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


ing calls it "a Pharisee" The public
says the condemnatory daily-com-
plains of criminal privilege and accuses
it of coercion, corruption and bribery
| The daily points out how the trusts are
frequently the victims, not the crimi-
nails, and-threatened by the pubic's
own elected offlCers-pay not brides,
but blackmail. 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 assailing them az extortioners,
bleeding the public.
This charge is not new. It was made
four years ago by Mr.. Archbold. You
know Mr.. Archbold He sits all day at
No, rs Broadway, incIosing certificates
of deposit for $1,000 and $4,000 and
$4,000 and $4,000 to MY Dear Gen
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 a judge or that man prevented
from becoming an attorney general;
and all and singular with view to ex-
tending a corruption which in the be-
ginning produced him (NIr. Archbod)
and has ever since continued to pleas
antly foster and fatten him.
Public Should Reform Itself.
Mr.. Archbold and the metropolitan
daily have some reasonable right on
their side. Good can come out of MAJ
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 enCroachments of crimi-
nal privilege. should turn honestly &C
tive in an effort to reform itself.
AS declared by Mr.. Archbold and re-
declared by that metropolitan daily
faced zeal-the public too often and
too carelessly has maintained a band of
wolves at it's capitOls as part and parcel
of what it calls congresses and legls-
latures.
Failing Of its plain duty, the public
in the business of its office-1lling, 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-dingy 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 its glance rove about
the plains Of business describes fat
trust-felonious but fat. 1t 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 i'll -odored
folk OF the lobby. whose province is the
unclean province of the go-between.
| !
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 1t the
trusts, hunted by the wolf-pack? Or is
lit the public. Iazily indifferent both to
its ballot duty and its political respon-
siblity?
The above, however, doesn't mark in
full the boundaries Of a public culpa-
biity, and Mr. Archbold and the metro
politan 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 wrongfully
enjoyed by multitude of trust organs
and feIons 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 interposition Of Conven-
lent statute Of limitations-in New
York. Consider the score or more Of
similar waterhauls in antitrust litiga-
tions-those farcical dissolutions by the
supreme court of Tobacco and Stand
ard OIL. Forget not, too, those one
hundred and one investigations" Of
steel and sugar and railroads and in
surance
Those trials and Investigations in
their results gave the world a long and
ebon roll call of self confessed male
factors. These letters were self-ad-
mitted criminals, by both letter and
spirit of the law They had committed
| crimes of rebate and perjury and lar
ceny and forgery. Than they no Paul
Kelly, by their own admissions. was
more the proper candidate for stripes
But the law was not enforced
There came no convictions, no sem
fences. no stone walls. As to these rich