The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-10-26

machinery, to do the work of many,
thus leaving the country filled with
labOrers, but unable to find employ
ment, and giving to capitalists who
are able to purchase machinery the
opportunity from the surplus of
laborers to employ them at their
own prices.
But it is chiefly the laws of prop
erty which have enabled the few to
accumulate vast wealth while the
masses live in poverty. For many
generations our laws have been
framed with view to the claims of
property rather than the rights of
man. For ages the money power
has controlled legislation the world
over, and, l am sorry to say, has
eXerted controlling influence in
our own land for many years. In
the language of the declaration of
independence "All men are Gre
ated equal and endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness." If man has an inalieable
right to life, then he has a right to
the means which sustain life, and
of which he cannot be justly de-
prived by laws which permit one
man, or set of men, to so absorb the
means of life as not to leave suf-
ficient to sustain the lives Of all.
WEALTH GRAsPED BY THE FEW.
Do such laws exist =? and if so,
how came they into existence?
In Great Britain, whence we have
derived most of our laws of prop
erty, the policy is to build up great
estates. Hence by the laws of that
country land descends to the eldest
son, to the exclusion of the other
children. The effect of this is to
limit the ownership of land to a few
persons.
In this country we have abolished
the laws of plimogeniture, by which
the eldest son inherited the landed
estate of his ancestor, but here vast
estates are being rapidly accumu
lated in few hands, and this is
especially true during and since the
war Of the rebellion. In 1860 there
were few millionaires and few large
fortunes in this country, but since
then rich class has sprung up, so
that in 1890, according to reliable
statistics, 1 per cent of the people
owns as much wealth as the other
80 per cent. In 1890 there were
1850, ,1S2 families in the United
States, and according to George X.
Holmes, in the Political Science
Quarterly, 4,O47 of these possessed
seven-tenths of the wealth. Just
think of it. One family possessing
the wealth of 1000 families in the
country over! In the city of New
York alone there is said to be five
men whose aggregated wealth ex-
ceeds $30O,OO0,0OO. How many
hundred millions are held by var
ious wealthy corporations, coal, and
oil syndicates and other trusts |
am unable to state. In each of the
cities of New York and Chicago
more than 100000 men and women
willing to work were ont of employ
ment last winter, many of whom
must have perished for want but
for charity's aid. These conditions
another winter promise to be no
better.
The richest corporations and per-
sons on earth are probably in the
United States. How have they
accumulated their vast fortunes ?
Surely not by their own industry
: and thrift, but by the aid of stat
utes regulating the rights of prop
erty, generally statutes providing
for the transmission of property by
descent or by will, or the creation
of monopolies.
1t is only by virtue of statutory
law that man is permitted to make
disposition of his property by will,
and it is only by virtue of statutory
{ law that one person is permitted to
{ inherit property from another, and
, it is by virtue of statute law that
great corporate monopolies have
, been built up. No man has a
natural right to dispose of property
after death, nor has one person a
, natural ri0ht tO inherit nrOnartv