Iron County register., 1898-09-01
EVIL OF PLUTOcRAcY.
President Jesse, of University of Mis-.
SOuri, Points Out the Danger OF Ac-
cumulated and Organized Wealth.

President Jesse, of University of Mis-
SOuri, Points Out the Danger OF Ac-
cumuIated and Organized Wealth.
In a recent letter President e. 81.
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
right to pass over or forget such
words as these from such a man:
| 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 will question that 1t threatens our in
| stitutions.
| '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
| masses is indeed one chief cause of COM
munism and anarchy. More than half of
| the wealth of the country is controlled by
| less than a thousand meP.
| MANY plead as an excuse that the road
to wealth is open to any man. The road
| to enormous wealth in lifetnme should
| be closed to every man. No one can accu-
| mulate the prodigious fortunes of our mod
| ern plutocrats by honest labor and clean
| transactions in the space of one lifetime.
Few immense fortunes are gathered in a
| lifetime by methods that will bear inspec-
ton. Many of the wealthiest men have
| heaped up riches in ways that are morally
| no better sometimes than highway robbery.
| Manufacturers in many cases have risen to
| princely wealth by grinding down their
| employees to starvation wages, thus cutting
| off educational opportunity and even moral
| training from thousands of children that
| are to WELD the ballot. Railroad magnates
| have often grown rich by wrecking roads,
| depressing stock and standing In with
| construction companies. Merchants have
| frequently become princes by forcing their
| competitors to the wall, using for op2res-
! 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 ana oen1ed
| to all competitors.
| Meanwhile society is supported by hon.
tSe the county at home and abroad, have fur
| nished protection to these men by max
ing life and property safe, They have rem
| dered it possible for the plutocrat, holding
| in safety his gains, 20 pass them on to his
children.
! "MOre than half of the wealth of the
country is controlled by less than a
thousand men:'
President Jesse will not be suspected
| of being either an alarmist or an agi-
| tator; but what would be more calcu-
| lated to arouse the keenest apprehen-
sion than this deliberate and unexag-
gerated statement of what is now the
| great central fact 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
q 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 demoral-
izing. 1t is certainly fact that some
Americans who are most envled for
their large possessions are, because of
their money, paupers intellectually.
physically and morally. Morally, they
have become bankrupt because of
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 licentiousness 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 nervous wreck,
and his own friends and employees have
pronounced him over and over again a
victim of that most dreadful of all dis
eases-paresiso or softening of the brain.
Another New York plutocrat, almost
as well known in London, Paris and
ID !, g - nd
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 his
nerves that he can keep his voice from
becoming keen and shrill in the usually
unnoticed excitement of ordinary
business conversation. As he sits in
almost intolerable pain, with the
nerves of his face twitching at their
coordinating 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 ac- |
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. It is the result of nerv-
Gus disorder, and in its acute stages
the pain it iniicts 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 unbearable nervous dis
tress.
The omnipotent justice which oper-
ates in the reaction of the human body
as it does in all things, has made pare
sis not only mercifui relief for the
suffering plutocrat himself, but safe
guard for society. We may rest as
sured that the laws of nature will not
be repealed or nullified by human
licentiousness in the pursuit of wealth
and power. When more than half the
wealth of the country has passed into
the hands of less than thousand per-
sons, we may rely on the omnipotent
forces of the universe to cooperate in
restoring the disturbed equilibrium.
But we see in nature that where the
equilibrium is too greatly disturbed, it |
is restored through formida bIe If