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'AUGUST 17, 1906
The Commoner.
WHERE IS THE MORAL FORGE?
A most positive but strangely incongruous
set of ideas seem to govern the thinking people
of America,, relative to the generality of opinion
respecting the discovery of what has been
termed by one very able writer our "Machia
vellian commercialism." That the very industri
ous use of the "muck rake" has discovered a con-,
dltion that is most startling in its universality,
there is no question; but that ihoe is aily gen
eral moral revulsion at the horrible facts dis
closed, is not only another queution, but one to
be "seriously doubted. Not that the opinion is
entertained, by the writer at least, that there
has grown up somewhat suddenly a sense of the
wrong done but without serious contemplation of
the necessity of evoking means and methods to
check, punish or prevent its repetition o contin
uance but that there is a greater noticeable in
difference to the facts and their consequences
than is consistent with a healthy decency in the
observance of honest and truthful methods.
About two years ago the original "muck
rakers" plunged in the teeth of shell rakes, and
they have industriously plied them are still at
work very earnestly and hcartlly--and have dis
covered to our every day observation conditions
that should appeal to every honest man's i ride
and sense of shame, for some effort on his part,
no matter how humble that effort, to destroy this
too common vileness and make clean the places
and parts infested. That an intelligent minority
should apprehend the true situation of affairs
and endeavor to evolve some method, by which
the wrong may be remedied, rautJtbe taken with
that certainty that accompanies any proposition
that has moral decency for its virtue.
. A recent Berlin dispatch says, with refer
ence to the meat inspection law just enacted :
"It is not thought that the adoption of the new
bill just passed by the American house of rep
resentatives will make any particular jdifferenco
here, because confidence in American business
methods is absolutely shaken, and the impres
sion prevails that, even with the increased num
ber of inspectors, the inspection will be worthless,-
as the packers will very soon corrupt in- ,
spectors with money;
" It was the" moral force, -working like a leaven,
that created the German opinion from a sUven
statement of facts; nor will it avail anything to
either deny its correctness or argue against its
justness. It will take years of common truth
and honesty, in our dealings with the world, to
overcome the suspicion which the hurried rush
after dishonest wealth by our mercantile leaders
has brought upon us. The moral force of the
world is against us.
The recent upheaval, caused by the murder
of one bad man by another, and because of the
fact that they were related to great wealth, na
bobs, is but the printing of what men know tc be
the truth. The people, in their majority, care
nothing for this wickedness, after once expres
sing their surprise at its horribleness. And there
is not a man of intelligence In the world but
who, though he may shudder at its open discovery
to the world, knows to his perfect satisfaction
of- its truth of the existence of this condition;
Ai people will not concern itself with the sins or
wickedness of men, until such faults obtrude upon
their daily and most material affairs.
In all ages of the world when people have
risen against what they deem wrong, either right
has prevailed or destruction resulted, with great
er evidence of the latter.
But that the majority of the people of Amer
ica seem to learn of our ills, with a levity of
indifference, there is very little question. Our
- condition has furnished columns for the humor
ous writers, and the people have laughed more
at witticisms that bear upon our loss of shame,
at shameful facts, than they have been indignant
at the discovery of gross dishonesty and untruth
fulness that consider perjury justified In pro
portion to the value of the interests involved.
Even now the people, remembering the action of
the president, at the critical moment, are laugh
ing at the railroad rate bill; they do not believe
that it will benefit them, nor correct the railroad
evils that it was intended to remedy. Why, one
could actually feel the smile that spread over
the west when it was believed that the president
Had not "toted fair" with Tillman. ,
Atcredited honorable men, possessed of great
wealth are thought 'little the less of, upon the
discovery that their millions are illgotten; and
their perjury is passed over without even the up
lifting of an eye lash
"Befo the wah," is a phrase used to prompt
a smile, and is generally followed by a'patronlz-
A Striking ReOieW of Present
Day Tendencies
ing story of the simplicity of the American in
his then strict observance of the integrity of his
word, the sacredness of his oath and the honor
bound conscience that protected and sustained
his honesty. What a contrast of morals In busi
ness, of the period "befo the' wah" and today!
The east Is surfolted with opinions, expressed
in every way, on every occasion, and In every
place; and those opinions voice the "awakening
of the public conscience." whilst the comic writer
defines such awakening to be "an acquaintance
with the amount of the swag." The middle and
western stales aro prone to accept the humorist's
version of the expression. The people of those
states have an Instinctive acquaintance with the
insincerity of all proclamations of virtue. They
have greater faith in the verdict of a jury that
sends a thief or a perjurer to prison, than in all
the proclamations and resolutions of purpose of
all the leaders o thought on the continent. When
a poor man was sent to prison for a long term
for stealing, because he was hungry, and a rich
bankrupt was allowed to go free, aftor posi
tive proof of his having stolen a .fortune as was
recently telegraphed over the country from New
York the people of the middle, south and west
ern states smiled grimly; and, If you wore to
ask them why they smiled, they would probably
reply: "Why, that's no more than we expect of
those people." "But the Irfw, the courts, the
judges?" you exclaim. "Bosh!" is the answer;
"they're all alike; the only differences are the
influences and environment; they're all tarred
with the same stick." The truth or falsity 'of such
opinion is not the question; that is the way they
express themselves, and so much the worse If
what they believe be untrue. Sectionalism is an
American fact and will always exist, right or
wronst.and notwithstanding the arguments of
manyft' our most able publicists and thinkers
of itsK-xr tendencies. Anent our sectionalism, It
is oniW; aie strange things in this contemplation
that our "muck" beds aro of greater extent and
of more prolific vileness, in the midst of wealth
and wealth-prpduclng culture (?) than elsewhere.
