The representative., 1894-05-16
NATIONAL RUIN.
what the Census Has to Say About
National Wealth and National

Poverty.
Before the passage Of the accursed Nc
hlnley Dill economists rated the wealth of
the nation at $50, 600 100000 Two wears of
solid protection reduced values one-third
and today the United States is not worth
$4ooo0,WV0O0. But how is this made up? The
census bureau shows that $1S O0O 900 900 of
it is Indebtedness:
Mortgage Indebtedness. ........ So OOO 900 900
corporation Indebtedness. ..,.... s. COO 600 600
Chatel mortgage Indebtedness 300 600 09O
crop liens mortgage indebtedness $50 600 OO0
railroad indebtedness. ............. 1900 600 600
Unsecured Indebtedness. ......... 1000 600 OC0
The interest upon these vast sums is Wha t
crlpples the country, and reduces the forty
mllllonS OF our people who live by farm
Ing to a state bordering on starvation and
leaves two millions of able-bodied work
men and their families depending upon
charity for existence.
What will become of the crop raisers of
the country, if things remain much longer
as they are? How will farmers continue to
exist with wheat at 40 cents a bushel and
every other portion CT farm produce equally
low? How will he pay debts contracted
when prices are double what they are now,
or interest on those debts? The parties
who thus enjoy the fruits of the farmers
toll, will own the farm; protection refuses
him an opportunity of exchanging his prod
ucts in the markets of the world, and holds
him by the throat surely as if the benef-
ciaries of the tariff held a mortgage on his
farm.
This census scruting dscloses another
curious state of things. 1t shows that only 3
per cent of the nations wealth is owned by
50 per cent of the popula ton! that 4,047 fam
lilies own as much property 1883, 1897 fam
lilies! or to make it more expressive still,
each of the 4,041 families own as much of
the national wealth as 2,S5O00O fmilies of
the other class! just think of it!
The great English, Irish and Scotch lords
acquired their wealth by confiscation, that
is their sovereign lord, the king, forced it
from his other subjects, at the point of the
bayonet, and conferred it on his favorites
But how was this enormous wealth in the
United States acquired? Simply through the
instrumentality of bad laws which the
cunning rascals contrived to pass before
the eyes of the people, and almost without
objection, and whereby they took the bulk
of the property of the nation into their own
hands, left the millions who had an eoual
right to 1T out in the cold, and now ask
what are you going to do about it?
Alas, fellow countrymen, you slept on
your rights, you allowed the wicked knaves
to throw glamor over you in the name of
parties, and while you were bowling out.
I'm a Democrat" I'm a Republican. .
the clever cheats, who were neither one nor
the other, kept you by the ears and gath
cred in the spoils that belonged to all. How
long Will you continue to follow the lead of
men who have brought you to ruin. who
have enriched themselves by making you
poor?
1t is better for an agent of the money
power to ride into Washington in a palace
car with $5O0,0O0 in his pocket to ask IA
vorable legislation than it is for 500 600
workingmen to walk into Washington with
empty stomachs and ask for legislation
that will employ their idle hands and pro-
vide food for themselves and their families.
one IS welcomed with outstretched hands;
the other is threatened with violence if