The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-10-11
OUR AMERICAN KINGS.
from TRUTH

is mn absur,iity.
Yet the name il Nil TINT il wanting.
There arc men in this country who
have every attribute OF King except
the name. Like Kings, they derive
their revenues from taxes on the pco-
pie. Like Kings, they control legisla.
ton. Like Kings. they are masters Of
the will and IF the work Of tens Of
thousands Of their fellow.men.
The chief distinction In tliat oitr
Kings are much richer md more power.
full than some Of the Kings they have
over in Europe.
There ia King Vanderbilt II. Nobody
knows exactly how rich he il, because.
unlike other Kings, he does not allow
his subjects to scrutinizc his civil list
But he is very rich and powerful
King. His fortune is estimated no
500, 100000. In tho wears when he
only builds palaces and buys paintings
and does not buy nickcl.plate roads,
his yearly civil list ranges from 81 l.OoO,.
900 to S2O,OOO,0OO. He buys fifty
millions OF I-pcr-ccnts. ut n single in.
ycstment He controls over 5000 miles
of railroads. The area Of his territory
is very large. His subjects grumble Il
great deal under the burdens he laws
upon them, but the only answer he
makes to their remonstrances is, my
subjects he damned"
+, Then there is King Gould l., the
founder Of the dynasty of the Wabash
line. He is not rs rich rs King Van
derbilt. but he is much ADLER and more
powerful. He has a large kingdom
rallied the Southwest System, which
other Kings have attempted to invade.
with fatal results to themselves. lie
also controls the forces of electricity
Ind Of the telegraph over the whole
country. His titles are numerous and
imposing, such MS King of Wabash.
Prince OF Erie, Great Mogul Of Nest
crn Union and Grand Duke of Union
Pacific.
! He is not n poor monarch. At one
time, when his subjects in part of his
/ s'ominions called The Street" were
alarmed lest lie might be falling into
poverty, he treasured them by showing
I a committee some fifty odd millions of
securities that hc kept tied with
string.
/ We have whole congress of railroad
kings. Huntington is railroad king
whose dominions stretch through Utah
to California, from California to Mex
leo and New Orleans, with one or two
principalities in West Virginia. Vii
lard is King of Oregon and n. Z. over
territory 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 scepter of Pennsyl-
yania is I'm commission" But three
out Of the four bonanza kings-Mac-
kay, Fair and Standford--ru over
,Bonanzaland and threaten to invade
tho great money kingdom of Wall
street
We have more kings and more kinds
of Kings than all Europe put together.
Commodore Vanderbilt is fine type of
q monarch retired from business.
The Astor dynasty controls revenue
that would make an average European
potentate turn green with envy. 1t
takes a loss Of 1900, 900 to break one
of our lard kings. Our grain kings
make million dollars every time they
turn q corner. The standard of King
Rockefeller is the Standard Oil Com.
pany; the civil list of this kingdom
amounted to S12,000,0o0 during the
past ten years. A queen dowager here.
such rs Mrs. Stewart or Mrs. Stevens.
would he compelled to oconomize if
she had only the privy purse of Queen
Victoria.
A second-class European monarch in
getting big pay when he draws half
million dollars for being King and sup
ports his poor relations with his money.
but we have hundreds of people in this
country who quietly pocket that
amount every year without letting any
one know anything about it until their
estate reveals the secret. We do not
call these people Kings over here. We
have some pride in our Kings, and
when we call man King We mean it.
What are the pigmy monarchs of
Europe compared with these Kings of
ours? The Car of Russia is supposed
to have IN income of $40, 1000, 900, but
he has to spend it i'll n lot of court rub
bish, whether Le wants to or not. He
comes the nearest to being M Ameri-
can King, but mono of the other poten-
tates comes near him. His cousin Of
Austria Hungary has S4.65o, 900 per an
mum, which is only about the dividend
on $4,000, 900 of New York Central.
These are the rich monarchs outside of
America.
Queen Victoria has only f3s5. 900
plus some Clio, 900 from the Duchy If
Lancaster and her savings. But she
has the control Of only part of this.
The law leaves her free to spend only
the privy purse allowance of f60, 900,
the surplus, some t4n,0Oo, and the
revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster-in
oil, say 100000.
As for the Kings of Europe, they
would not he considered rich enough to
30 into our best society. The King of
Denmark has married his daughters off
very we'll; but he is not allowed to take
more than SaT5,ooo Of his subjects
money. He could not afford n S2ou, 900
yacht. The King OF Greece--he is
real King, TOBIAS only SGT, 900, and
he does not make all of this ont of his
subjects. The guaranteeing powers
pay him $50. 900 year to keep him
from bleeding the common people of
Greece too heavily.
Some of tho big Kings have very
small Incomes The King of Saxony
has three-quartcrs of million; the
great Emperor Of Germany draws his
pay rs King of Prussia, and has only a
million and quarter: the King of
Sweden and Norway, who is n double
barrelcd monarch, so to speak-sitting
on two thones-only gets half ii million
4. = IL. 49,
When onr American Kings think Of the
heggarly poverty of these royal cousins
Of theirs, il must make them feel as if
they ought to do something for them
make a fresh issue of stock, enforce a
dividend, or something of the kind-to
keep the wolf from the palace door.
We are sometimes lost III wonder ut
the exactions of our American Kings,