*
>' YORKYILLE ENQUIRER.
ISSUED SEMI-WEEKLY.
l. x. ohist's sons, Publishers. } % |[amitj| fleespaper: Jor the Jromotion of the political, Social, Agricultural and Commercial Interests oj the people {TE eraoi'^pi. nvl CR,||
ESTABLISHED 1855." ~ YORKVILLE, 8. g. FMDAY, AUG-U8T 23719077 ~ NX>. 68.
' 1 - *- ! ?HI -1 -I*.? I nr(?K tk. >l?Kio
DAUGHTER
t
By ETTA \
>
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Hit Last Shot.
I Inside the stage utter silence relgn
ed. The men in the rough coats and
sombreros sat like so many wooden
figures. Yet they were not sleeping.
The steady light of their eyes under
their wide hats seemed almost uncan- !
^ ny. Their presence grew strangely oppressive
to Esther. She sank closer
Into her own corner, and with difficulty,
resigned herself to the prospect of
a long and lonely night ride In this
mute, mysterious company.
The mining town was soon left behind.
Darkness fell on the foothills
and the great ranges, crowding peak
upon peak, rank behind rank, along
the horizon. The smell of resinous
spruce filled the wind. The lumbering
coach passed hillsides, where campers
and prospectors had built evening fires
and were boiling coffee and cooking
rashers of bacon. Wilder and lonelier
f grew the road. After awhile the rain
ceased, the clouds broke and the moon
shone over a distant ridge.
On and on went the stage. The arm
ed men Inside began to grow impatlent?they
were waiting for something
that did not come.
"Has the derned coyote given us the
slip?" muttered one, breaking the long
silence, at last.
" "Twouldn't be surprlsln'," answered
another; "but keep cool. There's but
one thing sure about luck, as the Leadville
miners say, and that Is?It's
bound to change!"
Presently the stage entered a lonely
piece of plnewood. Jehu, overhead,
was whistling merrily to his horses,
and Esther, In her corner, sat occupied
with conjectures as to what her recepilor
at Happy Valley was to be, when,
of a sudden, there was a loud tramp of
hoofs In the road, the jingle of stirrups
and bridles, a confused murmur,
and then a voice, like a trumpet.
"Halt!"it cried.
The stage came to an abrupt stand.
An electric thrill seemed to pass
through the men Inside. As if by magis,
every hand Instantly held a sixshooter.
"Black Dave and his road-agents are
upon us, miss," said he who sat nearest
to Esther. "Keep in the stage and
don't disturb yourself, whatever happens."
Even as he spoke the coach-door
flew open, and a face looked Into the
vehicle.
"'Light, gents and ladies!" cried a
voice that was strangely familiar to
Esther's ears.
She saw a figure in a deerskin shirt
and embroidered jacket holding a re
voiver vun m? niuzzie puuiuug ???w
the coach. She saw a face?unmasked
this night?brown, handsome, glowing
with evil fire under a broad sombrero,
and with an amazed cry she recognized
it:
"Father!"
He heard her?surely he heard her,
for the muzzle of the revolver fell, and
he made an involuntary step backward.
At the same Instant a grim
voice inside the stage called out:
"We thought you wouldn't disappoint
us this time, Dave! We've been
on your trail a right smart while, you
know!"
"Vigilants, by Heaven!" cried Dave,
hoarsely.
The moon was shining straight down
through the tree-tops. In the twinkling
of an eye every man was out of
the stage and in the road. There was
a terrific yell from the road-agents?
the cry of desperate, savage men in a
hand-to-hand struggle for life?a deafening
crack of revolvers, and Esther,
frantic with terror, and quite unmindful
of personal danger, sprang from
the stage into the midst of the melee.
"Father! Father!"
Her distracted voice, piercing sharply
through the uproar, must have stabbed
Gilbert Vye's bold, bad heart like
a knife. His child there, and calling
him by name! Perhaps her presence
unnerved his hand and weakened his
courage.
By the light of the rnoon this daughter
of Cain saw her father standing at
bay in the midst of the vigilants. It was
his last fight, and he knew it. His
back was to a tree, his blood-stained
face, for he was already wounded, to
the foe.
Where were his men? Either dead
in the road or prisoners in the hands
of the vigilants.
Alone, unsupported, Gilbert Vye
stood there confronting- his doom, in
full view of the unhappy girl who had
traveled so many weary miles to see
him once more.
"Don't shoot him!" shouted an ominous
voice; "take him alive!"
Some one with unerring aim threw
a lariat. It had been determined long
before what death the king of the
road-agents was to die. One fearful
set earn broke from Esther, and then,
swift as lightning, a hand from behind
seized her and pressed a handkerchief
to her eyes.
"Come away!" cried the agitated
voice of Victor Shirlaw; "come away,
Esther?this sight will kill you!"
He had just swung himself out of
the saddle. He was white and breathless
with a long, hard gallop, and he
had no thought for the desperate
struggle In the road save as it concerned
that horrified girl. She tried
to free herself from him, but he held
her fast.
"My father! Oh, it is my father!"
she cried.
"Yes," he answered, "God help you!
I knew him at Rookwood. Do you understand
my warnings now?"
She was past reply. A curtain of
darkness dropped mercifully upon her.
She fell forward on Shirlaw's arm
without breath or motion.
