The Labor enquirer., 1886-04-24

set of rules which when adopted will
secure the fullest personal liberty to
mankind, liberty that shall know no
sex, color, age creed or nationality q
personal liberty and freedom that shall
not be curtailed, abridged or limited only
by the clear and distinct lines that mark
the domain of your fellow-man's liberty
and rights. .a- II --
There are many who make this objec-
ton to our doctrine, who are unable to
distinguish the difference between, true
ambition and greed. Ifthe destruction
of the ways and means by which men
eau get their greedy clutches on, and be-
come possessed of, hundreds of millions
of dollars, if, say, the destruction of
these ways and means is the destruction
of ambition then I will admit that So
cialism will kill ambition. B. .at,
To-day men are not ambitious, they
are greedy, swinish. They want the
earth and the fuIlness thereof, which
the Lord said was His, but had Wander
bilt not died 30 soon it would have been
changed so that the next revisors of the
Bible would have been compelled to put
Mr.. Vanderbilt's name in place of the
Lords.
1 do not rant or rail at Vanderbilt or
any of the kings, who rule the people
and vampire-like dram their life-blood.
Our system of industrial and economic
procedure breeds parasites, and since
that is the case, we should have more
common sense than to curse the parasite
for being here. His existence is as
natural as the existence of the maggot
in the carrion, with the difference only
that in the former case it Is a creature
born of a false and bad system, and in
the latter the creature is horn of natural
causes.
No; Socialism cannot kill ambition,
but it can and will kill the ayaricious
aud greedy, sWine-llke, grasping posi-
bilities which enable men to crowd their
fellow-men down into the slums and
sloughs of wage slavery, there to toll and
sweat, to dig and delve, that parasite
may gorge itself with all the good things
of this life while the wage slave is ex-
pected to be content with life in which
there is nothing to hope for but death.
A civilization that calls the usurer and
the money king the "better classes" and
styles their ways and means of acquiring
wealth as legitimate, must and shall go
down.
TIE day is almost here when the mil
lionaire will BIZ asked how he got his
millions and he will have to answer
truthfully. When that day has arrived
the millionaire will find that what he
has all along been calling his ambition
will be called bv it's proper name-greed
or robbery. Way up on Capitol hill in
the city of Denver we can find the beau
tiful castles of the men who are greatly
troubled in their mln ds lest Socialism
destroy the last vestige of mans ambi-
ton and leave him n condition truly
lam entable.
Let us take look at the first one of
those castles we happen to think of,
this one with the wings and gables and
turrets in such arlstoCratiC confusion
and profusion. The massive oaken
doors with their golden knobs stand
ajarg disclosing a scene of richness, luxu-
rious and royal elegance, attainable only
by this ambitious man, or men equally
ambitious. Plate glass glistens like silver
throughout this Gorgeous structure, and
surrounding it is lawn whose gentle
and perfect slopes are a marvel of land
scaping upon which l feast my eyes in
spite of the English mastiffs which tell
me by their growls to- move on. The
stables connected with this great palace
are, l notice, better than any house in
Denver occupied by workingman.
This is the home of the great m oney
king, Kountze, who tolls not, nor is the
world one cent the gamer for his having
lived, and still he is possessed of all the
comforts which the material world can
produce.
Ask him his business and he will tell
you he is banker. with capital B, a
business man, man who goes to work
at 10 or II o'clock in the forenoon and
closes his business a 3 in the afternoon.
He is, in his own way of thinking, very
important man. In his own way of
thinking the world rests upon his great
shoulders. ATLAS WAS not compari-
son to me-" says this great man.
Should my fellow bankers and l De
suddenly take from the people and the
country be deprived too suddenly of our
productive capacities, ruin, utter and in
evitable ruin, would be the result to this
land" What is the great and important
business the destruction of which means
ruin to the nation? What does this man
who holds in his hand the destiny of a
world?
He deals in money.
he "shaves" notes. He takes money
at per cents year and gives it out al
10 per cent month.
He tax es mortgages on the land Of
house of the unfortunate and forecloses
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