The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-24
Would Affect Only q Few.

do not mean to say that all great for
tunes exceeding q million have been ac-
quired by immoral means, but such as
have are the exception, and to limit the
privilege OF disposing of more than a mil
lion by devise or descent would not affect
ono in $1,000 of the people. In short such
limitations would tend to discourage not
honest enterprise or industry, but stock
jobbing, trickery and other questionable
methods of acquiring vast fortunes.
We have already abolished primogcni-
ture, by which the eldest son, to the cx-
clusion of all other children, inherits tho
entire landed estate of his ancestor, and
no one in this country at this day would
think of restoring that right, although it
still obtains in England. If limitations
should be put upon the disposition of vast
estates by will or descent, future genera
lions would look upon our present laws,
which allow such estates to be perpetuated
in certain families, with the same disfavor
with which we now look upon the laws of
primogeniture.
EMISSIONS of law limiting the amount of
property to be devised or inherited by con-
veyances during life could be prohibited
in like manner as cOnveyances in fraud
of creditors are now prohibited.
But how are these laws of property to
be modified or changed? They are the re-
suit of centuries of organized injustice.
Will the money power which now cxer-
cises such a controlling influence in ma
tional and state legislation consent to a
modification or change of the laws Of
property by which great estates have been
accumulated and perpetuated, and which,
as a rule, are a detriment rather than a
blessing to those to whom they descend?
A young man of 81 starting out in life
with 100000 at his disposal is better off
and more likely to become useful men,
Der of the community and benefit to
mankind than if left at the same age with
$1,000, 900 or $50, 900, 900 at his disposal.
A daughter when arriving at age with
a sufficient income to support her comfort.
ably through life is better off than if left
with millions at her disposal, to become q
prey to some adventurer, or with which to
purchase title from some profigatc scion
of an effete nobility and then a divorce.
Must Remove the Cause.
Neither strikes Of the laboring classes,
which array against them the money pow
er and the governmental power which it
controls, nor the governmental control of
the great railroad and other corporations
will remove the existing conflict between
labor aud capital, which has It's founda-i
ton in unjust laws, enabling the few to
accumulate vast estates and live in luxuri-i
GUS ease. while the GREAT masses arc DOOM
ed to incessant toll, perjury and want.
What is needed is the removal of the cause
which permits the accumulation of the
wealth of the country in few hands, and
this can only be peaceably brought about
by change of the laws of property.
The suppression of the recent strikes by
fol 1,u- kol
than alleviated the discomfort of the labor
ing classes. Whether the strikers were
justly responsible for tho riots and the de-
struction of property which followed their
abandonment Of work or not, no doubt
many Of them sympathized with the law
less element who committed outrages.
The men Of toll have no better friends
than tho governor of Illinois and the
mayor OF Chicago, and yet in the discharge
OF their bounden duty In suppressing riot
ers engaged in the destruction of property
they were compelled to array themselves
on tho side of capitalists and corporations,
whose property was being destroyed.
The wanton destruction of property by
lawless mobs cannot be tolerated and the
cause of honest labor suffered much by
the lawlcss acts which followed the recelft
strikes. The condition Of the laborer is
not to be improved by acts that lead to
lawlessness and deeds of violence.
Our fathers, denying tho right of tho
British crown to levy taxes upon them
without representation, at the end of
bloody war, after years of suffering and
prlvation, made good their redemption
from the exaction of the British crown
The laboring men of this country are
driven to such extremity. They still have
left the right Of representation in the leg
islative bodies of the country. They are
more numerous than the millionaires, and
If they will but cease the strife among
themselves it is in their power to control
legislation and enact such laws as will Sc
cure to property the full protection to
which it is entitled, to enterprise its just
reward and to the toiling masses the
rights of men.
Forbidden by advancing years to cherish
political ambition, I may, trust, with
out the imputation Of interested motives,
be permitted to make some suggestions as
to the policy to be pursued by the middle
classes and toiling masses to bring about