Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17
SENATORIAL OPTIMISM.

A number of interviews with the repre-
sentatives of wealth in the United States
Senate reveals the prevalence Of the idea
among the millionaires that the lot of the
laboring man is rosy one. 1t has always
been the understanding among the million
aires from the time of Josiah Bounderby,
that the workingmen wanted to be fed with
gold spoons; but ii is of no slight interest to
perceive the modern development of the
same class of opinion in the Senate.
Senator Stanford declares that the Ameri-
can laborer is better off than any laborer of
the present or past in the history of the
world. OF course the late President of the
Southern Pacific Railway thinks the people
are benefited by combinations of capital,
and declares that ''the capitalist has little
advantage in this country as to legislation"
This from man who has made his millions
from the legislative bounties of the Nation is
very good. E1-Congressman West does
not think his men "have the right to
dictate what 1 shall pay any more than I
have to make them work against their will, /"
but omits to say whether he has any right to
dictate what wages workingmen shall &C
cept. Senator Sawyer says that the laborers
OF America "have better chances than those
of any other country in the world, and that
''capital cannot get along without labor and
labor cannot succeed without capital"
Stewart, Stoekbridge, Hearst and Congress-
man Letter all think that the condition of
the laboring man is excellent, and that the
growth of great fortunes is nothing serious;
while all of the millionaire Senators would
crush out anarchy and socialism. There is
relief from this stereotyped class of opin-
ion in Senator Teller's summary of the
causes OF discomfort in ''the unequal dis
tribution of wealth, the accumulation of
great fortunes by systems of doubtful hon.
esty in some cases, and by downright dis
honesty in Others" and in ''the disregard of
law by some of the great corporations"
No fair view Of the case will dispute that
the roseate views of the Senatorial million
aires have, when each assertion is considered
purely by itself, foundation Of truth. 1t
is undoubtedly true that the American
workingman is better paid, and consequently
better clothed and better fed, than the
laborer in any other country. 1t is also
true that at the present time labor, in most
sections of the country has plenty of work
and good wages. But in studying the social
situation, to take into consideration only
those phases, is to look at the subject only
from one side-which is very natural
thing for the Senatorial millionaires to do.
Yet the phases which are of vital import
ance as indicating whittier we are tending,
rather than the actual state of affairs, are
entirely ignored by our law-making repre-
sentatives of wealth, except in Senator Tel
ler's summary of economic evils and Sena-
tor Stanford's disingenuous assertion that
"there is no such thing as monopoly in this
country in the true sense of the word" This
assertion may perhaps be sustained by
quibble On the definition of monopoly, but
coming, as it does, from the head of the
great transportation monopoly OF the Pacific
coast, it is striking illustration of the atti-
tude of the great capitalists. 1t is true also
that legitimate combinations of capital
under the action of competition, have bene-
fetal results; but when the almost universal
effort of capital is to seek combinations which
will hamper competition so as to yield it
greater share of the results of production
than would be awarded by competition, the
need for capital to understand that its inter-
ests are identical with labor, is as manifest
as for the same knowledge on the part of
labor.
The best statement of the evils of the day
is to be found in the fact that while the early
effect of our institutions was to distribute
capital into the hands of labor, by making it
easy for labor to be small capitalists, the
present tendency is to divide by sharp and
wide demarkation the two classes of capital
and labor. The influences which tend to
produce that result need no: be reviewed
here; but it is enough to arouse the appre-
tensions Of thinking men-who have not the
reasons for roseate opinions held by our
millionaire Senators-to notice how far the
process of creating the two classes has gone,
and how universally, in the administration
of the laws, the advantage falls on the side
of the wealthy.