Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-07-22

ways, out OF the revenues from which
the city has paid during the last TWEEN
ty-fve years the original cost of the
lines, and now defrays all her munich
pal expenses. 1t is done in some cases
by the lapsing of corporate franchises
and the consequent reversion of corpo-
rate property to the state
San instance of this is the Lawrence
bridge down the river here. Its char.
ter ran out and the court held the
bridge escheated, as it were, to the
public, like the property of a natural
person dying without heirs, Another
instance is that of railroad in Penn
sylvania, which forfeited its charter
for some misconduct, and old Judge
Black and the supreme court of that
state held it's right of way and roadbed
reverted to the state.
GOVERNMENT RAILROADS AND BANKS.
Presently another instance will be
the foreclosure of the government mort
gage on the Union Pacific railroad and
the buying it in and operating it by the
public. Another instance will be the
expansion of the money order depart
ment of the postal system into savings
banks for the deposit and loan of funds
aud the consequent elimination of the
business of private banking; and still
another will be the condemnation of
the railroads under the power of emil
nent domain and their conversion into
public highways in fact us well as in
name. In short, as fast as things be-
come of sufficient public concern, either
nationally or to those locally affected,
they will pass into the hands and I'M
der the control of the general or local
public, and some fine morning, if you
live to good old age you will wake
up and find yourself living in an al
most communistic state of society, hav-
ing gotten there by transitions so easy
and natural you didn't realize their oc-
currence until the job was done.
"You don't see the profit there would
be in all this to you! The devil you
don't! Well, neither do Joe Hudson,
Grover Cleveland and other mollusks.
Neither do Rockefeller, Huntington, j.
Pierpont Morgan and other licensed
bandits. Neither would Robin Hood,
Captain Kidd or Jesse James, If living.
The profit to you, my dear sir, consists
in keeping the other fellows from max
ing their profits off you, and saving
them to yourself
''As society lis now constituted we
live by making profits off each other;
that is, taking away from each other
portions of our earnings 1t is suppos-
ed to be the only way we can live. Ac-
cumSlation of profits begets power,
confers ease and happiness and draws
admiration to the taller; consequently
everybody is striving for the most that
can be gotten; and every way short of
downright larceny is considered legiti-
mate. The boldess, most forceful and
INSCRIPTIONS get the most, and they
use what they have as leverage to
obtain more. You say that is all right;
say it is not. A score Of good reasons
can be given why it is not
THE SOCIAL FUND
"I'll mention only one, and that is
that these great accumulations of
wealth are almost entirely drawn from
the social fund, as we call it. Never
heard of the social fund, you say. Well
l suppose not. The social fund, sir, is
that excess of power, that additional
production, that accumulation of val
ues, which occur through organized in
dustry, through the specialization of the
industrial forces. Two men working
together can exert greater power, can
accomplish more than they can work
ing singly-that is to say, the result of
their joint efforts is greater than the
aggregate of their individual efforts.
Now, the excess of what the two work
ing together can accomplish over their
united product working separately,
constitutes what we call the social
fund, or part of it. There are some
other ingredients entering intering in
to it, but I'll not take time now to ex-
plain.
Young man, to whom do you think
that social fund, the existence of which
is only possible through the efforts of
men working to gether and not singly
Ito whom do you think it in good con-
science belongs? think it belongs to
the men who made it. It is in large
part heritage to us from the past. 1t
exists in the form of inventions and
scientific discoveries, and in the ad-
vantages and opportunities and insti-
buttons OF social life which cooperative
effort alone has made possible. 1t
therefore belongs to society as a whole
as much so as the natural elements of
earth and air and ocean do
However, as things now go it is a
storehouse from which the loot aud
plumber of the worlds great fortunes