The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-10-16

TO Jne material welfare of the c0un-
try and by processes that 1 do not
care in appropriate terms to describe
by the wrecking of the fortunes of
innocent men, women and children; !;
by jugglery, by bookkeeping, by
11nancering, by what the senator
from Ohio calls speculation" and
this process is going on with fright
fnl and constantly accelerating
rapidity. The entire industry of
this country is passing under the
control of organized and confederate
capital. More than 80 of the neces-
sartes of life to-day, without which
the cabin of the farmer and the
miner cannot be lighted or his chill
dren fed or clothed, have passed abb
solutely under the control of syndi-
Gates and trusts and corporations
composed of spectators, and by
means of these combinations and
considerations competition is dis
troyed, small dealings are rendered
impossible, competence can no
longer be acquired, for it is super
fiuous and unnecessary to say that
If, under a system where the ac-
cumulations distributed per capita
would be less than $1,000, 3l,0O0 per-
sons obtained possession of more
than half the accumulated wealth
of the country, it is impossible that
Others should have competence or
an independence. So it happens,
Mr.. President, that our society is
becoming rapidly stratified, almost
hopelessly stratified, into condi-
tion of superfously rich and help
lessly poor. We are accustomed to
speak of this as the land of the free
and the home of the brave. 1t will
soon be the home of the rich and the
land of the slave.
l have no sympathy with that
school of political economists which
teaches that there is an irreconcil-
able conflict between labor and capi-
tai and which demands indiscrimi-
nate, hostile and repressive legisla-
tion against men because they are
rich and corporations because they
are strong. But cannot forbear to
appear to affirm that a political sys-
tenn which under such despotic pow
er can be wrested from the people
and vested in the few is a Democ-
racy only in name. A financial sys.
TEN under which more than one
half of the enormous wealth of the
country, derived from the bounty of
nature and the labor of all, Is owned
by little more than 10000 people,
while 100000 American citizens,
able and willing to toll, are home
less trarnps, starving for bread, re-
quires adjustment. A social system
which offers to tender, virtuOus and
Independent women the alternative
between prostitution and suicide as
an escape from beggary is organized
crime, for which some day relent-
less justice will demand atonement
and explanation.
In Il speech delivered in this
chamber on the 18th of February
1873, / said: 1--WE cannot disguise
the truth that we are on the verge OF
an impending revolution, The old
issues are dead. The people are
arraying themselves upon one side
or the other of a portentous contest.
On one side is capital, formidably
intrenched in privilege, arrogant
from continued triumph, conserva-
tive, tenacious of old theories, de-
manding new concessions, enriched
by domestic levy and foreign COM
merce and struggling to adjust all
values to its own standard. On the
other is labor, asking for employ
ment, striving to develop domestic
industries, battling with the forces
of nature and subduing the wilder
ness; labor, starving and sullen-
resolutely determined to overthrow
a system under which the rich are
growing richer and the poor are
growing poorer;a "a system which gives
to a Vanderbilt the possession OF
wealth beyond the dreams OF
avarice and condemns the poor to a
poverty which has no refuge from
starvation but the prison or the
grave. Our demands for relief, for
justice, have been met with inditfer-
ence or disdain. The laborers OF
the country asking for employment
are treated like impudent mendi-
cants begging for bread"
Mr., President, it may be cause, il
may be coincidence, it may be effect
it may be post hoe or it may be
propter hoe, but it is historically
true that this great blight that has
fallen upon our industries, this pa
ralysis that has overtaken ouI
financial system, coincided in point
of time with the diminution of the
circulating medium of the country
The public debt was declared pay.
able in coin, and the power of silver
was destroyed. The value of prop.
erty diminished in proportion, wages
fell, and the value of everything
was deprecated except debts and
gold. The mortgage, the bond, the
coupon and the tax have retained
immortal youth and vigor. They
have not deprecated. The debt re-
mains, but the capacity to pay ha:
been destroyed. The accumulation
of years disappears under the ham
mer of the sheriff, and the debtor Ii
homeless, while the creditor obtains
the security for his debt for frac
tion of what it was actually worth
when the debt was contracted.
There is, Mr.. President, a deer
seated conviction among the people
which l fully share, that the de-
monetization Of silver in 1878 was
one element of a great conspiracy
to deliver the fiscal system of this
country over to those by whom /
has, in my opinion, finally been cap
tured. l see no proof of the asser
tion that the demonetization act o
l.ND e.. Il Al IL.