The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-05-12
ABOLISH POVERTY.
IT IS CAUSED BY VICIOUS
LEGISLATION.
Laws for the Favored Few at the Elk
lations Represent Plunder-"If Any
VIII Not Work Neither Shall He Eat
compromising Laws for an Equita-
BILE Distribution Of Wealth.


BILE Distribution Of Wealth.
Poverty is an unnatural condition in
q country of abundant natural re-
sources and not over populated. Pow
erty in the United States is mostly due
to vicious legislation. Every avenue
of trade and industry has been seized
by trusts, corporations, and stndicates,
for the purpose of amassing immense
fortunes at the expense of the toiling
millions. In many instances these
have been chartered by law and as
sisted by subsidies from the public
treasury. It is no longer secret that
their agents throng the Hobbies of our
State and National Legislatures for
the purpose of sec,s.ing favorable, or
defeating adverse, legislation. They
practically control legislation, and, in
many instances. the decisions of courts.
The growth of their power for the
past thirty years has been wonderful.
The concentration of capital which
they represent is constant menace to
our free institutions. The millions
they possess has been wrung from the
great industrial army of laborers. In
every possible way that human in
genuity could conceive of, toll has
been placed upon the earnings of labor
to fill the Golfers of spectators who
produce nothing A little here and
little there, toll on what we sell, and
tax on what we buy. s'All the traffic
will BEAR has been the only limit to
the exactions of these merciless mas
tiers of which the law either licenses or
permits. Could anything but poverty
result from such a system? And pow
erty we have. Not because mother
earth does not respond to our efforts
and yield up her rich resources,
but because our system taxes it out of
our possession, leaving us mere pit
tance. Thus we have the favored
! few" and the Impoverished many.
immense wealth on the one side and
immense poverty on the other. It is
I. impossible to have the one without
the other, because they are the legiti-
mate offspring of the same system, and
the existence of the one is the result
of the other. Abolish the laws which
create the one and the other will
quickly disappear. The equitable dis
tribution of wealth is. the greatest
question of the age, because on it de-
ponds the happiness of the human
race. By this we do not mean an
equal distribution of property, but
that labor shall have what it
produces, and the drones be COM
PEELED to work. eff any will not work
neither shall they eat.'' There
is justice in that. No man or woman
has right to dodge the supreme de-
cree. Sin the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread No man has right
to live Off the labor of others, only as
an object of charity on account of disa
bility to work ''But some men can
accumulate so much faster than
others Granted; but when he gets
enough to live on his natural life, stop
him. He needs no more and is onlv
robbing others. Put an income tax on
him that will redistribute his accumu-
lations as the compromising powers of
nature redistribute water that has
tendency to concentrate, or go towards
70
would act as an evener. It would
wipe out selfshness and abolish
poverty. With poverty abolished, by
abolishing it's cause, much crime would
go with it, for poverty is prolific
breeder of crime. If there is any OBJ
ject in government at all, it is to sspro-
mote the general welfare of the many
and not of the few. An immense
fortune is a crime against humanity,
because it causes many to suffer for
the benefit of the few. It represents
the earnings of others wrongfully OBJ
tanned. It is all the same whether OBJ
tanned by superior physical or intel
lectual force. 1t is stolen property, of
no value to the possessor, only such as
he can use in this life, and wrongfully
withheld from those who produced it
and need it. Itrepresents power, the
means Of corruption, and is con-
slant menace to good government
The object of government is good gov
eminent. 1t is the duty of government
to protec: the weak against the strong;
to remove every obstacle in the way of
securing the greatest good to the
greatest number. 1t is proper to do
this even though it may have to
abridge Or interfere with private
rights" for private rights are not as
sacred as the public good.'' Where
concentration of capital is necessary to
cheaper matters of public utility, let
government own and operate such en-
terprises for the public good, and not
permit them to be run for private
gain. In fact, in ali matters of public
utility, wipe out the element of profit.
In all matters restrain the encroach-
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