Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-07-05

dcrrun by careless prodi%alty or by
constant charity. Our graut wealth
has brought us profit and splcndor.
But the status itself is Il menace. a
homo that costs S3,OG0,O)0 and Il
breakfast that costs $1,000 are dis
quoting to tho millions who live in II
hut and dine on Il crust The fact
That man ten years from poverty
has an income of $50 900, OOO-and
his two associates nearly as much.
from the control and arbitrary pric.
ing Of an article of universal use,
falls strangely on the cars OF those
who hear it, rs they sit cmptyliandcd
while children cry for bread. The
tendency dccpcns the danger, sug
gcstcd by the status What is TO he
the end Of this swift piling up Of
wealth Twenty years ago but few
cities had their millionaircs. Today
almost every town has It's dozen.
Twenty men can be named who can
each buy II sovereign Static ut its Ink
book value. The youngest nation,
America, is vastly tho richest, and in
Twenty years, III spite of war, has
nearly trcblcd her wealth Millions
arc made on the turn of trade, and
the mass grows aud grows, while in
It's shadow starvation ind despair
stalk among the people, aud swarm
with increasing lcgions against the
citadcls Of human life.
But the abuse of this amazinp
power of consolidated wealth is It's
bittercsL result and it's pressing dan
Gr. When the agent of dozen
men who have captured and control
an article OF primo necessity meets
the representatives of II million farin-
crs, from whom they have forced 81,
600, 900 the year before, with no more
moral right than is behind tho high
wayntn who haltS the lrave or ut his
pistols point, AMI ihSolcntly gives
them the measure Of this years III
pacity, and tells thcm-mcn who live
i'll the sweat of their brows, and
stand between God and Nature
that they must submit To- tho inflmy
because they AFRO helpless, then The
first fruits of this system are gather.
eel and have turned to ashes on the
lips. Whom II dozon men get toyeth
or III the morning and fix the price
Of II dozen articles Of common use
with no standard but their arbitrary
will, and no limit but their greed or
daring then notify the sovcr
eiSn people of this free Republic how
much i'll the mercy of their masters,
they shall pay for the mccessarics of
.ife-tlicn the point of intolcrablo
shame has been reached. We havo
read of tho robber bnrons of the
Rhine who fro,l their castles sent n
shot across the bow of every passing
craft, aud descending as hawks from
the crags, tore and robbed and plum
dcrcd tho voyaScrs until their greed
was glntted, or tho strength of their
victims spent. Shall this shame of
Europe, against which the world re-
voltcd, Shall it be repeated in this
free country ? And yet when syn
dictate or trust can arbitrarily ndl
% per cent. to the cost of a SINGLE
article Of common use, and safely
gather forced tribute from the peo.
pie, until from its surplus it coull
buy every castle on tho Rhine, or re.
quite every baron's debauchcry from
Its Kitchen accoumt-whore is the
diiiercncc-save that the castle is
changed to IL brokers' office, and the
! picturesque river TO the tcemiur
stl Gets and broad fields of this gov
crnmcnt of the people, by the peo
pie and for the people do not
overstate the case. Economists hnyo
held that wheat, grown everywhere,
could never be cornercd by capital
And yet one man in Chicago tel
the wheat crop in his handkerchief
and held it until sewing woman in
my city, working for ninety cents n
week, had to pay him twenty cents
tax on the sack of flour she bore
home i'll her furnished hands. Three
men held the cotton crop until the
English spindles were stopped and
the lights put out i'll 100000 Eng.
lish homes. Last summer one man
cornercd pork until he had levied a
tax OF IS Der barrel on overv con-