The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-07-06

kindled the confagration that presages UNI
versal night! Thus the States are dwarfed
and the nation magni6ed-and to govern
people who can best govern themselves the
central authority is made stronger and more
splendid!
Concurrent with this political drift is an
other movement less formal, perhaps, but not
less dangerous-the consolidation of capital.
l hesitate to discuss this phase of the subject,
for of all men despise most cordially the
demagogue who panders to the prejudice OF
the poor by abuse of the rich. But no man
can note the encroachment in this country of
what may be called 1.-The money power on
the rights of the individual, without feeling
that the time is approaching when the issue
between plutocracy and the people will be
forced to trial The werld has not seen, nor
has the mind of man conceived of such mirac
ulous wealth. gathering as are everyday tales
to u.s. Aladdin's lamp dimmed, and Monte
Cristo becomes common place when compared
to our magicians of finance and trade. The
seeds of luxury that even now surpasses
that of Rome or Corinth, and has only yet
put forth its FIRST flowers, are sown in this
simple republic. What shall the full fruitage
be? | do not denouuce the newly rich. For
most part their money came under forms of
law. The irresponsibiity Of sudden wealth
is in many cases steadied by that resoluie
good sense which seems to be an American
heritage, and underrun by careless prodi-
vality or by constant charity. Our great
wealth has brought us profit and splendor
But the status itself is 8 menace. A home
that costs IS, ,OOO, zoo and breakfast that costs
s.. 900 are dsquieting facts to the millions
who live in a nut and dine on a crust. The
fact that man ten years from poverty has an
income ofS20. .0Oo, ,0O0-and his two associates
nearly as much-from the control and Erbi
trsry pricing Of an article of universal use,
falls strangely on the ears Of those who hear
it, as they sit empty. handed. while children
CRY for bread. The tendency deepens the
dangers suggested by the status. What Is TO
be the end Of this swift piling up OF wealth
( Twenty years ago but few cities had their
milhouaires Today almost every town has
It's dozen Twenty men can be named who
can each buy sovereign State at its book
value. The youngest nation, America, is
vastly the richest, and in twenty years, IN
spite OF war. has nearly trebled her wealth
/ Millions are made on the turn Of . trade, and
/ the topping mass grows and grows, while IN
( its shadow starvation and despair stalk among
{ the people. aud swarm with increasing lezions
{ against the eitadels OF human life.
yuE AnrsE OF gE,LrH.
Bot the abusc of this amazing power Of
consolidated wealth IS its biueTcst result and
ils pressing danger When The agent Of
dozen men who have captured and control an
article Of prime necessity meets The Eeprescn-
. ,atives Of a million farmers from whom they
have forced $, ,0O0 600 the year before, With no
( more moral right thaa is behiad the highway
man who halss the traveller at his pistol
T point, and iasolen,ly gives them the measure
+ OF this years rapaeity, an4 tells ;hem-men
{ who live in the sweai Of their broWs and stand
( between God aad uatnrc-shai they mast sub
T msi 10 the infamy because they are helpless,
thea the 6rss fruits Of this system are gathered
7 ana have turaed 70 ashes on the lips When
+ a dozen men get together in the morning and
E kx she price OF a dozen articles Of common
ase-with no standard bat their arbitrary viii,
( and no limit bat ,heir greed or daTing-and
+ then notify tho sovereign people OF this free
( republic how much, ia the mercy Of their
I masters, they shall pay for the Recessaries OF
I life-then the point Of iHtolerable shame has
+ been reached We have read OF the Fobber
/ basons Of the Rhine. who. from their castles,
/ sent a Shot across the bow Of every pass
( ing craft, and descending as hawks from the
erags. tore and robbed and plundered the
voyagers until their greed was glutted, or the
strength OF their victims spent. Shall this
/ shame of Europe against which the world re-
volted, shall il be repeated in this free eoun-
try? And yet. when a syndicate or trust can
I arbitrarily add twenty-five per cent. to the
cost Of single article Of common use, and
safely gather forced tribute from the people,
uaiil from lis surplus it could buy every castle
on the Rhine, or reqaite every barou's de-
haachery from its kitchen aecOunt--where IS
the difference-save that the castle Is changed
to a brokers' Office and the picturesque river
TO the leeming streets and the broad fields Of
this government ''of the people, by the people
ard lor the people, do not overstAte the
case. Economists have held that wheat,
grown everywhere, could never be eornered
by capital And yet one man in Chicago
tied the wheat crop in his handkerchief, aud
held it autil sewing woman in my city work
ing for ninety cents week had to pay him
twenty cents tax on the sack Of flour she bore
home in her famished hands Three men held
the cotton crop until the English spindles
were stopped and the lights went out lin ,OO0,-
900 English homes. Last summer one man
cornered pork until be had levied tax of 50
) per barrel on every consumer and pocketed a
profit of millions. The Car Of Russia would
not have dared do these things. Aud yet
they are no secrets in this free government of
ours! They are known Of all men, and, my
countrymen. no argument can follow them,
and no plea excuse them, when they fall on
the men who toiling. yet sufer-who hunger
i. / at their work-and who cannot find food for
+, their wives with which to feed the infants that
hang famishing at their breasts. Mr.. Jetfer-
son foresaw this danger and he sought to avert
il. When Virginia eeded the vast northwest
to the government-before the constitution
was written-Mr. jefferson in the second
clause of the articles of cession prohibited
E forever the right of primogeniture. Virginia
then nobly said, and Georgia in the cession
> of her territory repeated; "In granting this
: domain to the government and dedicating it
J, to freedom, we prescribe that there shall be
j. no classes in the family-no child set up al
the expense of the others, no feudal estates
establshed-but what man hath shall be
divided equally among his children"
ANCIENT INJUSTICE REVIVED.
y We see this feudal tendency, swept away
e by Mr.. Jefferson, revived by the conditions
e of our time, aided by the government with it:
d grant of enormous powers and its amazing
d class legislation. Ii has given the corporation
s. more power that Mr.. jefferson stripped from
the individual, and has setup a creature with
le out soul or conscience or limit of human lifi
lie to establish an oligarchy, unreleved by human
At charity and unsteadied by human responsible
IN ity. The syndicate, the trust, the corporation
N these are the eldest sons of the republic fo