New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1893-06-14

y
ton Of the state. In every hand is the
ballot. The school offers education to
all The press is free. Speech, thought
and conscience are unfetttred.
But universal suffrage has not proved.
a panacea for the evils ofsociety. Power
" is not abolished. Though wealth has.
accumulated beyond sthe dreams Of avar-
ice, 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
the gulf still wears fine linen and fares
sumptuously every day, while Lazarus
longs for the crumbs that fall from the
rich mans table. Not only is the old
problem unsolved, but its conditions are
complicated and intensified. Vaster POI
litical power is consolidated in the hands
Of the few and more stupendous fortunes
acquired by individuals unoer 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 siege or
battle. Millions of money arc. annually
lost in wages, the deterioration Of plants
and the decrease Of profits by the strikes
and lockouts which have become the nor
NAL condition of the war between EN-
ployers and the unemployed.
Utopia is yet an undiscovered country.
Ideal perfection in society, like the mir.
age of the desert, recedes as it is app
preached. Human nature remains I'M
changed in every environment. Will,
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, tn another two. to an
other one-to every man according to
his ability. The wicked and slothful
servant digs in the earth and hides his
lords money, and is cast into outer dark
ness to weep and gnash his teeth. TIE
good and faithful servants puts his five
talents to the exchangers and is made
ruler over many things.
The condition of the masses is immea-
surably bettered with the advance of civ
ilization. The poorest artisan today has
free enjoyment of comforts and conven-
fences that monarchs with their treasures
could not purchase five centuries ago.
But De Toqueville observed the singular
anomaly that as the state of the masses
improves they find it more intolerable,
and discomfort increases. Wants and de-
sires are multiplied more rapidly than
the means of qualification. Education
daily newspapers, travel, libraries,parks,
galleries and shop windows and women,
increased their capacity for enjoyment, IA
miliarized them with luxuries and the
advantages Of wealth. Political instruc-
ton has taught them Inequality of man
and made them acquainted with the pow
er Of the ballot. False teachers have
convinced them that all wealth is Great
ed by labor,and that every man has more
than he can earn with his hands by daily
wages is a thief, that the capitalist is a
foe and the millionaire public enemy
who should be outlawed and shot. at
sight.
Although the tendency to centraliza-
ton of capital is excessive and should
be checked, it is not true that the poyer-
ty Of the poor is due to the wealth Of. the
rich, nor that the laborer is robbed by
the employment Of capital. On the con-
trary, it is in those countries where capii-
tai is most concentrated that wages are
highest and the necessaries Of life cheap
est and most abundant The statement
of MARI, so often repeated, that; extreme
wealth. is the cause Of extreme poverty,iis
!. - ~, 81
a fallacy. It might be correct if it were
the partition Of the estates Of a deceased
person among his heirs, 81: the division
Of prize money among the captors Of a
galleon but as applied 70 the distribution
of the assets Of q nation engaged in pro-
ldnctive, Industries BY the lnter changeablel
activity Of its e.ocomic energies il IS an
indefensible absurdity to assert that the
increase Of wealth IN one class necessari-
II involves an increase Of poverty IN an
other. Each receives that portion to
which VII it is entitled BY its contriib buttons
10 HE COMM IN sf,,nI1 ~ moe,