The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-03
THE POOR NOT GROWING POORER.

THE POOR NOT GROWING POORER.
The vicious lie that 'the rich are grow
ing richer and poor growing poorer" that
we are threatened with government by q
moneyed aristocracy" makes its appear
ance in every political campaign which
includes a so-called "labor party" The
demagogues who circulate this lie do not
believe it; they utter it for revenue only.
just as the walking delegate forces wanton
strikes to justify his existence to those
who pay his salary out of their hard
earnings.
The worst enemies of labor have always
been those who seek to teach the work
men that the interests Of labor and capital
are antagonistic when as q matter Of fact
they are really reciprocal. Under the fed
eral constitution and the constitutions of
the states, the rich enjoy no favors which
are not extended to everybody else. This
is true, and because this is true, congress
was obliged to throw out Of court the sub
treasury scheme, which proposed that the
government should become q vast pawn
brokers' shop, lending the money of the
whole people on doubtful collateral to
part or class of the people.
The government cannot grant any
special favors to the wealthy and power
full .any more than it can grant special
favors to those who are not wealthy and
powerful. The government is not pawn
brokers' shop: neither is il a soup kitchen,
and the man or newspaper who tells the
labor of this country that under the law
Especial favors are granted to the wealthy
and powerful" that we are threatened
with the rule Of moneyed aristocracy
is either an ignoramus, a fool or a knave.
1t is not possible in a country where the
whole people make the laws, where the
rich are comparatively few in number, to
create practical plutocracy in govern
ment.
The average prosperity of this country is
higher than any country in the world.
Labor and capital are just as indispensable
to each other as the blades of scissors.
Separate the blades and neither one will
do alone the work of both united, but
rivet them together and the blades that
were worthless separated constitute a
useful article. The accumulations of the
rich establish industries and furnish
wages to labor. The pretense that there
is natural war betweeV labor and capital
is as old as human nature. Shakespeare
satirizes it in "Coriolanus" when he
makes Menenius Agrippa tell the fable
of the revolt of the members of the human
body against the belly to the turbulent
mob of Rome. We quote:
Aen There was time when all the body's
members
Rebell'd against the belly, thus accused It:
That only like gulf 1t did remain
/ she midst o the body Idle and inactive,
Still cupboarding the Wand, never bearing
Like labor with the rest. where the other instru-
meuts
Did see and hear devise, instruct, walk, feel.
And. mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
OF the whole body. The belly answered.
True is it, my incorporate friends" Quoth he.
THAT receive the genetal food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because am the storehouse and tho shop
OF the whole body; but, IL you do remember.
/ send it through the rivers OF your blood,
Even to the court, the heart. to the seat o. the
brain;
And, through the cranks and offices OF man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live"
The force Of Shakspeare's satire was il.
Illustrated long before his day by dema.
gogues seeking to intiame the poor against
the rich; labor against capital, and the
tabled revolt of the members against the
belly was not more absurd than an atti-
tude of chronic hostility between labor
and capital. TO intiame this hostility. to
increase and perpetuate it, is Indispensable
10 the life of labor demagogues, and this
kind of imposition will always be practiced
upon ignorant or non-reiiective labor until
demagogues shall be no more.
So far is it from the truth to saw that
while the 'rich have grown richer the
poor have grown poorer" that the con-
trary Is the fact; for as the country has
grown richer and individual fortunes have
grown greater, wages have increased and
the comforts of labor have been multi
piled. The record of the last fifty years
shows that neither in England or Amer
lea Is it true that the poor grow poorer:
labor is far better off than it was formerly.
The statistics of GitTen in England and
Atkinson in America show beyond dis
pute that the revolution in industrial civ
ilzation created by new discoveries and
the application of steam 10 machinery and
transportation have not only enriched the
few but have benefited the many. 1t could
not possibly be otherwise; the stronger
becomes the beat of the central heart of
industry. capital, the more blood must in
evitably be distributed 10 its limbs and
tentSces. labor. If Giffen and Atkinson
had not verified this by statistics every
thoughtful man would know that il must
&c true. The poor can grow poorer while
the rich grow richer only when capital is
the buried talent of the miser. but when
capital is invested in a manufacturing
plant that requires labor the rich canno,
possibly grow richer and the poor CROW
steadily poorer.
Oar republic was never 50 free from
class distinctions as it il today: there
never was less danger OF anv "rulinp
class" save the rule Of the L shortly, which
expresses the will Of the whole and eooat
people. In New York state formerly there
were lords Of the manor. the survival Of
the Old Dutch PATRONS, and the anti-rent
war grew ont Of this extinct aristocratic
society. property qualification was re-
CURED for voting IN nearly all the states.
4 Ia