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community, wo find leading citizens In the
ring to rob their own neighbors, managers of
corporations bribing law-makers, lawyers for
pay helping their clients to bribe safely, jurors
refusing to render just verdicts.
These men bribers of voters, voters who
are bribed, bribers of aldermen and legisla
tors, and aldermen and legislators who are
bribed, men who secure control of law-making
bodies and have laws passed which enable
rs ' mum 10 sieai xrom uieir neicnuors. men wno
havo laws non-enforced and break laws regu
lating saloons, gambling houses, and, In short,
all men who pervert and befoul the sources of
lawthese men we havo called Enemies of the
Republic. '
They are worse they are enemies of the
human race. They are destroyera of a people.
They constitute a class of criminals very
different from ordinary criminals who break
laws; these men destroy law.
Then the symposium concludes:
Our governments city, county, and state
are inefficient and sometimes criminal. Under
inefficient government the strong individual
oppresses the weak. Take, for example, the
extraordinary story of the Standard Oil com
pany, with, its years o successfully crushing
competition, that practically deprived men of
t their property and their business, with its con
trol and selfish U3e of railroads that were given
their franchise by the state for the good and
equal use of all. A despotic government could
I do no worse.
It Is well for public interests that publications
like McGlure's undertake the task of impressing
truths upon the people even though those truths
are unpalatable. The remedy lies in the enforce
ment of law the enforcement of law against the
strong as well as against ;he weak; and law will
be enforced in this way whenever the good citizen
pays proper attention to his duties as a citizen,
casting his .Vote for those principles which, after
careful study, he believes will best serve the pub
lic interests and voting for candidates for public
office whoso character and record justify the be
lief that they will be servants of the people rather
than the tools of designing men.
'. , JJJ.
Sneers For Faithful Servants
It has been charged that the Atchison, To
peka and Santa Fe railroad, during the time that
Paul Morton, now secretary of the navy, was one
or its vice presidents, violated the law by giving
rebates and that the action of the railroad's traf
fic manager in this respect has been publicly ap
proved by Mr. Morton.
Representative Baker of New York introduced
in the house a resolution quoting that portion of
the president's message which declared that it is
necessary to put a stop to rebates, and providing
for an investigation as to Mr. Morton's responsi
bility. The Washington correspondent for the Chi
cago Tribune, a republican paper, refers to the
Baker resolution as "this piece of impertinence,"
and say3 that Mr. Baker has so "exceeded the
. bounds of common decency that some of the re
publican leaders favor his expulsion, or at least
a public reprimand."
Walter Wellman, Washington correspondent
for the Chicago Record-Herald, also a republican
s paper, says:
The author of these resolutions is known
far and wide as "Baker, the anti-pass crank."
He attracted much attention a year ago by
refusing to accept passes from railroad com
panies. In the house he has been a well
meaning, but eccentric, member, with a pen
chant for objecting to everything in sight and
a habit of- making the most passionate
speeches denouncing somebody or something
whilst hi3 fellow members stand around and
roar-with laughter. No one except Baker
takes him seriously, and of course his resolu
tions will be laughed out of court.
Is it or is It not significant that a man, who.
b.eing elected to represent the people in concress
was so conscientious that he refused to accenf
railroad passes, brings upon himself the sneers and
the jeers of republican newspapers?
When these newspapers havo no word of criti
cism for. the public official who accepts favors at
the hands of these great corporations, should not
. a conscientious official who refuses to accent
-, buck favors, be at least exempt from the attacks of
w..i.li,w.B nuuw culture waini to De striving for
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tho elevation of the country's moral tone?
The Commoner-
It would seem that Mr. Morton and his friends
should be anxious for the widest publicity concern
ing Mr, Morton's connection with the rebates
given by tho railroad company with which he
was formerly associated. Mr. Roosevelt has for
mally declared that rebates must cease and wo
are told tnat he is about to enter upon a great
campaign on these lines with Mr. Morton, be
cause of his great railroad experience, as his
chief advisor. To say the least, the .confidence men
may havo in Mr. Roosevelt's sincerity on this
point is not increased by tho knowledge that his
chief advisor is a railroad man himself, and one
who is charged with having publicly sanctioned,
if not privately engineered, the bad practice
against which Mr. Roosevelt has inveighed.
It will occur to a great many people that
Mr. Baker is not the man under trial .and that he.
owes no apology to tho people because he refused
to accept corporation favors or because he took
steps toward an inquiry into the conduct of a high,
public official. Whatever explanation may be due,
is due from Mr. Morton.
These sneering references to Representative
Baker dp no credit to their authors. No word has
ever been uttered affecting Mr. Baker's integrity.
.The only thing ever charged against him has been
that when he entered his official duties he refused
to accept favors at tho hands of men who were
seeking special privileges from congress and that
he has been active in his efforts to bring about
reforms in public affairs.
In the senate and tho house are many men
whoso pockets are filled with railroad passes and
other forms of corporation favors. Whatever these
men do in an official way it seems to please the
corporation managers. These men are conserva
tive "eminently conservative." They have spent
sleepless nights in the effort, generally successful,
to strangle measures, that have been framed in
the public interest. Day after day and year after
year these men have voted in favor of corpora
tion measures; they have, with cheerful abandon,
voted public money into private pockets; they
have publicly supported measures, some of which
even the most truculent of republican newspapers
have not dared openly to defend. Yet we do not
find in the columns of republican newspapers any
sneering allusions to these men; they are not
"anti-pass cranks;" they are. "statesmen!"
