IT has been only a few months since the "graft prosecution" in San Francisco seemed to be accomplishing the feat of successfully placing a lot of high-handed law-breakers behind the prison-bars. The whole country was looking on with interest—indeed the whole civilized world seemed to be giving heed to the work that was being done.
Many of the newspapers had exultant editorials in regard to "the awakening of the public conscience" to drive the evil from the land. It was stated over and over again that when the people once become aroused, they will make short work of exterminating the grafter and the briber. The mighty bulwark of the "public conscience" was extolled, and the people were told in strong, clear language that they could rest secure and happy in the "wave of reform" that was sweeping over the country.
Not only were the "graft prosecutions" in San Francisco heralded as an evidence of the awakening of the "public conscience," but the efforts of the President in prosecuting the big corporations were spoken of much more loudly and proclaimed much more widely as the sure sign that the public had become aroused and that wrong-doers were being irresistibly and impartially dragged before the bar of justice. "The majesty of the law" was asserting itself and would show no respect of persons.
All this sounded good and it could be wished by every law-abiding and right-minded person that these ideals really represented the facts. But what has been the outcome?—The President is being fought by men who are losing no opportunity to attempt to show that all that he has been doing is politics, and that in working politics he is ruining the business of the country. You will hear many men of influence in business circles declare that they think the President is working a great and irreparable injury by the course that he is pursuing in unrelentlessly fighting the trusts. A great financial panic was precipitated right in the midst of the most unprecedented prosperity; and while the country has recovered somewhat from the money stringency, yet, as you mingle among business men, you will hear it everywhere that they wish Roosevelt had let things alone.
There seems to be a regular campaign going on to discredit the work of bringing the corporation magnates to justice. Let the question be raised at this juncture, Does this signify that the "public conscience" is so strong after all when the great dollar is in danger? A "public conscience" that is worthy of the name is willing to subordinate mere money-making in order to put down robbery, oppression, and every other form of evil work.
The "graft prosecutions" in San Francisco have taken a turn that is decidedly ludicrous. The men who were apparently looking into the yawning doors of the penitentiary a few months ago are now the prosecutors, and are hauling before the courts both the lawyers that prosecuted them and the judges that tried their cases. The prosecuting attorneys that were so confidently looked upon as the saviors of San Francisco are now suffering the humiliation of having the arch grafter of the Pacific Slope subject them to the most scrutinizing inquiries in court. At the present writing it would almost appear that instead of the grafting, boodling, bribing gang being sent to prison they would succeed in having their prosecutors fined if not imprisoned.
So it would seem that this great awakening of the public conscience, that has been so loudly proclaimed as the saving grace of the republic, is fading into a vapid farce right before our eyes.
And now comes another chapter in the history. Nine policemen have just been suspended from the San Francisco police force for grafting. This is not for grafting that they did a year or so ago, but for crimes of this character that they have been committing up to the present. Evidently these men have felt that it was so hard to convict a grafter that they would be safe in going right on in the evil work. In other words, the much-talked-of graft prosecutions in San Francisco have not been enough of a terror to evil-doers to prevent a whole platoon of policemen from going on with their work in the very time when the country was led to expect such great things in the way of righteousness.
We may seek to evade the fact, but it is nevertheless true that moral integrity is lacking in this generation. There is a vast army of men who have become dependent for their daily support on blackmail, grafting, boodling, and bribe-taking. So deeply is this evil entrenched in society that nothing short of the power and the glory of the second coming of Christ will ever put an end to it. If we study the Bible, we will see that the prophecies all show that the last generation of men has been reached. And we will further see that the same Bible teaches also that this last generation that is to live on the earth is to rival the generations of Noah and Lot in their debaucheries, wickedness, and crimes.
It is often the case that people will resent the facts, and especially so if those facts are unpleasant. But it is nevertheless best to look the facts squarely in the face and reckon with them. For in the end it is the one who is in harmony with the facts that will prevail.