And It would seem the greater the wealth the
more extensive nnd vile the "muck," as though
great American wealth and "muck" vileness
whether in government, society or the commer
cial world were consistent. Are the American
nabob and "muck" synonymous?
That a great part of the uncovered "muck"
exists in the west, the people well know; but
they, also, firmly believe that the financial meth
ods which inaugurated "muck" systems, support
ed them to their perfect operation, and sustained
them in utter disregard of all moral consequences
so long as they proved profitable originated
and are maintained in the east. The people do
not believe that they are awake,, that the "public
conscience" is alive to the imperative necessity
of a prompt remedying of our ills, in the sense
that they have any faith in the very near accom
plishment of so desirable a result and the reason
is that so long as the individual man does not
feel, or in some way physically experience the
general wrong in its operation upon his personal
comfort, life or affairs, he is more or less In
different to the general fact. Also, ho luiows
that there is so much politics mixed up in our
business affairs, and believes that an extensive
corruption controls in all political organizations
whether ward primary or national congress
that he has no faith in the sincerity of the de
clared purpose of men, no matter how sincerely
they may talk or how independent they may wish
to appear. The apathy to a condition is not de
stroyed by a most commendable desire that it
shbuld not exist. A late justification of such
an opinion was when, in the senate of the United
States, a senator .from Illinois declared that a
rich banker who had violated the law, Having
paid his creditors (by what legerdemain he did
not say) in full, therefore he should be held not
guilty of wrong and that all people should be
satisfied and content in that the senator's con
stituent had paid "one hundred per cent." One
western editor, with an utter disregard of all
"senatorial courtesy" has since referred to the
Illinois senator as "OnerHundred-per-cent-Hopkins."
The people believe whether they be right
or wrong that those who realize enormous
profits from prcsont conditions are In control of
those conditions, and that they will not chango
them so as to prevent a continuance of oppor
tunity to thoinsolvos to realize those profits. For
instance, the pcoplo know that the friends of the
high protective tariff aro the staunch friends
and loyal supporters of the republican party, and
that that paty In its last national platform, de
clared that any revision of our tariff should bo
made by Its friends. As such frionds reap great
benefits und profits from such high tariff, they
aro not likely to so change It as to doprive thorn
solves of any considerable proportion of such
benefit b and profits. And yet, knowing this, how
may the constructive support of such a declara
tion bo explained, except upon the thoory that
the people paid no attention to it, but wore gov
erned by their Impulses, prejudices, sympathies
or Indifference? Nor is this explained away by
the fact that the democrats may have deserved
defeat for refusing to take the people into their
confidence
The people laughed at us democrats for per
mitting the trickery at St. Louis to speak as our
party action, and they voted In accordanco with
that laugh; but what can account for their neg
lect of their laugh at tho idea of tho benefiting
friends of lilgh tariff revising that tariff so as to
curtail their own benefits? True, President Roose
velt's personal character was In sufficient contrast
to tho methods practiced by and at tho conven
tion of the other party as to cause tho people to
feel a greater confidence in him, regardless of
his liarty and Its platform, than In tho disgraceful
conduct of the domocrats weakly submitted to by
a convention that was morally convinced of tho
contemptible abasement to which it was subject
ed. But even then the smll iof tho peoplo was
one as It is today oxprcss o more of a lack
of faith in tho protestations of sincerity than in
a fact that there was anything tp laugh at.
The moral force In a people Is tho most pow
erful quality knqwn, and the most indefinable
and uncertain. It Is slightly similar to the senti
ment prompted in a man who, never having been
a soldier, yet as he walks along, hearing a band
playing , martial music, Mrabhtons his shoulders
and in a moment is keeping strict stop to the
time of tho music. Or,.agv that one may see
in a big, wholesome, God-' anointed man, looking
at a closely contested horse race; and ho sees a
game thoroughbred fighting so hard to win that
he staggers as he comes up the homo stretch and
tho tears will come Into that man's' eyes, his
hands will be clenched until the nails cut into
the flesh of his palms, and his voice will literally
break from him In a hoarse whisper: "Good boy!
bravo boy!" and a cold blooded neighbor wonders
if he is crazy. What is It? The moral force.
The eastern man mutters "pool box," or "the
books," but the eastern man seldom broadens
wide enough to believe that other men Are dif
ferent from himself. And, possibly, that is one
reason why a western man smiles at proclama
tions of virtue emanating from that source. In
politics this force Is as invincible as a tornado.
When will It come? No man born of woman has
had the wisdom to foresee, analyze or under
stand it at best he can but logically compre
hend. But inthis hour when, from every rostrum,
every pulpit, newspaper editorials by the hun
dred, there is a cry against the "muck systems,"
the particulars of which have "been daily, even
hourly, telegraphed over tho world when Europe,
standing aghast, sneers, and'holds us in contempt
where is that moral force? Will it speak?
Will it regulate? pr will it destroy? Will it be
governed by reason or will wild fury control and
as a storm destroy to destruction and leave chaos
for an amen? Will the guilty save themselves
ere it be too late too late for us all?
Indianapolis, Ind.
W. S. RYAN.
MRS. LAWSON
Because of his great service in the exposure
of the methods of "the system" Thomas W. Law
son is known in nearly every American home, and
it may be gratifying to the Boston financier to
know that thousands of American men and wom
en who are not personally acquainted with him,
grieved sincerely when they learned of Mrs. Law
son's death. The Commoner feels that it is au
thorized to extend to Mr. Lawson the sincere
condolence of Commoner readers.
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