The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-06-17
WHAT is MONEY?-No. vi.
BY WIN. H. sYLVIS.

A." Money creates no wealth it only
gathers up and appropriates to its own
er things already produced"
Money is not wealth it only gives to
its owner power over the deductions
Of labor. Wealth is accumulated labor.
Money creates nothing, and has no
value whatsoever to its owner, except
as he exchanges it for what labor pro-
duces. A man may have a million of
dollars and be very poor; if he keeps it
10 his possession, be will starve-he
will be destitute of food, clothing and
shelter. Money has no value, only
as we part with it for something We
need. This Is, OF course, plain to every
mind
A Capitalization Of wealth is a cen
tralizatiOn OF power. When the few
possess themselves Of everything, and
the many are reduced to that condition
Of dependence when it is compulsory
to work or starve, then it is that the
power Of wealth and the rule of the few
is absolute
The most pernicious effect Of wealth
is that it hardens the heart. blunts the
sensiblifies, deadens the conscience, de
forms the moral nature and makes :"
tyrant Of its possessors.
For money, men sacrifice domestic
comfort, health, character, and even
hazard lite itself; for it, they are guilty
Of fraud, deception and robbery. Fol
money, they sacrifice friendship, graft
tude, natural affection, and every hol,
and divine feeling. For money, mar
becomes a creeping, crawling, misera-
bic thing, instead of walking upright
as God intended he should. Mammol
and manhood are incompatible.
When wealth accumulates in th,
hands Of the few, the spirit of vindict-
iveness-a desire to rule, TO get more
\ to reduce labor to a condition of vassal
age, and to make plant tools and hell
less, obedient slaves Of all who toll a
physical labor-developes itself NOR,
and more, and widens the breach be
tween the rich and the poor As tn,
one goes up, the other must 60 down
The one feels secure in its power, tn,
other grows restless under fraud am
persecution.
1T Here is the fountain from which f1ov
all the social eruptiOns that blacken the
body polite. Here is the cause of al
strikes and revolutions So tight ha,
the hold Of these money changers upor
the industry Of the country become
that we will find it hard job to shake
them off. We must not waste our time
in parleyinE,in trying to coax them to lei
go, or thinking we can frighten them
away. All this has been tried. There
is but one way left. We must take then
by the neck with a grasp like a vice
and squeeze the life out Of them.
There are but two ways by which this
can be done. The first is by our power
at the ballot-box: we can vote them ou'
Of existence, if we will. If we fail t
do this, they will continue to suck a
our vitals, until, in a fit Of despera-
ton, We cut their heads off with tn,
sword.
If out of the vast wealth we pro
ducc, we are to receive but a miserab
subsistence, and no prospect before us
but eternal toll, and starvation or al
alms-house in old age if the ballot DO,
IS not sufficient remedy for these evils
if few men will appropriate all L
themselves while labor tolls and starves
then the time will come when an out
ragged and enslaved people will rise il
their physical power, and force a NOR
equitable division Of the products of thei
labor, by other H. ans than lower rat
of interest.
What we want and what we propos
ave, is a general leveling up. I d.
not mean by this that we desire TO pul
anybody down, not even if they are VI
with a rope around their necks-as
considerable number of them ought L
be but we do desire and intend to ge
up.
The work Of accumulation on the on
hand, and degradation on the other
must stop. The millions Of little stream
OF wealth put into motion BY our hands
: must find their way into other and
larger number Of pockets. We hav,
NJ desire to disturb any man in tn
possession Of what he now has We or,