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

which should be allies, auxiiiarics anu
friends, are arraycd against each other
like hostile armies in fortified camps,
preparing for seige or battle. Millions
of money are annually lost in wages
the destruction of perishable property,
the deterioration of plants and the de-
crease of profits, by the strikes and lock-
outs which have become the normal
condition of the war between employ
ers and the unemployed.
Utopia is yet an undiscovered coun-
try. Ideal perfection in society, like
the mirage of the desert, recedes as 1t
is approached. Human nature remains
unchanged in every environment. VIII,
foresight, industry, sobriety. thrift and
economy succeed. Irresolution, folly,
idleness. waste and drunkenness fail.
To him that hath is given and from him
that hath not is taken away even that
which he seemeth to have. To one is
given five talents, to another two, to
another one-to every man according
to his ability. The wicked and sloth-
full servant digs in the earth and hides
his lords money, and is cast into outer
darkness to weep and gnash his teeth.
The good and faithful servant puts his
five talents to the eXchangers and Is
made ruler over many things
The condition of the masses is i'm
measurably bettered with the advance
of civilization. The poorest artisan to-
day has free enjoyment of comforts and
conveniences that monarchs with their
treasures could not purchase five CEN
turtles ago. But De Toqueville observed
the singular anomaly that rs the state
of the masses improves. they find 1t
more intolerable, and discomfort in
creases. Wants and desires are multi
piled more rapidly than the means Of
qualification. Education, daily news
papers, travel. libraries, parks, CALLER
les and shop windows have widened the
horizon of workingmen and women, in
creased their capacity for enjoyment.
familiarized them with luXuries and
the advantages of wealth. Political in
struction has taught them the equality
of man and made them acquainted with
the power of the ballot False teachers
have convinced them that all wealth is
created by labor and that every man
who has more than he can earn with
his hands by daily wages is thief,
that the capitalist is foe and the
millionaire public enemy who should
be outlawed and shot ut sight.
Although the tendency to centraliza-
ton of capital is excessive and should
he checked, it is not true that the pow
crty of the poor is due to the wealth
of the rich, nor that the laborer is
robbed by the employment of capital.
On the contrary, it is in those countries
where capital is most concentrated that
wages are highest and the accessories
of life cheapest and most abundant.
The statement of Marx. SO often re-
peated. that extreme wealth is the
cause of extreme poverty. is a fallacy.
1t might be correct if it were the parti-
ton of the estate of deceased person
among his heirs. or the division of
prize money among the captors of a
galleon. but as applied to the distribu-
ton OF the assets cf nation engaged
in productive industries by the inter-
changcable activity of its economic en-
crgies, it is an indefensible absurdity
to assert that the increase of wealth in
one class necessarily involves an in
crease of poverty in another. Each re-
ceives that portion to which 1t is enti-
tied by its contributions to the common
fund of wealth that is created by the
combined efforts of labor and capital.
The method of increasing the posses
sions of the poor is not by compulsory
or voluntary transfer from those who
have to those who have not, not by the
single tax, the abolition of rent, inter
est and profits, but by an increase OF
the aggregate wealth through greater
production and wider distribution.
Great private fortunes are insepara-
bic from high civilization. The richest
community in the world, per capita, is
the tribe of Usage Indians. It's aggre-
gate wealth is ten times, greater, pro-
portionately. than that of the United
| States. 1t is held in common. Com
munity of property may not be the
cause of barbarism, but in every state
as social and economic equality is APP
preached, and wealth created by Ia
Dor" without the intervention of CAPT.
tai, as in China and India, wages are
low, the laborer is degraded and progress
impossible. We're the wealth of the
United States equally distributed among
its inhabitants at this time the sum
that each would possess, according tc
the census, would be about $1,000
We're this equation to continue progress
obviously would cease Had this beer
the prevalent condition from the be-
ginning we should have remained sta
tionary. Only as wealth becomes con
centrated can nature be subjugated
/ and its forces made subseryient to civil