Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-01-19
PLUTOCRACY.
Defined BY Hon. M. W. How
ard. M. c.. IN the New Time.
Has Sprung Up Since the War and it's
Power To-day IL Well Nigh Supreme.
THE MENACE OF pLUrocRAcY.

eIn GROWTH
1t has sprung up since the war, and
its growth has been so rapid that its
power to-day is well nigh supreme.
At the close of the war the million
counted OH the fingers of single hand
and the wealth was reasonably we'll
distributed.
There was a large middle class, and
and the abject1y poor, on the other,
constituted but a small per cent. of
our total population.
Thirty years ago no man was idle,
unless idleness were matter of choice
with him. There was no difficulty in
finding work at remunerative wages.
The small dealers and mauufactur-
ers could find profitable fields for the
exercise of their energies and the op-
erations of their genius.
The country boy of brain and pluck
could go to the city, embark in trade,
or enter a profession, and climb to
the top of the ladder.
The farmer could, in moderate style,
send his boys and girls to college, and
lay by a snug sum of money for a
rainy day.
Thirty years have passed since
these conditions existed, and as we
look over the country to-day we are
terror-stricken at the change. To-
day quarter of a million persons own
more than eighty per cent. of all our
wealth, while the middle class is be-
ing rapidly eliminated, and the ranks
of the extremely poor have been
swelled to millions of recruits from
the well-to-do to such an extent that
the adjectly poor largely outnumber
those belonging to the middle class.
To-day idleness is not the exception,
but rather the rule. Skilled 1aborers
are seeking all over the land for work,
without obtaining it; and if, per-
chance, one should be more fortunate
than his fellows, he must work at
i greatly reduced wages.
Only the other day was discussing
the question of wages with a skilled
mechanic in Birmingham, and he said
to me:
"There are plenty of houses being
built here, and 1 can get all the work
l can do at one dollar and twenty-fiv
cents Il day, but 1 cannot support my
family on this
A few years ago he could earn three
to four dollars per day.
On the railroads, in the South, men
work fourteen hours day, as section
hands (the most laborious work imag-
inable) at from sevcnty-fve to ninety
cents per day.
Today the small dealers are being
driven out of business by the Depart
ment stores, and the small manufact-
urers have been crushed by the large
combinations of capital.
Should the country boy of today go
to the city, he could never hope to rise
to eminence, either in a profession or
business, for equal opportunities no
longer exist.
The farmers of the country are
barely existing, their farms are under
mortgage, and their boys and girls
, lege to help pay the interest on the
mortgage.
Briefly stated, these are some of the
changed conditions.
At1d ba not far 20 oaaL 60 fI1 %
cause. 1t is the encroachment of cap
ital upon labor. The plutocracy,
which always places capital above
labor, has held undisputed sway in
this country for thirty years, and it
has we'll nigh succeeded in crushing
all vitality out of labor and gathered
into its capacious NAV all the fruits of
toll.
Our plutocracy is an aristocracy
formed on wealth. Money is its chief
cornerstone, greed and avarice its
only incentives. Plutocracy proposes
to rule the world through the power of
gold. While the people have been
fighting great political battles over
IdASS ISSUES bAC "a 1OOl-
ish or dishonest leaders, the plutocracy
has so entrenched itself in power that
its position seems almost impregnable.
It knows we'll how to appeal to the
cupidity in the human heart, and with
its ill-gotten gains it buys newspapers,
corrupts legislatures, controls Con-
gress and the Senate, and owns the
courts. 1t dictates the nominees OF
conventions, and then tells the work
ingman to vote the ticket or starve.
Should patriot appear upon the
scene, with brains and capacity tc
lead the people, and undeceive those
who have been blinded or prejudiced
all the power of piutocracy is directed
toward his undoing. The hireling
press, the paid iackeys, will hount
him down in every conceivable way
Even should he succeed in coming into
high position the attacks will be KEEP
up. He will be cajoied, battered and
tempted. If he will not be bought, i
he is found to be incorruptible, othel
means will be resorted to for his de
structiOn.