The Labor enquirer., 1884-02-09
Respectfully yours
THE INQUIRY
concluded from First Page.


shall be of value to society, in return for
which he would be entitled to receive
from society the necessaries and COM
forts of life, he loans his money or prop
erty to his neighbors, on condition OF
their doing his share of work for him
or, in other words, contributing to him
a portion of the product of their labor.
He need do no labor he need not pro-
duce single thing of value to society
he need not expend cent of his money ;
and yet may receive food and clothing
and all the necessaries and luxuries of
life.
And he may again loan a portion OF
what he receives to other persons on the
same terms, and thus increase his reve-
nues, so that the next year he will be
able to loan a still larger amount; and
his estate m ay thus compound itself, un-
til within his own life it shall embrace
the homes of thousand families, each
of whom pays tribute to him.
If man shall acquire property worth
$4,000, and shall rent it so as to receive
net income of per cent per annum,
payable semi-annually, and shall each
half year invest the income in property
which will yield him the same rate OF
income, at the end of fifty years his
property will be worth $50O,000, instead
of $4,000 which ne originally had-all
without his doing q stroke of work
And this does not take into consideration
any increase in the value of the prop
erty. The $4,000 has been earned by
his tenants and paid him as rent In a
hundred years, the amount would be al
most incalculable.
And in this manner have all great for
tunes been accumulated. They are never
earned. They could not be. No man
could eyer grow rich by the ordinary
product of labor. And there must be
some reason for the growth of large for
tunes which is not grounded in justice ;
for if they be not earned thev are not
Justly held. They are, it is true, gener-
ally begun in industry and frugality but
they grow from other causes. 1t is a
singular fact that not one dollar of the
present fortunes of Vanderbilt, of Gould,
or of the Astors, has been earned by the
possessors. The original, which was
earned, has been long since spent; and
those fabulous fortunes to-day are en-
tirely composed of moneys received
either as rent, interest or dividends. By
this is meant that if there had been
neither of those means of supply, those
fortunes would not be in existence to-
day,
And it is the experience of Europe,
and America as well, that when great
fortunes are once accumulated, their net
incomes are so great that however profit
gate the owners may be, the fortunes
themselves endure and continually en-
large themselves.
And the fact that some people have
more than they need, or more than their
share, shows that others have less than
they need or less than their share. And
the possession of large means is power
which is often used to deprive weaker
individuals of the fruits of their labor,
and even of their political rights. The
first means robbery thesecond, tyranny
and oppression.
And from these two causes, as surely
as light flows from the sun, flow all the
social and political disturbances of our
time. And the power of the rich and
the weakness of the poor, the robber and
the victim, the tyrant and the slave, are
solely and directly the result of money
being allowed to earn money. The
power should not exist in one man to
Cypress another, and it could not exist il
no man received anything but that which
he has earned by his labor.