The times., 1899-03-19
An Evil and TRemedy.


An Evil and Remedy.
Twenty years ago, RiAar&Grant White,
In romantic semi -burlesque called THE
Fate ef Mansfield Humphreys" pointed
out some of the evils from Which American
society of that day suffered. Like most
severe critics, he was cOutest with expos
Ing the fault: he offered no remedy. His
book was curious jumnle OF fault finding
and compliment, nine parts of the former
and one of the latter; and the only way
in which he found it comfortable to dis
pose Of his American hero was to send him
back to live with his English wife on her
ancestral estate. Nevertheless, one or two
points which he makes in his book are
worth discussing, even at this late day.
One of the solemn prophecies in which he
indulged was that unless our Government
can be freed from the rottenness engender-
ed by money worship, and given into the
control of cultured and honorable men, the
country will go to ruin. And another of
his points was that IL is absurd to lump all
the Heterogeneous races which inhabit this
land into one nation and call it American,
when, as matter of fact, the only true
Americans are tas he thinks) Englishmen
who have lived for two and a half centuries
on American soil, without admixture of
foreign blood: namely, part OF the peo-
pie OF New England and of Virginia
The truth of his first proposition is Just
now strikingly illustrated. When the
country is forced to fight with all its
men, as happened year ago, during the
weeks just before the war with Spain;
when rich men obtain high positions in
the Government that they may favor other
| rich men; when United States Senator
can retain his seat after it becomes gen.
orally known that the seat was bought;
when corporations ride roughshod over
the rights of the people. and comfort and
convenience. to say nothing of more serious
interests. are sacrificed to the Unsuitable
desire for money on the part of a few
millionaires, the country is in rather a
serious predcament, and it does not take
Solomon to see that such state of affairs
cannot in the nature of things continue to
exist. Nothing stands STILL and the move
ment of the world is more rapid than it
was half century ago. The logical re-
suit of the increasing power of money will
be that plutocracy will become more and
more powerful till it is eradicated. 1t will
be just like any other powerful association
of men; it may continue till it decays
through power too easily held; or 1t may
be destroyed at one blow as an unnatural
and artificial system. 1t is easier to cut
out cancer than to cure case of in
herited and lifelong consumption. The
system which permits few men to gain
suddenly an immense. power over whole
communities is not natural; and it has
little of the strength of the oId-time feudal
system. When Mr.. White wrote his book
the trust and the syndicate were not as
powerful as they are now; the whole net
work of trusts which binds our commerce
has grown up almost within generation
1t is not made easy to the people by long
experience, nor are there any friendly re-
lations between the capitalist and the
workingman which give the latter the in
stinctive loyalty of the Highlander for his
laird. The railway laborer of today does
not think Of his employer as the man who
eign foe. and so claimed the service of the
iaborer's father and his grandfather in
their time, or as one whose father was a
hero, brave and generous. whom it was
an honor to serve. Here and there some
old-established business house has stood
for two generations or more, and has the
reputation of dealing fairly and kindly by
it employees, and 1t is not too much to say
that such house often weathers the
storms of business reverses more through
the loyalty'o of its employees than by good
fortune. But, as a rule, the workingmen of
this country have no personal feeling for
their employers at all.
Here comes in the significance of the
other allegation of Mr. White. Our hetero-
geneous population is composed of individ-
uals who all have votes. They are all Ameri-
cans; they have cut loose from heredi-
tary affiliations TO employers. and they are
all responsible for the kind of government
we have in this country. So soon as they
grasp the idea that they can, If they choose,
break the power of the trusts and establish
will begin to work; and when they become
intelligent enough to know how TO use their
power plutocracy will vanish. As the
banker says in "Altruria," The working
man now begins by fighting. When he
knows enough to begin by voting, then We
| shall have TO look out
10 tod ag HaeIa rin n he