The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-04-18
WEALTH AND MISERY
ACCOMMODATIONS OF THE PEOPLES
INDUSTRY HELD BY A FEW.

ACCOMMODATIONS OF THE PEOPLES
INDUSTRY HELD BY A FEW.
DR.. Foote Says That In Restitution of the
Peoples Wealth Lies the Solution Of the
Social Proble1n-How He Would Make
the Change and Employ Its Fruits.
DIR. E. B. Foote, Jr., president of the
Manhattan Liberal club and vice presi-
dent of the Science Sermons society, is
keenly interested in the solution of the
social problem. To a reporter Of the
New York Advertiser he talked on "Our
Great Wealth. What 1t Is, What It
Ought to Be and How to Transfer 1t. y
I'm times like the present. he said,
when almost every one feels the pinch
OF depressed trade, there is naturally
pretty general disposition to ask,
What's the matter with the system we
are living under?' Some are content to
find a short and easy solution of the
problem in mistakes Of politicians of
the other party, but most of us are old
enough to remember that pinching times
have occurred before, and under admin
istrations of both political parties, and
therefore feel like finding fault with the
system financial, industrial and social
Our country is but little over 100
years old and has in those years accumu-
lated remarkable amount of substan-
tial productive wealth. It interests us
all to know who now owns the most of it,
and some statistician Of CENSUS figures
has endeavored to tell us how it is dis
tributed His statement is being oft
quoted, but for my purpose must be
again given briefly. About 4, 900 families
among the multimillionaires own 20
per cent of accumulated wealth, over
1000, 900 more families possess 81 per
cent, and 20 per cent is left for over
II, 500, 900 families, or over rs per cent
of our property is in the hands Of per
cent of the population, while 81 per cent
Of the people hold only 25 per cent of
the wealth.
'Those who think the system is about
right as it is claim that productive
wealth is the result of savings, accumu-
lations; that it is invested in properties
that employ labor, and that if it had
been more evenly distributed as fast as
produced it would not have been saved
up for use in it's present shape, and so
we would not only be less wealthy as
people, but should have fewer factories,
railroads and other Investments that
keep labor employed. They go on to show
that, Of the consumable wealth produced
each year, half goes to labor in wages,
a large proportion is used up in repairs
and extensions of industrial plants, while
the rest is available for the maintenance
and luxuries of the well to do.
eve are told that instead Of railing
at the multimillionaires we should re-
joice that they have the ability to
invest properly, hoard and reinvest and
thus constitute themselves and their
families the care takers Of those accu-
mutations which, if not the property of
us all, are indirectly serviceable in af-
fording houses to rent, railroads to trav-
81 on and workshops to e1up1uy millions
OF hands. Since even the extreme
wealthy can only consume limited
amount of the annual production Of new
stuff, they ought to be allowed the en-
joyment of luxuries, unattainable by
all, as extra compensation for the care
and worry Of management Of the vast
accumulated wealth which must afford
means of comfort and subsistence for
others indirectly.
eve are further told by the philoso-
piers Of content some might call them
the hirelings Of capital-that the work
ers should be content with the half of
the annual wealth produced, paid to
them in wages, and the opportunity to
live in modern buildings and work in
first class factories with the most i'm
proved machinery, but the present press
ing problem for these philosophers is to
explain how and why the masses should
be content when the work is shut down,
when there is no income to pay rent and
no sufficient means of sustenance until
such time as capital finds it expedient to
These are the times that test our system
Of intrusting capital in few hands,
while the masses live from hand to
mouth. It is only charity that saves it
from being worse system than actual
slavery.
"When laborers are the property Of
capital, they must be maintained, even
when there is no work to be done, in or
der that they may be on hand and avail
able for work when needed. An express
company, with more horses than can be
kept at work just now, would put them
out to grass or keep them in condition
to be fit for work as business re~ives,
but the employees are discharged to
hustle for themselves, with the idea,
acted upon if not expressed, that if they
should starve or suicide their places can
be filed by other men who manage to
beg and scrape an existence until the re-
vival of trade.
''The working Of our system has no
doubt proved the advantage Of accumu
lating wealth, of investing it in lasting
improvements, in buildings that will
stand l, 900 years instead of 100, in rail
roads, bridges, canals and all sorts Of
permanent business plants, but occa-
sions like the present make US doubt the
wisdom Of permitting the vast accumu
lations to stand in the names Of individ-