Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-06-24

political economy proposed that has
not been repeatedly tried, with no re-
suit but individual disaster and ma
tional ruin.
To admit that the ignorance, wretch
edness, disease, want, poverty and
degradation of society are inevitable
and irremediable is to impeach God
To repeat the vain and paltry eX-
pedients which the experience OF CEN
turtles has rejected as frivolous chimeras
and vagaries. is to acknowledge that
civilization is failure and that mans
only refuge from the infirmities and
obstacles of his nature is in barbarism,
the equality of the savage, where all
fortunes and stations and conditions
are reduced to the level of the lowest
by the irresistible gravitation of its
basest appetites and the inertia OF its
most groveling instincts.
At last, after much random cropping
and many bloody and desperate COM
bats with kings and dynasties, privi-
lege, caste and prerogative, old abuses,
formidably intrenched orders, titles
and classes, the ultimate ideal of gov
eminent has here been realized, and
the people are supreme. The poor, the
toilers, the laborers are the rulers.
They make the laws. they form the in
situations Louis NV. said: 81 am
the state" Here the wage-workers,
the farmers. the blacksmiths, the fish
ermen, the artisans say: ''We are the
state" Coniscation and pillage and
the enrichment Of royal favorites
are unknown. Every man. whatever
may be his nativity, his faculty, educa-
ton or morality, has an equal chance
with every other in the race of life.
Legislation, whether good or bad, is
enacted by the majority. and bears
equally upon all. The means of educa-
ton are as widely diffused as the desire
to know, and the opportunities for hap
piness are commensurate with the ca
pacity to enjoy.
Less than century ago the social
condition in the United States was one
of practical equality. In our first CEN
sus period there was neither "A million
aire, nor pauper. nor tramp in the
country. The first American citizen to
pass the million-dollar goal was the
original Astor. about 1906 who had mi
grated from Germany not many years
before. the son of butcher, with a
pacl, of pelts as the foundation of his
fortune. The largest estate before this
time belonged to George Washington,
which. at his death in 1899, was APP
praised ut $500 Robert Morris, the
great financ;er of the revolution, had n
large credit, and he raised on his own
note, the sum of 81, 10000 required for
the final campaign against CORVALLIS.
ending ut Yorktown, but he became in
volved in disastrous real estate specu-
iations and died comparatively poor
The mass of the people We're farmers
and fishermen. living contentedly upon
the products of their toll. The devel-
opment of the continent by the intro
duction of railroads, agricultural
machinery and the scientific APP
plications of modern life has made us
the richest nation on earth. The ag-
gregate possessions of the country prob
ably exceed hundred thousand million
dollars, one half of which is said to be I'M
der the direct central of less than 30, 600
persons and corporations. The largest
private fortunes in the world have been
accumulated in the last half century in
| the United States. We have scores of
men whose annual incomes exceed in
amount the entire fortunes of Norris
and Washington, the richest men in
the country less than hundred years
ago. and one American estate surpasses
the assessed valuation of the four
, smallest states in the union when the
government was established in 17S9.
And our material resources are yet
hardly touched.
, Less than fourth part of our arabic
, area has been plowed. Our agriculture
! is thriftless and unscientific. Our
mines hide treasures richer than those
, OF Ophir and Potosi. Our manufactures
, and commerce are adolescent, but they
have already established an aristocracy
, of wealth that wears neither garter
{ nor coronet, and is proclaimed by nc
herald. but which is welcomed in the
/ courts of princes and the palaces OF
$ kings.
S If the unequal distribution OF the
) burdens and benefits of society depends
! upon legislation. institutions and gov
S eminent. then under a system like ours
the equilibrium should be restored. II
4 wealth results from unjust laws and
e poverty from legislative oppression the
r remedy is in the hands of the victims.
=. If they suffer it is from self-inflicted
wounds. We have no feudal tenures
| no primogeniture nor entail; no oopOr'
tunities that are not open to al us
r tice, equality, liberty and - -crnity
5 are the foundations of the state. In
every hand is the ballot. The school