It was a half-hour before she awoke
to consciousness again. Then she
found herself lying on a hard dirt
floor with Shirlaw's cloak spread under
her, and Shlrlaw himself kneeling
by her side trying to force a few drops,
of brandy down her throat. She was |
i or m
V. PIERCE
!?n tho in? r>nhin of a minor. on a hill
side rising: just above that pine wooc
where the fight betwixt, the vigilant*
and road-agents had been. In th
rude stone fireplace crackled a brisk
flame, but the owner of the abode had
considerately taken himself out of the
way. The moment Esther regained hei
senses Shirlaw moved quietly back
from her. She staggered to her feet:
she spoke n(> word, but ner eyes sought
his in wild inquiry. He saw that it
was best to tell her all, and at once.
"He is dead!" he said, turning his
face aside.
"They hung him?"
"No. He had left one charge in his
revolver. As the lariat touched his
neck, he sent that last bullet through
his own heart.
She wrung her hands In dumb anguish.
"For many weeks past," continued
Shirlaw, in a low voice, "Black Dave
has not been heard of in the west.
Credulous people thought him dead,
possibly, reformed. You and I knew
where he was passing that time! But
a few days ago another daring robbery
[ proved that Dave was still alive, and
at his old business. The exasperated
vigilants sent scouts out, and gathered
information which made them confident
that he would attack the stage
tonight. I did not learn this fact till
after your departure from Diamond
City. I mounted a fresh horse at once,
and followed the coach, but failed to
overtake it, as you know, till the fight
was In progress."
She leaned helplessly against the
rude logs of the cabin. The misery,
the shame, the horror of It all overpowered
her. Victor Shlrlaw seemed
to comprehend something of what was
passing In her heart. He waited for
her to speak.
"Was It known at Rookwood who
and what my father was?" she shuddered.
at last.
"Cyril Vye knew: I knew, for I had
once encountered him In the west.
Your Uncle Philip had also strong
suspicions of the truth. Yes, I may
say, the Vyes were well aware that
Happy Valley ranch was no longer in
Gilbert's possession, and that the calling
he pursued in the west was robbery
and murder."
"Then my cousin Cyril deceived me
purposely."
"Without doubt. It Is his nature to
deceive."
"And my sister?Mignon?"
He winced.
"She was as ignorant as yourself of
the truth."
"And this is why you ceased to love
her!"
"No," corrected Shlrlaw sadly. 'T
acknowledge that the thought or any
marriage connection with Gilbert Vye
was most distasteful to me, but?I
ceased to love Mlgnon, because I began
to love you!"
"How can you talk like this?" she
cried, wildly. "Was I not his daughter
as well as Mlgnon?equally disgraced.
equally tainted? If you shrank
from her because of her father, why
did you not, for the same reason, turn
from me?"
"Because you were Esther! I can of.
fer you no other explanation," he
groaned.
She ran suddenly toward the cabindoor.
He guessed her purpose and
seized a torch from the rude stone
hearth.
"Walt!" he cried, "let me go with
you. Esther." And together they stepped
forth into the night?the night of
a western wilderness. Vast, silent, oppressive
and bright with the rays of a
moon shining over far, lonely heights.
The air was full of the odor of pineneedles,
and the noise of a swollen
water-course plunging through some
ravine near by.
By a narrow footpath Shirlaw and
his companion swiftly descended the
hill to the scene of the fight.
They found Gilbert Vye stretched In
an open space by the roadside, with
the moonlight falling on his upturned
face. His Derringer lay at nis siae.
The murmur of the pines was the only
sound that broke the silence. The
stage had vanished, the vlgilants had
vanished. Esther made no cry or
moan. She knelt quietly and wiped
the blood-stains from his face.
"Are you sure that he is dead?" she
said to Shirlaw.
He put a hand on Gilbert Vye's
heart.
"Yes," he answered. "I have bargained
with the miners at the cabin to
bury him decently. For your sake, he
shall not be left to the gray wolves.
There is something in this breastpocket.
Do you wish to know what it
is?"
She made a gesture of assent, and
Shirlaw. from Gilbert Vye's deerskin
jacket drew a leather case made for
holding letters and photographs, and
stamped on one side with a man's
name. He gave this to Esther. She
took it. shuddering, looked?read, then
uttered a wild cry. for the name shining
in gilt there on the case and fully
revealed by Shirlaw's torch, was that
of her husband. "Guy Fleetwood!"
This, the only part of Fleetwood's
stolen possessions which the roadagent
had retained, at the time of that
night attack long months before, now
passed, strange to say. into the hands
of Fleetwood's wife from the lifeless
body of her wretched, her criminal
father.
"Guy Fleetwood!" Esther repeated the
name like one in a dream. "Oh, what
can this mean?" she sobbed.
Inside the leather case were the last
letters which Mignon had written to
her father in the past happy summer:
also, a cabinet photograph, scribbled on
the back with these words:
"Dearest Cousin Guy?Behold me
and my bosom friend. Mignon Vye,
posing in our latest school tableau. 1
am sure you will admire us both.
Maud."
From the card two faces looked up
?Mignon as Amy Robsart, and Maud
Loftus in the dress of Queen Elizabeth
?both lovely, gay, lifelike. Wrested
from Fleetwood on the night of the
I stage robbery, that picture had saved
| the Canadian's life, and ever since
y lain against the wild, wicked heart of
Gilbert Vye?the shadow of the fair,
innocent daughter, whose love for him
was the most precious and potent thing
In his reckless existence.
By the light of Shlrlaw's torch, Esther
looked long and silently at the
photograph, She recognized both Mtgnon
and Maud I?ftus. So did Shlrlaw,
but neither spoke. Kneeling Dy unbert
Vye's dead body, under the black
pines and the white moon, the girl's
mind was busy.
