P'
X
JULY G, 190G.
The Commoner.
Awful Crimes by Powerful Men
The Commoner does not, "as a rule, publish
news items relating to murders, suicides, or
scandals, hut New York's most talked about
tragedy of recent years is associated with con.
ditions concerning which all men must be ap
prised in order that society may be protected.
Stanford White was a wealthy architect o
New York City. He had risen high in his pro
fession and had come to rank as one of tho
world's great architects. Harry Thaw is tho
younger son of the Pittsburg family of millionaires.-
Several years ago, young Thaw, in spite
of the protests of his relatives, married Evelyn
Nesbitt, who had been an actress. Without go
ing into details, it may be oxplained that Thaw
claims that prior to his marriage, Stanford White
had ruined his wife's life when she was a child
of fourteen. While White was sitting at a table
in a garden theatre, and during the progress of.
the play Thaw approached and shot him to
death. Thaw was immediately placed under ar
rest. A number of New York's best lawyers have
been retained for his defense and "emotional
insanity" will be the plea.
Although young Thaw has not been without
serious faults of his own he seems to have the
sympathy of the public, and Anthony Comstock of
the society for the prevention of vice, shows very
clearly that he is friendly to the young prisoner.
Comstock says he was consulted by Thaw long
ago and was informed of some of Stanford White's
habits and warned to do something to protect
society against the man who, while occupying an
exalted position in his profession, seems to have
gone below the level of the brute in his private
life. It is impossible to tell the story of White's
crimes. Suffice it to say that his purpose in life
seemed to be to make children his prey, to ruin
tlie future of young girls, and to break the hearts
of fathers and mothers.
If the White affair was an individual case, it
would not be of such widespread interest, but it
is claimed by one newspaper that this case will
"develop into the most atrocious scandal of the
decade, disclosing as it now seems certain to do,
'what is New York's greatest sin." This newspaper
explains: "It is the sin of a thousand girls, as
weak as they are beautiful, debauched and ruined
by men of great minds, of wealth, of many a
legitmate achievement, who have for years traded
on the seeming immunity of their social position,
their wealth and their position in society. The
district attorney's office also has begun an investi
gation into the lives and revels of rich and prom
inent New Yorkors who have always belioved
themselves beyond the law. Fully a score or men,
who have never known the slightest fear of in
vestigation, are now on the grill. So powerful
is this clique that hints of coming trouble of a
seriousness absolutely fatal to their reputations
were rushed to them by paid emissaries, some
of whom are even in the employ of tho county
of New Yorlc There promises to bo an exodus
to Europe, which will surpass that which hns
followed the development of tho life insurance
scandal. As tho authorities probe deeper into the
private life of White they no longer marvel that
he was shot last Monday night. The investigation
already has shown that there is an orgaulzed
band of rich club men and artists who make vie-
thus of young girls of the stage, of tho shops and
of the poorer homes."
Many skeletons in the homes of our "captains
of industry" are being exposed these days. A
United States senator, a millionaire himself and
the head of at least one great corporation, Is be
ing sued by a woman who claims that she was
secretly married to this senator and that he broke
his promise to her. The editor of a magazine,
famous for its pleas for tho protection of "na
tional honor" was sued for divorce and the testL
mony revealed that the man who protended to
have so mucli concern for the national honor had
little or no concern for his own. W. Ellis Corey,
president of the steel trust, is now being sued for
divorce, on the ground that he deserted his wife
who, during his days of poverty, helped him to
lay the foundation for his success. Augustus
Hartje is a Pittsburg "captain" who has brought
down upon himself the denunciations of many
of his townsmen because of the awful accusations
he has preferred against his wife, accusations
which it is claimed, and by many believed,
based upon purchased testimony. It is known
that the negro whose statements reflecting upon
Mrs. Hartje the husband made public, has con.
fessed that he had told a monstrous falsehood
concerning the woman.
These are but a few instances of the many
revelations that are being made concerning the
private ljves of some of those who havo insisted
th'at they possess a monopoly upon the intelli
gence, patriotism and morality of the nation oven
as they possess a monopoly upon- the nation's
wealth.
"What Men Will Do For Gold
Ogden Armour is said to have lo3t his temper
when the Paris correspondent for a New York
newspaper interviewed him about the packing
house revelations. Mr. Armour said: "I say
that no sane man, nobody with the slightest
knowledge of the packing trade as it is conduct
ed in Chicago, can believe the horror stories in
the newspapers. Surely no' intelligent person can
even imagine that men like myself, who have
their entire fortunes invested in the packing busi
ness are fools. They can not suppose that we
are deliberately trying to wreck our own busi
ness, to throw away everything we possess, by
poisoning the consumers of our products. Any
man who will think calmly and intelligently about
the situation for five minutes can see how absurd
all this clamor is."
It does seem strange that men .having their
entire fortune invested would act as the packers
have acted; but the proofs concerning packing
house conditions are convincing. No one be
lieves that these men tried to ruin their own
business, They, like other men who, since the
beginning of the great American trust era, have
grown fat with gold, have become reckless in
their greed. Indeed, the only way to account
for some of the things done by these monopolists
is that in their chase for the dollar they have
gone mad.
When democrats talked about putting "the
dollar before the man," republicans sneered and
pretended they did not understand the meaning
of the phrase. The meat consumers who have
been fed on poisoned food, the insurance policy
holders whose money . has been embezzled and
the countless thousands of victims of trust greed,
know now what is meant when one is accused
of putting "the dollar before the man."
