The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-09-30

the remotest members Of this gigantic
republic are animated by vitality as
vigorous az that which thrObs at its
mighty heart, and it is through the quick
ened intelligence that has been commune
Gated by those ideas that these conditions,
which have been fatal to other nations,
have become the pillars of our strength
and bulwarks of our safety
PowERLEas TO ENsLAvE.
We have become, Mr.. President, the
wealthie5t nation upon the face of this
earth, and the greater part of these enOr-
nous accommodations has been piled up dur
ing the past 20 years from 1860 to 1880
notwithstanding the losses incurred by
the most destructive war OF modern times,
the emancipation of four billions of slave
property, the expense of feeding the best
fed, of clothing the best clothed, and of
shetering the best sheltered people in the
world Notwithstanding all the losses by
fire and food. During that period of 20
years the wealth of the country increased
at the rate of $250OO0 for every hour.
Every time that the clock licked above the
portal of this chamber the aggregated,
accumulated, permanent wealth OF this
country increased more than $40. Sir, it
rivals, it exceeds the fictions of the Ara
bian Nights. There is nothing in the
story Of the lamp of Aladdin that sur
passes it. II is without parallel or prece-
don't; and the national ledger now shows
balance to our credit, after all that has
been wasted, and squandered, and ex-
pended, and lost, and thrown away, of be-
tween sixty and seventy thousand million
dollars. / believe myself, that upon fair
cash market valuation the aggregate wealth
of this country to-day is not less than one
hundred thousand millions of dollars. This
is enough, Mr.. President, to make every man
and every woman and every child beneath
the flag comfortable, to keep the wolf away
from the door; it is enough to give to every
family competence. And yet we are
told that there are thousands of people
who never have enough to eat in any one
day in the year. We are told by the stat
istioians of the Department of Labor of
the United States that, notwithstanding
this stupendous aggregation, ttere are a
million American citizens, able bodied and
willing to work, who tramp the streets of
our cities and the country highways and
byways in search of labor with which to
buy their daily bread in vain.
Mr., President, is it any wonder that this
condition of things can exist without ex-
citing profound apprehension | heard
or saw, rather, for did not hear it saw
in the morning papers that in his speech
yesterday the Senator from Ohio Mr.
SHERMAN devoted a considerable part OF
his remarks to the defense of milliOnaires
that he declared that they were the froth
of the beer of our political system.
Mr.. SHERMAN. l said spectators.
Mr.. INGALLS,. SpeculatorsH They
are very nearly the same, for the million
aires of this country, Mr., President, are
not the producers and the laborers. They
are arrayed like Solomon in all his glory
but "they toll not, neither do they spin y
yes, they do spin. This class, Mr.. Presi
dent, l am glad to say, is not confined ia
this country alone These gigantic &C,
oumulations have not been the result OF
INDUSTRY and economy. There would be
90 protest against them If they were.
The people are beginning to inquire
whether, under "a government of the
people, by the people, and for the people,
under a system in which the bounty OF
nature is supplemented by the labor Of
all, any citizen can show a moral-yes, or
a legal-title to $200000,00O.
Some have the temerity to ask whether
or not any man can show a clear title to
$l00,000,000. There have been men rash
enough to doubt whether, under a system
so constituted, by speculation or other
wise, any citizen can show q fair title tC
$10000000, when the distribution pei
capita would be less than $1,000 II
were put upon my uOir dire, should hest
tate before admitting that, in the sense Of
giving just compensation and equivalent
any man in this country or any Other
country ever absolutely earned million
dollars. do not believe he ever did
What is the condition to-day, Mr.. Presi
dent, by the statisticsS repeat that thu
people are not anarchists they are no
} socialists; they are not communists; bu
they have suddenly walked TO- the concep
, ton of the fact that the bulk of the prop
erty of this country is passing into tn
! Adhho VI Whob Nh0 DpldNbA AAOAl OuAOg "
euphemism, calls the "speculators o
} the world.
WEALTH Distribution.
A table has been completed for the pur
pose of showing how wealth in this coun
7 try is distributed, and it is full of thu
. most startling admoa:,.on. 1t has ap
, peared in the magazines; it has beef
! commented upon, in this chamber
{ has been the theme of editorial discus
T sion. 1t appears from this that there ar
+ in the United States 200 persons VIII,
7 have an aggregate of more than $4,000,
9 600 each, and there has been one man, tn
Q Midas of the century, at whose toucI
I everything seemed to turn to gold, VIII,
+ has acquired, within less than the lifetim
e of single individual, out OF the aggregat
o OF the national wealth that was earned b
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