Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-01-19

III tHe uuSt, ana strip MIN OF all ne mas,
though his starving wife and children
plead piteously to us for mercy.
No. we are on solid ground. and we
have no time. nor need. to look out for
any but ourselves. We are the elect!
All things. all persons. all wealth and
power. are ours. because we know how
to take and how to keep, and we know
how to make barren money breed!
Yes: we are the divinely appointed
owners and rulers of the earth and
mankind. because We are wiser and bet
ter-But hold. a. momenti Where are
the evidences of your goodness? Where
are the monuments of your wisdom?
Robbers. pirates, tyrants and rapacious
oppressors. may as truly boast of their
wisdom and excellence: for they leave
the same testimonials behind them and
create the same desolation around
them: proofs only of force, violence.
fraud, greed. cruelty and INSCRIPTIONS
cupidlty and perfidy. Is this a record
to be proud of? Is the general poverty
and want a. thing to boast Of? Do wis
dom and benevolence reveal themselves
in these schemes Of self-seeking, to the
disadvantage of all others? They prove
no whit of that wisdom and goodness
that deserve to dominate, but fully es-
tablish that lust and license of rapine
that all wisdom and goodness, In all
lands and in all ages, have agreed
should be eXtermnated.
stu, let us agree, gentlemen OF hon
or, profit and Trust that for many re-
cent years you have been devoting
yourselves honestly and diligently. with
all your wisdom and goodness, to the
well-being and well-governing of this
people. Admit that: yet, from an i'm
partial standpoint, have you proved q
success for any except yourselves and
your assistants in ontraction and ex-
tortion? You have taken the peoples
money from them: you have deprived
labor OF employment, or paid it only
half wages: you have deprived produc-
tons of home markets and depressed
them to half prices by the contraction
OF the currency, which has checked
consumption and demand, because.
even more needy than ever, the people
are without a circulating medium suffi-
Gent for current wants; you have, by
the same means. reduced the value of
all property. disabled all buyers, and
destroyed all credit that rested on
property; but YOU and yours have pros
pered out of all this, for you delibe-
rately brought it all about for your
special and exclusive ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
There is your balance OF trade, of
which you boast and in which the
railroads of the land went snacks with
you Gas they thoughD. in stripping the
land and people OF all products, that
all needed. but none were able to buy.
and which you secured at less than
cost at forced sales for money; the
railroads carried these spoils to the sea
for you, and you shipped them abroad.
where you made a great haul of money
by underseling even the paupers OF
Europe and other lands; and now the
railroads. by Robert P. Porter. howl
loudly that for all their work for you
they received no fair share, and are
consequently in dire distress. But Por-
ter, still true to you, says that 1t was
foreign money, and failed to give the
poor railroads their equitable share!
Yet you and Porter know that nobody
believes him.
Are you not ashamed of this game of
robbing your own home to enable you
to rob paupers abroad. who are ready
to perish? NO,