over politics. depitving the man OF
wealth of any advantage beyond that
which belongs to him as a. simple
American citizen. They would be
against corporations only after such
corporations had been caught in the
crudest kind of criminality. "a. i.dli
have never for one moment count.
ed upon the support of the Evening
Post or of those whom 1t represents
In the effort for cleanliness and de.
cency within the Republican party, be-
cause the Evening Post would support
such a movement only on condition
that II was not part OF a larger move.i
ment for the ibetterment Of social con-
ditions. But this is not all. In the.
struggle for honest politics there is no.
more place for a liar than there Is
for, the thief, and In a movement de.
signed to put an end to the dominion
of the thief but little good cab be ide.;
rived from the assistance OF the liar.
or course objection will be made to
my use Of this language. My answer
is that ] am using It merely scientific
Scaliy and descriptively, and because
no other terms express the facts with
the necessary precision. In the ar
Iticle in which the Evening Port comes