| Show OBEDIENCE OR bankruptcy sacramento union there is in tho mind a feeling that no rich criminal can be sent to prison and thac no powerful corporation can be made law abiding unless it Is permitted to make the law by which it Is to abide if the reverse of this can be demonstrated respect for law will have a new sanction in the hearts ot the people and criminality throughout tho land may be reduced to its lowest terms every economist who hag spoken or written on the subject has accounted for the creation ot the unprecedented private fortunes of our time mainly by reason of special privileges in shipping commodities it was an elaborate rebate system rather than the practice of economies in manufacture and distribution that created the enor wealth of the standard oil and the beet trust these special privileges formed the basis of booming tho stocks of the corporations that possessed them and of bearing the stocks of those that did not and so furnished a foundation for that frenzied finance which has created most of abe great fortunes not created more directly through the rebate system it 13 now more than twenty years since congress legan to legislate against special privileges and discriminations in transporting commodities over rall roada state legislatures began earlier the goal has been reached neither by congress nor legislature but the united states government has settled down to an enforcement of the laws with a Roosevelt lan determination to secure obedience or inflict bankruptcy A continuation ot Roosevelt lan policies will compel abo alternative tha oue penalty which the rich has dreaded has been imprisonment tout so long as imprisonment was in the law it was difficult to secure evidence that would convict the elkins law removed imprisonment from among the punishments but left a power for imposing fines which can bankrupt the standard oil or tho beef trust unless they obey abo law the fine imposed by judge bandla shows what the law can do if it will and tho power to appoint receivers in default of payment will reinforce the powers of the courts the elkins law tor which senator foraker takes so much credit was a railroad measure dratted by railroad attorneys for the protection of railroads from other railroads tor the railroads have beon as great sufferers as gainers from the rebate system and many railroads have desired to be freed from it it was a good law amt the new rate law Is a better and has restored the alty the first fines imposed were nominal and in many instances justifiably BO on account of the plea of the convicted parties that the lay had not theretofore been perfectly clear and strict compliance thereafter being pledged with apparent good faith with second offenders and with alj offenders like tho standard oil no money should be shown fine should be piled lipon fine like pelion upon ossa until the weight either crushes jor brings compliance with the law ine venality of the modern bar has not been without blame tor the state of affairs which has so long existed lawyers of the old school who still adhered to the honorable tradition that it was a part of the duty of an attorney to aid in establishing justice explained to their clients why they could not do certain advantageous acts because unlawful they gave place to a new school of attorneys who showed their clients how they might observe the letter of the law while evading its purpose and nullifying its spirit this advice has bof only gotten their clients into serious difficulty but has debauched the public mind and has produced a class of criminal rich who have no consciousness ness of being criminal |
