The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-21


and gives it to. a, few. In the early
DAYS of the republic there was no ma
zion upon earth where wealth was more
evenly distributed. We were a nation
of home owners And these -conditlons
existed until the civil war, when in
fiuences We're set at work which are
rapidly taking the tangible wealth
from the masses and concentrating IT
into vast fortunes. We came out OF
the war with a bonded Indebtedness of
SO. COO GOO O00 The bonds which repre-
cented this Indebtedness had been paid
for in deprecated paper. and they were
payable in the same currency me m
fiuence of the bondholder. however, Sc
cured, first the passage of the credit
strengthening act by which the bonds
were made payable in coin, and later
secured the demonstration OF silver
which, made the bonds payable in gold,
and by doubling the value of the dollar
made the creditor class pay a6out
twice that which il had contracted to
pay Then our tariff laws have been
shaped under the Influence OF the rlch,
shaped in their interests and against
the common people Then, the rali-
roads as they came to earn dividends
that We're excessive, in order to shield
themselves from a reduction OF rates.
had recourse to the issuance or water
ed stock and bonds until today by the
admission OF PooT's Railway Manual,
One-haIf of the capital of our railways
represents nothing but Water. Inc
rates for transportation have not been
fixed by competition nor according 10
the cost of service rendered, but have
been fixed upon the principle of charg-
ing all that the traffic viii bear me
farming districts and small towns have
suffered. Population has been center
ed in the cities where wealth mas al
WAYS been unevenly distributed and
powerful plutocracy has been created
FARMERS LOSS OF WEALTH.
IL 1870. Notwithstanding these adverse
forces. the farms OF this country con-
tanned little rnore than 40 per cent of
the population which owned exactly 40
per cent of tie tangible wealth. II was
shown by the census of 1890 that the
farms of the country contained exact
" 30 2er cent of the population, who
owned but . per cent of the tangible
wealth Inrtwezty years the farmers
of this country lost 10 per cent of the
tangible wealth of the land Where did
it go? Who has it2 What was the
cause for this lOSs2 Our farmers are
hard workers. they are honest. sober,
/ Industrious and economical Their
wives work as hard as any women on
earth. and they have as few of the
luXurieS of life as any women OF the
land. The farmers of this country at
the present time have very much less
than % per cent of the tangible wealth
of the land. and statistics show that
one-eighth of our families own seven
times as much wealth as the remain
ing -eighths, and that % per cent
of our people do not own their own
homes.
While the tangible wealth has been
drifting from the agricultural class and
from the laborers there have been ere
ated some colossal fortunes. Andrew
Carnegie is said TO have an income OF
S24 goo 600 per year-S6S. COO per day
more each day than the president of
the United States receives annually as
salary. John D. Rockefeller has an in
come of $15, 600. He could build
three railroads each year from Salt
Lake to Los Angeles from his annual
income, and still have enough money
left to live comfortably, say at the
rate Of 100000 per month The great
profits which accrue to the owners of
aggregated wealth is resulting in the
monopolization of industry, and that is
what the Democratic party is pledged
to do: that is what the Democratic
party proposes to do. 1t proposes to
take from the giant trusts and mOnOpo-
! lies the special privileges and protec-
ton given by our legislation. 1t pro-
( poses to Iegislate and to prosecute them
/ out of existence. It proposes to put the
articles which they monopolize upon
the free list and make them compete
with Europe. They can no longer be
said to be infant industries needing the
protection of the law of the land.