Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-02

der the institutions of his native land,
"a land where rail-splitters and
canal-boat drivers become statesmen
and presidents and blessing to their
fellow men,-struck out for himself.
Being poor and without education he
worked from twelve to sixteen hours
a day and then put in a portion of
every night in acquiring knowledge
from books, mastering among other
things civil engineering unaided. This
acquirment put him into the line of
railroad building. He made his first
money by taking an old broken down
railroad and building it up until it be-
came Of great value TO The country
through which it ran and to the
owners. Then he did the like thing
for another road whose stock was SELL
ing for ten cents on the dollar. He
never touched Wall street nor its
stocks until Wall street attempted to
bear the stocks of the road he was try
ing TO make valuable to himself and
the communities they served. If he
beat Wall street and its combinations
aud hordes of spectators the results
of those triumphs were put into new
railroads, put directly into the hands
of the laborers and producers of this
country. He.never hid away a dol
lar or tied it up in bond except for
brief times whea great combinations
of men were trying to destroy him.
His money has gone into the iron
mines, into the rolling mills, into the
car-shops, gone to the tie-cutters and
graders, and to the thousands of men
who, as officials, clerks. conductors
and trainmen directly operating the
lines which he stands at the head.
No, Mr.. Sentinel, there was no
taify. If Mr.. Gould should retire be-
fore the threats of the labor organize
tions, aud be and all the thousands of
men interested in his lines, withdraw
their money and tie it up in United
States or in European bonds, aud
these be followed by the proprietOrs
of ST the other important material in
dustries, and the great shops of the
country should be closed and the fac
tories deserted, what would labor
gain? There is not one factory in a
hundred in America today, large or
small, which can afford ten hours pay
for eight hours work without charg-
ing moro for the product of such
factories. II more is charged who
pays it but the consumer? And who
is the laborer but a consumer also?
Capital is VIGOROUSLY timid, and
while Mr.. Gould, with his
phenomenal backbone, may stand
up to the racket aud stand by his i'll
dustries, though mobs burned and de-
stroyed indiscrimiDately, hundreds
and thousands of others will simply
hide their capital, close their shops,
and il matters get too threatening fly
the country.
America in her progress, III her
wealth and prosperity, in her state
manship, in her arts, and especially in
sciences AID inveDtions-is the won
der OF the world and the phenomena
of history, and what America is today
with all these enumerated things, sic
owes to her poor boys, under just
such incentives and influences as &c
velcped the Howes, the Lincolns, the
Gouids and Garfield inventors.
the statesmen and the industrial pro-
moters. Here are no crowns, no en-
tailed estates and no aristocratic
bloods. or laws 10 set down on such
boys, and only because they were
of the common people; and, when
Amer,ca either becomes what Europe
is now-an aristocratic heridity: or
what the strikers are ask ng-a mere
machine, of which flesh ard blood
shall be paris,-then we will not only
not have raii-spiitters for presidents
and poor boys grow up as strong men
at the head of great interests, bet
America will not be America.