The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-06-23

ermen, the artisans say: "We are the
state" Confiscation 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
paeity to enjoy.
Less than a century ago the social
condition in the United States was one
of practical equality. In our first CEN
sus period there was neither million
aire, nor a pauper, nor a 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 a butcher, with a
pack 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 at $3.50, 0O0 Robert Morris, the
great fnancier of the revolution, had a
large credit, and he raised on his own
notes the sum of 81, 400, 900 required for
the final campaign against CORVALLIS,
ending at Yorktown, but he became in
volved in disastrous real estate specu-
lations and died comparatively poor.
The mass of the people were 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 80, 900
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 Morris
and Washington, the richest men in
the country less than a 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 1889.
And our material resources are yet
hardly touched.
Less than fourth part of our ara BILE
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 esta blished an aristocracy
of wealth that wears neither garter
nor coronet, and is proclaimed by no
herald, but which is welcomed in the
courts of princes and the palaces of
kings.
If the unequal distribution of the
burdens and benefits of society depends
upon legislation, institutions and gov
eminent, then under system like ours
the equilibrium should be restored. If
wealth results from unjust laws and
remedy is in the hands of the victims.
If they suffer it is from self-inhicted
wounds. We have no feudal tenures,
no primogeniture nor entail; no oppor-
tunities that are not open to all. JUS
tice, equality, liberty and fraternity
are the foundations of the state. In
every hand is the ballot. The school
offers education to all. The press is
free. Speech, thought and conscience
are unfettered.
But universal suffrage has not proved
a panacea for the evils of society. Pow
erty is not abolished. Though wealth
has accumulated beyond the dreams of
avarice, the inequality of distribution
is as great as in the time of job and
Scion and Agis. Many are called, but
few are chosen. Dives is clothed in
purple and fine linen and fares sumptu-
ously every day, while Lazarus longs
for the crumbs that fall from the rich
mans table. Not only is the old prob
lem unsolved, but its conditions are
complicated and intensified. Vaster
political power is consolidated in the
hands of the few and more stupendous
fortunes acquired by individuals under
a republic than under monarchy.
The great gulf between the rich and
the poor yawns wider and wider day by
day. The forces of labor and capital,
which should be allies. auxiliaries and
friends, are arrayed 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
of the war between employ
ers and the unemployed.
The condition of the masses is i'm
bettered with the advance
of civilization. The poorest artisan to-
day has free enjoyment of comforts and
that monarchs with their
treasures could not purchase five CEN
turtles ago. But De Toqueville observed
the singular anomaly that as the state
of the masses improves, they find it
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
a public enemy who should