She remembered that Fleetwood had
I visited Colorado before her fateful aci
qualntance with him began. As a flash
) of lightning breaks on a black cloud,
; so did a full comprehension of her
1 husband's desertion burst on Esther
> at last. He had discovered that she
was the daughter of Black Dave and
: fled from her In horror.
She hid the leather case and Its con:
tents in her dress, and arose blindly
: to her feet.
"I have come a long way," she said,
i bitterly, "to learn some terrible things!
We are both accursed?Mignon and I.
Oh, she must never know his fate?It
i would kill her! She loved him?I did
i not."
i "She need not know," muttered Shlrlaw,
"even though his death gets Into
ah the newspapers of the country; for
probably there Is no person west of
the Mississippi tonight, save ourselves,
who has the smallest suspicion that
Black Dave and Gilbert Vye were one
and the same person."
She stood looking sadly down on the
stark body at her feet.
"I, more than Mignon. am the daughter
of this man," she shuddered, "for I
have Inherited his nature! Once, at
Cindervllle, he told me that his seal
was upon me. Oh, I see his evil in
myself now, and I see myself with abhorrent
eyes! Do not stare, Victor
Shirlaw, but rejoice that your lot and
mine are forever separate!"
He made no reply. He thought her
distracted with the events of the night.
The miners came down the hillside
path and began to dig a grave under
the pines. The sound rent Esther's
heart, for, in spi's of his crimes,
known and unknown, he was her father?he
was Mignon's father. She
crossed his hands decently on his
breast, sobbed out a prayer for mercy
on his guilty soul and then Shirlaw
led her back to the cabin, and all that
was left of Gilbert Vye, gentlertian, and
Black Dave, road-agent, was a heap
of fresh earth under the pines, in the
wood, where the stage full of vigllants
had been stopped that night.
Up in the hillside cabin Esther drew
from her pocket Aunt Deb's message,
which she had come so far to deliver
to Gilbert Vye, and dropped it, unopened,
into the fire.
"He Is dead!" she thought, "and
surely I have no right to pry into Aunt
Deb's secrets!"
So the words of mysterious importance,
written by the old woman's
half-paralyzed hand In the Charlestown
cottage, were burned, unread, on a
miner's hearth among the far Colorado
foothills.
"There Is nothing left for me to do,"
said Esther to Shirlaw, "but to return
east immediately."
"Allow me to take you back to Diamond
City." he pleaded, "and see you
safely started on your homeward Journey.
You cannot deny me this favor,
Esther. It is the last, the only one,
that I will ever ask of you."
"No," she answered, with tear-wet
eyes; "I shall be only too glad to accept
your kindness. Till I die. Captain
Shlrlaw, I will remember gratefully all
that you have done for me this night."
She had thought him weak and fickle,
as. indeed he was. But natures like
Shirlaw's sometimes develop an odd
vein of fidelity.
Long months after, In a dreary
canon, the bullet of a hostile Apache
cut short that gallant young life, and
In dying one word fell from Victor
Shirlaw's lips, and was distinctly heard
and remembered by a brother-officer
who supported his fallen comrade. It
was a woman's name?"Esther!"
The one supreme and hopeless passion
of Shirlaw's life he cherished to
Its end.
(To Be Continued).
HOT OR COLD?
The Office Boy Wasn't Certain Which
Man Was Wanted.
A number of years ago there were
two in the employ of the Santa Fe
road who were named Davis, says a
Chicago Record-Herald writer. One
was James A. Davis, who is now a
stockbroker and who was then in
chaige of the road's industrial department.
The other Davis was in charge
of the company's private refrigerator
line. James Davis was such a "hot
air" artist that the company always
selected him to "jolly" state legislatures
and to induce municipalities to
give the railroad its streets or to make
any one give up anything he did not
want to part with.
o/mlrl malro a nntinfrv lpcld 1Q _
tor think that he had George Washington
backed off the boards and that the
country was about to discover him.
As might be expected, he soon acqulr,
ed a reputation as a dispenser of
"smooth talk" which was enviable to
possess.
The other Davis was also a genial
fellow, but owing to the fact that he
had charge of the iced goods which
went over the road and also owing to
the fact that he could not hold a candle
to James A. when it came to talk,
ing things out of people, he acquired
the reputation of being somewhat
chilly.
Accordingly E. P. Ripley's new office
I boy soon came to know them as the
, warm and frigid propositions about the
general offices. One day the president
pushed the office boy's bell button and
, the young autocrat hastily put in an
appearance.
"Boy." said the president, "tell Mr.
Davis that I would like to see him
| right away."
The boy started for the door, heslta
1 ted, thought a moment, and then,
turning to the president, he asked:
, "Mr. Davis, sir?"
"Yes, Mr. Davis."
"Hot or cold?"
' .JtiT A 550-mile oil pipe line from the
' Baku district to the Black sea has
1 been recently completed. Its yearly
I capacity of 400,000,000 gallons.
WILL FIGH'i TO A FINISH.
President Will Not Let Up on the
Trusts.
RICH CRIMINALS SHOULD BE PUNISHED
Country Needs National Incorporation
Law for Application In Cases of
Interstate Business?The Government
Must Not 8ubmit to the Control
of Corporate Wealth.
