The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-04-17
T FL e
LABOR, CAPITAL AND UsURY.

The solution of the industrial question
appears to be steadily approaching de-
spite the influences opposed to it. These
are to be found primarily in corporations,
and in individuals who availed them
selves of the loose joints of the law to
seize upon the substance OF the multitude
and appropriate it to their own use.
Men who ''make" from fifty to one and
two hundred million dollars in a few
years are of this class. By no possible
combination of circumstances could any
man in a lifetime honestly accumulate
such enormous gains. The Vanderbilts,
Goulds, Mackays and others of that ilk
naturally occur to one in this connection;
and the industrial revolution in the
United States to-day is set against the
grinding despotism OF Gould, who has
managed, by Operations" which would
consign any less dexterous and I'M
scrupulous person to the penitentiary for
life. to become absolute master of the
Southwestern railroad system of the
United States.
the American people will dispose OF rail-
road and corporate robbers as effectually
as the starving proletariat OF France dis
posed of the men on horseback, who for
centuries lorded it over the masses, and
claimed by class laws and long centuries
of prescription, the right to use men as
chattel property, and compel them to
minister to their pleasures and extrava-
gance. Just so soon as the fierce demo
cracy of America find their outlet in the
public lands blocked by the usurpatlon
and fraud of corporations and land grab
bers, will they rise in their might and
brush them all aside. The cobwebs OF
legal sophistry which corrupt and
purchased judiciary are spinning every
day in American courts will be swept
away with the bosom of destruction, and
the emancipated people will resume
what has been stolen from them.
Events move rapidly in these times.
Education has become universal. The
use of arms, guaranteed to all men by
the Constitution of the United States,
and facilities for the manufacture OF ma
chimes and implements OF destruction,
have placed the masses OF men upon
footing of equality with the oligarchy
that moves the military arm and IN
various ways usurps the law-maklng,
executive and judicial powers, and the
very knowledge that this is the case Will
tend more than any other consideration
to prevent an armed conflict. We see ID
the British Isles the privileged classes
surrendering, without a blow, every
bastion in their once perfect circle OF
feudatory defense; we see in Germany
and France, as in England, the Govern
ment moving in advance OF the invincl-
HE industrial column, and shaping their
policy to the requirements OF the age.
PRINCIPLES that would have consigned
men to the penitentiary twenty-five years
400 NOW send them into legislative halls
to shape national policy. For this reason
we saw that the industrial classes have
won a bloodless victory, and in the in
dustrial classes we include all the great
captains of industry-the creators OF
wealth, the employers OF labor on tnelI
own account-in contradistinctlon 10
gambling spectators and thieving rings
of money-tilting usurers, who produce
nothing on their own account, but levy
toll upon the products of industry
and take tribute of the risks of all men
by land and sea. The Shylocks OF
finance are the men who make all this
trouble, not the founders of great indus
tries, who employ labor, create wealth,
and circulate money.
The principle of arbitration combined
with the cooperative principle would get
rid of any possible conflict between CAPT
tai and labor, so far as the relations of
employer and employed are concerned.
But very frequently employers are not
free agents. They are often indebted to
the oligarchy of nOn-producers which con-
trolls credits, and are compelled to grind
workpeople and harass themselves to
meet pressing obligations. Here is