Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-01-09
THE SITUATION NOW.
THE IMMORTALITY IN THE BUsI-
NESS WORLD.
Tho Rich Mans Wealth Is His Strong
City; tho Destruction of the Poor Is
Their POverty''-Tho Law Governing
Buyer and Seller

Wealth Makers: When we stop to
think of it, is it not an amazing thing
that there is so much misery, want and
anxiety in the world among people
who are willing to work and capable
Of producing with their labor all sorts
of wealth to satisfy their needs? How
many there are all about us, here,
there and everywhere, who are in need
Of good, well-furnished homes! And
the carpenters, masons, producers Of
all sorts of building materials, painters,
decorators, carpet weavers, furniture
makers, artists, authors, publishers,
printers, and the rest, would gladly
build, beautify and furnish luxurious
ly homes for all. They could do it
easily If kept at work. The farmers
could feed all, the factories could
clothe oil, and the workers could all
be rich, with every legitimate want
supplied, If all the able-bodled. were
kept at work eight hours a day, six
days in the week, 300 days in the year,
for period of ten years. Modern ma
chinery and natural motive power have
so multiplied the results Of labor in
almost every branch of industry that
need should be unknown. But ma
chinery, steam and electricity have not
benefited the poor. Invention and tire
less motive power have not done away
with poverty. The percentage Of land
less, homeless, dependent people is
even steadily increasing. Great num-
bers of sober, capable men and women
cannot obtain regular employment,
cannot exchange services with one an
other and so meet their mutual wants.
It is true Of the different classes that
the rich are growing richer, the people
with small means are growing poorer,
the numbers who cannot find regular
employment are increasing, and the
struggle between competing workers
for the insufficient places and wages
decreed to them by the landlords and
capitalists is growing more desperate,
degrading and destructive. In the de-
gree that wealth is concentrating the
world is growing worse, more selfish,
more miserable. "The rich mans
wealth is his strong city; the destruc-
ton Of the poor is their poverty" 1.-THE
rich ruleth over the poor, and the
borrower is servant unto the lender.
Capitalists are organized and organ
izing to increase their power and exae'
tions; the wage-workers are organizing
to resist wage reductions; and be-
tween these two commercial forces re-
lentless, wasteful, terrible war is de-
termined. Between contract and con-
tract truces are observed, but there is
no such thing as settled peace. On the
one side the capitalists, never salts
fed, out Of the profits from under-paid
labor are buying up and monopolizing
more and more of the natural resources,
the increasingly valuable land, mines,
oil wells, lumber regions, municipal
monopolies, costly machinery, the
necessary means of production and ex-
change, and are so increasing yearly
the sum total Of their tribute; and on
the other side the wage workers are
organizing the fight for enough to live
on, and they will never cease demand
ing more and more, until we have in
dustrial equality as we'll as political
equality, or until, starved to despera-
ton, the bomb and torch shall be re-
sorted to by the maddened masses. The
great consolidating corporations and
the class called monopolists, with the
law and customs Of the centuries be-
hind them, will not force less from
the workers than they have obtained
power to, and the workers will not en-
dure dependence and restitution as
their permanent place and part in So
ciety. It is also true that the knowl-
edge Of injustice is spreading, and an
explosion upward cannot be long pre-
vented by force or subtlety. An in
dustrial despot, when men are enlight-
ened, will be seen to be as oppressive
a tyrant as a political despot. A mo-
nopollst is as much Of a king as II
crowned and publicly proclaimed such.
But monopolists cannot be con-
demned, save as we condemn the busi-
ness system which has made them.
And have we not all plunged into It
and lived by its law. or ruler In view