The laying of the corner-stone of the
Cape Cod Pilgrims' memorial monu
ment at Provincetown, Mass., iasi
Tuesday, gave President Roosevelt his
first opportunity of the summer to
break silence upon public questions,
and the forty-minute speech which he
delivered from a platform on top of
Town Hill was most vigorous upon
matters pf national importance.
The feature of the president's address
was his advocacy of a national
incorporation law and his stand in relation
to violators of the law,.especially
corporations. With emphasis he declared
that the administration would
not waver In its determination "to
punish certain malefactors of great
wealth."
Continuing he said: "There will be
no change In the policy we have steadily
pursued; no let up In the effort to
secure the honest observance of the
law; for I regard this contest as one
to determine who shall rule this government?the
people, through their
governmental representatives, or a few
ruthless and determined men whose
wealth makes them particularly formidable
because they hide behind the
breastworks of corporate organizations."
The president declared that the gov
ernment would undertake no acting of
a vindictive type, and above all, no action
which would Inflict great or unmerited
suffering upon Innocent stockholders
and upon the public as a
whole. He said that the government's
policy in Its ultimate analysis meant
"a healthy and prosperous expansion of
the business activities of honest business
men and honest corporations."
A Hit at Harriman..
At one point President Roosevelt departed
for a moment from his address
as originally prepared to remark: "All
that I have said as to desirable and
undesirable citizens remains true."
Ten thousand persons were crowded
Into the little town, and at least onethird
of them heard the president's remarks.
At the conclusion of the programme
President Roosevelt was driven
to the wharf where he boarded the
Mayflower, which sailed at 4 o'clock
on the return to Oyster Bay.
It Is not too much to say that the
event commemorated by the monument
which we have come to dedicate was
one of those rare events which can In
good faith be called of world Importance.
The coming hither of .the Purltan
three centuries ago shaped the
destinies of this continent, and therefore
profoundly affected the destiny of
the whole world. Men of other races,
the Frenchman and the Spaniard, the
Dutchman, the German, the Scotchman
and the Swede, made settlements within
what i? now the United States dur
Ing the colonial period of our history
and before the Declaration of Independence:
and since then there has
been an ever-swelling Immigration
from Ireland and from the mainland of
Europe; but It was the Englishman
who settled In Virginia and the Englishman
who settled In Massachusetts
who did most In shaping the lines of
our national development.
A Beneficial Influence.
We can not as a nation be too profoundly
grateful for the fact that the
Puritan has stamped his influence so
deeply on our national life. We need
have but scant patience with the men
who now rail at the Puritan's faults.
They were evident, of course, for It Is
a quality of strong natures that their
failings, like their virtues, should
stand out In bold relief; but there Is
nothing easier than to belittle the
great men of the past by dwelling only
on the points where they come short
of the universally recognized standards
of the present. Men must be judged
with reference to the age In which
they dwell, and the work they have to
do. The Puritan's task was to conquer
a continent; not merely to overrun
it, but to settle It, to till It, to
build upon It a high industrial and
social life; and, wnne engaged in me
rough work of taming the shaggy wilderness,
at that very time also to lay
deep the Immovable foundations of our
whole American system of civil, political,
and rel/gious liberty achieved
through the orderly process of law.
This was the work allotted him to do;
this Is the work he did; and only a
master spirit among men could have
done it.
We have travelled far since his day.
That liberty of conscience which he
demanded for himself we now realize
must be as freely accorded to others
as it is resolutely insisted upon for
ourselves. The splendid qualities
which he left to his children, we other
Americans who are not of Puritan
blood also claim as our heritage. You,
sons of the Puritans, and we, who are
descended from races whom the Puritans
would have deemed alien?we are
all Americans together. We all feel
the same pride In the genesis, In the
history, of our people; and therefore
this shrine of Puritanism Is one at
which we all gather to pay homage.no
matter from what country our ancestors
sprang.
Things We Have Gained.
We have gained some things that the
Puritan had not?we of this generation,
we of the twentieth century, here
In this great republic; but we are also
In danger of losing certain things
which the Puritan had and which we
can by no manner of means afford to
lose. We have gained a joy of living
which he had not, and which it Is a
crorwl thlno- fY?r avprv nponlp to hfl.V6
?""u l","? ?"? v,x" J K"VI
and to develop. Bet us see to It that
we do not lose what Is more important
still; that we do not lose the Purltan's
iron sense of duty, his unbending,
unflinching will to do the right as
it was given to him to see the right.
It is a good thing that life should gain
in sweetness, but only provided that
it does not lose in strength. Base and
rest and pleasure are good things, but
only if they come as the reward of
work well done, of a good tight well
won, of strong effort resolutely made
and crowned by high achievement.
