The Labor enquirer., 1883-09-15
The Superiority of Our MOnarchs
Over the POtentates of
Europe.
The Civil Lists of Kings Vanderbilt
and Gould Distance East
ern Rivals.
Ezactions and Tyrannies Practiced
by a Free country's"
Tyrants.

When we speak OF certain men as
money kings or railroad kings, the ex-
preston soundsdike figure of speech.
This is a republic. We are all equal.
Such thing as a king in this country is
an absurdity.
Yet the name is all that is wanting.
There are men in this country who have
every attribute of a king except the
name. Like kings they derive their
revenues from taxes on the people. Like
kings, they are masters of the will and
Of the work of tens of thousands of their
felow-men.
The chief distinction is that our kings
are much richer and more powerful than
some of the kings they have over in
Europe.
There is King Vanderbilt II. Nobody
knows exactly how rich he IS, because,
unlike other kings, he does not allow his
subjects to scrutinize his civil list. But
he is very rich and powerful king HIS
fortune is estimated at $2OO,OO0,0OO In
the years when he only builds palaces
and buys paintings and does not buy
kel-pate roads, his yearly civil list
ranges from fourteen to twenty millions
of dollars. He buys fifty millions of
four per cents at a single investment.
He controls over six thousand miles of
railroads. The area of his territory is
very large. His subjects grumble a great
deal under the burdens he lays upon
them, but the only answer he makes to
their remOnstrances is, "My subjects be
damned"
Then there is King Gould l., the foun-
der Of the dynasty of the Wabash line
He is not as rich as King Vanderbilt,
but he is much ADLER and more power
full He has large kingdom called the
Southwest system, which other kings
have attempted to invade with fatal re-
suits to themselves lie also controls
the forces Of electricity and of the tele-
graph over the whole country. His
titles are numerous and imposing, such
as king Of Wabash, Prince of Erie, Great
Mogul Of Western Union and Grand
Duke of Union Pacific.
lie is not poor. monarch, At one
time, when his subjects in part of his
d,luinion, called The Street." were
alarmed lest he might be falling into
poverty. he reassured them by showing
committee some fifty odd millions Of
securities that he kept tied up with a
string.
We have whole congress IF railroad
kings. Huntington is railroad king
whose dominions stretch through ltNh
to California, from California to Mexico
to New Orleans, with one or two princi-
pal;tirs in West Virginia. Willard is
king of Oregon and NJ. p over terri
tory larger than the German empire.
No man dare lay mile of railroad track
against the will of this railroad king.
The Dry Goods King died and left no
successor, and the sceptre of PennsyI-
vania is in Commission But three
out of the four Bonanza king8-Mackay,
Fair and Stanford rule over Bonanza
land, and threaten to invade the great
money king,lom Of Wall street.
We have more kings and more kinds
of kings than all Europe put together.
Commodore Vanderbilt is fine type OF
"nonarch retired from business. The
Astor. dynasty controls revenues that
would make an average EurOpean poten-
tate turn green with envy 1t takes a
loss Of s. ,OO0,oo0 to break oneof our lard
kings. Our grain kin"s '',~'
.l~n