The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1898-09-02
EVIL OF PLUTocRAcY.

President Jesse, Of University Of Mis-
souri,, Points Out the Danger OF Ae-
cumuIated and Organized Wealth.
. In a recent letter President r. II.
Jesse, Of the University Of Missouri,
one Of the most cOol-headed and pa
triOtic, as he Is one Of the ablest, men
in the country spoke Of the menace
which the political use OF organized
wealth has become to American insti-
tutions. No intelligent American has
a right TO pass over or forget such
words as these from such a mans
The tendency IN modern times towards
socialism communism and even anarchy
seems TO terrify many people No one will
deny that there IS such a tendency. No
one win question that It threatens cur in
situations
But to my mind this danger Is small
compared with that which threatens from
accumulated and organized wealth. Its
lack OF sympathy with the struggling
/ munism and anarchy More than half OF
he wealth OF the country is controlled by
/ less than a thousand men.
/ Many plead as an excuse that the road
/ to wealth fs open to any man. The ros
\ to enormous wealth in a lifetime should
/ Be closed 70 every man. No enc can acCu-
\ mulate the prodigious fortunes Of our mod
\ arn plutOCrats by honest labor and clean
] transactions in the space OF one lifetime.
/ Few immense fortunes are gathered in q
/ lifetime by methods that viii bear fnspec-
ton. Many Of the Wealthiest men have
heaped up riches in ways that are morally
no better sometimes than highway robbery.
I anufacturers IN many cases have risen TO
princely wealth by grinding down their
/ employees to starvation ages, thus cutting
on educational opportunity and even moral
training from thousands Of children that
are 20 WELD the ballot. Railroad magnates
have often grown rich by wrecking roads,
I depressing stock and standing In with
/ construction companies. Merchants have
frequently become princes by forcing their
connections to the wall, using for Oppree-
sion the powers that were given for good.
More than one colossal trust has gained
wealth and power largely by conspiracy
with railroad officials, whereby special
freight rates have been secured and denied
TO all competitors.
Meanwhile society Is supported by hon
est, hard-laboTlng people VINO SuaIQ
i the country at home and abroad, have FUR
nished projection TO these men BY max
deTed il possible for the pIutOcrat, holding
IN safety MS gains, to pass them on to MS
children.
sssIore than half of the wealth OF the
country is controlled By less than
thousand men"'
President Jesse will not be suspected
of being either an alarmist or an agi-
tatori but what would be more caleu-
lated to arouse the keenest appreheh-
sion than this deliberate and unexag-
gerated statement of what is now the
great central lact of our political, so
cial and industrial-life-the far-reach-
ing and vitality significant fact that
more than half the wealth Of our
country is now controlled by less than
a thousand men!"
Every country needs rich men; but
for most men the possession of more
money than they can use is, to the
last degree, dangerous and democrat
izing. 1t is certainly a fact that some
Americans who are most envied for
their large possessions are, because Of
their money, paupers intellectually,
physically and morally. Morally, they
have become bankrupt because Of a
loss of ability TO distinguish quickly
and surely between right and wrong.
This is the greatest misfortune which
can happen to any man. But in the
intellectual and physical effects which
the RIGHTEOUSNESS of great acquisi-
tiOns has produced, the cases of some
greatly envied Americans are almost
as deplorable One OF the most pow
erful members of the New York plu-
tocracy lives in constant dread Of the
insane asylum. He Is a nervous wreck,
and his own friends and employees have
pronounced him over and over again
victim of that most dreadful of all dis
eases-paresis or sOftening of the brain.
Another New York plutOerat. almost
as we'll known in London, Paris and
Berlin as he is in St. Louis, Chicago and
Cincinnati, is so deplorably close TO in
sanity that. seated in his private Office
with bankers and railroad presidents
waiting In his ante-rOOm, he has the
utmost difficulty in so controlling mis-
nerves that he can keep his voice from
becoming keen ard shriIl in the usually
unnotieed excitement of ordinary
business conversation. As he sits in
almost intolerabIe pain, with the
nerves of his face twitching at their
cOOrGinating muscles in protest
against submission to his Will, no one
who has studied such symptoms can
concede that he is either responsible
or rational in the true meaning of
either word. Yet such men, whom &C
quisitiveness has robbed Of seif-con-
troll and brought to the threshold of in
sanity, are the principal organizers Of
the wealth which now controls the
country
Their organization, indeed, is a re-
suit of their disease. PlutOcracy is as
truly a disease as are smallpox and
rheumatism. II is the result Of nerv-
ous disorder, and In its acute stages
the pain II inficts on its victim is so
intolerable that the paresis or soften
ing Of the brain which is the class
disease Of unbOunded covetousness is /
natures relief for what would be
otherwise unbearabIe nervous dis
tresS.
The OmniPOtent Justice which Oper-
ates in the reaction Of the human body |
as 1t does in all things, has made pare l
sis not only a merciful relief for the I
suffering plutocrat himself. but a safe |