The life of mere plehsure, of mere effortless
ease, is as ignoble for a nation
as for an individual. The man la but
, a poor father who teaches his sons
' that ease and pleasure should be their
chief objects in life; the woman who Is
a mere petted toy, incapable of serious (
I purpose, shrinking from effort and I
' duty, Is more pitiable than the veri- ]
est over-worked drudge. So he Is but ;
a poor leader of the people, but a poor i
1 national adviser, who seeks to make 1
the nation in any way subordinate ef- l
fort to ease, who would teach the peo- i
pie not to prize as the greatest bless- i
ine the chance to do anv work, no I
matter how hard. If it becomes their i
duty to do It. To the sons of the Pu- i
rltans It Is almost needless to say that I
the lesson above all others which Pu- <
rltanlsm can teach this nation Is the i
all-Importance of the resolute per- l
formance of duty. If we are men we t
will pass by with contemptuous dls- i
daln alike the advisers who would i
seek to lead us Into the paths of lgno- I
ble ease and those who would teach us J
to admire successful wrong-doing. i
Our Ideals should be high, and yet they t
should be capable of achievement In' I
practical fashion; and we are as little t
to be excused If we permit our ideals t
to be tainted with what Is sordid and e
mean and base, as If we allow our i
power of achievement to atrophy and t
become either incapable of effort as to I
accomplish nothing of permanent good, t
The true doctrine to preach to this na- t
tion, as to the Individuals composing c
this nation, Is not the life of ease, but j
the life of effort. If It were in my e
power to promise the people of this i
land anything, I would promise them t
that stern happiness which comes -from 1
the sense of having done In practical c
fashion a difficult work which was e
worth doing. c
The Puritan'* Weapon*. c
The Puritan owed his extraordinary 1
success In subduing this continent and a
making it the foundation for a social
life of ordered liberty primarily to the
fact that he combined In a very re- c
rnarkable degree both the power of in- t
dividual Initiative, of individual self- 1
help, and the power of acting In com- ;
bination with his fellows; and that c
furthermore he Joined to a high heart r
that shrewd common sense which t
saves a man from the besetting sins of t
the visionary and the doctrinaire. He \
wat stout hearted and hard-headed, r
He had lofty purposes, but he hod 1
practical good sense, too. He could c
imirt hi? nwn In tho rouerh workaday r
world without clamorous Insistence c
upon being helped by others and yet c
he could combine with others whenever r
It became necessary to do a Job which t
could not be as well done by any one f
man individually. c
These were the qualities which en- t
abled him to do his work, and they are r
the very qualities which we must q
show- In doing our work today. There a
Is no use In our coming here to pay r
homage to the men who founded this r
nation unless we first of all come in g
the spirit of trying to do our work to- c
day as they did their work In the yes- b
terdays that have vanished. The prob- e
lems shift from generation to genera- r
tlon, but the spirit In which they must f
be approached, If they are to be sue- c
cessfully solved, temalns ever the same, c
The Puritan tamed the wilderness, 1
and built up a free government on the t
stump-dotted clearings amid the pri- t
meval forest. His descendants must t
try to shape the life of our complex in- c
dustrial civilization by new devices, by p
new methods, so as to achieve In the t
end the same results of Justice and s
fair dealing toward all. He cast aside 1
nothing old merely for the sake of In- t
novation, yet he did not hesitate to c
adopt anything new that would serve t
his purpose. When he planted his S
commonwealths on this rugged coast c
he faced wholly new conditions and he o
had to devise new methods of meeting a
them. So we of today face wholly new h
conditions In our social and Industrial v
life. We should certainly not adopt g
any new scheme for grappling with v
them merely because It Is new and un- r
tried; but we <?an not afford to shrink a
from grappling with them because they a
can only be grappled with by some a
new scheme. e
The Puritan was no Laodicean, no |
laissez-faire theorist. When he saw c
conduct which was In violation of his I
rights?of the rights of man, the rights t
of God, as he understood them?he at- a
tempted to regulate such conduct with r
Instant, unquestioning promptness anu
effectiveness. If there was no other
way to secure conformity with the rule a
of right, then he smote down the trans- c
gressor with the Iron of his wrath. t
The spirit of the Puritan was a spirit ^
which never shrank from regulation of g
conduct If such regulation was neces- r
sary for the public weal; and this is p
the spirit which we must show today c
whenever It is necessary. a
Changes the Times Demand. t
The utterly changed conditions of
our national life necessitate changes In r
certain of our laws, of our govern- v
mental methods. Our Federal system li
of government is based upon the the- t
ory of leaving to each community, to 1<
each state, the control over those r
things which affect only Its own mem- t
bers and which the people of the local- e
Ity themselves can best grapple with, v
while providing for national regula- t
tlon In those matters which necessarl- v
ly affect the nation as a whole. It c
seems to me that such questions as na- T
tlonal sovereignty and state's rights t
need to be treated not empirically or t
academically, but from the standpoint c
of the interests of the people as a I;
whole. National sovereignty Is to be c
upheld In so far as it means the sov- li
erelgnty of the people used for the e
real and ultimate good of the people; 1
and state's rights are to be upheld In t
so far as they mean the people's rights, b
Especially Is this true in dealing with n
the relations of the people as a whole li
to the great corporations which are the c
distinguishing feature of modern bus- t
Inoua nnnrlltlnna f
Must Control Vast Fortunes. a
Experience has shown that it Is nec- c
essary to exercise a far more efficient a
control than at present over the bus!- a
ness use of those vast fortunes, chiefly r
corporate, which are used (as under t
modern conditions they ulmost Invari- d
ably are) in inter-state business. When a
the constitution was created none of a
the conditions of modern business ex- o
isted. They are wholly new and we c
must create new agencies to deal ef- s
fectlvely with them. There is no ob- t
jectlon in the minds of this people to t
any man's earning any amount of t
money if he does it honestly and fair- e
ly, if he gets It as the result of special r
skill and enterprise, as a reward <
ample sendee actually rendered. Bi
there is a growing determination the
no man shall amass a great fortune b
special privileges, by chicanery an
wrong-doing, so far as It is in the pow
er of legislation to prevent; and tha
the fortune when amassed shall nc
have a business use that is antl-socia
Most large corporations do a buslnes
that Is not confined to any one stat<
Experience has shown that the effor
to control these corporations by mer
>tnto nation ran not nroduee whole
some results. In most cases such ef
fort falls to correct the real abuses o
which the corporation is or may b
rullty; while In other cases the effor
* apt to cause either hardship to th
jorporatton Itself, or else hardship t
neighboring states which have no
:rled to grapple with the problem ii
:he same manner; and of course w
nust be as scrupulous to safeguard th
lghts of the corporation as to exac
'rom them In return a full measure o
lustlce to the public. I believe In i
national Incorporation law for corpora
Ions engaged In lnter-state business
believe, furthermore, that the neei
'or action Is most pressing as regard
hose corporations which, because the;
ire common carriers, exercise a quasi
nubile function; and which can b
:ompletely controlled. In all respect
>y the Federal government, by the ex
>rclse of the power conferred unde
he Inter-state commerce clause of th
ionstitution. During the last te\
rears we have taken marked strides ii
idvance along th? road of proper reg
ilatlon of these lallroad corporations
nut we must not stop In the worh
rhe national government should exer
:lse over them a similar supervisloi
ind control to that which It exercise
nver national banks. We can do thl
>nly by proceeding farther along th
Ines marked out by the recent nation
l! legislation.
