Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-15
PUBLIC CAN ADVANCE
ONLYWITHROOSEVELT,
SAYS ALFRED II. LEWIS

anu salaries never earned-and SUN I'VE
safe from the law lash.
Responsibility"
1t is the modern benefit Of clergy.
Today the thief has but to plead his
Responsibility" and courts, juries, the
very law itself. grovel before him. No
officer lays hand upon his shoulder. No
prosecutor presents no grand jury in
diets, no court convicts, no chains clank,
no bolts shoot home. For, 10, he is
'respectable!"
While the public is correcting those
blackmail evils of legislatures and con-
crosses, against which Mr. Archbold
and the metropolitan daily have so
wailingly-and honestly-protested it
should also demand the RECALL.
Wherewith to twist the recusan tails Of
trust-owned judges and money ruled
district attorneys.
In his Confession of Faith" Mr..
Roosevelt sets forth The right of the
people to rule" No one will challenge
this claim. And yet. correlated to that
right to rule" is the responsibility of
not only ruling, but ruling rightly AS
a picture of popular power and the pub
lies ability to command its own off,
GERS, Mr.. Roosevelt also uses these
words
Whatever ] did as president l
was able to do only because had
the backing OF the people When
on any point l did not have that
backing, when on any point I diff
Tered from the people, it mattered
not whether l was right or whether
was wrong, my power vanished"
Law Never SURPRISES Crime.
rms last suggests a thought some-
what aside from politics. The thought
is not novel, yet no less important. The
public has imposed upon it not only a
political duty, but duty Of sentiment.
crime Is never suppressed by effort of
mere law. Men fear prisons less than
they fear infamy and loss Of name and
friends. And it is these last great pen
alties, as much as any failure Of action
by Judges and district ATTORNEYS which
are peculiarly wanting in the cases of
our rich and respectable" scoundrels
Take the men who at these trials and
investigations" onfessed-creatures Of
mire- born avariCe and a morality OF
mud! There followed. as stated, no Jail
sentence But what was their social or
commercial punishment? Did thew lose
place, or fall behind? Were they thrust
aside? Did they become outcasts as the
result of their discovered and admit
ted guilt?
Perish the thought. Nothing of dis
/ aster, whether of church, club draw
ing room or bourse, arose to overtake
their evil heels. The same friend 3
grasped their hands and dragged them
home to dinner. They dealt with the
| same banks, and their accounts were az
welcome and their money potent sigma
lures as deeply rejoiced over as of wore
Al night they repaired TO the sama
cIupS' to encounter receptions As warn,
urlhk highballs as comforting, and NAV
prldge for old time thousands with the
same old respectable" gamblers and
sots with whom they had guzzled and
gambled for years.
Respectable" TiII-Tappers.
virtue Is its own reward" saws the
moralist and Lord Byron adds in his
Journal And truly the Door tade
ought to be damned well paid for her
trouble Virtue is its own reward,
mat may b" as it may. The fact re-
mains, however. that our "respectabIav
tlII-tappers of politics and monev
know 80 little Of virtue that thew will
do naught fail of naught, for its pale
and tasteless sake.
me Eskimo, Of dull, perverted palate
II offered his arctic choice between a
cluster OF grapes and dripping morsel
of whales blubber will seize the blub-
Der And so with our "respecta hIav
me-saturated rogues of trade and
politics. AS between virtue for virtues
dollarless sake and those rotund If rot
ten millions, they will never hesitate
They will take the rancid millions.
finding for them and for themselves
thereafter as wide and as ready an
acceptance as for whittier characters
and money much more clean.
Recurring to the political angle and
letting the moral sentimental go adrift.
it is safe to say that publics are never
saw u nun Ailt SuOIe. IQeN save
sink themselves. Whether 1t were A
blackmailer in a Legislature. or trust
tanned district attorney, not an evil has
been mentioned which the RECALL
wouldn't cure
Hope Lies in Roosevelt.
How are you to get it? Mr.. Taft.fs
against the RECALL. Mr.. Wilson and
Mr. Roosevelt profess to favor it. Who
Is the surer man in that recall con-
nection-Mr Wilson or Mr.. Roosevelt?
Mr. Taft, by his own word, is out of the
question. He is for the god Of things
as they@a gree. To vote for him is but
to confirm present conditions or retreat
to worse. OF the other two on whom
would you sooner rely to put through
a RECALL-the man of action or the
man of alcoves? Frederick the Great
once said: IF l wanted to punish q
province. I'd have it governed by NH
losopher," Mr.. Wilson is a philoso-
pher.
With last word it's all in the Ian
OF the public. The public can advance
PnnEatrnIt. -