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

safe from the law lash.
Resp ectability!"
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
WailingIy-and honestly-protested it
should also demand the RECALL,
"hereWlth 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 NJ the
people to rule" No one will challenge
this claim. And yet, correlated to that
fght 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 it's own off,
GERS, Mr. Roosevelt also uses these
words:
Whatever l did as president I
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 | DIFF
Tered from the people, it mattered
not whether was right or whether
! was wrong, my power vanished"
Law Never SURPRISES Crime.
Ihis last suggests a thought soma
what aside from politics The tbongbt
Is not novel, yet no less important The
pupic mas imposed upon it not only a
poItlcal duty, but a 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 mem
aItles, as much as any failure of action
oN Judges and district attorneys, which
are peculiarly wanting in the cases of
our rlch and respectable" scoundrels
Take the men who at these trials and
investigations" confessed-creat,ros of
IlIre-porn avarice and a morality of
mud! There followed. as stated no taiI
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 overtaI,a
their evil heels The same friards
sraSped their hands and dragged them
nome to dinner They dealt with the
same banks, and their accounts were q,
welcome and their money-potent SIGMA
lures as deeply reioiced over as of ,oro
AT hlsht they repaired to the cam.
CIupS to encounter receptions as warn,
uIIlk hlghbalIs as comforting. and nra,
orldse for old-time thousands with tha
same old respectable" gamblers and
sots with whom they had guzzled and
gambled for years.
RESPECTABLE" TiII-Tappers.
virtue Is its own reward" saws tbs
horaIist, and Lord Byron adds in his
journal: and truly the poor iade
ought to be damned well paid for her
trouble. Virtue is its own reward,
mat may be as it may. The fact re-
MAINS however, that our Respectable
lIH-tappers of politics and mone,,
Know 50 little Of virtue that thew viii
90 naught, fail of naught for its bale
and tasteIess sake.
The Eskimo. of dun perverted na1.+o
if offered his arctic choice batwean :.
cluster Of grapes and dripping morsel
OF whales bIubber will seize the bIub-
Der And so with our "respectahIa"
crime saturated rogues of trade and
! politics. As between virtue for virtues
! dolIarIess sake and those rotund if rot
ten millions, they will never hesitate
! They will take the rancid millions
hnding for them and for themselves
! thereafter as wide and as ready an
acceptance as for winter characters
ana money much more clean.
Recurring to the political angle and
| letting the moral 90 adrift
it is safe to say that pubics are never
saved from the shore They save or
sink themselves. Whether it 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 is
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 agree. 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 a
province, I'd have it governed by a phi
losopher" Mr.. Wilson is a philoso-
pher.
With a last word, it's all in the lap
of the public. The public can advance
with Mr.. Roosevelt. il can stand Still