The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-10-12

condition and sold into slavery countless
millions OF white boys and girls are being
born into the most hopeless slavery under
which men can labor. They are being
born to struggle in the vicious undertOw
OF our present social order. 1t is a lie
to assert that they have an equal chance
to become capitalists instead of mere
wage carriers. \ doggerel poem recently
published has stated with more emphasis
and pathos than art this great fact:
You hadn't ought to blame man fer
things he hasn't done,
Fer books he hasn't written, er fer fights
he hasn't won:
The waters may look placid on the sur
face all around,
An yet there may be undertOW a-keepin
of him down.
Since the days of Eve and Adam, when
the fight of life began,
1t ain been safe, my brethren, Ter TO
lightly judge man;
He may be tryin faithful fer to make his
life 60,
An yet his legs git tangled in the treach'-
rOus undertOw.
He may not lack in learnin, an he may
not want fer brains;
He may be Away wOrkin with the patlen-
test Of pains,
An yet 60 unrewarded, an, my friends,
how can we know
What heights he might a-cllmbed up TO
but fer the undertOwn?
You've heard the Yankee story of the
hens nest with hole,
| An how the hen KEEP 1ayln eggs, with all
her might and soul,
| ct never got settin, nor single egg.
[ trOW
That hen was simply gickin gin hidden
undertow.
| There's holes in lots of hens nests, and
you've got to peep below,
To see the eggs a-rOllin where they
hadn't ought to go.
Don't blame man fer failin to achieve
laurel crown,
Until you're sure the undertow amt drag
gin of him down.
Third-The only glimpse OF light that
We see in the darkening picture OF our
present commercial calamlties comes
| from the spots where social cooperation
has taken the place of competition. We
| find here the key to the ultimate solution.
| If we are ever to do away with the ever
recurring crisis and collapse OF trade, we
must harmonic the two sides of wealth
creation and bring about the era when
| production shall become social and CO.
| operative, and to this end the organized
| power of the state, of the municipality
and of tie district must be brought into
! concerted and cooperative action. 1t is
! inevitable that with the advance ofcivili-
! cation the state shall advance in it's
| functions.
The state is not a tyranny imposed
! from without. BY the state | mean the
| organic community governing them
selves There are hundreds and thousands
OF men who are now employed directly
by the state. They are not subject to
| the depressions of commercial crisis.
1t is possible for the functions OF govern
ment to be gradually increased until vast
| interests now in the hands of private cor
porations will be placed entirely beyond
the danger OF panic. 1t is possible for
| the municipality to absorb to-day, and
that to its enormous advantage great
industries, that are in private hands.
The hour has come when the munich
pality should control all the great mo-
nopolies of municipal life. 1t should
control the entire system of transit OF
lighting and the supply OF water, and
| along these lines should continuously en-
large it's functions until the people shall
| in fact manage their own business. This
| could be done all the more readily if
| society as society could become con-
sciOus Of its tendencies and of its needs.
The way is being led now in this direc-
ton, if we but knew it. There are about
200 commercial trusts to-day monopo-
liZing the market of staple goods in
America, and there are ~ railroad cor
porations which practically control the
railroad mileage of the continent. These
consultations of interest in the form Of
trusts and gigantic companies have been
inevitable under our system of cOmpeti-
ton. Their confessed failure in the at
tempt to fight one another and their
coming together for protection and for
the regulation OF the output to suit the
demand points the way in the future for
society to save itself from Overproduc-
| ton and its consequent ruin.
These index figures point to the fact
that there are great mOnOpOlies to-day
which can be owned and controlled by
the people in their organic capacity and
lift their vast interests beyond the range
of commercial disorder. Every coal
mine in the nation to-day should be
owned by the government, operated by
its employees in behalf of those who work
them and those who consume their pro-
duct Our mines of gold and silver
should be owned and controlled by the
government, and our currency question
should be lifted at once from the plane
OF sectional politics and placed upon an
international basis, and by such an act
the people would be relieved from a gov
eminent by the bankers, OF the bankers,
and for the bankers. And the people
will learn it sooner or later. At present
our banking cOncers in their bills pre-
sented to congress are having things
pretty much their own way, as they have
hoI ~ he, I,,% ~, l.
discover their real power and the game
that has been played upon them so long
there will be change in the programme
1t is said that sailor once pitted a
half grown American eagle against a
game cock in South America for a fight.
For good while the young eagle did
not seem to understand what the cock
was about, as he jumped about him
and spurred him and picked pieces OF his
topknot out. He walked round with a
surprised and hurt expression as though
he did not know exactly what to make
OF the procedure. When it finally dawned
on him what this chicken meant by his
actions, it is said that the young eagle
simply reached out one claw, took the
chicken by the neck, placed his other
claw on his body and pulled his head
off.
III many ways to-day our tranSpOrta-
ton and distribution have been placed
upon cooperative basis. Our great
distributors have become great, gigan-
; tic, cooperative concerns. Our great
railroad corporations are becoming con-
soldated into greater concerns. The
way is here pointed to their further con-
solidation under the management OF the
people for their own benefit Our SUI
in
several important cases the great con
stltutlonal principles involved, and they
have decided them in favor of the public
character OF these functions
The United States supreme court de
cided in the New York grain elevator
cases that the state has the right tc
regulate the conduct and fix the price Of
any interest affected by the public in
terest. \ state Judge instructs a grand
jury that the rioting OF strikers is trea
son againts the state of Pennsylvania
Il 1