Conse vatism Necessary.
In dealing with any totally new se
>f conditions there must at the outse
>e hesitation and experiment. Sucl
las been our experience in deallnj
vlth the enormous concentration o
:apital employed in inter-state busl
less. Not only the legislatures, bu
he courts and people, need graduall:
o be educated so that they may se
vhat the real wrongs are and what th<
eal remedies. Almost every big bus
ness concern Is engaged in Inter-stati
ommerce, and such a concern mus
lot be allowed by a dexterous shiftlni
>? position, as has been too often thi
:ase In the past, to escape thereby al
osponsiblllty either to state or to na
Ion. The American people becami
Irmly convinced of the need of contro
>ver these great aggregations of cap!
al, especially where they had a mo
lopolfstlc tendency, before they becami
lulte clear as to the proper way o
ichievlng control. Through their rep
esentatives in congress they tried tw<
emedies, which were to a large de
rree, at least as interpreted by th<
:ourts, contradictory. On the om
land, under the anti-trust law thi
flfort was made to prohibit all combl
latlon, whether it was or was not hurt
ul or beneficial to the public. On thi
ither hand, through the inter-stati
ommerce law a beginning was madi
n exercising such supervision and con
rol over combinations as to preven
heir doing anything harmful to thi
ody politic. The first law, the so^
ailed Sherman law, has filled a usefu
lace, for it bridges over the trans!'
Ion period until the American peopl*
hall definitely make up Its mind tha
t will exercise over the great corpora.'
Ions that thoroughgoing and radlca
ontrol which It Is certain ultlmatelj
0 find necessary. The principle of th<
Sherman law so far as It prohibit!
omblnations, which whether becaus*
if their extent or of their character
,re harmful to the public must alwayi
ie preserved- Ultimately, and I hop*
vith reasonably speed, the natlona
,'overnment must pass laws which
rhile Increasing the supervisory ant
egulatory power of the government
lso permits such useful combination!
s are made with absolute opennes!
nd as the representatives of the gov
rnment may previously approve. Bu
t will not be possible to permit sucl
omblnatlons save as the second stag<
n a course of proceedings of whlcl
he first stage must be the exercise o:
1 far more complete control by th<
latlonal government.
Civil and Criminal Actiona.
In dealing with those who offent
gainst the anti-trust and inter-stat<
ommerce laws the department of Jus^
ice has to encounter many and grea
llfficulties. Often men who have beer
ruilty of violating these laws hav<
eally acted In criminal fashion and 11
?osslblf should be proceeded agalnsl
rlmlnally; and, therefore, It Is advls
ble that there should be a clause lr
hese laws providing for such crimlna
ctlon, and for punishment by Imprlsnent
as well as by fine. But, as 1.'
veil known, In a criminal action th<
aw Is strictly construed In favor o!
he defendant, and In our country, ai
east, both judge and jury are fai
nore inclined to consider his rights
han they are the Interests of the genral
public; while. In addition, It Is always
true that a man's general pracices
may be so bad that a civil actior
i ll! lie when it may not be possible t(
onvict him of any one criminal act
'here Is unfortunately a certain numier
ot our fellow countrymen who seen
o accept the view that unless a mar
an be proved guilty of some partlcuar
crime he shall be counted a gooc
itlzen, no matter how Infamous tht
ife he has led, no matter how pernlious
his doctrines or his practices
'his Is the view announced from tlm<
o time with clamorous insistence, now
iy a group of predatory capitalists
low by a group of sinister AnarchlstU
eaders and agitators, whenever a speial
champion of either class, no mater
how evil In general life, is acquited
of some one specific crime. Such
, view Is wicked whether applied t(
apltalist or labor leader, to rich mar
r poor man. and all that I have salt
s to desirable and undesirable citizens
emains here. But we have to takt
nis reeling' into account wnen wean
lebating whether it is possible to gel
. conviction in a criminal proceeding
gafnst some rich trust magnate, rnanj
f whose actions are severely to be
ondemned from the moral and socia
tandpoint, but no one of whose acIons
seems clearly to establish suet
ochnical guilt as will insure a convicion.
