The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-09-04
CAPITAL AND LABUK,
BY GASKELL.

" . AdfC SSSu II SUNNI W 1lC4C O".N
that the American people like to be
hUmbUgged, if the thing is only
well done. That they enjoy a smart
or good thing, even though it be at
their own expense. Though this
may be an extreme view of the case,
yet it is certain, there is no country
We know of, in which loud mOnthed
pretenSiOn and what we may term
cheek, hOurisheS to a greater extent.
The means of acquiring livelihood
are more at command here than in
more denSely settled and older eS-
tablished countries, and consequent
upon this fact is that, that a greater
breadth Of latitude and independ-
ence of action exist here and more
self-reliant and bright is the hope of
every man of gaming a competence,
if not fortune, for himself.
Where sudden changes in the
property standing of men take place
as they do in all undeyeloped coun-
tries, labor is more in demand and
more liberaly remunerated than
elsewhere, and men seek sooner
to carve out a pathway of their
own wherein to walk. Dependence
upon the will and pleasure of cap
italists is much more irksome and
CALLING to sensitive pride, where
reasonable chances of becoming cap
italistS ourselves is not a visionary
dream, than where a species of caste,
Of birth and unjust property
qualifications exist, to separate still
farther different ranks of society /;
and where the bondage Of the poor
is but a means of exalting still
higher the rich and the powerful.
Seemingly the greatest danger to
be apprehended in the future by the
people Of the United States will
arise from Overshadowing and I'm
just monopOlies. Corporated capital
shows, and ever has shown, but lit
tie regard for the welfare and pros
perity of its supporters, only so ar
as it may effect that support. With
the grasping aVarlciouSness of the
Olden time tax gathererS and farm
erS of revenue, and with the same
indifference to suffering and right,
the last cent is eXtortiOnately de-
manded and new ways are assidu-
ously studied out to increase its
streams of wealth, thus adding to
the burthen Of the public. Large
companies freeze out, swallow
up and incorporate with them
selves, smaller ones, and the
safety of the people toe often
more upon the quarrels Of
rival corporations than upon a lib
eral regard for justice and right.
Already the undue influence of
capital is felt in the direction of
public affairs, and elections are, in
some cases said to depend more
upon the wishes and will of a few
men than upon popular
feeling, as manifested in our news
papers and at the polls. As time
rolls on, if such influences continue
and thrive, the evils arising there
from will increase, until it will take
no prophetical foresight to foretell a
upheaval of society and a
sweeping, radical change in the
and control Of public
affairs.
But other causes are silently oper-
ating as well, forces that are IRE
sistable when brought to bear prop
erly upon injustice and wrong; and
it would take more than a human
preScience to foretell the hour and
the day when disaster will come, or
whether lasting good or evil will re-
suit therefrOm. There is q wonder
full and scarcely understood vitality
in American society, tendency to
recuperate and build up, arising
from the constantly changing centre
of population and wealth, and the
addition of new factors to the sum
total of national prosperity. In the
kaleidoscope Of progress, wrongs
and evils have great facilities for
adjusting themselves to suite the
times; resulting often in good to the
majority, in defiance OF the selfish
wishes and opposition of the few.
The living are apt to decry the
present, look forward dolefully to
the future, and to speak in reverent
tones Of the good old times Of our
fathers, with but little regard to rea-
son as developed by their own eX-
perience. Scarcely a generation has
lived that has not been called fast,
wicked and shockingly sinful
when corruption was not said to be
enervating and destroying, and
crime was not rampant. HypO-
chondriacs of all ages and chimes,
are too much given to Judging So
ciety according to the state of their
own digestion, or the violent twinges
of rheumatic pains they suffered
and too little by the calm, dlspas-
sionate light of reason as evolved
by experience. It is not strange if
/ Simon Stylites, or a st. Anthony,
looks upon all mankind as in the
gall of bitterness and the bonds of
iniquity, for they were monoma-
MACS through privati0n. maceration
and suffering If we believe the
say SO OF such persons the world is
fast going to the devil, being always
on the outer edge of the mael-
strom Of destruction, gaining
acknowledged at every
round as it approaches the vortex vi
Hades. But that vortex, despite
dOlaful lamentations and visionary