ficance for good,
but only for evil. If it seeks to establish a line of cleavage, not
along the line which divides good men from bad, but along that other
line, running at right angles thereto, which divides those who are well
off from those who are less well off, then it will be fraught with
immeasurable harm to the body politic.

We can no more and no less afford to condone evil in the man of capital
than evil in the man of no capital. The wealthy man who exults because
there is a failure of justice in the effort to bring some trust magnate
to an account for his misdeeds is as bad as, and no worse than, the
so-called labor leader who clamorously strives to excite a foul class
feeling on behalf of some other labor leader who is implicated in
murder. One attitude is as bad as the other, and no worse; in each case
the accused is entitled to exact justice; and in neither case is there
need of action by others which can be construed into an expression of
sympathy for crime.

It is a prime necessity that if the present unrest is to result in
permanent good the emotion shall be translated into action, and that the
action shall be marked by honesty, sanity and self-restraint. There is
mighty little good in a mere spasm of reform. The reform that counts is
that which comes through steady, continuous growth; violent emotionalism
leads to exhaustion....

The first requisite in the public servants who are to deal in this shape
with corporations, whether as legislators or as executives, is honesty.
This honesty can be no respecter of persons. There can be no such thing
as unilateral honesty. The danger is not really from corrupt
corporations; it springs from the corruption itself, whether exercised
for or against corporations.

The eighth commandment reads, "Thou shalt not steal." It does not read,
"Thou shalt not steal from the rich man." It does not read, "Thou shalt
not steal from the poor man." It reads simply and plainly, "Thou shalt
not steal." No good whatever will come from that warped and mock
morality which denounces the misdeeds of men of wealth and forgets the
misdeeds practiced at their expense; which denounces bribery, but blinds
itself to blackmail; which foams with rage if a corporation secures
favors by improper methods, and merely leers with hideous mirth if the
corporation is itself wronged. The only public servant who can be
trusted honestly to protect the rights of the public against the misdeed
of a corp