The Princeton union., 1890-12-18
NUMBER SO.

which govern trade, and thus find a
remedy. Possibly, however, the cause
may lie in this very fact of infinite hu-
man selfishness- the desperate
greed of gain which seems to fasten
upon all human kinds the direct pro-
jenitor of all financial disaster For in
stance, why should laws be enacted
which will permit one man, more intel
ligent, conscienceless, cunning and far
sighted than his fellows, to build up a
fortune so large that it constitutes him
the arbiter of the fate of millions of
people? Why should society wilfully
! ! place in the hands of one weak, erring
human creature the power to bring
| thousands or even millions of his fellows
to want and woe?
What have we lately learned as we
glanced over the daily papers? One
man has been seen in Wall street who
was not at all pressed for funds We
have discovered this man and his ring
buying up whole systems of railroads in
the west, displacing old officers and
managers and replacing them with tools
of his own. We have read his comfort
able, unctuous interviews in the news
papers, wherein he descants upon un-
fortunate railroad quarrels-or compe-
tltion-and tells us that the time is now
rapidly approaching when they will
cease-cease because there will be no
competition, as he and his friends will
own all the railway properties of any
value, and then we shall see that thew
are not run at a loss to the stockholders.
Assuredly. Of course Then, my lords
and gentlemen, we shall have the order
of Warsaw
In this delightful assurance there is
no bonds given to society at large that
! their rights and wishes will be re-
spected. Shippers are not notified that
transportation charges will be reduced.
Employees are not informed that their
stipends are to be increased. The pub-
lie at large are not assured that facili-
o-oo
those men who have capital to employ
are given a guaranty that their interest
will be more promptly and certainly
paid. This will be comforting to them.
but how about the public at large.
And yet, the people of America are
only themselves to blame They have
legislated for century to consolidate
millions OF money in the hands of few
men. They have made it possible to
pay the president of mere corporation
higher salary than the president of
the natioltsreceives They have thenl-
selves turned the riyulets of wealth, into
channels which serve not to irrigate
the parched landscape of general pros
perity, but rather to seek the full ocean
OF plutocracy. A century of the rule of
| the people has only served to create
caste of millionaires, three or four of
whom can combine their wealth and
force bankruptcy upon millions of their
fellows, while they themselves add mil
lions more to their private wealth by
buying at reduced prices the shares and
stocks which give them the absolute
ownership of the nations great lines of
transportation. These men, having the
giants strength-which is glorious;
use it like a giant is tyrannous.
They have been given the opportunity
to add millions to their other millions
and they simply do it, utterly regard
less of consequences to the public at
large.
The ancestors of Louis XIV of France
struggled with the feudal barons of
scores of principalities. Generation
succeeded to generation in those slow
going days, leaving the warfare still
being waged by the king against the
nobility, until this irresistible bene-
ficiary of thousand battles could
proudly say, Il AM THE STATEW Louis
XIV could look backward through the
vista of centuries and trace the bloody
pathway trodden by his forefathers
through rebellion, treason and revolu-
ticn, until he stood upon the very sum
nit of the mountain of tyranny, hold
come courtiers, and in the other the
people, now become serfs. But it was
not given to his finite vision to pierce
the gloom of futurity, and see at the
other end of this pathway of wrong and
outrage a descendant offering his neck
to the guillotine. He could not see
| those other descendants, the children of
Louis the XVI, given over to poverty,
cold hunger and early death; and the
horrible sight of the monster revolution
devouring the bravest, best and noblest
of his countrymen was denied to him.
We move faster in these days. Steam
carriages succeed the stage coach.
Electricity is on the point of succeeding
steam. Already we have in the great
republic a score of men who could have
bought and paid the market price for
| the entire kingdom of France in the
reign of Louis XIV. The motto of
these men was profanely but tersely
given by one of their number some time
ago in the epigram ''the public be
damned!'' The plutocrat is probably
now born who will in the near future
say with the great French king II am
the State'' Indeed the terse remark
of Mr.. Vanderbilt is only premature
but synonymous form of saying the
same thing. We have come to the
point in America where we can look
backward through only one century and
| DOint with Drida tn tho achiavar,entc of