The herald., 1894-07-06

VIM ier ~cutIo pAhht Oen 10 uupAiOSsoN
for $1S. .000.0 900 and possibly less. To pay
dividends upon this $67, 900, 900 OF
watered stock, people who use the tele-
graph lines are taxed about double what
they would have to pay in England or
Australia. You can send 10 words for
"a cents from Wodonga on the Murray
river to Warrangalla at the Queensland
boundary, distance Of 1126 miles; and
for two shillings (4s cents) you can send
ten words from Adelaide to Brisbane, q dis
tance OF 2277 miles. But there all the tels-
graph lines are owned by the govern
ment, which fact precludes all watering OF
stocks or increase OF charges TO pay divi-
dends upon fictitious valuations. That
is why many persons favor the owner
ship OF telegraph lines by the govern
ment. And though some people may
claim that there would be less protection
to senders of messages than now, we
would like to ask them whore was there
ever such a violation of the secrecy
OF the telegraph az was perpe-
trated by William Orton, president
of the Western Union company during
the Hayes-Tildsn imbroglio of 1857 ?
We have known of two Ortons in the
lifetime of generation-the one above
named and the Tichborne claimant; and
sometimes one would think that the
bogus Sir Roger was the better man oil
the two.
Do we favor the government owner-
ship OF the railways? Yes, provided the
system can be organized as in Australia
and India, with regulations that are In
cent;ves to vigilance and obedience. A
man serves through the preparatory
stages till he becomes a conductor. or
guard" as he is called. At AZ years
of age be is retired from active train
work, promoted to the rank OF station
master and given charge OF the first DOS
sible vacancy. At 81 years OF age. it
there are no charges against him, he. is
retired upon pension of 40 per cent OF
what were his last monthly wages. Be-
sides, any man injured in the discharge
of his duty gets q pension in the same
way. In this way, each and every man
has an object in view, ana we know OF no
greater incentive to sobriety, obedi-
ence and good behavior generally.
OF course there are many who
became careless and Indifferent and who,
through their own negligence, are dis
charged before reaching the period OF
pensioning, but the way lie open to the
sober, the industrious and the obedient,
now and always.
AS we have said, We do not regard this
as fight between capital and labor, but
but between labor and fictitious capital.
The crop of milionaires in America has
increased too rapidly for the public
good. Take the dissimlar cases of two
men recently deceased. Jesse Seligman
died and left $1,000, 900, amassed by
legitimate business methods covering
period OF 20 years. He started in with a
capital OF 100000, his brother contrib
uting an equal portion of the million
that lay bet cen them at period when
Jay Gould could not have raised $50. 900
to save his life. Yet Gould died six
months before Ssligman, and left for.
tune of s140. 100000, amasaed in lsas
than "a years. The difference was that
one was an honest man who merely
knew the value of money. whereas the
other was thief and pirate, who had
the highwayman's greed without the
highwayman's brute courage.
We see no way to check this criminal
method of making money through spur
ious valuations under our own form of
government. In England or any one Of
her dependencies the capital stock OF q
company would not be increased without
being paid up and certificates Of deposit
to that effect registered with the proper
officials. But here tie fictitious valua-
tions are reached. the watered stock
peddled in the exchange and then come
the reduction of wages and the strike.
with its consequent paralysis of all in
dustries. Meanwhile the anarchist,
Most. sits in his dingy den and applauds
murder of all who are in authority. And
as long as VIC see how ready the officers
of the law are to execute the behests Of
the fictitious capitalists and the trusts,
can we wonder that devils like Most are
permitted to air their bloedthirsty
vaporings without bsing punished or
even arrested for them?