The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-05-14

fast driving men INTO atheism. In
the United States, says Professor r. I.
Ely, "the methods of millionaries are
alternating wage-workers from Chris
tianity" "They cannot" says Car
dinal Gibbons, .reconcile Goodness
with greed; and one sanctimonious
misery millionaire in a community
works more deadly harm to Christianity
than a dozen isolated cases of burglary
or drunkenness"
Ex-Premier Gladstone and Cardinal
Manning both notice. comment upon,
and deplore "the shrinkage of private
charity going on contemporaneously
with the enormous increase of wealth
in England" And directly in the
face of the evil tendencies complained
of bv the Cardinal and ex-premier,
Mr.. Carnegie bodily asserts that nine
teen twentieths of the charity, public
and private, is uselessly spent" All
is chaff that is not grist to the million
aries mill
Kelly 10 DOIloN Df>ooNo.
While our sentinel philosophers, di-
vines, and statesmen see danger threat
enng our beloved land, our friend DR..
Brooks, would have us believe that all
our troubles come from "pessimsm,"
indigestion, chronic grumbling or
over-production,' or mixture OF
all. He argues that it is insensate
folly "to raise our feeble cries against
this that, or the other, and try to hew
our destinies to the line of Our conceits,
but that the divinity of evolution shapes
all our ends" We ought not to con-
fess to any surprise at the above decla-
ration, coming as it does from "na-
tionalist," disciple of the author of
'LookiDg Backward, who evolvedfr from
his fertile brain, the widest, most
utopain and badly absured socialism,
that was ever conceived of. There is
vein of ridicule running all through
the doctors paper, i'll adapted to SO
grave a subject. But when he says
ait is useless, if not unwise, to decry
in general terms combinations of
capital and monopolies and destructive
of our best interests but goes further,
and actually claims that 'they have
wrought the greatest blessings to the
human race" we can scarcely believe
the doctor is in earnest. 1t is fact
in the piscatorial world as the doctor
states, that 'the big fish shall eat up
the little ones;;" but does the doctor
propose, willingly, to sacrifice himself
in becoming food for filling the cor
morant maws of the big fish, or does
he propose to turn "big fish, and thus
escape the doom of the little minnows?
Possibly the doctor may think he can
appropriate little sscat hole' all to
himself, but whenever the big fish
start for him "he's goner!"
We challenge the doctor to the
proof of his declaration, that comb
nations in the nature of 'monopolies
have wrought the greatest blessings
to the human race" No one can, or
will, deny that the concentration OF
capital officially used is beneficial in
dustrially, socially, educationally and
religiously; but when large aggregations
of capital are used in any monopolistic,
forestalling or gambling business, with
the avowed purpose of overriding and
driving out competition, it is hurtful
and antagonistic to all legitimate,
honest business.
We beg to remind the doctor that
the great mass of the farmers of this
country are not novel readers, and are
looking forward rather than BLOCKING
| backward," as it seems has been the
doctors recent occupation. They are
looking forward to different develop
ment than Bellamy describes, or tina
which centers power and money into
the hands of inscriptions wealth; and
| that development we verify believe is
coming through legislation and peaceful
| revolution, let us hope, but it is Never
theless, surely coming!
DR.. Brooks is a reading man and
ought to know better than to repeat
the refrain of Edward Atkinson, cover
| production is running the farmers"
The New England statistician had a
motive in such plea, but what a Viz
ginia farmer can mean by its use is
| beyond this scribe's conjecture. IF the
doctor had said under consumption
and restriction of markets for our
farm products, and the currency to
handle them at the proper time, were
prejudical to the agricultural industry
of this country, such statement would
have been founded on facts and en-
dorsed by the intelligent Planters all
over the land. The subsidized hire
lings of the money lords of this country
are even crying, "lie still farmer. YOU
are doing your own hurt in producing
more than the world can consume;
you have no one but yourself to blame
for low prices
1t would extend this paper far be-
yond the desired Length to demonstrate
how the farmer suffers through made
quate currency to move and handle
his crops at the proper time, and
how his markets are circumscribed
and he Disseminated against in various
ways, and all for the benefit of mon
opolists here and abroad. The sec
rotary of agriculture in an article in
the April North american Revieu.
says "Nor can the farmer unequally
share in the increase OF our national
wealth, in the general advance of
national prosperity, without sooner or
later, but most certainly, causing q
grave disturbance in the equilibrium
OF national affairs. The surest guar
antee to the stability of any govern
ment is to be found in the enjoyment
of equal privileges by all classes of its
citizens, and in a lust distribution