“In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress you may recall the description of the Man with the
the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck rake in his hand; who was offered
a celestial crown for his muck rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was
offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.
In Pilgrim's Progress the Man with the Muck Rake is set forth as the example of him whose
vision is fixed on carnal instead of spiritual things. Yet he also typifies the man who in this life
consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on
that which is vile and debasing.
Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There
is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck rake; and there are times and places
where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who
never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck
rake, speedily becomes, not a help but one of the most potent forces for evil.
There are in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent
necessity for the sternest war upon them… I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every
man who, on the platform or in a book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes
such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is
absolutely truthful.
The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be
worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or
even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.
…
Now, it is easy to twist out of shape what I have just said… Some persons are sincerely incapable
of understanding that to denounce mud slinging does not mean the endorsement of whitewashing;
and both the interested individuals who need whitewashing and those others who practice mud
slinging like to encourage such confusion of ideas.
One of the chief counts against those who make indiscriminate assault upon men in business or
men in public life is that they invite a reaction which is sure to tell powerfully in favor of the
unscrupulous scoundrel who really ought to be attacked, who ought to be exposed, who ought, if
possible, to be put in the penitentiary…
Any excess is almost sure to invite a reaction; and, unfortunately, the reactions instead of taking
the form of punishment of those guilty of the excess, is apt to take the form either of punishment
of the unoffending or of giving immunity, and even strength, to offenders. The effort to make
financial or political profit out of the destruction of character can only result in public calamity.
Gross and reckless assaults on character, whether on the stump or in newspaper, magazine, or
book, create a morbid and vicious public sentiment, and at the same time act as a profound
deterrent to able men of normal sensitiveness and tend to prevent them from entering the public
service at any price.”
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
misdeeds of a corporation is that public man who will just as surely protect the corporation itself
from wrongful aggression.
If a public man is willing to yield to popular clamor and do wrong to the men of wealth or to rich
corporations, it may be set down as certain that if the opportunity comes he will secretly and
furtively do wrong to the public in the interest of a corporation.