Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-12-25

LIBERTY DETHRONED:
CAPITAL THE USURPER IN
STALLED.
The Dupllcity, Tyranny, Treachery and
the Piracy of This Now Monarch, as
Skstched by the Master Hand Of Sem
ator ingalls, in 1891.

0AOtCnCO ON INC nAAotCk AASnU Oh SCn-
ator ingalls, in 1891
The evil, Mr.. President, the second |
to which l adverted as threatening the |
safety, If it does not endanger the ex-
istence of the Republic, is the tyranny
Of combined, concentrated, centralized
and incorporated capital. And the peo-
pie are considering this great problem
now. The conscience of the nation is
shocked at the injustice of modern So
ciety. The moral sentiment of man
kind has been aroused at the unequal
distribution Of wealth, at the unequal
diffusion of burdens. the benefits and
the privileges Of society. At the begin
ming OF our second century the Ameri-
can people have become profoundly
conscious that the ballot is not the
panacea for all the evils that af-
fiict humanity; that it has not abolished
poverty, nor prevented injustice. They
have discovered that political equality
does not result in social fraternity;
that under a democracy the coneen-
tration Of greater political power in
fewer hands, the accumulation and ag-
gregation of greater amounts Of wealth
in individuals is more possible than i'm
der monarchy, and that there Is d
tyranny which is more fatal than the
tyranny of kings:
The people are beginning to inquire
whether, under "a government of the
people; by the people, and for the peo-
ple;" under a system in which the
bounty of nature is supplemented by
the labor of all, any citizen can show
moral-yes, or a legal-title to $780,
900, 900.
some have the temerity to ask
whether or not any man can show
clear title to $10O,OO0,0 900. There have
been men rash enough to doubt whether
under system so constituted, by spec
ulatioh or otherwise, any citizen can
show fair title to $1O,0O0,OO0, when
the distribution per capita would be
less than $1,000. If I were put upon
my voir dire, l should hesitate before
admitting that, in the sense of giving
just compensation or equivalent; any
man in this country or any other coun
try ever absolutely earned a million
dollars. do not believe he ever did
What is the condition, today, Mr.
President; by the statistics? / repeat
that the people are not anarchists;
they are not socialists; they are not
COMMUNISTS: but they have suddenly
walked to the conception of the fact
that the bulk of the property of this
country is passing into the hands of
what the senator from Ohio, by a
J euphemism; calls the spectators of
the world.
Mr.. President, it is the most appal-
ling statement that ever fell upon
mortal ears. 1t is, so far as the results
of democracy as social and political
experiment are concerned, the most
terrible commentary that was ever
recorded in the books of time-and
Nero fiddles while Rome burns. 1t is
thrown off with a laugh and a sneer,
las the froth upon the beer" of our
political and social system. AS l said,
the assessed valuation recorded in the
great national ledger. standing to our
credit, is about $65, 900, 100000. Our
population is 62, SOC, 900, and by some
means, by some device, by some machi-
nation, by some incarnation, honest OF
otherwise, by some process that cannot
be defined, less than a two-thousandth
part of our population have obtained
possession land have kept out of the
penitentiarY in spite of the means they
adopted to acquire iD of more than
one-half of the entire accumulated
wealth of the country.
That is not the worst, Mr.. President
1t has been largely acquired by men
who have contributed little to the
material welfare Of the country, and by
processes that l do not care in appro-
pirate terms to describe-by the wreck.
ing of the fortunes of innocent men
women and children; by jugglery, by
bookkeeping, by financiering, by wha
the senator from Ohio calls "specula
tion"-and this process is going or
with frightful and constantly accel
Grating rapidity. The entire industry
of this country is passing under tn,
control of organized and confederatet
capital. More than fifty of the neces
saries of life today, without which tn,
cabin of the farmer and the minel
cannot be lighted or his children fet
or clothed, have passed absolutely un
, der the control of syndicates and trusts
and corporations composed of speculat
, ors, and by means of these combination
and considerations competition is de
stroyed, small dealings are rendere,
, impossible, competence can no longe
be acquired; for it is superfiuous an,
. unnecessary to say that if, under a sys
tenn where the accumulations distrib
uted per capita would be less thai
$1,000, 81, 600 persons obtained posses
sion of more than half of the aceumu
lated wealth Of the country, it is i'm
possible that others should have
competence or an independence So i
e happens, Mr.. President, that our SO
C ciety Is becoming rapidly stratified, al
t most hopelessly stratified, into a con
D dition of superfluously rich and hope
E lessly poor. We are accustomed t
e speak of this as the land of the free an
: the home of the brave. 1t will soon b
: the home Of the rich and the land O
e the slave.
D Mr.. President, it may be cause,
3 may be coincidence, it may be effect.
. may be gost hoe, or it may be propte
a hoe, but 1t is historically true that thi
!. great blight that has fallen upon on
Industries, this paralysis that has over
. taken our financial system, coincide
. IN point of time with the diminution G