Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-30
DECREAsED OPENINGS FOR INVEST,
MENT

Years sgo the great complaint in this
country was want OF capital. To-day CAPT
tai is becoming superabundant, and if no
catastrophe intervenes it will become still
more go year by year.. In twenty years
lime the United States will owe nothing, and
1he national bond means OF investment will
be gone. Other existing State and other
public debts will be extinguished within the
same period. Foreign Investments our pee
pie have not hitherto sought, except in what
is doing in Mexican railways In the old
world there is more capital than can find
profitable investment, so that American cap
itsl will fud no demand there. We see by
this that it is possible for capital to be en-
barrassed 10 meet with a demand as we'll rs
labor; but labor has to eat, which capital
has not. When country has surplus capi-
nal it is rich. Why, then, should there
be one sober, honest, Industrious man or
woman wanting the comforts of life, while
That extensive family the country has plenty
for all? Why is it that as more capital is
created the wages OF the workingmen de-
crease, and destitute class forms at one
End I the social scale while very rich class
is formed at the other? Evidently because
The wealth Of the country is not wisely dis
tributed. Suppose a large family earned
more than it spent, and one part of it in
dulg- d in extravaganza while the other could
scarcely get sufficient food and clothing,
would it not be evident that the money coE-
Germs Of the family We're very badly m snaged?
A country is a whole as a family is a whole,
and bad management is as evident in one
case as in the other. But, says a reader,
would it be right to take what the rich own
from them and give to the poor? Such a
proceeding would only make bad worse, and
is no remedy. The matter is that no part of
the population should ever have been allow
ed TO appropriate to itself 30 large portion
OF tn. public wealth as to leave another por-
Iion with less than suffices for comfort.
This error has been committed because our
laws, as awhoie, tend to make the rich
richer and the poor poorer. In future legis-
Tattoo thiscan be reversed, 30 that the tend
ency OF the national wealth would be TO-
ward equalization, as water tends to level.
Yet waller never is At q level; atmospheric
pressure, winds, islands, continents, etc., in
ierfere with an absolute level being estab-
]ished. The differences OF human tempers-
men,, the disposition of some to accumulate
and some TO spend, and changing circum-
stances, will always prevent the accom-
plishment of that absolute equality of
wealth which the laws should tend
10 produce. If it has been possible to
make lava that favor the accumulation of
larg- masses of wealth in few hands, 1t is also
possible to make laws that shall tend to diff
1use the national wealth among the masses
of the population. That done, there will re
no trouble about the investment of surplus
capital, for ss.capital was created it would
flow among the multitude, not become the
monopoly of class who complain that they
Eio not know what to do with it, because OPP
Portupities TO invest are becoming 30 few.