The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-17

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
Whatever be the truth or the exaggera-
ton of the common opinion that capital is
merely saved and accumulated labor, taking
labor in it's restricted sense, it makes all
the difference in the world between con-
tentment and growing rage whether fair
share of the saving remains in toiling hands
or whether it hurries on by relentless at
traction to softer hands associated with
more knowing heads. Our laws are osten-
sibly fair and equal towards all. Our
troubles are as much the result of custom
as of law. The natural unequal distribution
of talents and aptItudes works with appar-
emily resistless force against the relative
welfare of the unsklled multitude. The
finesse of the INSCRIPTIONS, the success of
the gifted, the thousand accidents and OPP
portunities that make and mar the fortunes
of man, lend countenance to the hasty con-
clusion that law is designed for the advan-
tage of the narrower constituency. The
evil of Anglo-Saxon economy is its undue
tendency to the Capitalization of wealth and
the concentration of capitaI IN the control
of the few. With us a national debt is a
bullion brokers, and the whole hungry He
brew hierarchy, whose patent 1t is to spoil
the Egyptians. Our methods approximate
the wisdom CT the attempt to warm q great
auditorium by building a roaring fire in the
stove while the doors and windows are left
open with the temperance below the reach
of Nansens longest thermometer. While
the gentlemen Immediately around the stove
are toleraby comfortable, being as cozily
tucked in and adjacent TO the pastry as the
four-and-twenty biackbirdS in the nurSey
rhyme, the farther from the fire and the
nearer the door, the more miserable the
congregation. Proper attention to the out
side openings would tend TO more genial
diffusion of warmth and might make the
singing more cheerful and the harmony
more suitable accompaniment for the
angelic chant once gladly heard by the
Bethlehem shepherds: On, gentlemen, with
the financial dance. Let joy be uncontined,
but, look you, in the final outcome. when
the financial vioinist has been fully re-
munerated, and 1t devolves on you to tur-
nish your own music, 1t may be the melody
may marvelously resemble the resounding
cadence of a dismal howl.
Since the early Caesars, and since the
time of the second and third Hebrew kings.
there has scarcely been a more rapid and
accelerating appropriation of aggregate re-
sources in the hands of the few than in
England since the Napoleon wars and in this
country since the war of the rebellion.
Growth and decay encrcle all we know.
along the shores of time. The lunatic. the
criminal and the tramp as their bighting
shadow falls athWart our path. warns us
that they are pilgrims on the backward
trail from an overweight, incipiently wan
ing civilization. Take time TO pause. With
all proper consideration for selfishneSs as
the impulse of progress. what has expert
ence to offer for the common good? What
does the record suggest looking to the re-
peal mitigation of the ancient decree,
''To him that hath shall be given. and he
shall have abundance, while from him that
hath not shall be taken away even that
which he hath and he shall be poor indeed"
Indianapolis, Jan. u. l.. s. N