Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1892-09-29

bounty of nature, an aggregate that OK
ceeded the assessed value of four of the
smallest States in this Union.
Mr., HOAR. And more than the whole
country had when the Constitution was
framed.
Mr.. INGALLS,. Yes-and as the Sen
ator from Massachusetts we'll observes,
and 1 thank him for the suggestion :
much more, many times more than the
entire wealth of the country when it was
established and founded. Four hundred
persons possess $10,0O0,000 each, 1000
possess $35,OOO,OO0 each, 1000 possess
100000 each, 5000 people 100000
each, making total of 81 900 people who
possess $36,250,O00,000.
Mr.. President, it is the most appalling
statement that ever fell upon mortal ears
It is, so far as the results of democracy
as social and political experiment are
concerned, the most terrible commentary
that was ever recorded in the books of
time and Nero fiddles while Rome burns
II is thrown off with a laugh and sneer,
"as the froth upon the beer" of our
political and social system. As said,
the assessed valuation recorded in the great
national ledger, standing to our credit, is
about $751;, 000, 100000. Our population is
81, 800 900; and by some means, by some
device, by some machination, by some
incarnation, honest or otherwise, by some
process that cannot be defined, less than
two -thousandth part of our popula-
ton have obtained possession land have
kept out of the penitentiary in spite of
the means they adopted to acquire it of
more than one-half of the entire accumu-
lated wealth of the country.
NOT THE WORST.
That is not the worst, Mr.. President.
1t has been largely acquired by men who
have contributed little to the material
welfare of the country, and by processes
that I do not care in appropriate terms
to describe - by the wrecking of the for
tunes of innocent men, women and chill
dren; by jugglery, by bookkeeping, by
financiering, by what the Senator from
Ohio calls speculation"-and this process
is going on with frightful and constantly
accelerating rapidity. The entire indus
try of this country is passing under the
control of organized and confederated
capital. More than nifty of The accessories
Of life today, Without tohich the cabin Of
the farmer and the miner cannot be lighted
or his children fed or clothed, have passed
absolutely under the control of Syndicdtes
and trusts and corporations composed of
spectators, and by means of these COM
binations and considerations competition
is destroyed, small dealings are rendered
impossible, competence can no longer be
acquired; for it is superhuous and unnec-
essary to say that if, under a system where
the accumulations distributed per capita
would be less than $1,000, $1,000 persons
obtained possession of more than half Of
the accumulated wealth of the country, it
is impossible that Others should have a
competence or an independence. So it
happens, Mr.. President, that our society is
becoming rapidly stratiied, almost hope
lessly stratified, into condition OF super
huously rich and helplessly poor. We are
accustomed to speak of this as the land
of the free and the home of the brave.
10 tuiu soon be The home Of the rich and the
land of the SLAVE.
1t is no wonder, Mr.. President, that the
laboring, industrial and agricultural classes
of this country, who have been made in
telligent under the impulse of universal
education, have at last awakened to this
tremendous condition and are inquiring
whether or not this experiment has been
successful; and, sir the spectators must
beware. They have forgotten that the
conditions, political and social, here are
not reproduction of the conditions I'M
der which these circumstances exist in
other lands. Here is no dynasty; here is
no privilege, or caste, or prerogative;
here are no standing armies; here are no
hereditary bondsmen, but every atom in
our political system is quick, instinct, and
endowed with life and power. His ballot
at the box is the equivalent of the ballot
of the richest Spectator. Thomas Jeffer-
son, the great apostle of modern democ-
racy, taught the lesson to his followers,
and they have profited we'll by his instruc-
ton, that, under a popular democratic
representative government, wealth, Gull
ture, intelligence, were ultimately no
match for numbers.
JUST, BUT JEALOUS.
The numbers in this couUuy, Mr. Presi-
dent, have learned at last y power of
combination, and the spectators should
not forget that while the people of this
country are generous and just, they are
Jealous also, and that when discomfort
changes to resentment, and resentment
passes into evaporation, one volume of
nations history is closed and another
will be opened.
Mr.. President, the cotton product of
this country, l believe, is 100000 bales.
Mr.. BUTLER. Seven million bales.
Mr.. INGALLS,. Seven million bales, l
am told. The transactions of the New
York Cotton Exchange are 100000
bales, representing transactions specula-
tive, profitable and remunerative, by which
some of these great accumulations have
been piled up, an uncomfortable burden
upon the energies and industries of the
country. The production of coal oil,
believe, in this country, has averaged
something like 20,O00,00O barrels IN
year. The transactions of the New York
Petroleum Excnange, year by year, aver
age 2,000,000,000 barrels, fictitious, simu-
lated the instruments of the gambler and
the SPECTATOR, by means of which, through
an impost upon the toll and labor and in
dustry of every laborer engaged in the
production of petroleum., additional diff
culties are imposed. 1t is reported that
the coal alone that is mined in Pennsyl-
vania, indis pensable to the comforts of
millions of men, amounts in its annual
product to about $40,O00,000, of which
one-third is profit over and above the cost
of production and a fair return for the
capital invested. That is Speculation"
Mr.. President, and every dollar over and
above the cost of production with fair