The herald., 1894-03-18
MANS COLUMN.
coxDucrEp by eoe AND MAeoa.


machinery, we have not yet been able
to invent some machine which will
gauge to a hairline the amount OF
squeezing We can give one another with
perfect inpunity. That is the machine
we need more than anything else. With
out it we work in the dark, experiment.
ally, and at any moment now we may
discover that we have squeezed too long
and too hard; when something may
drop, possibly you or me, who have
been 80 intent on the squeezing process
that we have forgotten to watch our
victims. True, human nature is very
elastic and will bear lots OF cornering,
cribbing, freezingI out. subjugsting; u
great deal OF eenaeless chatter at high
cost about the "honest dollar" gold
basis" and ''gold reserve;" will bear
long with our fraudulent political course
before election and class legislation and
lodging of vital issues afterwards.
But it is ticklish to contemplate the
fact that at any moment now we who
dwell in kings palaces and fare sump-
tuously every day, with the unemployed
on starving basis, may squeeze little
too long and hard, and so become victims
ourselves-victims to an outraged popu-
lace, who, again like ourselves, may not
know when to stop when once they have
adopted our tactics.
Already our money squeeze has been
carried to degree endangering not only
our own personal safety and welfare,
but menacing to the stability OF our
civil institutions. Is it not time to call
q halt2 Why not ourselves, monopo-
lists-we who are in congress and we
who are not. yet know how to get what
we want-really set about in business
way to do something to relieve the starv-
ing times; really legislate in the peoples
behalf for q healthy change, even put
our hands into our private pockets at
loss for another change, and keep them
there until the industrial wheels OF the
nation are moving and our unemployed
are disintegrated and st work? Then,
when all are busy, fed up and "at
home" once more, we can begin our
squeezing process anew. Yes, gentle
men, for the sake OF good squeeze
ahead, let us without delay take meas
ures to get our unemployed into healthy
activity.
This question of money involving,
seemingly, so much complexity as in
trinsic, or ratio value, silver certificate,
gold bearing bonds, promissory notes,
treasury notes, money of account or
money of credit, all these with many
other priestly requirements by the
fatherly fnancier of the John Sherman
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. has about as
much to do with our national salvation
as the understanding OF the trinity doct-
rine with personal redemption. This
mystery which is supposed to hang
around the money trinity disappears as
readily as the theological one when We
apply either to practical use.
Money has only relative value rep
resenting the various wants of man in
dividuslly or collectively and sufficient
quantity should circulate to represent
all the legitimate wants OF the national
family hence the quantity should be in
creased or diminished to suit the in
creased business and nesds of this great
nation. All this nonsense about q gold
basis would be like an attempt of John
Sherman regulating the diurnal motion
OF the earth by the timepiece at Lon
don or by the watches of the Wall street
bankers. Money has an economic rela-
tion to every person, and to supply all
wants not furnished by the work of each
individual is the only legitimate func-
tion of money.
"'Tis money that makes the mare
CO." and it takes money to make the
man 20 and money to move the nation.
Our salvation just now depends upon
the condition of our national treasury,
and not the standing army or Gatling
gums. It ia the blood OF the country,
the circulating medium of national life
it gives strength and health to the mus
cles and tissues of our nation, as the
health OF the physical body depends on
the healthy dispensing of this life
warmth throughout the human body.
Gorge it at one point with an over
supply and we have fever, which, long
continued produces death. So with our
national body, drawing away this life
current is death.
Prof. r. I. Ely of the university of
Wisconsin addresses himself to the
discussion OF various undertakings which
are monopoliea by virtue of their inher-
ent properties. These are railways, tel
egraphs, telephones, canals, irrigation
works, harbors. gas works, street-csr
lines and the like. They have all come
into existence within the present CEN
tury, and their growth has been 80 mar
velous that they now represent perhaps
more than one-fourth of the total wealth
of our industrial civilization. Among
the chief of the many evils flowing from
these great monopolies, are the sec
ondary monopolies which have origin
ated in the favoritism of the railways
and other great natural monopolies.
This involves a great inequality of for.
tune, which is in itself an evil in re-
public. 1t involves alao the dependence
of the rest of the community upon those
who furnish services or commodities of
the kind which fall under the designa-
tion natural monopoly" In the time
of our forefathers monopolies were large
ly political; now they are mainly eco
nomic, and economic monopolies are
menace to the public.
AS a measure OF neces sRry reform,
Professor Ely advocates the naturaliza-
ton of all natural monopolies, believing
the measure would go long way toward
the abolition of special economic privi-
leges; disposing, in fact. of the "un-
earned increment" This is not social
ism. A policy which leaves to private
enterprise agriculture, manufactures
and commerce ia quite different from
policy which leaves no field for inde-
pendent private enterprise. 10 the
Socialist, Prof. Ely says: Let us try
this reform first. 1.-THE Literary Digest
from North American Review for March.
nf