The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-04-30
THE NEWS AND OBSERVER, APRIL 80, 1897.

| posed to property rights. 1t is not Oppo-
| sition to property, but to its combina-
| ton III vast masses for pollt-
| ical purposes, that it may con-
| troll legislation and the machinery OF
government in the interest of the com
bination and against the property rights
| Of others. 1t was George McDuffie who
declared that legislation could be the
most powerful and exacting of plumber
ers. There is no hatred of corporations
as such. They are essential in the ser
vice of civilized life. nay indispensable.
Nor even against railroad corporations,
so far as they keep within the legitimate
duties Of their creation, but it is when
| they seek to use their enormous power of
wealth and organization for the undue
emolument of their owners and by enter
ing the political arena seek to control leg
islaticn and public policy, that the coils
ion becomes inevitable. The opposition
is not to them as servants Of the public,
but as wouldbe masters of the people.
That we have already passed the danger
line as to the aggregation of wealth, will
be seen from this summary from reliable
sources: Egypt, Persia and other great
empires fell when less than ten per cent.
of the people had secured nine-tenths of
the accumulated wealth Of those empires.
The glories Of imperial Rome crumbled
into dust before the brawny arms Of the
half-naked barbarians of the Northern
forests when 1,SOO families had garnered
the mass of its wealth. Already to-day
One-half of one per cent. Of the people
of this country own over One-half or its
entire wealth, and 9 per cent. of its people
own seventy-fve per cent. of its property.
This condition tends rapidly to aggravate
itself. To-day in Europe forty per cent.
of the householders are tenants In this
grand young Republic already seventy
per cent of the househoders, nearly
double the European ratio, do not own
but rent their homes. This condition Of
things has not accidentally happened.
1t has been brought about by the great
corpora tons and combinations of capital.
Already many warming voices have been
raised. l will mention only two-and they
are leaders in the two most conservative
professions in the world.
In an address before the American Bar
Association ut Milwaukee, in 1893, Mr..
Justice Brown, of the Supreme Court Of
the United States. the holder of a post
which is Il guarantee of his conservatism
and speaking to the most conservative
body in the world-the leaders of the
bar-pointing out the evils of this rapid
concentration Of wealth into n few hands.
suggested that without interfering with
ones accumulations in his life time, these
vast estates whose continuance is a me-
mace TO our form of government could be
effectually broken up by repeating our
statute of wills and statutes of descent,
and providing that at any ones death all
above IL certain limited amount to each
child should be othriv Use S.r;buted or go
into the Golfers of the Sta;c. He point
ed out what every lawyer Knows, though
it is contrary to our habits of thought
that no man, after he passes beyond this
vale of tears has the right to dictate
what shall become of his property. If he
could of right control it for one generation
he could for many generations, which
the law years ago found it necessary to
prohibit. The present condition Of things
imperatively demands some limitation
upon the transmissal from hand to hand
of these colossal estates. The public well
fare is the supreme law. The promotion
Of the public welfare is named in the pre-
amble to the Constitution of the United
States as one of the motives for that in
strument Salus popui supreme
lex. The same reason requires
the breaking up Of the great
estates accumulated by trusts and
which in turn create and give motive
for the formation of trusts. Without tax
ing further time, | will quote a single
phrase from the words of one who is bet
ter known to fame by the designation of
Ian McLaren.' conservative of a most
conservative church, the Kirk of Scot
land. In his late work. Words Of the
Master" he says. a millionaire now is
almost worshipped, but if the signs Of the
times are not at fault the day is not far
distant when to die possessed of great
wealth will be TO stamp one as a semi
criminal" These quotations might be
greatly extended, but when we reflect |
that these utterances are from leaders OF
thought in the two most conservative |
professions in the world-for your own
great profession has now become one Of |
the most progressive on the planet, a |
very Edison among the professionalism
such speech comes from such men we
know that we are face to face with the |
great evil of the day and that the public |
welfare demands its abatement. l will |
add just here one other quotation. In
his message to Congress December 3, |
1888 President Cleveland used these |
striking words: THE communism OF |
combined wealth and capital, the out
growth of over-weaning cupidity and
selfshness, which insidiously undermines |
the justice and integrity of free institu- |
tons, is not less dangerous than the COM
munism of oppressed poverty and toll,
which exasperated by injustice and dis |
content attacks with wild disorder the
citadel of rule He might have said it |
was a thousand fold more SO. The real |
menace to men of moderate property and |
those seeking to earn a modest Compel |
ence is not in the poor and the weak but |
in the colossal and mighty combinations
which lay their hands upon States and |
recoil not on the threshold of the ma
tional judiciary.
Words said Mira beau, words
are things" Aware of that |
fact, those who serve the money |
power by speech and pen are wont to |
dub those who entertain sentiments adj |
verse to government by money as an