Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-02-18

FRIDAY MORNING. FEB. IS. 1881.
THE CONSERVATISM THAT CT
GANIIC WEALTH NEEDS.
The term wealth varies with the age of
the nation. At the beginning of this CEN
turv a few thousands were considered
wealth; in the middle of it few hundred
thousand went by that name. but now
when the century is we'll advanced in its
fourth quarter man must command mill
lions to be called one of the wealthy men
of the country. The popular thought has
been in the past that wealth is eminently
conservative and that poverty was the con-
dition IN which man most needed conserva-
tism. It has been held and is held new that
poverty is the parent of that discomfort
which breeds labor strikes and lurtful COM
binations of workmen, and needs to grea-
degree a certain repression OF mind to
which we give the name OF conservative
thought. But while this is true the coun-
try is rapidly becoming enlightened on the
point that riches as we'll as poverty need
this same repression, and that the wise
and pious philosopher who petitioned the
Master s'give me neither riches nor power
ty'' is as wise in this day as in his. While
it is true shat man in poverty, as in every
condition Of life, needs certain amount
of repression, which it is his good fortune
if he is able to supply to himself, yet it
is also true that wealth, especially incor-
porated wealth, is making itself aggres-
sively and often oppressively felt in the
land since the nation has begun its new
career, its new birth if you will. The an
Gent axiom that 'scapital is conservative
is losing its strength. Every month some
giant corporation, the result of well laid
schemes in secret, wheels suddenly in front
of the people and plants itself across their
path in the shape Of monopoly. Every
year some corporation that has been the
servant of the public, takes up some I'M
pregnable position, environed by special
laws, and attempts the role of its master.
So-called conservative capital'' having
first secured the law-making power at
tempts such audacious experiments at mo-
nopoly as makes the common people stare
It corrupts Legislatures, it purchases seats
in the Senate. it invades the appointments
Of the highest judicial authorities of tht
nation.
A millions has become the white but
ton of the American mandarin. Witt
feet resting on gold these corporations
plume themselves for flight into the high
est places of the nation, and SO demoral
lied has the popular mind become tha'
even when the contending parties nomi-
nate their tickets for the highest politica
places, it discusses which Of the candidates
has the longest purse or in modern polit-
cal slang the "biggest bar1," and what
support he is likely to command from
the great corporations. The flight from =
legislative body in the land, has become 81
common as to excite no surprise. Wealth.
combined in monster corporations, has
men of both parties on the floor Of bot
houses of the national congress who are
silently recognized as its accredited
servants. Il has adopted the policy OF
massing it's power like troops in war, and
crushing out its smaller opponents WHIT
keep up competition. In the most widel,
used public facilities the operation of these
tactics are seen every day. In the statt
of New York struggle of the peopl'
against the corporations, of several weeks
duration, has just terminated in the tri-
umph of the latter by a consolidation OF
two immense telegraph companies. The
same hand that managed that is now max
ing an effort to get control Of the new
dispensing power of the country and there
by securing vehicle for making the pub
lie opinion of the land. Jay Gould ha
secured three of the New York journal
and only needs to get a fourth to captur,
that immense vehicle of news known as tn.
New York Associated Press.
American wealth has, in putting on it;
new fire and dash, discarded its old anc
conservative ideas. Mere business none,
making has paled before eyes fixed on th
wealth of Cresus. The patient fitting
the mind to the discharge of great duties
before assuming them is eclipsed by tn
startling leaps from obscurity into prom
hence, of men IN no way fitted for the ELF
walton save by great wealth-if that ca'
be regarded as in any sense an equipmen'
Being untitled by education or habit t,
their new position they naturally tax
refuge in sort of privileged classes, a kind
of comradeship with rank settled by til.
power and wealth of the corporation which
the wearer represents.
The remedy for this unhealthy state is
plain and simple and lies in the hands O.
the people. It should be to make rule t.
to rigidly scrutinize all our applicants 70,
higher station. and inexorably reject those
who wear the slightest badge OF
corporation servitude. It is scrutiny
which should be exercised by the voters al
the ballot box, by the legislator in thu
halls of legislation and by the Executives
in their appointments. If capital inves-
ted in great corporations forgets its con-
servatism and proceeds recklessly to de-
molish all minor corporation, to destro,
every weak opponent, to dam up every
stream that does not run into its own res
ervoir and thus gain power to tax the peo-
pie at its own will, it should be brought
back to Its senses by the exercise by the
people of the law-making rower invested
iu them. These monster corporations are d
nothing without the laws by which they are
permitted to thrive, and laws are made by
the people for the benefit of the people and