The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-07-18
THE FUTURE STATE
BY B. LACK.
CHAPTER 5.-PART 7.

among the greedy people, that in their
lust OF wealth and power over their fellow
man, destroyed themselves. The first thing
placed in the hands of the babe was a
piece of money to rub it's Sore-tred gums
and the last thing to touch the body was a
piece OF money to close their eyes in death.
while the whole time between the cradle
ana the grave was a continual struggle to
gain it.
Men extolled the virtues of money as
ABOVE all things-as the key to unlock all
Wealth-and in their folly and ignorance
mistook the key for the treasure; nay, it
was not even the key Labor was the
Key and the only key, that could unlock
the great storehouse of nature; that held
all the raw material out of which wealth
must be created
Money in the abstract bears to the pro-
ducts OF society the same relation that fig
ures or marks do to a problem in mathe-
matlcS; and in the concrete it bears the
same relation to products that the measure
does to the thing measured. Sweep all
money out of existence and all food, raj
ment, shelter, instruments of production
earning and art, everything necessary to
life or that could add to comfort and re-
hnement, would still exist! Wipe out all
the hgures and marks in a problem in
mathematics, and all quantities represented
would still exist. Destroy all weights and
measures, and all products would still re-
money? Because the ignorant producer
OF wealth, seeing that all products could
De readily exchanged for it, thought it more
potent than the article needed for consump-
tlon for which they exchanged it; parting
with money, thing that in itself could do
them no good with sigh of regret and
consumed the product that satisfied their
wants without thought or desire to
retain. The cunning and shrewd
saw that by exchanging commodities for
money and investing the money for more
commodities to be sold for money profit"
wiz: an amount of money more than the
labor cost, computed in wages could be OBJ
tanned, by obscuring the fact that the
amount taken profit was greater than
the service rendered in exchange. The per-
son working for wages and the farmer
saw those that lived by profit, rent, and in
terest, by some mysterious means grow
rich, and have the wealth of the world a
their command, while they, the producers
of the wealth, existed only from day to
day, toiling long, weary hours with excess
sve eNertion. While those that manipulated
profit lived with little work or none at all,
debating the amount of wages and the
price of farm products.
By this outrageous system of profit mon
gering it not unfrequently happened that
the actual wage cost of product increased
in its transit from the producers through
the hands of the exchangers, consisting
common carriers, bankers and retailers,
to the consumers several hundred per cent.
And this immense profit as it was alb
solved into the hands of a few individuals,
favored by special legislation, like a raven
Gus monster continually hungry, never sat
isfied constantly growing larger on the
food it received, looked for profitable in
vestments-some portion of natures store
house that by law might be closed to the
laboring people-and by their necessities for
food, raiment and shelter, the raw material
of which is contained in the free gift OF
nature to all men, the earth lick up all
their surplus labor over the coarsest neces-
sites of existence.
This profit mongering system IN puliolis
I'D a gigantic system of fraud called busl-
ness before which the robberles OF the
knights of old and those designated as
thieves by modern law, such as counterfeit
ers, forgers, burglars, highway ROBBERS
confidence men, gamblers, sneak thleVeS
and pickpockets, sink into 1nslgnlncance.
There was not a legislative body, from
the town council to congress, that old not
bv making unjust laws, rules or reguia-
+ions in solution with business men or
capitalists steal a hundred fold more OF the
neonle's labor than was taken by tue
thieves they pretended to punish; pretend
ed" because it was the petty tnle1 ina
went to Jail and seldom timer tnat s,oie
a large sum that could not by bribery evaoe
the law. :. 49,
One of those respectable thieves IN the
state of Minnesota stole by law; by one
act of congress that he engineered thlousn
that august body. $150O0,0O0 worth OF the
peoples pine land. Inc racine any GO ~
grant railways received more donations OF
money and land by law than the entire
cost of the railways and then issued STOCK
and bonds double the amount OF the cost
of construction, robbing the people or 2oo
per cent more profit than they were IN
Jo1 hOnoStlV
built the roads with their own labor.
The treasurer of the United States was
but the agent of the national banks. When
the war of the great rebellion over cnat-
tel slavery occurred in the year 1861, con-
gress issued paper money-an equitable
way of taxing the whole people to pay the
expense of the war-no one refused the
money; the government received the sup
plies needed to carry on the war, ana at
the close of the war the government could
have controlled the circulation by absorb
ing the paper money by taxation If it was
thought to be desirable; but the shrewd,
scheming, profit managers that stopped at
home to fatten on the misery of the nation
while the patriotic citizens were fighting
the battles of their country bribed congress
to pass laws making the treasurer of the
United States their agent, who should re-
ceive the bills that had been issued by
the government, and that they receievd as
deposits in their banks giving in exchange
bonds bearing interest that they might keep
for themselves and 80 per cent of ma
tonal bank bills which they might return
to their depositors should their deposits be
drawn out before interest enough had ac-
cumulated to replace them.
The bankers soon had enough interest
accumula ted to replace the deposits. leav-
ing them bonds with which to fleece the
people collectively, and national bank bills
with which to fleece them individually.
Such a barefaced robbery was never be-
fore practced on a gullable people in the
annals of history. Nor did Aladdins lamp
prove such bonanza to the lad as this
piece of iniquity proved to the rascals in
and out of congress engaged in 1T. The
majority Of the members of congress be-
coming stockholders or presidents of banks
and millionaires But the theft did not
stop here. AS the bonds became due a
scheme was concocted to have the
treasurer of the United States buy them un-
der the plea of increasing the circulation
at a premium in some instances as high as
q per cent, and the people were also taxed
to pay interest in advance in one instance
10 months.
Strange to say the people were so blinded
by party prejudice they could not see the
transparent theft and fraud
But how much was the circulation in
creased by this fraud? Ninety dollars in
national bank notes had to be returned off
setting 800 of the money received, deducting
this from the $127 leaves $37 dollars added
to the circulation, or to put the case in
a nutshell, the government paid $27 to get
$40 in circulation.
But the people were further defrauded by
the corruption Of congress and the bank
ers' agent, the treasurer Of the United