The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-09
RH LANES IL. MORROW.

New York. April S-Tracking and trap
ping bride takers and blackmailers has
become the sport of Rudolph Spreckles,
the California millionaire. Tiger hunt
ing, in contrast lacks purpose and
thrill. Man IS the finest and most
exciting game that exists. Hunting
him requires intelligence, moral courage.
and peculiar skill. Besides. there is more
than his pelt when he is cornered and
brought down, or his head or his claws,
savage trophies of a cruel chase against
u wild creature that was doing no harm.
The element of sport would be elm
mated by Mr.. Spreckles were he to an
alyze his aim. His object now is re-
formatory in the main. But the love of
pursuit inherent to some degree in all
human beings, first turned his thoughts
from money to men. Dying, Claus
Spreckles, his father. left more than
huge fortune and quaint reputation: he
left to Rudolph the third of his sons,
his spirit of adventure his tenacity. en-
ergy and imagination. The qualities that
Claus Spreckles employed to change two
German thalers into ships, banks, sugar
refineries. and sugar plantations. Rudolph.
the heir. is using to end graft in big
business" he phrases it, and to purify
the politics of the nation.
The fact is not denied that Rudolph
Spreckes discovered the hideous govern
mental conditions existing in San Fran
cisco. Abe" Ruef, just taken to San
Quentin prison for a term of fourteen
years, would establish the truth if il
ever were disputed. Spreckles. acting
alone. started the mighty crusade against
vice and official corruption. Francis J.
Hcney. the lawyer, and William J.
Burns. the detective, did the spectacular
fighting. but Spreckles called them in and
financed the revolution. Now he is
travelling the country as a militant re-
former Of business and political methods. !
He is talking with millOnaires. and be-
ing OF their clasS-a real brother of the
mighty-they give him a respectful, if not
always 4 sympathetic. hearing. BY his !
own word. he is making Roadway.
Necessarily. his conferences are per- |
sonaI and private. \ dinner in Boston |
luncheon in New York is sufficient |
opportunity for a dialogue concerning !
his doctrines A corner in the smoking |
room of a club in Philadelphia, CinCin- .
natl, Chicago, or St. Louis is forum I
enough. ordinarily. for his testimony and /
arguments. Specifically, getting at the !
tap-root of the iniquities of government
and business, he is trying to stop graft ,
ing. Corporations. he says. are being
plundered. So are municipalities. TIC
epitomize his mission, it can he said
that he working II behalf of all share
owners-those in railways and manufaC-
tories as we'll as those in towns. cities,
and States.
A Business Man with Ideals.
Graft, he asserts, is rampant through
out the country. Rlackmail he thinks
has become an actual tax on industry.
Cities are bought and sold like goats
and cattle. WOrkinGmen, in places, are
being tricked by scoundrels. He plans
10 organize all the stockholders in the
United States-industrial, commercial.
financial. municipal, and national-into a
mighty company OF resolUte and watch
full men. and to make grating as dan
gerous as any other crime against so
cety. The visions of Claus Spreckles.
the Prussian immigrant. were no. less
fanciful and impracticable. They came
to pass Rudolph. the son, is an idealist-
he is a man of grim
negotiations and transaCtions-the presi-
dent of a successful national bank and
l money-maEInE manufacturer.
Il had hecn a business mar" he said
to me. the country is full OF them. /
was but type-siEhtlcSs and indifer-
nnt 10 everything but my own affairs /
My friends and associates were business