The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-29

( process OF Deng remeQ1ed. They were
evils that required hostile legislation
vigilance in the future to prevent their
recurrence. The difficulty is that the
Indignation caused by the evils aroused
q spirit of antagonism and bitterness
which it is now difficult to allay, and
which manifests itself in action of a
! hostile character whenever occasion
arises The same thing may be said
of the excessive tariff. The fact that
: banking and currency necessarily con
Germs banks and those institutions that
gather together money attracts the
hostility of men in politics, who thrive
1 by stirring up envy and hatred and
who live chiefly upon the denunciation
4 of the industrious, the thrifty, and the
successful in business.
I have considered these points with
a view to an appeal to the public in
behalf of reasonable, moderate action
and treatment for the purpose of en-
couraging the investment of capital
and OF promoting prosperity. I depre-
cate vindictive feeling against railway
corporations, against the competing
parts of trusts after they have COM
Piled with DEGREES of courts disinte-
grating them; against a reasonable
on the tariff, or against the solution of
the monetary question, which appeals
to all reasonable and experienced men.
All in the Same Boat.
We in this country are all in the
same boat Speeches made in one
part of the country to arouse the peo
pie of that region against the enter
prises or business of another are made
by the blindest men, Let there be
prostration of business in one large
section and that prostration will spread
quickly to all the rest.
What makes men happy? What
furnishes shoes and clothes and good,
wholesome food to the family of father
and mother and children but prosper
Gus times. in which labor is in high
demand, wages are good, sales are
plenty, prices are normal, and every
body is sharing in the general pros
perity?
In attempting to rid ourselves of the
evils that were growing in business so
as to put dangerous power into the
hands of concentrated wealth. we had
to do many things that savored of hos
tility to capital, at least to the capital
which was engaged in those things
that it was thought necessary to enact
statutes to condemn. 1 am no defender
of those evils On the contrary, I have
been as strongly in favor of their sup
preston by statutes made effective as
anyone; but I think we have arrived at
a time when the people themselves
ought to acquire sufficient perception
into the operation of economic forces |
to realize that a sectional prejudice |
leading to legislation against the inter |
ests of one part of the country will as
certainly rebound to the detriment OF
another as night will follow day. We
are in the same boat. We are all tossed |
by the same waves. Why, then, should |
we allow the political fortunes of any
man or set of men to mislead us into |
a hostility toward parts of the country |
Which is certain to work injury to all? /
It is not a progressive policy in any |
true sense to be hostile to prosperity of |
any part of the country. 1t is not pro- /
greSsive to be against a railway cor |
poration because it is a railway cor |
poration. It is progressive to take |
measures by statutes which shall regu- !
late railways and prevent their recur- |
ring to evils of which they have been |
guilty in the past; but, assuming them
to be engaged in lawful business. it is
of the highest interest that we should
secure to them reasonable rates. so |
that their shareholders may have a /
profit. and that we should not enact I
legislation in a spirit of hostility and |
think that merely because we have hit |
a railway corporation and injured it
we have done something for the pub
lie good Any other view is lacking in
sanity, and it IS that spirit of unreason-
ing and unreasonable antagonism
velop and against which the COM
plants of business men may with pro-
priety and good reason be directed.
OF course, we are all anxious to pre-
/
anybody, whether in the form of dis
eliminating rates and rebates or by
a combination in restraint of trade, or
by any other means which is unlawful
or improper; but we ought not to al
low our fear that something of that
sort may happen to lead us on to a
general attitude of enmity toward the
accumulation of money by thrift and
foresight and to its lawful investment |
in great enterprise for reasonable
profit.
A Deep Rooted EVIL.
The misfortune of the situation I
perfectly realize. 1t is one of the in
evil. You can not eradicate it by popu-
lar movement without the movemen ent
becoming so very strong as to be car
ried for the time beyond the median
line of common sense and into the ex-
tremities of urreasonableness.
We have reached a point where we
can call halt, not in the progressive
to keep business free from
these abuses, but where we can call a
halt against appeals to a spirit of pure
hostility to prosperity on the theory
that no one can be prosperous without
being dishonest or a violatOr of law
in securing the profits of his business.
Let US put CUR shoulders together in
a movement to promote the business
of the country by frowning
down those attacks that are engen-
dered not by a real desire to eliminate
abuses, but by a wish to arouse in the
people an unjust prejudice and take
away from them their clear perception
as to their real interest in encouraging
the investm ent of capital, in commend
ing its thrifty, wise. and lawful use to
secure good and reasonable profit, and
to enjoy the widespread influence of
he prosperity that business thus en-
is bound to shower upon the
people at large
We must have investments from