Life — April 14, 1904 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there ts Life there's Hof VOL, XLILL, APRIL 14, 1904, 1) West Taiety-Fi No. 1120, r Srrnet, New Yorx. Published every Thursd Tost forelien ni, SLO ie extra 10 conta $5.09 a year ntries in the P Ube returned untess stamped and addressed ‘2 contribution accompanied envelope, The illustrations in Live, are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced. rompt notification should be sent by subs seribers of any change of address. HERE isa tra- dition that something that will stir the blood is good to take in the spring. Root beer and sarsaparilla are old-fash- ioned concoc- tions that are still popular for that use. Moreeffective pr of them, this month, is Mr. s's article in MeClur about Enemies of the Republic. That is bound to make your blood boil, if you have any blood, and if agitation of the blood is really good for you in the spring, the tells more about Joseph Folk’s great fight against bribers and bribe-takers Miss and incidentally about srmous and vital evil of the pay- ment of money for legislation. It is well known of the political managers in both parties in Missouri are down on Joseph Folk and are trying hard to beat, by hooks and crooks, his candidacy for Governor. It is privilege to see every week the St. Louis than eit Stetfe ce will do you good. It Mirror, a weekly paper, which, extreme earnestness and persi its deprecation of Ik, is good example of the sentiment of the poli- ticians. It denounces him every week, with amusing elaboration, as a self- ing the Democratic Missouri and is willing to secker who is inj party in sacrifice the organization to «LEE « As a good part of the Democratic organization in St. Louis is under indictment, there may be truth in the charge that Mr. Folk is willing we have not, as yet, e the Mirror's hard him on that account. is with the people of their fight ambition. 's strength Missouri. His fight is HERE is no issue in this country more important than that of which Mr. Folk has come to be, more than any other one man, the incarnation. He began by fighting against the sale of legislation, and he has gone on to fight against the purchase of it. When- ever a legislator is bribed, there is some Who is the briber? “respectable” busi- ness man, The common theory is that legislatures are so corrupt that business men have to buy protection from them. The truth is one who bribes him. Almost alw: we know very well here that a corrupt legislature is much more desired by the sort of business men whose profits depend on legislation than an honest one. corrupt legislature or common council, predaceous corporations can buy what they want. An honest legislature may deny them what they ought not to have, or may make them pay the people a fair price for what they get. From a OY LS R. FOLK and Attorney-General Crow took the lid off legislation in Missouri. Mr. Steffens has used the facts that they exposed to present to us the business man who bes as an Enemy of the Republic. He has told us in some detail the striking story of William Ziegler’s war on alum in be- half of the Royal Baking Powder Company's ‘absolutely pure’ baking powder, We have been used to hear of the stock of this concern as a prodtable investment, What made it so? Steffens me out in the prose- cution of Lieutenant-Governor Lee of Missouri for taking bribs The Royal professes to make its powde cream of tartar. Other conce alum. Ziegler, for the Royal Compan: undertook to drive the alum powders. of the market, on the ground that y were poisonous. So tar as appears, they are no more poisonous than the Royal powd But Ziegler got chem- ists to say they were, and agents of the Royal Company got bills introduced or passed in twenty-one States excluding the alum powders. One man, besides Lee, who helped in this work in Missouri was W. J. Stone, formerly Governor of Missouri and now a United States Senator from that State, The Anti-Alum laws were passed in Mis- souri, and have not yet been repealed, but there have been several hot fights over them, and the Royal Company's methods have been exposed. Lee, the bribe-taker, has been ruined. Ziegler, in whose interest Lee w bought, still the rich and respected patron of polar expeditions. Mr, Steffens also exhibits to us our respected neighbor, Mr. H. O, Have- meyer, sending one thousand dollars to the bribe-taker, in behalf of the HE most simple and unsophisticated of us knows enough of the intimate relations between business and politics, to know that laws are constantly being made in most of the States in interests of private business, and are paid for in one way or another by the parties interested, And we know that the bribe-taker is disgraced and sometimes otherwise punished, if caught, and that the bribe-giver usually continues to be respected and to enjoy life whether caught or not. Mr. Folk, has tried hard to clean up after some of the corruptionists in a single has lost patience with them. He knows the enormous power and spr of the system, at the bottom of which is the dishonest but respectable American business man, who buys what he wants in the legislative market, and insures t the market will continue by trad- ing in it. He feels that bribers are public enemies. “ Bribery,"" he de- clares, ‘is t on, and a boodler is a traitor.” That is true, ‘*Traitor’’ is a hard name, but it fits this offense. who comicbooks.com