The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-08-28
SCIENCE OF ROBBERY.
LAWS Favoring MOnopollss the Prime
Cause of Nations Poverty.

Laws Favoring Monopoliss the Prime
Cause of n Nations Poverty.
Any person in the United States who
happens to have in his possession
$34 81 has what would have been his
share of the money of the country had
1t been divided equally among the
SO, 600, 900 people in the country in
the census year 1880 Call this the
cash value of the individual in this
country. In France this value is more
-$5457; in the Netherlands 1t is
1926; in Great Britain, $24.0S, and
in Germany, $1,000.
This does not represent the wealth
of any of these countries. Money is
not wealth. A citizen of the United
States with only sS4 81 may be in COM
Portable circumstances but if he were
suddenly set down in an uninhabited
country with a thousand times that
amount his circumstances would be
very uncomfortable indeed. The
wealth of country consists in its sup
ply of the necessaries of life, and the
number of people in the country de-
termine whether this supply is proper
tionately large or small. If the num-
Der of people increases faster than
the supply of necessaries of life, the
country grows poorer.
If the supply increases faster than
the number of people, the country
grows richer. The man who has in
his pocket his cash value as an
American, or the sum of $34.51, is not
worth" as much in cash as a
Frenchman whose cash value is
$54.57, but he is worth twice as much
If he can exchange his $34.51 for
twice the value of articles of need as
the Frenchman can his $54 81. This
is determined solely by the quantity
| OF articles of need in reach The
money itself is mere token. This is
80 simple that 1t seems unnecessary to
state it, but until it is fully UNDER
stood by a controlling majority OF
the American people, as it is not now,
ou0 AAesJoiAoy VI Iuo AulcilCdu poOplo
will be poor-and oppressed by those
who do understand it.
In the census year 1860 the cash
value of good set of muscles in the
United States was $1,000, or there
abouts. This set of muscles was
called slave. Its cash value was an
affair for its owner. 1t had moth
ing to do with money. 1t was sup
piled with the necessaries of life
without money. Two decades later
when the cash value of these sets of
muscles was vested in themselves and
not in their former owners, it had
sunk from $1,000 to $34.5L.
Whether this was an actual or only
apparent shrinkage is determined by
whether or not 1874 81 will buy as
much of the necessaries of life now as
$1,000 would in 1860. If less, then
the cash value of free muscle is that
much less than that of muscle the
cash value of which was in 1860 arti-
ficially increased by the artificial
system OF actual proprietorship OF the
human labor-machine.
We have stated these facts thus
infinitely in order to lead up to the
statement of another of the highest
Importance. It is this:
Whoever controls the supply of the
necessaries of life in a country con-
trolls in that country all who have
need of them.
If this control is vested in the Gov
eminent, then all people under Gov
ernment whose influence does not
actually control it in its actual work
ing are slaves of Government and
have only such cash value as the
Governments sets on them. This aver
age cash value In 1880 we have al
ready stated-$34.5l.
As money, though itself worthless,
is exchangeable for worth, the Gov
eminent, which seeks to control the
money-worth of the average human
under it, must control both the money
md the supply of what money will
buy. The Government of the United
States does this. It's control OF the
average human who lives under
Its laws is absolute and it OPP
presses him, by reason of his
ignorance and the selfishness of
those who have more brains
than he. 1t is easy for brains to
escape the operations of laws, which
work indirectly for the oppression OF
the average human. The more in
direct the law, the worse the oppres-
sion, for the harder it is for the av-
erage human to understands; and the
more easily evaded it is by those who
do understand it; who. in the act of
evading it, use it as an instrument for
the oppression Of the unintelligent.
The average human in the United
States to-day is oppressed. He is the
slave of a hard master, and that
master is the Government which shuts
him in its slave pen OF custom-houses
and stints him in the supply of things
necessary to the full development of
body and mind.
These are nard truths. They may
revolt come, but they are true and un-
exaggerated. They constitute fright
full wrong against weakness. but there
is no wrong without remedy and the
remedy here is brains. The average
human must get brains-not. such
brains as he has always had, but bet
ter brains; not such common sense as
he has aIwnvs had for ha haa diva