The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1892-09-09

that gave an agreeable surprise. The
impression prevails that our flax can be
worked up into coarser articles only
that the climate is not suitable to grow
fiber that will work into fine linens.
Judge Brookings pronounces this nom
sense. We can produce as good flax
here as in Russia or Belgium. The
sample of linen thread shown us would
show a foundation for the assertion.
The Mail would like to have the flax of
this county used to feed home linen
manufactures, even at the cost of CIV
ing our high protection friends the
right to chuckle for the Mckinley law,
which claimed to encourage the growth
of flax fibers of the finest grade in the
country. The Mail will never permit
the partisan to run away with the pat
riot.
#**
The following extracts from a recent
non-politicaL article by Rev. H. D.
Jenkins of Sioux City, in the Chicago
Interior, go right to the heart of the
existing situation;
"The rich are growing richer, and the
poor are growing poorer in this country
Gashmu said it, and a thousand orators
it. In this present year of grace it will
batting societies and in every grange,
and shouted in every labor hall with
out rest. Interested leaders will thun-
der it, and sympathetic preachers will
groan it. And yet every we'll informed
citizen of the United States knows that
it has not the shadow of truth for lis
foundation. 1t does not even so much
as approximate the truth. 1t is simply
the stock-in-trade of a good many
knaves and few fools.
~
Yet this Gashmu from over the sea,
born under the shadow of a palace and
suckled in beer garden, roars it; and
those whose interest is in fomenting
discomfort, repeat it. 1t figures in all
those public addresses which are con-
spicuous alike for vehemence of asser-
tion and for paucity of proof. That
wealth and poverty should tend to in-
crease each its own condition is but to
say that nature is nature, and that the
day of miracles in political economy is
past-if it ever existed. That which
made a man poor is very likely to keep
a man poor; and the ladder by which a
man climbs to competence is very likely
to lead him to atfluence if he persevere.
There does not seem to be anything in
this fact against which one can with
reason rebel.
To answer this question it is necessary
to note the changes in wages and inIer-
est, and TO compare the accumulation of
late years on the part of both labor and
capital. Are wages falling? Is inter-
est increasing? To ask these questions
is 10 answer them in the mind of any,
one fitted to discuss the theme; for of
all facts patent to the most careless OBJ
server the rise of wages and the fail of
interest are the most obvious. Men of
middle life remember without difficulty
when domestic service was we'll paid in
the country at 81 week, and in
the city at from S1.50 to So. Farm
hands received S12 month, and day
laborers in the town ST. day. Today
The servant in the kitchen gets from
$3.50 to SIS a week, averaging not less
than So. The farm labor that brought
Sl2 a month costs $26 now; with So and
even So q day during harvest for extra
hands. The government commissioner
reports the price o. skilled labor as
commanding, for carpenters, sl4 week
in New YORK and $16.50 in Chicago.
Bricklayers get S20 a week in New
York and S24 in Chicago: and SO on
through eighty various kinds of en-
ployment. If the poor man is growing
poorer it is not because he is paid less
money for his toll. IN comparison with
the rich it does not matter what his
necessary expenses of Lying are, since
the rich man pays the same prices. If
food and raiment cost one more, they
cost any body more than they did twen-
the purchaser has changed his manner
Of living: for the bureau of statistics
reports an average decline of "A l1-1OO
per cent. in the sixteen articles of most
common consumption in the house since
1866, or in the past twenty-five years.
This list includes -four, pork. bees, sug-
ar, butter, cotton and woolen goods, and
similar necessities. If the poor man is
growing poorer, the cause Of his poverty
must be sought elsewhere than in the
prices paid at market and shop for food
and clothing.
*x*
But what shall we say about the rich
man that has been ''growing richer?"
Are the conditions of life so changed
that his capital constantly augments
itself? Is his wealth a rolling ball that
has naught to do but keep moving and
increasing? OF course there are rich
men growing richer, but is such condi-
tion Of affairs due to personal gifts or
economic environment? The standard
by which all increment of capital is
measured in any country is naturally
the rate at which the government can
borrow for its own use. Money will
not seek the treasury OF a nation at
lower rate of interest it the opportuni-
ties for its profitable investment are
elsewhere multiplying. What are the
facts in our own nation? According to
Mr.. Blaine, on the first day of January,
1866, there were outstanding United
States bonds to the amount of S2,739,-
49l, 745, yielding to the investor an av-
erage interest of 6.62 per cent. Octo-
Der 81, 1890. there were outstanding of
such bonds $649,56l, 1852 producing to
the investor an average income of 2.25
per cent. If the rich man is growing
richer, it is not by becoming "a bloated
bondholder," that is sure. In all dema-