Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1907 — OBEDIENCE TO LAWS [ARTICLE]

OBEDIENCE TO LAWS

S6m« Who Are in Trouble Might 1 ‘ - V Have Avoided It. Some who are in trouble at this time, yet claim ‘to be upright, wellmeaning citizens, could have avoided their present experiences by rejecting the idea that certain laws made by Congress or the State legislatures are less binding than others; and that law observance to some extent, is a matter of usage, or subject to manipulation " by those who command Influence. The laws against methods in restraint of trade have been on the statute books a long time. Mergers and rebates have been forbidden by law for years, but many acts have been committed at variance with it. Lack of knowledge can not be* pleaded, but there was a prevailing belief that the enactments would not or could not be enforced, and the glamor of big operations Induced carelessness. New schemes in millions and billions sprang up freely, and visions of vast wealth resulted in a careless, if not reckless, spirit. A day of accounting has arrived. Those who have genuinely Observed the laws are on solid ground, while those who have tampered with them are called upon to square their conduct if they can. Many new laws were passed at the recent sessions of Congress and the State legislatures. What individuals may think of them gives no prescription for their violation, and those who ignore them in letter or spirit will find no sympathy when summoned to defend themselves -in the courts.. The trust laws,, rate laws, pure food law, and all the rest of the statutes must be respected, or worse will come to any who fancy that they mean less than they say, or that there are subterfuges by which they can be nullified. The great majority of citizens willingly obey and < support the laws and take pains to aeqnaint theniselveg wttti their true intent. It is the only safe course, as some who are now arraigned have discovered. —St. Louis Globe-Democrat# The Panic in Japan.

The financial smash-up which Iras just hit Japan was expected. Japan is poor in natural resources. Her soil is now producing up to its limit. She has but little mineral wealth. Most of the 45,000,000 Inhabitants ofi the islands comprised in the Japanese Empire are only a short remove from the mast abject poverty all the time. Taxation, even during before the Russian war, bore with a crushing weight oh the Japanese people. The tax burden was increased heavily by the war. Famine came in a ’large part of the empire just after the war ended. And now the crash has come. One of the things which caused the crash, howeyer, was the speculation which set in about a year ago. Immediately after the recovery from the famine the stock market became active. New companies in many sorts of activities were launched. Their promoters promised and their dupes expected a rise in prices. A fall came instead, and many of those wildcat enterprises collapsed. Runs were started on the banks throughout a large part of the empire. Thirteen banks suspended. Stocks of all sorts dropped to low figures. Factories closed their doors. All the familiar features of a panic were present. . The banks in some of the business centers united to check the spread of the scare. Report says the worst is over. A long period of liquidation, however, is probably ahead of Japan. As in the United States and other countries in such dislocations of credit, there will be an industrial stagnation for several years. Much suffering will necessarily take place. It is altogether probable that relief will 'be asked from the outside world. In the meantime the war talk will subside. The wild men In Tokio who were urging an attack on San Francisco and an invasion of the United States will get no audience hereafter. Tariff Sense and Nonaenae. Mr. Bryan does not have much faith In the prediction that the tariff is to be the paramount idea in the next campaign. He says that, in his opinion, it will occupy no such place of Importance. It will be merely Incidental. Here is a matter upon which the Nebraskan Is eminently right. There is nothing in the tariff to quarrel over. This country continues to believe in a .protective tariff, which is the true basis of our Industrial and commercial supremacy. This country is not going to abandon that policy next year. To abandon it or to modify it greatly even would bring upon this country Industrial borrors compared with which those of a dozen years ago would be mild, indeed. As we are industrially greater now than we were then so our depression would be greater.—Cedar Rapids Republican. Should Demand a Halt. National prosperity is a tender plant We were prosperous sixteen years ago. Surely our memories are good enough to recall the result of the, disturbance of business confidence which followed the election of Cleveland. The disturbance which present conditions, unless they are soon interrupted, are going about to create, will be the cyclone to the zephyr compared with that former one. It Is high time for citizens who are capable of thinking, to think, and, thinking, to demand that there be a halt In the harassing chase of the goose that lays the golden eggs.—New Haven Register ' The average monthly tncoms tn Japan, after recent advances in wages, la officially stated at Ism than