Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-05-07

. | from the awful CODUlbiOu WulCu lucy
involved. The improved lands of th
United States, the homes of farmers, ar,
passing under mortgage foreclosures from
occupant freeholders to Iran associations, t
nonresident money lenders, and becoming
tenant rookeries, paying rent to landed
aristocracy. The meaning of all this II
obvious in the light of history.
Ill fares the land, to Fastening Ills prey.
Where wealth accumuiates, and farms decay
In the strong language of a gifted writer
on this subject
| When darkness settled over Egypt and SHIT
| lost her place among the great nations OF the
| earth, 8 per cent of her population owned 81
Der cent. Of her wealth When Babylon went
| Town. 2 per cent of her population owned al
the wealth. When Persia bowed her head,
| GER cent. of her population owned all The land
When the sun of Rome set IL black despair
| eighteen hundred men owned aud control led
all the then known world. For the past thirty IT,
civil war-the United States has moved rapid
along the path followed by these old na
ions In 1850 our capitalists owned 371a pei
cent of the nations wealth. In 1870, only TWEEN
| Y years later. they owned 68 per cent having
almost doubled heir accum ulations. They
nave more than Kept up this ratio since 1870
and probably now hold fully go per cent of the
total wealth of the country. What proportion
| nf the population holds this large per cent. II
is not easy to determine, but it does not prob
ably exceed 10 per cent. of the 80 GOO 600 who in
habit this country, and this per cent. SO small
In numbers, but so omn1potent in wealth, IL
using its immense power in every department
of Dusin sss and of government in the develop.
ment and prosecution of schemes for making
/ the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Sir, the inquiry as to the cause, or causes
of this appalling condition is earnest and
universal among the laboring classes, and
especially among farmers at this time. The
main answer is easy and obvious; it is to be
AL nE aH ,1r
Living under plutocracy, the farmer does
part, but not all. He needs all the six days
of the week in WHICH to work for himself,
his wife, and his chirdisoE, but under the
iniquitous system by which the tariff taxes
him upon every necessary of life, he is COM
| palled to devote the proceeds of at least two
days out of the six to the protection and en-
richment of the robber barons.
One third of his time tie American far
mer is a toiling serf for the payment, not of
revenue to his Government, but of naked
tribute to those who are protected in charg.
| ing him from 25 to 100 per cent. more than
it is worth On every article his wants com
pei him to buy. For two days work, we
| will say, a farmer can earn pair of blan-
kets worth So to make, but which are ia.
creased in price by tariff protection to So.
To whom does the additional labor on his
part, necessary TO enable him to buy them,
belone? The same question may be asked
in regard to all his agricultural implements,
his household and kitchen utensils and fur
niture, and all the clothing on his back,
purchased in markets viciously protected
in the right to add war taxes to prices for
the benefit of the manufacturing monopolist
on every article there sold.
| aro oil 70 voiliar NTH fho mo =,
piled to a system of government by virtue
of which one class owns the labor of anoth-
er class, and it is moderate and reason
able statement to make that the American
laborer, and more especially the farm la.
borer, is already one-third slave by law,
with the clutch, greed, and power of his
master, the plutoarscy, increasing the de-
gree and the degradation of his servitude
every hour The relations of the laborpg
classes to the feudal barons of Europe dur
ing the Middle Ages were exactly the same
in principle as those now existing between
the laboring classes of the United States
and the favored few, for whom they are
hewers of wood and drawers of water.
| Cedric, the Saxon, had no surer hold on
the services of Gurth, the swineherd, than
the lords of the money power have at this
time on the hard earnings of American in
dustry, Are we to be blind to the lessons
of history There is always point in the
oppression and ensli vement of labor where
safety ceases and danger begins. A tax
Known as c0rUee in France, requiring and
| enforcing gratuitous labors on the part of
the inhabitants of district for their lord
of the manor, was one of the sore grievances
| which led to the French Revolution. A
French writer thus describes the workings
of this tax:
1t consisted of a number of DAVIS work which
the seigneur had the right to require annually
| gratis of the serf originated with Charlemsgne,
only ended by the revolution. It might be
required at any day, any hour. at the pleasure
| of the lord of the manor. BE might require
any sort OF lab r-plOw the land OF the baron,
| train his hedges. maze and clean his bitches,
repair roof or walls of his castle, and even beat
the water in the pond all night to keep the
frogs still so that monseigneur's sleep should
| not be broken.
Well might Mirabeau denounce the cor
wee tax as 'sthe most cruel of all seryi-
tudes, and yet the French peasantry of
that period we're no more required to render
gratuitous services to the French aristocra.
cy than are the grain-growers and stock
raisers of the United States to day to render
gratuitous millions, and hundreds of millions
annually to the Golfers of those whom high
protective tariff has made their lords and
masters. 1t remains to be seen whether
the American laborer at the close of the
nineteenth century will be any more patient
of corvee tax on his time and his industry
than was the down-trodden French peasant
of hundred years ago.
Sir, the aristocracy of money is always
cruel and coarse and unmindfal of all else
save it's own gains and meretricious splen.
dor. Its lavish and osteptatious displays
of I'll gotten wealth often light up the whole
argument on the relations between labor
and capital, and point to the soundest COP
clusions ever found in history. Who is
protected and enriched by protective tar
iff? has been question of debate prolonged
through generations, but can be best deter
mined now by pointing out as an object
lesson the condition Of our agricultural
communities on the one hand and certain
arrogant, am bilious, and dazzling demon
strations of wealth which have recently
taken place on the other.
There came to This country, not many
years ago, q subisot of Great Britain, with
q keen capacity and hungry instinct for the
amassment Of great riches. He became a
citizen of the State of Pennsylvania and eu-
gagged in manufacturing iron aud steel.
The productions Of his mines and his mills
have been and still are protected in the
| hmoLiCdu ACbo llOul ItlSu COmpSbItipH
by tariff duties ranging from 40 to over 100
per cent. on imported iron and steel of va1i-
GUS kinds and in various conditions. The
enormous per cents. have been added to the
price of all his sales, and have been paid at
last by the farmer, whether the sales we're
for the equipment of railroads or the equip.
ment of farms. What has been the effect
of this policy OF Mr. Carnegie and his for
tunes? We know that his laborers have
not grown rich, for only last July he gave
them notice of heavy reduction in their
wages and persuaded them into submission
by the presence of Pipkerton men and
Springfield rifles.
Who is it, then, if not the working peo-
pie, that protection has pampered into more
than oriental magnifcence in the iron and
steel works of Pennsylvania Three or four
weeks ago there was banquet spread in
this city. description of which the next
morning was the joy and the glory of the
no psDa pars nd 4 ha sapsatiOu 0f ho nbolo