The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-08-02
THE COUNTRY Is ALL RIGHT.

rymose fools. Republican institutions
are not for an instant in danger, and
never will be. Capital is not going to
grind labor under its remorseless heel,"
nor is labor going to "sweep the land
with the red bosom Of anarchy"
Nothing of the kind. The Anglo
Saxon race is the most vigorous, pro-
gressive, earnest race in the world.
Consequently it is constantly agitating
something with a great deal Of force and
vim. Timorous, short-sighted fools have
always imagined these agitations to be
the signs of dissolution and woes innu
merabIe. Instead, they are the symp-
toms of vigorous growth and health.
The race is always going ahead, and the
result of these turmoils has never failed
to be a great advance in the direction of
law, order, justice, and right. 1t is
what has given the peoples of this race
the proud position they now occupy.
There is never going to be any de-
structive conflict between capital and
labor, because it is the people themselves
who at once own all the capital of the
country and do all the labor. While
there are a few very rich men, fully SO
per cent. of the property of the country
is owned by the men who are doing the
work of the country. Much the largest
aggregation of capital in the country are
the savings of the New York, Pennsyl-
vania, New jersey, and New England
working men. This money builds rail
roads and factories, and does much of
the work popularity attributed to the
Vanderbilts and Goulds and the money
kings of Wall street. The wage-earners
of the United States had a year ago
nearly s2,O0O,00O,O00 to their credit in
the various savings banks. This item
alone amounted to about oHe-thirty-
third of the valuation Of the entire prop
erty of the country. This money was moi
lying idly in the vaults of the banks,
but was invested in all manner of bonds
of railroads, factories and other enter
prises to pay interest to the depositors.
If We add to this sum the value of the
farms and homes, and the investments
Of all kinds made by the wage-workers
of the country, it viii be found that sub
stantially all the property of the country
is in their hands. The rich men really
own but very small proportion of the
whole. We see one very rich man, and
fix our attention ON him. We say he is
worth 100000, when probably he
has not one-quarter that. We forget
that around him are 10000 other men
owning from few thousands up TO tens
of thousands worth of property, and
that the sum of their owning would
make his seem the merest fraction.
1t is absurd to think that all these
men are going to make war against their
own property.
1t is no less absurd to think that these
owners of capital are going to crush the
life out Of labor
As capital-owners and labor-owners
are in the great majority of cases the
same persons, it is arrant folly to think
that they will cut their own threats one
way or another.
Another preposterous mistake is to
assume that any one class Of workers
has the right to start up and assume to
be the only working men in the country,
and that they only have any particular
rights.
For example, we had a recent disturb
ance by men claiming to represent the
railroad employees If these men had
really represented every man employed
on the railroads, they would have had
CONTINGENCY of less than 100000, or
not one in % Of the wage-earners of the
whole country. When looked at clearly
and calmly, it was seen to be arrant
nonsense for these men to claim that they
had rights superior to those of other
wage-earners. They had just as many
rights, but not one more. They could
not claim exemption from suffering, to
which everybody was subject.
The strike failed because the common
sense of the people said that these men