The fact is that the people have submitted
so long and patiently to these abuses that tho
great trust magnates imagined they would sub
mit forever. The people have been blind for so
long that the trust magnates imagined their
eyes would never be opened. Eight years ago
a general In the United States army charged and
- proved that these same packers were feeding, the
American soldiers upon poisoned meat. It was
difficult for some people to understand why these
men engaged in such discreditable work, but
those who had investigated knew that, however
forceful the packers were in denying the foul
deeds, they were guilty of the things charged
against them by General Miles.
There is no accounting for the things done
by men gone mad. Among all the machinations
or doings of afflicted men none is deeper or more
difficult of comphehension than the methods of
those whose lives seem devoted to the search
for wealth. "The love of money has caught the
world in a frenzy and nothing counts against it,"
says Daniel E. Finn, one of the police magis
trates of New York City. Judge Finn has seen
all sorts of criminals, and of this greed for gold
he says:
"It kills the love of home and family; It
makes repulsive, ugly, slimy things out of men
and women who seem fair enough to look at, un
til you hear them open their mouths, in a yawp
that has only money for its theme and you see
that the only motive that is propelling the living
thing Is the unholy, rapacious, vulture-like desire
to gain a dollar or two or to keep from letting
one go.
"The insolence of people who feel the power
of money they possess, gotten by foul or fair
means. Is as bad in its way as the lack of de
cency on the part of those poor creature i who
are trying to get it by any of the neans that
have as Incidents in tho getting of It frequent ap
poaranco In tho police court.
"Tho Insolence of money goes to turn the
socialistic spirit of the Ignorant Into anarchy.
"Tho man with money and tho power that
it gives him, who uses It to do good things In
modesty, Is about ono to a hundred of the othor
kind.
"Tho man with the automobile and the Inso
lence of a now fortune, who shouts HI! Hi J' at
tho pedestrian, tries to break a policeman when
he's arrested for speed-law infringement and
shows his contempt for people In court, Is ono
of tho best cartoons on the insolenco and growing
aristocracy of money that any man could create.
"The world follows the fashion becatiso so
few individuals can think of themselves, and It's
tho fashion to reverence the man who gets tho
money. Reverence for the man who gets tho
money leads to tho utter obliteration of V human
feelings.
"Tho tragedies and barbaric incidents of his
tory are clone over and over, again and again,
In New York City daily, and are as much greater
In their settings and dramatic interest as a Broad
way production of today is greater than one of
Tony Pastor's burlesques on tho Bowery forty
years ago.
"The tnigedies of children whoso lives aro
sold to shame by parents Is a common one.
"Tho degradation of the homo for money
comes up as regularly as the drunks.
"If it were poverty alone that was responsi
ble for this it would not be ko bad, but in many
cases it is for love of luxury."
JJ
"UNDER A LINCOLN DATE LINE"
The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, the Provi
dence (Rhode Island) Journal, the St. Louis Re.
public and several other newspapers recently
printed a dispatch under a Lincoln, Neb., date,
in which dispatch statements were made, pur
porting to come from "a, very close friend and
confidential adviser of Mr. Bryan." This "very
close friend and confidential adviser" was repre
sented as describing certain plans which it was
alleged Mr. Bryan had made for the presidential
campaign of 1908. The "very close friend and
confidential adviser" mado several observations,
more or less startling. Several republican papers
have already commented upon this alleged in
terview which comments were Intended to be to
Mr. Bryan's disadvantage without undertaking
to investigate as to the accuracy of the state
ments, and wholly Ignoring the fact that tho
Interview was so constructed as to at once sug
gest to any trained newspaper man its utter un
reliability. The newspaper correspondents of the city
of Lincoln have always stood high in their pro
fession and The Commoner would be loath to
believe that any of them had been guilty of this
cheap fake; but it was a fake and the statements
purported to have been mado by "& very close
friend and confidential adviser of Mr. Bryan"
were so absurd that oven If Mr. Bryan had In the
city of Lincoln an Implacable enemy, he would
not have cared to stand sponsor for those state
ments. Every newspaper correspondent in Lincoln
denies the authorship of the dispatch referred to.
Unquestionably some one wrote It; and in writing
it some one pernetrated one of the baldest fakes
ever palmed off on decent newspapers.
It would be too great a task to undertake
to correct all the falsehoods told of a public man,
and The Commoner has no intention of acquiring
the habit of defending Mr. Bryan from the mis
representations of dishonest and unscrupulous
writers. But whatever treatment Mr. Bryan may
receive at the hands of correspondents elsewhere,
there Is one place where he has the right to con
fidently depend upon fair treatment; that place is
the' city of Lincoln where the people know Mr.
Bryan and understand his characteristics and
methods thoroughly; that place Is Lincoln where
the newspaper men have, as a rule, been among
Mr. Bryan's most intimate and best loved
friends. If there be among that number so long
regarded by Mr. Bryan and the community gen
erally as high and honorable men one who for
the sake of a few paltry dollars would concoct
falsehoods to the disadvantage of his neighbor, he
owes no apology to Mr. Bryrin who is secure from
injury at his hands.
But to the high and honorable profession he
has entered only to disgrace he owes the final ser
vice rendered by tho men of old who sang:
"True patriots all, for be it understood we left
our country for our country's good."
' ASSOCIATE EDITOR,
v l
1
tfc. ;:'-.