St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-04
Below zero.
PF. LYONS. Local Forecast Official
LEGAL LARCENY.

A prominent Western divine asserts
that no man has accumulated 81, 10000
except by larceny. In this remark he
has no reference TO the road agent, train
robb@, foOtpad, burglar, common thief
Or confidence man, for these
never become rich. To use a para
doX, legal larceny is his meaning.
While his remark is in a measure ex-
travagant, it has a strong flavor of
truth. How by toll, legitimate profit on
merchandise, product Of industries, or
The operation of railroads, can one ac-
rumulate a cool million? 1t cannot be
done. A man may dig that much out of
gold mine; but it is doubtful if even
that has ever been done. Our bonanza
kings Of the West did not make their
millions by digging a hole in the ground
and shoveling gold and silver out of it :;
they made them by organizing mining
stock companies, creating great fever
and selling the shares; by corners in
mining stocks, and processes lden-
fical with those pursued Oh Wall street.
10 CALI a spade q spade, what is the
practical difference between the man who
holds you up at the point of revolver
and takes your gold watch, secures from
you 500 by confidence game, or steals
4 thousand or so, and the one who wa
tiers the stock of railway, POUNDS an
industry and floats upon the market
twice too much stock, establishes
monopoly, OF corners stocks and mar
ketS? just this difference: The former
has secnred but little, and done you no
great harm; but he has made himself
an outcast from society is the subject of
startling headlines in the newspapers,
and, pursued by detectives, he is caught
and sent to the penitentiary. The lat
ter has gained your confidence and the
last dollar you have in the world-made
your home deSolate and you a beggar;
but he has made his millions by the
neal, and, smiling triumphantly at the
ruin he has wrought. lives in luxury,
an honored member OF society.
There is scarcely railroad in the
land that is not capitalized from third
to two and three times the cost of its
right of way, construction and rolling
stock. When the farmers complain that
the cost of freighting their product to
market is so great that they can make
nothing Oh their grain, the railroad man
ager confrOnts them with figures show
Ing that he is not making l per cent on
the capital stock of his road, and thus
makes it appear that he cannot afford to
reduce the freight tariff.
By these methods, all of which are
well understood from one end of the
land to the other, the money of the
country is being centralized at an
alarming rate. The rich are growing
richer and the poor poorer. This is not
the cry of an alarmiSt, but truth known
TO everybody. The country has not
reached the brink of ruin, but at the
rate we are going the brink is not many
years distant. The sanction of the law
should be withdrawn from this moral
larceny. Many efforts have been made
10 secure national and state laws
prohibiting the watering of rail-
road stocks and limiting the amount Of
stock which may be issued by any enter
prise or concern; but they have always
been defeated, not on the ground of un-
constitutionality, but purely by lack
of votes. Ten years ago Senator JAMES
+. WILSON, of Iowa, all able lawyer and
man of great force, made the effort of
his life to secure the passage of such a
law by congress; but he was at length
0yerpowered by the railroad lobbyist.
The farmers have had possession of
many legislatures of this and other
states, but they have been defeated in
every effort to pass such laws. A noted
lobbyist said to friend some years ago:
ell prefer to work for railways in a
farmer legislature above'all other legis-
latureS. The susceptible man is ALWAYS
3here, and he doesn't come so high.n
When the sentiment becomes so strong
that a legislator or congressman will
not dare to look at lobbyist, there is
hope for relief from this octopus of
money power, and not till then.