The Louisiana populist., 1897-06-18
PINCHING TO PROSPER
c. P. HUNTINGTON'S VIEWS ON
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
A Monopolist's Rusty and Ridiculous
Remedy for Rampant Roguery and
RuinOus RestrictiOn-There Can Be
No Wealth Created by Saving.

Mr.. c. P. Huntington, in donating
Slo0 to the San Francisco boulevard re-
lief committee, accompanied the same
with some remarks doubtless regarded
by him as original and "practical," but
which to us appear (mostly) rusty and
out OF date, when not truisms. He
said, there ought to be enough work,
either in the city or country, to keep
constantly employed the 1900 men
who, you say, have registered their ap-
plications." He is dead right" there;
but we respectfully suggest to him to
Investigate and ascertain why they
don't get that work. He thinks that
IN the eastern cities the greater part
OF those tramping the streets don't
want work at all, but the wherewithal
to keep them from the necessity of
work, and that many others will only
work in the city. He is inclined to be-
lieve c'inclined' is good) that the great
majority of those who really want to
work can get it somewhere" and if
such want Ito work with an honesty
OF purpose" making point of living
on less than he makes, he will not, in
one case out of a hundred, ever need
again to seek employment"
Now, if Mr.. Huntington will put
brake on his inclination" and look at
things just as they are today, instead of
as they were when Il was boy" and
never had any difficulty in finding
plenty to do,'' he will greatly alter his
conclusions. Laborers and mechan-
les, especially those with families, know
very we'll that precarious as are the op-
portunities for work in cities, they are
still more so in the country; for, while
man in city may seek work in
hundred places in day, in the country
especially in the artificial deserts of the
west (which Huntington and other
owners of land grants, etc., have helped
to make), it takes man all day to ap-
ply for work at half-a-dozen places,
more or less, or sometimes at even one
place; discouraged by failure, he be-
comes tramp" his manhood is near
ly gone; he is emasculated physically
and mentally. wrecked beyond hope.
But they should reduce their desires
to thelevel of their needs until they can
afford to indulge in them" Hundreds
OF millions, in China, India, Poland,
Hungary, Egypt, etc., have been doing
that for centuries, some of them, per-
haps, for thousands of years, with the
result of chronic hunger and frequent
famines. One million human beings a
year are, 1t is estimated, absolutely
starved to death in India, in ordinary
years; over half the population OF
those countries never have enough to
eat for year together; all of them "re-
duce their desires to the level of their
needs" and the more they do this the
less they get. This is Asiastic semi
barbarism, and to this condition, SEEM
ingly, Mr.. Huntington desires to reduce
Americans.
Men and women require, as a mat
ter of necessity, very few things to
make them comfortable" How few?
We suppose, even Mr.. Huntington
would admit that they need some house
room. Should the very few things"
consist. in the Chinese manner, of
dozen hunks in room, wives and fam
lilies to be regarded as unattainable lux
uries for common folks?" "One can
well afford to sacrifice the pleasures of
few of his early years for the sake of
that freedom from anxiety which he
will find such boon and comfort in
his declining days." That is, he can
deprive himself of all beyond the neces-
sites OF bare subsistence until he gets
to be mere Stick" like Huntington.
incapable OF rational enjoyment, bent
only on money making.
But how many would be successful
even on such miserable line as this?
Not one in a thousand. That people
get wealthy by saving is disproyed by
the common experience of most veal
thy men in this country and of hun
dreds Of millions in Asia and Europe
And even in our own country. in the
seed farms of San Jose, men are paid but
80 or IS cents day, and employment
uncertain at that. How much can thew
save?
But where Huntington is out of date
is in totally ignoring the difference in
conditions of labor between today and
sixty years ago, when machinery in
Guiding railroads, had hardly begun to
get in its work in this country-cer-
tainly not west Of the Alleghanies Not
that labor saving devices are in them :.
selves injurious; they are such only be-
cause the natural resources which
should be open to laborers SO displaced
are made artificially scarce, Hunting
ton, himself. levying toll on millions
of acres, for which he rendered no
more equivalent than did the robber
barons, besides charging exorbitantly
for services actually rendered in trans
portation to and from these same lands.
vIy;%roce %ho HE...-,