The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-09-12
ALTGELD AND LABOR.
VIEWS OF THE EX-GOVERNOR ON IN
DUSTRlAL QUESTIONS.

Philadelphia-GOvern Ownership of
dum-People Face Serious Crisis.
The most serious problem that con-
fronts the people of America today is
that of rescuing their cities, their states
and the federal government, including
the federal judiciary, from absolute
control of corporate monopoly; how to
restore the voice Of the citizen in the
government of his country and how to
put an end to those proceedings in some
of the higher courts, which are farce
and mockery on one side and crimi-
nal usurpation and oppression on the
other.
Corporations that were to be servants
and begged the privilege of supplying
cities with conveniences or of serving
the country at large have become mas
tiers.
We have had 80 years of colorless
politics, in which both of the political
parties were simply conveniences for
organized greed. There was nothing to
arouse the deep. slumbering patriotism
of the masses, and race of politicians
came to the front, many of whom had
no convictions, but straddled every
proposition and then waited to be &C.
duced. They were men who made every
promise to the 1aborer and then be-
trayed him. These men became the in
struments through which the corpora
lions worked Having learned what
vast sums can be extorted from the
American people, the monopolies used
a part of the wealth they got from this
source to corrupt the peoples represent
atives, and thus obtained unlimited
privileges of plumber, until almost
every great city in this country is tied
and gagged and cannot even enter a
protest while being robbed.
All Of this falls with crushing force
on the laborer, for his hands must earn
the taxes the landlord pays. He is forced
to depend on the public conveniences
and always suffers under bad govern
ment.
An individual rarely has interest
enough or money enough to bride a
city council or buy a Legislature, but
the corporations have both, and as the
money all comes off the public they
offer temptations that are too strong for
average men to resist.
Inasmuch as no government can en-
dure in which corrupt greed not only
makes the laws, but decides who shall
construe them, many of our best citi-
zens are beginning to despair Of the re-
public.
Others urge that we should remove
the bride givers-that is, destroy this
overwhelming temptation by having
the government take all these monopo-
lies itself and furnish the service which
they now furnish, and thus not only
save our institutions, but have the
great profits which now go into the
pockets Of private corporations turned
into the public treasury.
But the corruptionists, the monopo-
lists and all men who are fattening on
the existing rottenness and injustice
cry angrily, why, that would be So
cialism, rank socialism, and we are op-
posed to it. :" Some of these men know
the meaning of socialism, and some do
not, but they control all those men who
cling to the skirts of wealth.
Socialism has been defined as a sys-
tenn of government in which the COM
petitive system is entirely abolished,
and the principle of associated effort is
applied to everything.
According to the standard authorities,
socialism is an ideal state founded on
justice and in which the benefits of
modern invention and of monopoly shall
be shared by all the people instead of
being controlled by the few and used
by these few to make themselves the
absolute masters of the many The
word socialism is used as term of
derision only by the ignorant or the
servile.
However, the world is not ripe for
the application of socialism. There are
as yet hundreds of things that cannot
be done successfully by the state and
that must be left to the individual.
In Great Britain and in many of the
continental countries the governments
maintain postal savings banks in which
the poor can deposit their little savings
from time to time and get low rate
of interest on them. In England this
postal savings department, run in con-
nection with the postof1ice, performs a
variety of service that is Of the greatest
benefit to the people. 1t provides sys-
tenn for receiving the small deposits
even of children, cheap and safe sys-
tenn of sending small sums Of money
from one point to another, and it issues
life insurance policies for small
amounts In this way poor people are
encouraged to form habits of economy
and thrift and also to make provision
for sickness, accident and for old age
and can do this all at very nominal
expense and are never i'll danger of los
ing life's work by a bank failure or
of having the insurance company break
after paying it premiums for years.
In our country the poor people are
left at the mercy of private individuals
and private companies. The history of
both in banking as we'll as in insurance
has been tainted with failures, bank
ruptcy and even frauds, and, owing to
the high charges, our poor people are