A Judge's Declaration of War Against Corporate Corruption
Federal Judge Grosscup denounces the 'polite swindlers' of Wall Street, sparking a local debate on the influence of railroad lobbyists in Washington state.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Federal Judge Grosscup of Chicago has some very wholesome ideas regarding corporate monopolies. In an address before the Lutheran assembly at Dixon, Illinois, yesterday, he declared that the reason savings bank deposits increased by $8,000,000,000 last year was because the laboring classes were afraid to invest in corporation securities, as 'polite swindlers and high-up rascals were able to subvert the laws and give to stocks a value that they do not really possess.' 'I say nothing against the man who makes his fortune honestly,' said Judge Grosscup, 'but when I see the laws of my country turned into an excuse for swindles that should land the promoters in the penitentiary, my blood boils with hate and revenge.' This Judge Grosscup is a brother of our own B. S. Grosscup, attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad in this state, and the chief lobbyist for that big corporation at Olympia. The two brothers seem to have very different views, but the people generally will agree that Judge Peter is right and B. S. is wrong. Unless B. S. Grosscup's views on corporations undergo a radical change, it will be better for the common people if he fails to reach his ambition of becoming a federal judge.
“When I see the laws of my country intended to enable men to consolidate money for the public good turned into an excuse for swindles that should land the promoters in the penitentiary... every drop of my blood boils with hate and revenge.”
This 1903 critique of corporate monopolies and the 'revolving door' of lobbyists influencing federal appointments mirrors modern anxieties about the concentration of wealth and corporate lobbying in legislative bodies. The tension between the Judge’s populism and his brother’s role as a railroad lobbyist highlights how the Pacific Northwest’s political landscape was shaped by the power of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
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