As a matter of expediency. It
nforclng the law against a great cor oration,
we have continually to weigh
)f the arguments pro ana con as w
it whether a prosecution can successfully
it be entered into, and as to whether we
y can be successful in a criminal action
d against the chief individuals in the
- corporation, and If not, whether we can
it at least be successful In a civil action
it against the corporation itself. Anyef1.
fectlve action on the part of the govis
eminent is always objected to, as a
5. matter of course, by the wrong-doers,
t by the beneficiaries of the wrong-doe
ers and by their champions; and often
- one of the most effective ways of at
tacking the action of the government
if is by objecting to practical action upe
on the ground that it does not go far
t enough. One of the favorite devices
e of those who are really striving to pre0
vent the enforcement of these laws is
t to clamor for action of such severity
n that it cannot be undertaken because
e it will be certain to fail if tried. An
e instance of this is the demand often
t made for criminal prosecutions where
f such prosecutions would be certain to
s. fail. We have found by actual expe
rience that a Jury which will gladly
i. punish a corporation by fine, for in1
stance, will acquit the individual mems
bers of that corporation if we proceed
y against them criminally because of
- those very things which the corporae
tlon which they direct and control has
s done. In a recent case against the
- Licorice Trust we indicted and tried
r the two corporations and their respecte
ive presidents. The contracts and othv
er transactions establishing the guilt of
a the corporations were made through,
- and so far as they were in writing
; were signed by the two presidents. Yet
:. the Jury convicted the two corporations
- and acquitted the two men. Both vern
diets could not possibly have been cors
rect: but apparently the average Jury8
man wishes to see trusts broken up,
e and is quite ready to fine the corpora
tion itself; but is very reluctant to And
the facts "proven beyond a reasonable
doubt" when It comes to sending to
t jail a reputable member of the busit
nesB community for doing: what the
d business community has unhappily
% grown to recognize as well-nigh norf
mal in business. Moreover, under the
- necessary technicalities of criminal
t proceedings, often the only man who
/ can be reached criminally wil. be some
e subordinate who is not the real guilty
e party at all.
The "Big" Offenders.
e
. Many men of large wealth have been
guilty of conduct which from the moral
standpoint is criminal, and their mls.
deeds are to a peculiar degree reprehensible
because those committing
them have no excuse of want, of pov.
erty, or weakness and Ignorance to offer
as partial atonement. When in addition
to moral responsibility these
men have a legal responsibility which
" can be proved so as to Impress a judge
and a jury, then the department will
^ strain every nerve to reach them criminally.
Where this is Impossible, then
g it will take whatever action will be
most effective under the actual condlB
tlons.
0 *
In the last six years we have shown
that there Is no individual and no core
poration so powerful that lie or it
stands above the possibility of punIshment
under the law.
During the present trouble with the
stock market I have, of course, received
countless requests and suggestions,
public and private, that I should say
or do something to ease the situation.
There Is a world-wide financial dis- (
[ turbance. It is felt in the bourses of
' Paris and Berlin, and British consols
are lower, while prices of railway se- |
curitle8 have also depreciated. The
New York Stock Exchange disturb- (
[ ance has been particularly severe,
| most of it, I believe, due to matters of ,
particular concern 10 me unueui
States and to matters wholly uncon-1
' nected with any governmental action, I
but it may well be that the determlna}
i
j tion of the government?in which,
gentlemen, it will not waver?to punish (
j certain malefactors of great wealth has j
been responsible for something of the (
' troubles, at least to the extent of hav3
Ing caused these men to combine to ,
3 I
bring about as much financial stress as )
they possibly can in order to discredit ,
the policy of the government and ]
1 thereby to secure a reversal of that
s policy so that they may enjoy the j
fruits of their own evil doings. That (
they mislead many good people into
i believing that there should be such a (
reversal of policy Is possible. If so, I ^
am sorry, but It will not alter my attl'
tude.
i Once for all let me say that as far as (
" I am concerned, and for the eighteen (
1 months of my administration that re1
main, there will be no change In the (
5 volley we have steadily pursued, nor (
f let up In the effort to secure an honest
t observance of the law, for I regard
this contest as one to determine who
1 shall rule this government?the people (
1 through their governmental agents or
a few ruthless and determined men
' whose wealth makes them particularly (
formidable, because they hide behind
f the breastworks of corporate organlt
zatlon. I wish there to be no mistake (
" on this point. It is idle to ask me not t
5 to prosecute criminals, rich or poor, j
But I desire no less emphatically to (
have it understood that we have not j
undertaken and will undertake no ac- j
i tion of a vindictive type, and above all ^
> no action which shall inflict great or ,
unmerited suffering upon Innocent f
stockholders and upon the public as a (
i whole. Our purpose is to act with a j
i minimum of harshness compatible
with obtaining our ends. In a man of (
I great wealth who has earned his j
' wealth honestly and used It wisely we t
recognize a good citizen worthy of all
. praise and respect. Business can only f
i be done under modern conditions
r through corporations, and our purpose
. 1j to heartily favor corporations that ^
; do well. The administration apprecl
ates that liberal and honest profit for j
legitimate promoters and generous div
Idends for the capital employed either
i In founding or continuing an honest
> business venture are the factors nec- s
i essary for successful corporate actlv- 1
I Ity, and, therefore, for generally pros- (
i perous business conditions. All these 1
> are compatible with fair dealing as be- 1
i tween man and man, and rigid obe- I
t dlence to the law. Our aim Is to help <
r every honest man, every honest cor- ?
