The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-02-17
THIEVES AND ROBBERS.

IN another is a thief; he who takes by
violence what belongs to another is q
robber. The robber is popularity supposed
to disappear, with o her predatory ami
mails, before the progress of civilization;
but this is a superficial judgement. The
that unlawtully deprives men of
tbeir property passes through many trans
formations, but no force is more persistent
Men are plundered nowadays in America
far more frequently and fagrantly than
England in the days of Robin Hood
there are men among US beside whose
robberies those of the brigands of I.aly
and Greece and tie Bedouins Of the desert
are mere p~leasantrIes. OF all the triumphs
of invention none are more wonderful
than those by which the hard-earned
gains of millions are forcibly conveyed to
the vaults of the robber princes. No
business is more highly organized, more
s~trenuously pursued, more successfully
managed than the business of robbery.
Yet, under all this elaboration of method,
it is robbery, nothing worse nor better.
The popularity OF the modern method
of robbery in the employment, by the
of the State as their enforced
agent n accomplice. Sometimes but
not often, they organize their clients and
r~etainers iato armed bands and seize the
booty, combining to have the
State confirm possession. But the force
on which they prefer to rely is the quiet
and RESTLESS force of the laws and the
courts. By artfu ly contriVed legal
schemes they cOnstrain courts to do their
bidding. The judges may be unwilling
instruments, yet they are bound to
ton, impsrtially, the working of legal
But what shall we say when
weak or corrupt judges hasten to legalize
schemes by which great corporations are
wrecked or rehabilitated as suits the pur-
poses of the conspiritstors?
OF the gigantic fortunes now held in
this country, not a few have been gotten
by legal robbery. Twenty years ago our
~milliOnares could be counted almost on
the fingers of four hands. To-day their
enumeration would carry US into thou
sands. Since the new system of robbery
was perfected, about twenty men have
amassed fortunes, which taken together,
exceed the deb of the nation. Twenty
years ago many of these men were poor.
Some of the new milliOnaires have grown
rich honestly, but some of them have led
q raid upon the production and the
accumulated wealth of the country. So
0nic in its boldness and success
has been the method of the master rob-
bers, that rich men of better instincts
have been dazzled by it, and have ad-
opted 1t openly aid independently, or
have lent indirect cooperation and social
credit to the robber chiefs and have shared
in the plumber. Men of honorable reputa-
tons, who have been crowned with
public honOrs, have countenanced these
as affording the surest way of
to their uusstisfying fortunes of
ten, twenty or ever thirty millions. It is
by no NEAR our purpose to throw dis
credit upon the pursuit of wealth. Honest
and the honest gains of wealth
Is employed IN the service of society
are the bulwarks of civilization. But we
do say that examples of private greed are
the sources of public honor !;
examples of gigantic and countenanced
robbery are undermining the foundations
of public morality and corrupting the
national character.
Oar legislators have failed to see, or for
and corrupt reasons, have Winked
at the fact, that the laws which were
made to fit old-fa hioned ideas of honor
and morality instead of protecting the
the public, are the strength and the pro-
lection of dishonest men. The old. code
OF commercial honor is lost sight of in
the complex trans actions of stock iobbers,
who remain out of sight while their work
Is being done by constituencies factors;
by lawyers skilled in discovering loop
holes IN the law and in ju. Cling with the
by Hobbies with money at the doors
OF legislatures: by paper shares and paper
promises to pay by cipher messages and
spies, and by abusing the facilities of sto *
exchanges. 1t is well that our legislators
are making at least the show of inquiring
into the methods by which the publ, is
roooed n the interest of stockholders,
and they, IN turn, are robbed by corporate
managers; by which wholesale robbery is
cloaked with legal fo-ms of &c consolida-
ton" reorganization" "re2eiverships."
and "watered stocks" -; by which men
may safely conspire to pervert the natur al
course of production and trade, and rob
the public by the 1rtifce of corners -;
oy which a man is allowed to control
rival or double systems of railways, and
with IMMUNITY array n against the other,
as suits his varying purpose, thereby
desFoiling the public with the ease of a
gambler playing with marked cards.
What have the people to say about
.hese practices? They do not appear, as
yet, to have anything to say. The robber
princes are held is high esteem. They 90
.bout to the colleges, some of them, and
Of law and Doctors of Divinity
at their; if any Mordecai has
bow down before them, his name
got been reported. Men whose riches
AVE been increased by spelling their
leighbors are held up as shining examples
or the imitation of our youth. So long
8 teachers of morality silently indorse
UGH iniquities, it is not to be expected
hat the people will cry out against them.
31t the day is sure to come when plain
men " Il clearly see that no one man can
,et with clean hands, in an ordinary
a hundred million dollars; that