The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-03-08


in utter hopelessness. Every one Of
them knows that he must work for
bread while he can get work, and
while he can stand. and that then there
Is nothing before him but death or the
work.house. Think of an alternative
like this standing in the near or distant
future before millions of workers! Its
enough to make mountain shudder.
Yet there are thousands of men in Eng
land who keep lands for game, and can
only spend their incomes by squander-
ing them on vice and fashionable osten.
tation. In this country the process ia
begun. Gigantic fortunes are growing
up on every hand. There are already
many men who are worth many millions
of dollars. The Astors, the Stewards,
the Vanderbilts. and the Drews Of New
York, and the men of superhuous wealth
in other parts Of the country, have it in
their power to settle some of the most
important questions that are now up,
and are likely to arise, between capital
and labor. They also have it in their
power to make their names immortal
as benefactors of their country, and of
that great interest out Of whose produc.
tive energy every dollar they hold has
been drawn.
The superhuous wealth held in this
country would found ten thousand
scholarships in the various colleges Of
the United States for the poor, furnish
every town with respectable library
and reading.room. give sittings in
churches to ten millions of people who
have none, and found hospitals and
funds of relief for labor to meet all
emergencies. Nay, what is more, and
in some respects better, it could lend in
many instances to labor the capital
necessary to secure the profits upon it's
own expenditures. Superfiuous wealth
can certainly do all this. Is there any
man who holds it, and who. placing his
hand upon his heart and lifting his
face, dares to say that he has no duties
that lie in these directions?
Let us take a very simple case for the
illustration of our point. In certain
Western State there is firm engaged
in the manufacture and sale of lumber.
They own immense tracts of pine lands,
employ twelve hundred laborers, turn
OUT ScNcuty-uNc ulilllOA lSCS W iuhoSA
annually, and make half million of
dollars every year, more or less. Nov,
one hundred thousand dollars will pay
them royalty for their time, an equal
sum will give a large percentage on
their capital invested, and yet not one
half their income is exhausted. Here
are three hundred thousand dollars left
which 90 to the accumulations of super.
fuous wealth. Now, for these employ
ers to imagine that their duties to these
twelve hundred laborers are all done
when they have paid them their wages,
is shamefully to fail to find the divine
significance of opportunities. To edu.
cate, to Christianize, to develope, to
make happy and self-respectful, to found
homes for and protect and prosper these
people, is the Office of the superfluous
wealth won from the profits of their
work. We venture to say that in no
community in which the superfuous
wealth is used in this way will there
ever be any questions between wealth
and labor that are hard to settle.
The holders of such wealth, wherever
they may be, bear mainly in their
han isthe responsibility of whatever
difficulties may hereafter arise between
wealth and labor in the United States.
Lei them look to it and be wise.-Dr.
j. g. Holland, in Scribner's for March.