New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-09-09
Wednesday September: g, 1896.
Booty, not Property.

clergyman terms the candidate Robes
pierre; another calls him a Danton. This
is too lurid. Sublimity is impressive
but the other extreme makes one laugh.
ing stock. Dragging the French Revo.
luton into this Presidential campaign
by the tail is cheaper claptrap than any
curse of Rome ever hurled by the hung.
riest and shabbiest of Antonies beneath
a hay-loft. Let the men of the noun
tain sleep with Marat. Eliminate Dan
tons, Robespierres and Mirabeaus from
clerical vocabularies. Cease mention Of
Reigns of Terror and Falls of Bastiles.
The people of this republic are not re-
hearsing a ive-act nightmare by Vic
torien Sardou. Surely plutocracy's ter
ror has given it grim del1rium. 1t sees
gulllotines on every street corner, the
cap of liberty on every head. Our mil
lionaires have reared god from their
own imbecility. Their cowardice has
grown into Giant Despair, towering,
like Goldsmith's tall cliff, above the
clouds of panic-fear up to the heights Of
absurdity. Shrieks Of 'Robespierre ~
whistle grandeur down the wind and
make our proudest plutocrat unspa1ing-
ly foolish and on all tours with the bar
gaining Jews. "Got of Abraham, l rob
my wife und cheeldern if l give you six
pence for it,
Robespierre. Danton! A thousand
Robespierres, ten thousand Dantons
would lack the strength of the slightest
Of the forces our plutocracy has set loose
upon itself. Let them elect their Nc
Klnley, if they can and dare, and they
will find him as potent as a cork upon a
tide. A court of Louis XVI, an untaxed
privileged class, a states general pro-
cuced at last fall of the Bastile Does
industrial despotism here hope to be let
off with paltry income tax, a govern
eminent ownership Of railways, destruc-
ton Of its monopoly Of finance? They
should know that their McKinley's VIC
tory means their own destruction. Bry-
an may at least save them from the de-
luge that must in time surge through
the strongest dam they could throw in
the path of the tide of discomfort.
The plutocrats talk of the rights of
property. Whose property? Our bank
ers have no property. Their assets are
booty stolen from the people, their pro-
fits are wrung from q gold reserve they
control through crime. Our railroads
have no property. Their rights of way
belong to the people who conferred them
as trust, and their rails and rolling
stock would rot away but for the patti on
age of the masses. Our monopo1ists have
no property. The Standard Oil Compa-
ny beggars honest men with the help of
the railroad ring, and defes the courts
that send toilers to jail without a trial.
The trusts earn their dividends from pur-
chased legislation and grow rich through
the debauchery of Senators as a procur-
ess grows rich through the debauchery of
girls Property! Property is not d.
thing Of evil, fawmng like Il courtezan
for preservation. That WHICH, is the re-
ward of treachery, of corruption: Of
fraud, Of deceit, OF oppression Of the
poor and degradation of the Industrious;
that WHICH grows through Ih}i2nrgh human suffer-
ing and causes destitution ailq despera
ton ion is not property: 1T is booty.
Booty makes the laws. III Tie protection
of property ceaseu in this land long ago,
and the protection of booty took its place.
Booty lines Fifth Avenue with palaces,
while property takes the form of q crust
and a garnet after a life Of toll, Booty
steams the Atlantic in yachts that cost a
fortune, and property is seized by the
sheriff. Booty bring troops to Stay
wretchcs whom hunger has maddened
and property pays the bills Booty earns
ia millions on the Stock Exchange and
property rots and dies if it refuses to pay
dividends on watered railway shares
Booty prostitutes tile children Of the
poor, makes criminals of its wage slaves
and property is taxed to maintain Jail
and hospitals. And when booty ha
driven a nation to insurrection and tn
social fabric is aflame. it shrieks alou'
to property to hurry to its rescue.
But property does not syrtIpathiz
with booty. Booty grows only by prey
ing upon property, and the eamity be
tween the two is now ut its hottes
Property has been all but abolished j
this nation. No mans possessions hay
for years been safe from this monopol
and that monopoly, 4 trust here and