New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-12-04
CAPITALISTS.
Written for the Review by o. P. CHAn11m.

We have said capitalists are those
who have more than enough to meet
all present necessities. One would
infer from much that is said about
labor and capital that there was a
wide gulf between the two, and that
the representatives of one form a
class separated widely from the re-
representatives. Of the others. One
gets the impression from the dis.
cussion that the laboring class is
permanently fixed on one side of
this gulf and the capitalists class on
the other, and there is no transfer Of
either from one to the other party.
But this is not according to the
facts.
/. The poor man, the laborer,
whose income is consumed in meet
ing the demands of his daily neces-
sites has chance, equally with
other men of his class, to improve
his national condition. He may be-
come capitalist. He is aware of
this and is stimulated by it. The
bulk of the laboring class in this
country is working towards this
end.
2. We now advance one step in
this statement of facts and assert
that many poor men have become
capitalists and multitudes more are
sure to be. MANY wears AGO mer-
chant in Boston desired boy to
work in his store; and one of no
education, and of no other advan-
tages to fit him for such position,
child of very poor parents, was re-
commended to him for his excellent
character. With patched clothing
and one dollar, the first he ever had,
which was sent him to pay his fare
from his country home to the city he
set out afoot for his future employee.
He was accepted. He has become
man, and the owner of several large
mills, banking house and fine
farm; or to put it allin one word
capitalist. His is the history of
thousands in this country. Some
years ago poor young man, with
out even a friend to recommend
him, entered Chicago from an East
ern State and sought employment,
which, after while, he got as
brakeman on freight train. He
was faithful and industrious. From
that position he has been repeatedly
promoted until now he holds the pc.
sition Of General Superintendent of
one of the most important railroads
in the world. Instead of salary
of four or five hundred dollars a year
he now receives twenty thousand in
gold. These two examples, which
might be multiplied indefinitely,
show what is going on among work
men on large scale and illustrate
the transfer Of that class across the
gulf to the capitalists ranks. One
familiar with the biography of the
men of means in this land will not
need to be told that most of them
were once poor working men. It is
really surprising how large pro-
portion Of the so called rich men of
our time began life with the bare
furnishings Of Nature. It has been
so in the past. Those who will be
the capitalists of fifteen or twenty
years hence are now known as work
ingmen.
3. But how about the other side!
Are capitalists transferred, in the
course of events, to the laborer's
side! 1t is impossible for every man
to be rich. There is not money e.
nough in the land to make every man
well off if it was equally distributed
among all. As some become rich
others become poor. This can be as
profusely illustrated as the previous
point. There are scattered about
over the whole country men who
are in the most tsraitened circum-
stances but who were formerly rich.
[ extent the following item from q
recent issue Of a leading New York
city paper. It tells the story Of
thousands with but slight variations:
"A man recently died in this city,
and was buried in Potter's Field,
who twelve years ago was reputed
to be worth five hundred thousand
dollars, which he lost by speculation,
and then became a passenger con.
j.. /. II =.