Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-15
BY ALFRED HENRY LEWIS.

II of coercion, corruption and bribery.
The daily points out how the trusts are
frequently the victims, not the crimi-
nails, and-threatened by the publc's
own elected officers-pay not brides,
but blac<maiL The public, crying for
protection. should-by word of the dali
ly-in its turn protect. 1t should save
the trusts from eXtortioners in office
before assailng them as extortioners.
bleeding the public
This charge is not new. 1t was made
four years ago by Mr.. Archbold. You
know Mr. Archbold. He sits all day at
No. 26 Broadway. inclosng certificates
of deposit for 81 900 and $1,000 and
$4,000 and $4,000 to MY Dear Cen
eral Grosvenor" and Dear Sibley" and
My Dear Senator Foraker" and Dear
Mr. PenrOse." meanwhile urging per
incident that this measure be killed or
that measure pressed. or this man be
made judge or that man prevented
from becoming an attorney general;
and all and singular with a view to ex-
tending a corruption which i'm the be-
ginning produced him (Mr. Archbold)
and has ever since continued to pleas
antly foster and fatten him.
Public Should Reform Itself.
MIR. Archbold and the metropolitan
! daily have some reasonable right on
their side. Good can come out of Naz-
areth, truth proceed from a metropoli-
tan daily or an Archbold 1t may even
be echoed by Chancellor Day. And
because Of a woolsaCk aphorism which
! insists that he who comes into equity
must come with clean hands, a convict
ed public. complaining of trust extor-
lions and the entertainments of crimi-
nal privilege, should turn honestly ac-
| tive in an effort to reform itself
As declared by Mr.. Archbold and re-
declared by that metropolitan daily
defending criminal privilege with red
faced zeal-the public too often and
too carelessly has maintained a band of
wolves at its capitols as part and parcel
of what it calls congresses and legis-
latures.
Failing of its plain duty, the publ"
! in the business of its office filling, has
allowed itself to be ruled by bosses
ruled by money. These bosses were
mere wolf masters. They picked out
and controlled the public wolf-packs
The big parties were both to blame
There was the Republican part of the
pack. which corresponded with the
black timber wolves of our Northwest.
ern woods There was the DemOcra
fragment of the pack which-dlngy anC
brindled as to moral hue-found theil
prototypes in the big gray wolves OF
the plains.
Being gathered together, gaunt
hungry eyed. famished Of flank, the
wolf pack letting it's glance rove about
the plains of business, describes fat
itrust-felonious but fat. It is now the
chase begins. The fat company is be
set by some bill or some resolution, cal
cuated for its injury or destruction.
Price Must Be Forthcoming.
| At this crisis enter the ill-odored
| folk of the lobby whose province is the
unclean province OF the go-between.
The threatened trust is told the price Of
peace and safety. Unless the price be
! forthcoming the injurious bill or de-
structive resolution will be voted
| through
The harassed company pays the
price With that the Wolf-pack fall
upon that blackmail-after the bosses
and minor wolf masters have torn off
| their shares-and rend it to pieces.
Who is responsible for this special
and particular corruption? Is it the
trusts. hunted by the wolf pack? Or is
it the public. lazily Indifferent both to
its ballot duty and its political respQn-
siblity?
The above, however, doesn't mark in
| fun the boundaries Of a public culpa-
biity, and Mr. Archbold and the metro
poitan daily stopped talking too soon.
In its laxities Of politics the public is
not only to blame for wolves Of black
mail in legislatures and congresses, but
also for the leg freedom wrongfuly
enjoyed by a multitude Of trust organs
and felons Of criminal privilege. OF
these Mr. Archbold and the excited daily
say suspiciously nothing.
Consider those beef aCquittals in
Chicago and those sugar dismissals-
through the interpostion Of d conven-
lent statute of limitations-in New
York. Consider the score or more Of
similar waterhauls in antitrust litisa
Itions-those farcical dissoutions by the
supreme court Of Tobacco and Stand
ard oil. Forget not, too, those one
hundred and one investigations of
staal and supa1. and railroads and in