Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-19


 men in the United States who could if they chose, by reason of their great wealth, paralyZe every industry in the country, tle writer says: What an ap- palling thought Think of such power for evil being in the hands of few men the power to stop every wheel of trade in commerce, paralyZe the whole country control the circulation of the currency and create panic at will
 To earn the amount of William Wal dorf Astor's fortune would take a man working at $1 per day, 300 days in the year. 100000 years. To earn his income for one year at the same price per day would require one man to work 29,666 years. To earn his income for one day would require one man to work eighty one years. To earn his income for one hour it would require a man to work three and a half years"
 The Issue of the Future.
 The great issue of the future, thinks MT. Howard, lies between plutocracy and democracy-not the democracy of Grover Cleveland, for that, says the author, is only plutocracy masquerading in stolen costume. He means the democracy of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln.
 '.It will be the greatest. the most stu Dendous struggle of all the ages. It will be the uprising of the people against the money power. The capitalists scoff, but while they scoff they hear the mutterings of the approaching storm. And the more imminent the danger the more arrogant and insolent the plutocrats become. IL was so before the French revolution. It was so with Charles I. It was so with England when our revolutionary fathers were compelled to declare for freedom. It was so with the slave-holding south when it would accept no terms of com promise.
 "The greatest tools of plutocracy in this country today are Grover Cleveland, president of the United States. and his trust champion. Attorney-General Ricn- ard Olney. Time was in the days or our fathers when q man holding high of- flee. who willfully refused to discharge the duties which he had taken an oath to faithfully perform. would have been inn peached. Upon what degenerate times have we now fallen that the attorney general consistently refuses to enforce the antitrust law and is upheld in his nc farious course by the preSident?
 After quoting Senator John !. Ingalls,, who declared the United States to be on the verge of revolution. MT. Howard concludes his chapter in the following martial spirit:
 "Laborers of America, whether you work with brawn or brain. will you long CT close your eyes to the great issue? Or will you fight for freedom as did your fathers at Bunker Hill and Yorktown? It is battle; yea, terrible battle. Plu-  equipped for the conflict. Let the people rally round the stars and stripes shout ing the battle cry of freedom. Men of American let us win the battle while we can do so by constitutional methods. But if we prove recreant to our duty and betray the trust which our fathers have reposed in us, then constitutional meth ods will not avail and this continent will be shaken by mighty revolution"
 The Crimes of Plutocracy.
 Plutocracy is our national crime thinks MT. Howard. He gives a vivid descrip- tion of the national gambling helr'- Wall street-and speaks of the misery that is thereby entailed op the toiler, de- scribing the scenes of want and woe he himself has witnessed in the great cities. Then he thunders:
 "Plutocracy, thou art responsible. | arraign thee before the bar of public opinion. I charge that plutocracy robs our tender girls of their virtue, steals from our little children their daily bread, deprives them of an education and makes them prematurely old. It forces tears to the eyes of the mothers of the land, pales their checks bows their forms and breaks their hearts. It robs men of their independence, the laborer of his hire and turns out every year a vast army of tramps. It fills the jails, the almshouses, the brothels and the gambling hells. It is guilty of most of the murders and sui
  tens on human suffering. The more wretchedness and poverty 1t can produce the more fourishing and prosperous 1t will become.
 "Plutocracy is on trial before the Amer ican people and liberty looks on in breathleSs suspense
 The Standard Oil Trust.
 In the chapter devoted to trusts he sin gles out the Standard Oil trust.
 '"The profits accrung to the trusts are enormous. The Standard oil trust had an investment originally of not more than $6.000.000. It issued 800 1000, GOO in trust certificates. These are worth today about $300000.O00 and are nearly all owned by a few men. This trust has paid millions of dollars already to its organ izers.
 "The sugar trust has capital of s75,- 900, 900, the actual value being about S7. TAO, 900.
 ''These trusts are often formed by very pious and very religious men-the class of men whom Robert Burns calls the 'unco guid.' The richest man in this country Is John D. Rockefeller who is worth T25. 100000. He made it out of the oil trust. He Is q. member of the church, and has given large sums of money to religious educational and benevolent so- cieties I suppose he has some great charitable scheme working in his benevo- lent heart at the present time, and that he needs some more money to carry it out. for the price of oil has been ad- vanced, and the poor are now paying more than twice as much for 1t as they did short time ago.
 "When the pious MT. Rockefeller makes his offerings to the Lord does he ever think of the drops of blood from broken hearts, the groans from squalid misery, the tears from human agony which have been coined into each shining dollar? Does he realize that he is offering the Lord blood money? But the trust of which he is the leading spirit has so long been accustomed to bribe officials and legislators that MT Rockefeller actually has the impotence and assurance to try to brihe the Lord"
 Cleveland Target, Too.
 MT. Cleveland is evidently not favor ite with this young reformer, for com- menting on the stand taken by the pres- ident on the free silver question, MT.