The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1896-10-16
SENATOR INGALLS,
SCATHING WORDS.
A Terrific Arraignment Of
the Money Power.
Is He Another "AnarchiSt"
and a "Lunatic!"
MONEY Is THE CREATION OF LAW,
Views of ala Eminent Republican States
man.

[ From speech by John j. ingalls, in the
United States Senate Jan. Ia, 1891.
The evil which threatens the safe
ty, if it does not endanger the ex-
istence, of the republic, is the tyran-
ny of combined, concentrated, CEN
tralized and incorporated capital.
And the people are considering this
great problem now. The conscience
of the nation is shocked at the in
justice of modern society. The
moral sentiment of mankind has
been aroused at the unequal dis
tribution of wealth, at the unequal
diffusion of burdens, the benefits
and the privileges of society. At
the beginning of our second century
the American people have become
profoundly conscious that the ballot
is not the panacea for all evils that
atflict humanity; that it has not
abolished poverty or prevented in
justice. They have discovered that
political equality does not result in
social fraternity; that under a
democracy the concentration of
greater political power in fewer
hands, the accumulation and aggre-
cation of greater amounts of wealth
in individuals, is more possible than
under monarchy, and that there is a
tyranny which is more fatal than
the tyranny of kings.
We have become, Mr.. President,
the wealthiest nation upon the face
of this earth, and the greater part
of these enormous accumulations
has been piled up during the past 20
years. believe myself that upon a
fair cash market valuation the
aggregate wealth of this country to-
day is not less than 100000, 100000
This is enough, Mr.. President, to
make every man and every woman
and every child beneath the flag
comfortable, to keep the wolf away
from the door; it is enough to give
every family a competence. And
yet we are told that there are thous-
ands of people who never have
enough to eat in any one day in the
year. We are tolu by the statisti-
clans of the department of labor of
the United States that, notwith-
standing this stupendous aggrega-
tion, there are 100000 American
citizens, ablebodied and willing to
work, who tramp the streets of our
cities and the country highways
| hxr in of ln n
with which to buy their daily bread
in vain.
The millionaires of the country are
not the producers and the laborers.
They are arrayed like Solomon in
all his glory, but "they toll not,
neither do they spin" Yes, they
do spin. This class, Mr.. President,
/ am glad to say, is not confined to
this country alone. These gigantic
accumulations have not been the re-
suit of industry and economy. There
would be no protest against them if
they were. The people are begin
ming to inquire whether, under "a
government of the people, by the
people and for the people, under a
system.in which the bounty of ma
ture is supplemented by the labor
of all, any citizen can show a
moral-yes, or legal--title to 5000,
100000.
Some have the temerity to ask
whether or not any man can show a
clear title to $l00,000,000. There
have been men rash enough to
doubt whether, under IA system so
constituted by speculation or other
} wise any citizen can show a fair
title to $l0,000,000 when the distribu-
ton per capata would be less than
$1,000. If l were put upon my voir
dire, l should hesitate before admit
ting that in the sense of giving just
compensation and equivalent any
man in this country ever absolutely
earned $l,000,000. do not believe
he ever did. What is the condition
to-day, Mr.. President? 1 repeat
that the people are not anarchists,
they are not socialists, they are not
communists, but they have sudden
ly walked to the conception of the
fact that the bulk of the property OF
: this country is passing into the
, hands of what the Senator from
Ohio [Shermanl, by euphemism
calls the spectators" of the world.
= The assessed valuation recorded
, in the great national ledger stand
ing to our credit is about $50, 900 900,
900. Our population IS 62,500,000
and by some means, by some device
5 by some machination, by some in
, cantation, honest or otherwise, by
, some process that cannot be defined
less than a two-thOusandth part OF
population have obtained possession
9 land have kept out of the peniten.
: tiary in spite of the means they
! adopted to acquire it, of more than
one-half of the entire accumulated
/ wealth of the country.
r That is not the worst, Mr.. Presi.
dent. 1t has been largely acquired