TWO MIGHTY CORRUPTERS OF CHARACTER.
By Editor
TWO of the mightiest corrupters in civic and business life are fear and wealth. Many a man has entered political life with the purpose of doing just right, of keeping his conscience at par, and of making a clean record. If a legislator, among the first things that he meets from some of his constituents is the request that he work for a certain measure before the legislature. He sees that it is a "job," and he refuses to have aught to do with it. The next time his "valued constituents" meet him it is with a thinly-veiled bribe or a threat of defeat at his next election. He reconsiders his first stand only to fall. If he does not accept the bribe, he has an ambition to continue in political life, and he gives the measure his support, and loses his manhood. Thousands upon thousands in political life, in business life, are stultifying their manhood to-day through fear of threatened consequences. Many dealers to-day have broken with old and honored customers, contrary to conscience and judgment, upon the demand of the trust. Very many more have submitted to dictatorial, imperialistic union dictation through fear of the boycott. Thousands upon thousands, we opine, of working-men and women are in the unions to-day through the fear of threats from unionists. Loss of work or personal violence stares them in the face so large that conscience and manhood are yielded. Corrupting Power of Wealth.
From recent revelations the corrupting power of wealth has its hold upon labor-union leaders, who are paid employees of the trust. The corrupting power of wealth in one form or another affects all phases of life. The great Standard Oil Company was built to its present colossal proportions by the illegal obtaining of rebates upon railways, and other questionable methods. The national government at the present time reeks with the scandal of the corruption of wealth in several of its departments; and the paid representatives of the people are not infrequently the lobbyists of corrupting trusts. (See editorial article in Leslie's Popular Monthly for November, 1903.) In scarcely a State does there not exist a ring or rings of politicians under control of great corporate wealth. And this ring is so manipulated, sometimes unsuspectingly by men high in the counsels of State and nation, as to control and modify all legislation likely to affect adversely all special interests. The same corrupt politicians are used in the interests of class legislation if it is thought the class controls votes enough to affect legislation. Deleware for years, until recent compromise, has not had full representation in the Senate, owing to the corrupting influence of wealth, unblushingly used to buy political preferment. It is a common saying that to become a senator in the United States, one must be a very rich man. Our great municipalities teem with corruption. The art of "grafting," and "jobbery," and "bribery," and "boodling," has been worked out to a science. Look at the list of our large cities: New York, controlled by Tammany; Philadelphia, controlled by a State ring; Chicago, endeavoring to break away from corruption in its municipal life, yet held in iron-bound tyranny in its business life by labor unions; Pittsburg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and so on down to the smallest municipalities. Corruption through "boodle" and "graft," if not laid bare, is openly charged almost everywhere. Bribery of all sorts is everywhere common, and is winked at. Much has been said of the various and picturesquely evil deeds of Sam Parks, and their approval or condemnation by labor unions. But it seems very clear that Parksism is but a symptom of the disease afflicting the body politic, commercial, and social. The man himself, according to evidence presented by Mr. Ray Stannard Baker in McClure's Magazine for November, was himself a paid tool of a trust while receiving his salary as a business agent for the union. In fact, it has been openly charged again and again that the most notorious bribery in our State and municipal governments are our great commercial concerns. Says Professor Richard T. Ely:— Nothing has so corrupted and debased our political life as private corporations in control of natural monopolies. We have got so used to municipal corruption that it seems to us as something inevitable. In speaking of bribery in the building departments of New York City's government, Mr. Baker, in the article above referred to, asks and answers the following questions:— Why have they paid graft and bribed building superintendents and inspectors?—Because they wanted to break the law. That, indeed, is the secret of all graft. They wanted to put in cheaper materials than the law called for, they did not want to make their building really fireproof, they did want to hurry and scamp their work and increase their profits, or they were too cowardly to resist the demand of corrupt officers; so they used bribe money. . . . Do employers want honest labor leaders? And does any one really suppose that all builders really want honest delegates? Does any one suppose that our street-railway owners, our gas concessioners, our owners of dock privileges, really want honest aldermen, honest city officials? No sir; they do not. If the delegates and officials were honest, profits would be decreased, the builder would not be able to beat his competitor, and the street-car capitalist to rob the public of franchises. After all, this is a republic, a government by the people. If, as a people, we really did not want bosses we should not have them. Grafting is only one expression of our American lawlessness. Here is another quotation from the same article:— Parks is the visible sore of the disease, the invisible germ of which—money corruption—is circulating in the blood of the American people, and takes its victims high and low. Mr. Jerome [William Travers Jerome, district attorney of New York City] has said: "This corruption in the labor unions is simply a reflection of what we find in public life. Every one who has studied our public life is appalled by the corruption that confronts him on every side. It goes through every department of the national, State, and local government. "And this corruption in public life is a mere reflection of the sordidness of private life. Look at what we find on every side—men whacking up with their butchers and grocers, employers carrying influential labor leaders on their pay-rolls, manufacturers bribing the superintendents of establishments to buy their goods." Mr. Baker closes his trenchant article with this paragraph:— "And men still call for special revolutions," says Henrik Ibsen, "for revolutions in politics, in externals. But all that sort of thing is trumpery. It is the human soul that must revolt."7 And only by the human soul's revolting, in the strength of God against the overwhelming corruption, is character made—righteous and enduring character. Unions can not make it. Human combinations of any sort can not make it. These, on their present low trend, are destroying character, dealing with it as a commodity to be bought and sold in the open market. What is the outcome of all this appalling corruption in all phases of life? Society, or any aggregation of persons as such, never reformed itself. No nation ever reformed itself. Only by individuals separating from an ever-corrupting mass, stepping out alone for God and the right, is true reform effected. Inspiration has foretold this corruption, so prevalent before the day of God's visitation. Here is our prophecy:— "The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of the soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is as a briar, the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge; the day of Thy watchmen, even Thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity." Micah 7:2-4. Read also Isaiah 59; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Revelation 18, and other Scriptures, which clearly portray the very condition of the world at the present time as demonstrated by the constant revelations of corruption among all classes in all spheres of life. There is. It must be found in the revolt of the individual soul against sin in every form, and a turning to the right with all the heart. To this God calls in His last world-wide message of the everlasting good tidings to the people of this world:— "Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters." "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. 14:7; 12-16. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Gal. 6:7, 8.