The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1889-05-16
Dashaw Fortunes.


20 Tribune published list of e very
rich men. Opposite each mans name
was placed the number OF millions
Of dollar he was worth.
The estimates Of wealth were not
as large in many instances as the
men are generally credited with.
hence it msy be safely assumed that
the amounts assigned to them are
rather under than over the facts.
Yet these - gentlemen have nm ag-
gregate Of money that reaches the
astounding total Of 81, 49,, 900, 900.
There are to-day III this country a
million farmers who have toiled and
saved for years, who would jump at
the chance of selling out their acres
and stand before the world debt free.
with this sum among them. which
would give 81. 433 to each farmer
Will any just man, familiar with
thelfacts, deny this statement
Yea, more. Could not 1,433, 900
farmers be found who would gladly
sell out and be debt clear with one
thousand dollars to the good, We
firmly believe SO.
We won't even mention the hun
dreds Of thousands Of farnlsrs who
have somehow worked themselves
into hopeless bankruptcy in this
wonderfully prosperous time. when
the country is said to be growing
richer at the rate of one hundred
million dollars month.
1t is queer anomaly, but facts
are facts, and We know that while a
few hundred thousand western far
mers are carrying four billion dollars
in mortgages, seventy-two men are
worth 81. 433. 600, 900
No reasonable man objects to an
other man because lie has made Il
fortune by care, economy and bust
ness skill. Fortunes Of that charac-
ter bless country for they are hon
estly created and do not represent
robbery.
But we do object to fortunes ac-
quired OH the plan used by oriental
Bashaws, who send around guards
and forcibly take away the property
Of humble folks. who cannot defend
themselves.
A man who suddenly scoops in
millions by reason of his connection
with trust or monopoly. has in ef-
feet Bashaw fortune. He is not
the creator Of his wealth. but by
trick, fraud and device. gains it by
making his neighbors poorer. He is
an Impoverished of the people among
whom he lives for he subtracts from
their power of creating wealth. while
robbing them Of what they have.
II all the producing classes of our
land had come into more Of comfort
and ease while these - favored in
dividuals We're gobblinS in this ST.
433, 100000, no one could complain.
but such has not been the case. for
millions of producers are not only
burdened with Il volume of debt
that is terrible to contemplate. but
find the struggle for existence hard
er and fiercer every year.
The trouble lies in the fact that
through some diabo!ical system OF
evolution, We have among us Il crew
of sharpers who. by scientific methods
divert wealth from the hands that
create it, and absorb it themselves.
They do this by money monopoly,
railway monopoly, and trust CON-
bines, and If these all-potent mach
ines for popular spoilation remain i'm
their hands for another twenty-five
years, Americas producing masses
will be reduced to practical serfdom,
while our present self-satisiled CON-
Portable middle class will have be
come an extinct species.
Any person of sound common sense,
whose logical faculties are not per-
verted by self-interest. or blinded bv
prejudice, must acknowledge that
this prediction is altogether warrant
ed by the drift Of events during the
past twenty years.
| In the presence Of hard toll and
scrimped lives that has come to
many, the Bashaw fortunes of the
Vanderbilts, Goulds, Rockafellers,
Huntingtons and Stanfords are hid
eous moral monstrosities, that are
self-indicted, self-convicted crimes:
Their very existe nee is their own
condemnation, for they could not be
under financial and commercial sys-
tens founded on universal equity.
They are jibe at Gods law, and a
bitter scotf at Il government which
pretentiously claims to be Of the
people, by the people and for the
people.
Those Bashaw fortunes carry with
them confirmation as strong as holy
writ" that our republican masses
have lost their high franchise OF self
government through sloth in civil
duties and lack of interest in the rul-
ing Of the nation. which they yet
foOlishly call their own.
Farmers of America. The supreme
hour of the country ORA VS. nigh, and
if you would save her from night and
chaos, demand at once popular mon
ey, government ownership of rail
ways and the destruction OF all
trusts. Farmers Voice.
The Universal Verdict of the Peonle