The record-union., 1896-10-19

rarely earn above 4 or per cent, and
the average dividend of which is less
than / per cent, the better for all
In France there was q caste, an aris-
tocracy by birth, separated from the
people by an impossible gulf, caste
recognizing men of tillage and labor,
whether with hands or brains, as essen
TALLY different from the 24,0O0.0OO Of
people not within their ranks and held
to be possessing no rights that they
were bound to respect. With US no such
condition exists. Say what men will Of
capitalists, nearly all Of them were one
time poor men and workingmen, and a
majority are hard working men still.
The opportunity to the poorest to ac-
quire is barred by no chasm Of birth or
condition with us.
Mr.. White asserts with emphasis that
the vast majority Of capitalists sympa-
thize deeply with the agriculturists Of
the West and South, suffering from low
prices. and would do anything in their
>power to promote wise measures for
their relief by revival Of industries and
reinstatement of prosperity. He AYERS
also that the great majority Of all the
great capitalists having been in the
ranks, have far deeper sympathy for
workingmen than the tonguey denla-
gogues who flourished at the Chicago
Convention had, or can have.
Professor White points out that it can
not be charged that he has special af-
fection for great capitalists; he has fire.
quently denounced their shortcomings
and the shortsightedness of some of
them, and that his life work has been
among the sons of men Of small means,
and he has done all he could do to
make them not pelf gripers, but good
servants of their country.
He declares that he loathes capital
lists who owe their wealth to robbery.
and he has supremest contempt for
such rich men as attempt to thrust
themselves among foreign aristocracy
on the strength Of their money.
But to denounce all is gross injustice
to those who by their great operations
have brought charges for transporta-
ton down lower than in any other coun-
try in the world; who have improved
and cheapened manufacturing products
beyond anything ever before known;
who by invention and foresight have in
creased enormously the demand for la
Dor and the remuneration for 1t; who
have employed general capital in build
ing up great enterprises in times of ad-
versity; who have lavished surplus cap
ital in founding every sort of institu-
ton for the care, comfort and uplifting
of the people.
These men, he protests, cannot be
outdone IN love of country and Of the
workingman by Altgeld, Waite, PETER,
Simpson, Tillman and their like. But
these he points out are not the great
capitalists. Their capital is insignifi-
cant compared to that held by the army
of small capitalists in all manner Of
associations and Institutions.
Behind these there are still other cap
halists; every workingman is one Of
them; his tools and good right arm are
capital, and he has the right If he has
deposited dollar Of his hard earned
wage to have it returned to him a full
hundred cents worth. These will not
consent that juggling with national
credit shall reduce the remuneration
for their expenditure of strength and
skill. For in times of imitation wages
never rise so fast as prices Of COM
modities, nor so far.
Wages are likely to fall rather than
rise if employers are crippled, as they
certainly would be by such a wrench
in our finances as is proposed by the
misnamed Democrats and their Populist
allies.