The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-06-07
seen The land Or done aueht 70 improve

seen the land or done dugnt 10 improve
il. He may and often does live in a
distant city or another country. In.
crease Of land values simply means
that the owners, BY virtue Of their ap-
preparation Of something that existed
before man was, have the power Of tax
ing q larger share Of the wealth pro-
duced by other peoples labor. Con-
slider how much the monopolies created
and the advantages given to the unscru-
pulous by the tariff and by our system
Of internal ltaxation-how much tho rail-
road (a business in its nature monop-
oly), telegraph, gas, water and other
similar monopolies have done to con-
centrate wealth; how special rates,
pools, combinations, corners, stock
watering, and stock gambling, the de-
structive use OF wealth is driving off or
buying of opposition which the public
must finally pay for, and many other
things which these will suggest have
operated to build up large fortunes, and
il will at least appear that the unequal
distribution Of wealth is due in great
measure to sheer spoliation; that the
reason why those who work hard get
30 little, while so many who work little
get so much is, in very large measure,
that the earnings Of tho one class are,
In one way or another, filched away
from them to swell the income Of the
other.
That individuals are constantly
making their way from the class who
get less than their fair earnings to the
class who get more than their fair earn
ings no more proves this state Of things
right and expedient than the fact that
merchant sailors were constantly be-
coming pirates and participating in the
profits Of piracy would prove that pi-
racy was right and that no effort should
be made to suppress it.
/ am not denouncing the rich, nor
seeking, by speaking Of these things, to
excite envy and hatred, but, If we would
get q clear understanding Of social
problems, we must recognize the fact
that it is to monopolies which We per-
NIT and create, to advantages which we
give one man over another, to methods
OF extortion sanctioned by law and by
public opinion that some men are en-
nbled 70 get enormously rich while
others remain SO miserably poor. If We
look around us and note the elements
Of monopoly, extortion and spoliation
which go to the building up Of all, or
nearly all, fortunes, we see on the one
hand how disingenuous are those who
preach to us that there is nothing wrong
in social relations, and that the inequal-
tiles in the distribution of wealth spring
from the inequalities Of human nature
and, on the other hand, we see how wild
are those who talk as though capital
was . public enemy, and propose plans
for arbitrarily restricting the acquisi-
tion Of wealth. Capital is good; the
capitalist is q helper, if he is not also a
monopolist. We can safely let any one
get as rich as he can if he will not de.
spoil others in doing 80.
ii There are deep wrongs in the pres
ent constitution of society, but they are
not wrongs inherent in the constitution
Of man nor in those social laws which
are a. truly the laws of the Creator d
are tho laws of the physical universe
! They are wrongs resulting from bad
, adjustments which it is within oul
power to amend. The ideal social state
is not that in which each gets an equa
, amount Of wealth, but in which eact
, gets in proportion to his contribution
to the general stock. And in such
| social state there would not be less in
centive to exertion than now; ther,
, would be far moro incentive. Men vii
be more industrious and more moral
} better workmen and better citizens, /
each takes his earnings and carries
: them home to his family, than wher'
} they put their earnings in . pot ant
: gamble for them until some have IA
more than they could have earned, ant
| others have little or nothing.