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did it without the knowledge and consent of the owners—and, ordinarily, the act would be larcenous. But Perkins was actuated by a good motive —hence Perkins is not guilty. Suppose Perkins had given the money of the Republican policy-holders to the Demo cratic Campaign Committee—would his mo tive have cleared his skirts? Certainly. Why not? By the reasoning of the court, if he meant well he is innocent. Suppose he had given the money to the So cialists—would the larceny have been merito rious? Os course. Why not? If he meant well, his larceny was commendable. So, by the reasoning of this eminent New York Court, you can steal as much as you like, provided you mean well. Particularly is it all right if you steal trust funds and give them to the Republican Par ty? Think how many poor devils who had no “pull,” and no millionaire partners, have been railroaded to jails, chain-gangs and pen itentiaries, for stealing trifles, since the sum mer of 1904, when Perkins stole $47,000 from the widow and orphan fund of the New York Life Insurance Company! Men, starvelings that they were, have been chained up for stealing bread to eat. Poor old hags, pilfering a handful of coal, have been harshly punished because their honesty could not withstand the temptation to take the coal and thus save themselves from the freezing night. Little children, for the most pitiful pickings and stealings, have been fed ruthlessly to the cruel mills of the criminal law. Against the poor, the weak, the submissive, the friendless the majesty of the law can as sert itself. To these, it can come in thunder claps, as though Sinai were as fearful as of old. • But against the Swifts and Armours, who poison food; the Standard Oil band, who vio late all kinds of law; the Railroad murderers, like J. P. Morgan, and sleight-of-hand rascals, like E. H. Harriman; traction-merger plun derers like Ryan and Belmont; Insurance • company thieves, like Geo. W. Perkins— What can the law do? NOTHING. The criminal acts of millionaires are not crimes. Commoners, in Great Britain, could not sit in judgment upon Dukes, Marquises and Earls. The lordly law-breaker might have defied God and man, revelled in evil, reddened his hand in the blood of his fellow man. Common juries, common judges, common tribunals could not reach him. He was above the common herd, above the common thief or murderer, above the com mon law. Only the Duke and* the Marquis and the Earl could adjudge and condemn the Duke and the Marquis and the Earl- God I how the old foes of human liberty are crowding back upon the stage! Our millionaire Dukes and Marquises and Earls—FOUL SPAWN OF OUR VICIOUS AND VILLAINOUS CLASS LEGISLA TION—have taken the place and claim the privileges of Aristocracy. We common men have no power over them. Our common courts and our common judges disclaim jurisdiction. Standard Oil magnates are wanted for Per jury, in Texas, but can not be arrested. Beef Trust criminals are wanted for fla grant, insolent and repeated violation of law —they can not be reached, because the Judge ruled that they were immune. Railroad kings, sacrificing everything to dividends, have been guilty of the murder of thousands of passen gers whose lives were demanded by mere sordid, criminal greed—but they can not even be indicted. Nor, after indictment, can the millionaire be THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. convicted on a plain case of larceny. When nothing else will save the criminal, the Prose cuting Attorney throws all his help to the de fense, doctors the record to suit the accused, and.actually succeeds in having a high eourt of appeals decide that a good motive, actuat ing the thief, makes it an innocent act for him to steal your money. •t n n An Object Lesson to "Farmers. Senator La Follette of Wisconsin has for many years been waging in his state a fight for the people against grasping, lawless, pred atory corporations. The plain people supported him just as they will always support the honest reformer Who wins their confidence. Elected to the Senate of the United States, the corporation doodles and dummies who fill that august body declared their purpose to snub La Follette, give him cold shoulder, freeze him with their disdain. They tried it on —good and hard—but it didn’t work worth a cent. La Follette cared nothing for the supercilious aloofness of the corporation doodles and dummies. Steadfast in his purpose, he introduced his reform measures. True to its purpose, the Senate mangled these measures. Then La Follette went on the Chautauqua lecture platform, exposed the conduct of the corporation dummies, gave the names of va rious senatorial doodles, showed how these corporation hirelings had mangled good mea sures, and thus, in effect, appealed to the country against the United States Senate. The result was encouraging to the reformers. Pub lic opinion declared itself so unmistakably in favor of La Follette that various corporation Senators began to hedge. Their knees weak ened. They began to treat La Follette and his measures with more consideration. But still they hated him and hated his measures.