In the senate as in tho house there are men
who have repeatedly been branded as the special
representatives of great corporations but no word
of criticism concerning this form of representation
in our national body has found its way into re
publican newspapers.
New York will re-elect one railroad senator,
Minnesota will re-elect another . railroad senator,
Nebraska will elect a senator who was chosen by
the railroads and one will search republican news
papers in vain to find any sneers at these men.
They will go to Washington, not as the faithful
representatives of the people but as the pliant tools
of special interests. All the world knows thi3 to
be true. No one knows it better than the repub
lican editors who seek to place the brand of infamy
upon Baker, the conscientious public servant, while
they place the halo of purity above the heads of
those men who, chosen for the senate and the
house by the corporation lobbyists, are to" become
tho representatives of the corporations, rather than
the champions of public interests.
JJJ
Why Do They Dodge
The Sioux City, la., Journal, a republican paper,
seeks to make light of Bourke Cockran's bill pro
viding for the establishment of a commission to
inquire into and ascertain the amounts of money
expended by the democratic and the republican
parties at all presidential elections from 1892 to
1904, inclusive. The Journal refers to the fact that
Mr. Cockrans supported the republican candidate
for president in 189G and makes certain references
to "Cockran's campaign earnings." Certain re
publican leaders. Mr. Dalzell of Pennsylvania
among the number, as well as several republican
editors have insinuated that-Mr. Cockran was paid
for his services to the republican party in 1896. Mr
Cockran indignantly denied these charges and he
has shown that ho is not only perfectly willintr
but anxious for an investigation. This is all to
Mr. Cockran's credit. But it will bo observed that
the objections to the Cockran resolution comes from
republican leaders and republican editors Whir
are these gentlemen afraid of? Would they have
tho public understand that the record of the "nartv
wS?idandi?n0raJlty,''wm not beai' inspection?
Would they have the public imagine that the !
any truth in the charge made by Thomas W Law
son tnat a few days prior to the election day f '
VOLUME I. NUMBER
52
189G a "hurry-up cairVwaa mnrt i
for $5,000,000, the same tobe Ssed fo I.T"
of "buying a bunch of states?" e puri)oso
JJJ
A Poor Excuse
Tho New York Times has refuel . u
Thomas W. Lawson's adverUsemen wh T t
vertisements havo been admitted to C column:
of many other newspapers, in an editor T
Times explains: editorial tho
As a justifying reason for their exclnRin
from its columns it is sufficient to say &
tho Times is not that kind of newspaper tho
responsible for its character and contents dS
not care to make that kind of newspaper. 'tIiq
Times does not believe the charges which Mr
Lawson make3 against some of the irreati
corporations in the country, corporations man
aged by boards of trustees including many of
the chief men in tho country, men in whom
the pubHc has entire confidence, men who are
the custodians of hundreds Of millions of the
people's savings. If tho Times did believe Mr
Lawson's charges it would itself begin a rig
orous Investigation, and it would print the re
sults, not in its advertising columns, but upon
its news pages, as information which it would
be a newspaper's duty to lay before its readers.
But Mr. -Law3on has been very explicit in his
statements. He has given tho Times all informa
tion necessary to the commencement of "a rigorous
investigation." Why does not the Times act upon
this information? Why does it not take the hints
furnished by Mr. Lawson and begin that investi
gation, printing the results as it says, "not in its
advertising columns but upon its news pages."
It is true that "that would be information
which it would be a newspaper's duty to lay before
its readers." Then why does not the New York
Times discharge its duty to its readers? It is not
a question of whether the Times believes that Law
son's charges are t-ue . If those charges are false
it is no less the Times' duty to expose their falsity
than it would be the duty of the Times to present
the fact that the charges were true. Mr. Lawson's
statements have been so clear and explicit that a
newspaper would have little difficulty in finding
a basis upon which, to rest "a rigorous investiga
tion." The tfimes should make that "rigorous in
vestigation" to the end that if its opinion that
Lawson has misrepresented the facts be sustained,
the Times readers may learn the truth and so, also,
if the result shall be that Lawson's accusations are
confirmed the Time3 readers will not remain in
ignorance.
JJJ
Railroads Oppose Regulation
President Marvin Hughitt of the Northwestern
railroad announces his nmalterabla opposition to
President Roosevelt's plan of giving the inter
state commerce commission power to fix railroad
rates. Mr. Hughitt, speaking to a committee of
the Sioux City Economical club, said:
We are always interested with the wishes
of people on our lines, and try to meet every
demand of business, but you gentlemen do not
realize, Congress does not realize, the country
does not realize, the tremendous seriousness of
the questions the president raises in his mes
sage. This proposal of the government making
our rates means, if it be carried into effect,
that the capacity of the railroads to make ex
tensions and improvements will depend on the
willingness of a commission to allGW them to
earn the wherewithal.
It means that all competition will be done
away with, for there can be no competition
when uniformity is enforced by government. It
means that there will be no use for cities to
seek advantages or to keep their eyes open to
extend tlteir trade territory opportunities. Be
cause under the arbitrary system proposed ev
ery city would be confined to its own little
garden plot of trade territory and there would
be no chance of extending it.
The country does realize the tremendous
seriousness of the question and it is because of
tho tremendous tax levied upon the country by tho
railroads that the question has become tremen
dously serious. President Hughitt is trying to
scare the people by threatening to withhold im
provements, extensions, etc., but the people know
it is not necessary to pay dividends upon watered
stock in order to secure the necessary railroad
facilities.
' President Hughitt also brings out another
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