Honesty

We havo somehow learned to make a ; difference between tlioso obligationa which we owe to one another as men, and tlioso which we owe to the government and to corporationH. These ideas j are not a whit more prevalent ainoug holdera and directora than theynre among voters aud stockholders. Men are not materially changed by being clothed with office and power. The radically honest man is just as honest in office as he is out of it. Corrupt men are the offspring of a corrupt society. We all need straighteuing up. The lines of our morality all need to be drawn tighter. There is not a man who I is wüling to smuggle, and to see customs officers betray their trust while he does it ; willing to receive the results of the sliarp practice of directors of corporations in which he has an interest ; willing to receive the patronage of the government in the execution of schemes not based in absolute necessity ; willing to tako an exorbitant price for a piece of property sold to the government or to a corporation, who is fit to be trusted with office. When we have said this we have given the explanation of all our public and corporate corruption, and shown why it is so difficult to get any great trust managed honestly. All this official corruption is based on popular corruption - loóse ideas of honesty as they are held by the popular rnind ; and we can hope for no reform until we are better based as a people in the everlasting i principies of equity and right-doing. If we would have tlie etieam clear we