The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-10-14

ment, and most OF our economic theories
date from that period. And again IN
our own day, almost, there has sprung
up another set of people, who are abso-
lutely essential to the progress of the
world. Without them, and without
their progress, we can never have pro-
gress ourselves, and whoever undertakes
to discuss the progress of civilization.
and leaves out this great fact, will find
himself in the land of the Populists or
the Chicago Democracy, and Heaven
help him if he gets there. Laughter and
applause.)
Do you realize the progress the world
has made? Not one in a hundred of you
realize it. What is wealth? Wealth is
everything in the consumption of which
we can have satisfaction. / suppose the
first pair of pantaloons that dawned upon
mankind, Naughter) was tremendous
satisfaction and so constituted wealth,
and every addition that has been madeto
raiment for the body, in color or form
integriment, has been SO much added to
the wealth of the community and of the
world
The Distribution of Wealth.
We sometimes think that the people
have always been what we are to-day,
but tell you that hundred years ago,
in this town of New Jersey, Morristown,
no such audience as this, either in intel
ligence or common sense, or even cloth
ing, could have been gotten together for
either love or money. We have been
growing in wealth, and that growth in
wealth, Notwithstanding the assertions
of any and all demogogues, has been
more or less distributed among the peo-
pie. l grant you that that distribution
has not been as thorough as it ought to
be, nor | think, even as thorough as it
will be. / don't mean that wealth will
ever be equal and equally and evenly dis
tributed. And | venture to be courage
Gus enough to say to this audience that |
hope it never will be. / want some men
left in the world that have got dollars
that are not worth much to them. All
most every body thinks that the dollar is
a fixed quantity, but if you exercise com
mon sense you will find that it is not so.
The first dollar means bread and butter,
and that is essential to life. The second
dollar means cake, and you can do with
out it. Naughter.) Every addition you
make is an addition of something less es-
sential than the first thing you had, and
there are many in the world who have
money which is suitable for them to
burn. Now, perhaps, you say, what is
the good of that kind of money!
Did it ever occur to You that progress
is absolutely depended upon that? Men
that have money that they can afford to
loose, can enter into enterprises merely
experimental, and sometimes they are
successful. How in the world could we
have had the Bell telephone with its de-
lightful uncertainties Qaughter) and
great convenience, if there had not been
men who could afford to waste their
money? And our other great enterprises
would not have been carried forward
unless some portion of human wealth
was taken away from the mere business
of providing food, and given to providing
great establishments which make wealth,
and constitute large part of human
happiness. But believe in a thorough
distribution of wealth. just as fast as a
man advances in life so that he appre-
ciates the better things of this world,
want him to have them, and | tell you
he is going to get them, not because am
making a speech, nor because anybody
else makes speech, but because that
is the universal law.
The Doctrine of Living Wages.
Why, as part of that old-world
opinion that the middle classes were in
control of this world, they had an in
teresting idea of wage fund.- so that the
more people were at work, the less each
mans wages must be. We know that
wages don't depend upon that. They de-
pend upon the necessities of mankind,
whether he labors for salary, or
whether he labors for wage. That is
the doctrine Of the living wage, that
man shall be constantly going upward
and having new wants, and as constant
ly having them satisfied. Well, now,
how are they going TO be satisfied! Why,
as told you, the great laws of economics
which are created by the Diety the
great laws of economics provide rene
dy for this new want. Years ago, my
lord and lady did all the purchasing;
then the middle classes did all the pur-
chasing; the rest of us simply got food
to eat and clothes necessary to keep us
warm, and hide our nakedness. But
now this thing has changed, and the dis
tribution of wealth has reached such
point that it is an actual fact to-day that
seventy per cent. Of the people of the
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