- Not daring to vote against him openly, they determined to emasculate his propositions with amendments which looked innocent but which were, in fact, full of poison. This was particularly the case with his bill which forbade railroad corporations to work their employes more than sixteen consecu tive hours. Corporation Senators got this measure in “Conference,” and were joyously proceeding to jab its life out with treacherous amend ments. La Follette, however, did not lie down and go to sleep. He is just about as keen as they make ’em. La Follette sent the word along the line of organized railway telegraph operators, telling these over-worked and underpaid men what the corporation doodles were doing. Then there was a kettle of fish! Twenty thousand telegraph operators got on to the wires and made them hot with indignant mes sages. Basketsful of telegrams began to rain on the House and Senate. The whole country seemed to be in a state of insurrection. The cowardly and corrupt Senate backed down and passed La Follette’s bill! Now if 20,000 telegraph operators can dic tate terms to Congress, why can not the million members of the Farmers’ Union get what they want in the way of righteous leg islation ? They can do it! Farmers! Organize, educate, agitate, co operate, and you can rule the Republic! HMM Members of Congress, a short time ago, in creased their own wages by 50 per cent, yet they work no better than before. The honest men of the House had a major ity over the Ship Subsidy thieves, but these honest men could not be kept in their seats. Consequently the Ship Subsidy thieves pushed their steal through the House. Editorial Notes. Senator Tillman’s friends can not “point with pride” to his record during the short ses sion of the 59th Congress. Tillman’s senatorial energies seemed to be devoted exclusively to the petty task of an noying Roosevelt. The Ship Subsidy thieves were led with such artful boldness in the House that they knocked dovfrn John Sharp Williams and his virtuous majority. Oh, what a leader is John Sharp! He can not win even when he has the majority on his side. It is reported that Senator Spooner of Wis consin has resigned. Thank the Lord! With the exception of Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island, our corporation Feudalism had no senatorial vassal so able, so efficient and so blindly servile as Senator Spooner. Good riddance! The Ship Subsidy contest demonstrated the unfitness of'John Sharp Williams for the Democratic leadership. He had a clear, de cisive majority of the votes, yet he allowed the minority to whip him. , The name for such leadership is imbecility. If a leader can not win when the majority are on his side, when can he win? Hereafter, you can lawfully write on the left half of the face of a Postal Card. Put the address on the right half of the card, then write what you want to say on back, and then say whatever else pops into your mind on the left-hand half of the face of the card. In that way you’ll get your money’s worth, and increase the happiness of your correspond ents. Always use a pencil, if you want the joy to become contagious. •t Another railroad king, E. H. Harriman, “reorganized” the Chicago & Alton Railroad and pocketed $24,000,000 of the loot—he and his personal gang. He also mortgaged and bonded a railroad that was never built. When modem finance permits a swindler to mortgage something that does not exist, and when the law of the land is powerless to punish such a rascal, simply because he is such a big rascal, it would seem that our sys tem has become like the nest of a certain spe cies of fish-hawk—useless because of its layer after layer of accumulated dead-weight. The fish hawk’s nest is all right at first— answers the purpose for which it was built. But, year after year, the fish-hawk lays other branches and twigs and sticks upon the nest, until finally it falls of its own weight—goes crashing to the ground. Then the silly hawk begins it all over again. We human creatures are equally foolish. We have so over-laid our system with accumu lated statutes, rules, decisions, exemptions, exceptions, judge-made law and miscellaneous rubbish that the whole thing is too cumber some to be serviceable. The system no longer answers the purpose for which it was built. According to the press reports, Jim Griggs of Georgia was one of the men who got lost at the critical moment {and thus contributed to the victory of the Ship Subsidy thieves. Where are you, James? A Congressman who can not be kept at the post of duty while such a fight as that was going on, ought to be left at home. He isn't fit to attend to public business. Instead of being worth $7,500 per year, he (Continued on Page 12.) 9