The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-01-01
a DANGEROUS INCREASE.

In every nation and in every age the
concentration of wealth in few hands
has caused the down fall of the nation
or the oppression of the masses. For
wealth ever has been and ever will be
a power. Wealth will corrupt officials,
buy elections and sometimes contami-
nate courts. When in interruptions
hands or held by avaricious, grasping
people becomes dangerous. That q
majority of those who accumulated
great wealth are, or become grasping,
is not disputed, hence 1t is to the in
terest of the masses that we have fewer
millionaires and that wealth be more
generally distributed among the
people.
As a rule our milliona1res are not
creators of wealth. They are men who
by some good fortune or by depressing
others have received more than they
haye given. It cannot be otherwise,
for had the exchange been even, had
the ones who by their toll, created the
wealth of the millionaires, received
their share of the dividend they too
would have accumulated great wealth,
Or at1east the acoumulations would
pave been divided more nearly equally.
It is alike true that our wealth creators
are not wealth owners, but are more
and more becoming the debtor classes,
n1 haf
labor is not equally distributed. The
man who tolls lifetime as a wage
Garner gets little more than a scaht
living, while the employer Of great
numbers becomes millionaire, yet he
has labored no harder, and in most in
stances not nearly so hard, as the ones
whom he has employed. Then the
laborers must have been robbed, and
by whom? Certainly the ones who
have received the benefit of their
toll.
It is by this unjust division Of the
results OF labor that millionalres are
being multiplied throughout the land,
that the wealth Of the country is get
ting into the hands of the few, which
some day will threaten the stability OF
&c government. For if the wealthy
able to control the actions OF the
ses, which none will deny that
are, there is nothing to prevent
Cir making the laws, fixing the rate
of taxation, and eurtailing our liber-
ties as they see fit. The signs OF the
times point to the fact that wealth is
drifting in this direction, and that it
is only question of time when this
end will have been accomplished. But
while the evil Is apparent, what are
we going to do about it? How is it to
be checked?
This is serious question that con-
fronts the people Of America today,
and will continue to confront them
until either the power of wealth is cur
tailed or the masses have become serfs.
Possibly the speediest way to prevent
the accumulation of wealth in few
hands Is BY reform OF our financial
6yot6ms Ao b8Ae oyobOhk AS" - - ~
all on the aide of the non-prsdaeessef
wealth, the one who realizes the bono
fits of the results Of labor. By the op.
erations of our present single standard
the wealth OF this class ia continually
Increasing in value, and q standard
that thus fuctuates is not honest nor
is it to the advantage of the wealth
producers. Fer instance, o dollar
which at one time paid for a given
quantity of the products of labor now
pays for double that quantity, cannot
be honest and cannot be beneficial to
the one who produces wealth, for i.
buys just twice as much of his labor |
now as formerly. The wealth creator
gets just half rs many dollars for what
he creates while the money owner gets |
twice rs much for his dollars. In other
words, the wealth owners dollars have
been doubled and the wealth creators
labor has been cut in halves. This
has been brought about by class legis.
lation, and will never be remedied un-
til the financial system Is changed 20
that instead Of . single We have q
double standard. Until it is changed
millionaires will multiply, and tho
danger of concentrated wealth will |