Abounding Lawlessness by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 20, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 37.

Abounding Lawlessness

By Editor

BEFORE us is a paper which boasts of its optimism; it has now and then some very striking editorials. These editorials many times state the strong, clear, positive truth, which is oftentimes directly contrary to the much more shallow optimistic talks more frequently indulged in. In the last Sunday issue of this daily is a strong editorial regarding the dishonesty that there is in the world, especially in higher and larger finance.

Referring to the sugar trust it speaks of its crimes and of the few little men who are arrested and tried and sent to prison; "all beautifully prompt and businesslike as it should have been," but the great men, the real criminals, were the men who were responsible after all. One class it calls the "little fellows who are employed for the dirty work, the stealing." "They do not want to steal, and they are not particularly well paid for stealing; but they do want to live, and they know if they do not steal, their jobs will not last very long." A little higher than this is another set of men who see that the little thieves steal intelligently; and higher still are the officers and directors of the institution, the real beneficiaries of all the stealings, but masters at the same time of the machinery of dishonesty that is so complicated that it is impossible to convict them.

A law is demanded that shall not only punish the miserable creatures who yield to the blandishments of the greater rogues, but which will punish the men who profit by the stealings. The article says, "Daily we read of corruption in boards of aldermen, in state legislatures, in Congress, and we marvel that men can be so cheap as to sell themselves and their souls for a few paltry dollars;" and then it speaks of the expensive machinery maintained by crooked interests simply for the purpose of manufacturing thieves. These are not isolated facts or local conditions; the matter has become general and wide-spread.