The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1885-06-04
the victims Of bankruptcy and suicide.

plendid show, though Increasing
very year. is not understood in its
ull magnitude. OF the forty-three
thousand millions of values in the
Jnited States, less than cne-fourth of
t is represented by the farms, that
re valu d 1T tea tn aid one hun
lred and ninety s, ven millions. What
hall We thibk of the eXiTaVa gance of
his country, when We RENE uDer that
/ sum of money equal 10 more than
lalf the value OF all the farms is |
otked up in Furniture, clothing, jew
TRY and tn like, the estimated value |
If which is i've tholiSaud LY1 hundred |
and thirty-six millions Of money.
EFFECT on PUBLIC MORALS.
Prufuse expenditure is the prolific |
parent Of crime: lie wf) INDUCES it
beyond his means Is practicing the
lesson that will hike HIM a thief.
Even the lr1ln who can IF rd it has
no light To scatter in vain ostentation
10 crafty his Vani Y the means where
by the pangs Of suffering at his door
could be sooth,d, OF the light of edu-
cation bo made to beam on those
whose ignorance threatens the stabil-
lty OF government.
DISCOURAGE PLAIN
METHODS OF INDUSTRY.
1 arraign before your judgments
private corporations, because they
tend to discourage the pursuit of
fortune by plain, honest methods, and
encourage the speculative idea CT
living by lucky chances, thereby
unsettling the private business of life.
Whenever any combination of men is
found who deem it honorable and
right to ask and receive from the law
limits to their pecuniary liability in
the daily pursuits of life, there is
found the spirit which originated and
will sustain speculation to unsettle all
values.
While corporations are efficient
machines for accommodating wealth.
human pursuits to which they are
devoted, Il ey fail to equitably distrib-
ute it, either to their own employees or
agents. or to other objects promotive
of the good of society; thus unbalanc-
ing the Proper equilibrium in the
ultimate memorable rule OF the law OF
social existence, demanding that
society generally, in some equitable
distinction, shall enjoy the benefits CT
what its labor and capital shall pro-
duce.
Profits thus obtained are not the
equitable and proper results of capital
as an agent of production. Such
profits come from wrong exercise OF
governmental forces aiding concentra
ted capital to destroy the natural rela
tions between capital and labor. They
rarely represent interest, insurance an(
the wages of superintendent of IN
vested capital; for a private corpora
t on would by modern financier'
De deemed unworthy to exist, which
failed to demand profits on wateret
stock, representing capital that hat
never been invested. Wealth, thu
I obtained, is never a healthy factor il
progress. Its mission is to corrupt
and rob, and when self preservation
requires, to destroy.
Yet, sovereign states while dali!
creating these pernicious powers
show pa: simonious economy in sus
tanning their universities, the grea
centers of healthy influence, from
which should radiate a light to buil(
up and preserve. The cause of highe
education IS more than ever in Oh
history the cause of humanity; TO
our youth is being corrupted, and i
| forgetting the incentives for loft.
ambition, when it sees how easily anC
by devious, though legal practices
wealth is obtained, and how it pave
the way to power. Who but tn,
silver king of some mining corpora
ton is now expected to represent il
the American Senate the new state
of the extreme West?
WANT AMONG THE MASSES, INCREAs
ING FROM UNHEALTHY PRO
GRESS.
Unhealthy progress, developed b,
wrong methods, has revenged itsel
on civilization by increasing want il
the great centers of population JUS
in proportion as improved facilities
for production and exchange of values
are developed. And, not in cite!
only, for sometimes in the midst O.
abundance, an army of gaunt pedes
| TRANS has been seen on every high
way, tramping in the vain hunt fol
employment and, desperate from suf
! fering from social inequalities which
breed despair, they reinforce the ranks
of crime
CORPORATE MONOPOLY OF LAND.
Private corporations created by the
general government, and by many OF
the states, are permitted to own lands
which they do not use. The great
men of the revolution, of 1776, real
lied that entailmenJs for the trans
mission of wealth in perpetuity, and
the laws of primOgeniture which en-
titled the eldest heir to the estate
would build up a landed aristocracy
dangerous to liberty. The remedy
was found in the laws of descent,
which in many states forced the SUI
divisions of estates among heirs, thus
leaving the citizen with every incen~
tive to acquire wealth and to enjoy it
during life, but depriving him of the
power to establish a monopoly by
perpetuating it in the hands Of his
descendants. Experience has shown
that this was wise, for the heir of the
rich man seldom inherits his energies,
or thrift, and for the most part scat
ters his estate. The progress of So
ciety il Its dealings with men in a
wagon wheel, which is always lifting
cal Ill, nHu o1OPPibS ~ OoCh, WHICH,
elevated Under such system, those
who until lately have ruled, sprung
from the middle and laboring classes,
and were prepared to rule, through
faculties quickened by adversely, and
from having first learned to obey.
1t seems never to have occurred to
our ancestors, that human cupidity
would undo what the laws against
primogeniture and entailment had
accomplished, and invest corporations
with the power of unlimited land
ownership. In laying, as they believed,
strong and deep the foundations of
civil liberty, and creating guards and
checks against the concentration of
power, they never dreamed that the
power which springs from the owner
ship of the earth would be concen-
trated in the cold dead hand of this
creation, and that
earth's children might some
day be permitted to derive
I'll Inv