' poratlon, and our policy means In Its t
i ultimate analysis healthy and prosper- I
I ous expansion of business activities, of t
4 * ?' ~~ liAnaot OfVP- I
nonesi DUsintss men uitu iiuuvob w?
i poratlons. t
Justice for Wage-Workers. <
i I very earnestly hope that the legls- t
latlon which deals with the regulation t
i of corporations engaged In lnter-state r
DUBIIieBB Will aiou UC04 Willi llic MBllio
and Interests of the wage- workers employed
by those corporations. Action
was taken by the congress last year
limiting the number of hours that railway
employees should be employed.
The law Is a good one; but if in prac- '
tice It proves necessary to strengthen
it, It must be strengthened. We have
now secured a national employers' liability
law; but ultimately a more farreaching
and thorough-going law
must be passed. It Is monstrous that
a man or woman who is crippled in an
Industry, even as the result of taking
what are the necessary risks of the
occupation, should be required to bear
the whole burden of the loss. That
burden should be distributed and not
placed solely upon the weakest Individual,
the one least able to carry It.
By making the employer liable the loss
will ultimately be distributed among
all the beneficiaries of the business.
I also hope that there will be legislation
Increasing the power of the national
government to deal with certain
matters concerning the health of our
people everywhere; the Federal authorities,
for Instance, should join with
all the state authorities in warring
against the dreadful scourge of tuberculosis.
Your own state government,
here in Massachusetts, deserves high
praise for the action It has taken in
these public health matters during the
last few years; and in this, as in some
other matters, I hope to see the national
government stand abreast of the
foremost state governments.
Influence of Moral Sentiment.
1 have spoken of but one or two
laws which In my judgment. It is advisable
to enact as part of the general
scheme for making the interference of
the national government more effective
in securing justice and fair dealing as
between man and man here In the
United States. Let me add. however,
that, while it is necessary to have legislation
when conditions arise where
itf/v ao n Atiltr nnnA mlth airila V* rn11 orH
" C vol* VIIIJ VV^V TT 1U1 VTIIO *U*WU^il
the joint action of all of us, yet that
we can never afford to forget that In
the last analysis the all-important factor
for each of us must be his own Individual
character. It is a necessary
thing to have good laws, good institutions;
but the most necessary of all
things is to have a high Quality of Individual
citizenship. This does not
mean that we can afford to neglect
legislation. It will be highly disastrous
if we permit ourselves to be misled
by the pleas of those who see it an
unrestricted individualism the allrsufflcient
panacea for social evils; but
it will be even more disastrous to
adopt the opposite panacea of any Socialistic
system which would destroy
all individualism, which would root
out the fibre of our whole citizenship.
In any great movement, such as that
in which we are engaged, nothing Is
more necessary than sanity, than the
refusal to be led into extremes by the
advocates <jf the ultra course on either
side. Those professed friendg of
liberty who champion license are the
worst foes of liberty and tend by the
reaction their violence causes to throw
the government back into the hands of
the men who champion corruption and
tyranny in the name of order. So it is
with this movement for securing Justice
toward all men, and equality of
opportunity so far as it can be secured
by governmental action. The rich
man, who with hard arrogance declines
to consider the rights and the
needs of those who are less well off,
and the poor man, who excites or indulges
in envy and hatred of those who
are better off, are alike alien to the
spirit of our national life. Each of
them should learn to appreciate the
baseness and degradation of his point
of view, as evil in the one case as in
the other. There exists no more sordid
and unlovely type of social development
than a plutocracy, for there is a
peculiar unwholesomeness in a social
and governmental ideal where wealth
by and of itself is held up as the greatest
good. The materialism of such a
view, whether It finds its expression in
the life of a man who accumulates a vast
fortune In ways that are repugnant
to every instinct of generosity and of
fair dealing, or whether it finds its expression
In the vapidly useless and
self-indulgent life of the Inheritor of
that fortune, Is contemptible in the
jyes of all men capable of a thrill of lofty
feeling. Where the power of the
law can be wisely used to prevent or
to minimize the acquisition or business
employment of such wealth and
to make it pay by Income or Inheritance
tax its proper share of the burlen
of government, I would invoke
that power without a moment's hesltatlon.
All Must Pull Together.
But while we can accomplish something
by legislation, legislation can
never be more than a part, and often
no more than a small part in the gen?ral
scheme of moral progress; and
:rude or vindictive legislation may at
iny time bring such progress to a halt
Certain Socialistic leaders propose to
edistrlbute the world's good by refus
* - on/1 i nH nufrv
ng" IU llirill tutu cucri auu
heir proper superiority over folly and
dieness and sullen envy. Such leglsation
would merely, In the words of
he president of Columbia University,
wreck the world's efficiency for the
purpose of redistributing the world's
llscontent." We should all of us work
leart and soul for the real and permalent
betterment which will lift our
lemocratic civilization to a higher
evel of safety and usefulness. Such
>etterment can come only by the slow,
iteady growth of the spirit which
netes a generous, but not a sentlmentil,
Justice to each man on his merits
is a man, and which recognizes the
act that the highest and deepest hap>ine8s
for the Individual lies not In
lelflshnesa, but In service.
? ?
tr The amiability of Moorish women
itrikes me greatly, says a writer In the
National Review. I visited some the
>ther day and they were full of kindly
nterest. They liked my fair hair, they
iked my clothes; one old crone suggested
how lovely I should be were I
:o paint my cheeks a brilliant red,
itain my under Up coal black, adding
hree black vertical lines on my turclead
and one in the middle of my chin,
lIso stain my teeth with walnut Juice,
ny hands with benna! I therefore
ubbed my cheeks with my handker:hlef
till they turned crimson; that
imused them highly, and they laughed
ind said I needed no paint, but did
leed henna and blacking!