The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-11-17
STILL We POLL ON
THE PANORAMA OF HUMAN LIFE rs
8 4 GREAT FARCE,
Conditions the Greedy Create and 1
the BlunIerers Permit-The Little
story Of II New York Real Estate
TransactiOn-The Individual is
Hut II Soap Bubble I'm the Busi-
ness World. &#{

oAe u Inc large Iedl estate tranSaC-G5
tions not long ago reported in the news
papers embodies the following episode:
The sale was made by one of our most
successful business men toward the
top of our industrial pyramid. 1t con-
sisted of a very valuable city lot, with
building of relative low value of the
lot. Our successful business man had
bought the property four years before
and paid for it the sum Of $600,000 The
seller had been a church organizations
The same property, without one dollar
additional improvement and a deter
ioration of possibly $4,000 in the old
building during its four years out of z
use and hence out Of repairs, because
all human works are gradually pulled
down by the hand of nature and more
rapidly when not used than when in
actual use-that same property brought
81 100000 in the recent sale above men,
toned. That meant about 161. per cent
annual interest on the four years in
vestment, while the small capitalist
can hardly obtain over per cent on
investments not subject to go to the
wall at any moment. :
So far only a portion of the episode 8
has been conveyed. The sweetest sec
ton is as follows: The business man 1.
shrewd enough to carry out that fine
transaction is considered one of the
most honest, wealthy chaps in the
country. His churchainity, piety and
the like are a No. l. He is a philan-
thropist of the first water. He is even
as good with his employees as our bar
barous industrial system allows men
ito be without their being destroyed by
employers of a more greedy type. And
he can even thunder against some of
the atrocities Of his dear old party
when we are far off from elections and
again give to that party his influence
and vote when elections come around
In the real estate transaction referred
to as soon as he bought that church
property, about four years ago, he
ought to have removed it from. the list
of church property, and as such, ex-
empt from taxation; something that he.
was not honest enough to do. He thus
made at least SIT, 900 from taxgexemp-zs
ton during the four years he held the
property. He could not aff0r lot
Even II Ne Ii IL sslI5ng
have cleared 511z per cent inter
annum IN that transaction instead
I16k per cent, as he did. He sold his I
citizenship honesty as cheapiy as Ju-l
das sold his manhood for the delivery
of Christ to the old pharisaical aristoc-s.
racy that caused Christ's crucifixion.
The episode in question is but one Of
the many items which illustrate the
vanity and nonsense of what is called
personal purity or honesty or charac-
ter, morality, good behavior, respecta-
bility and so on, in the midst Of socialS
conditions which condone, overlook, rez
ward all sorts of wholesale dishonesty
in connection with public life, public
duties and social relations of the most
transcendent kind Any mere PERSONAL
dishonest act may affect one, five, ten
lindividuals: any dishonest scheme in
the domain of public adjustment
touches and hurts millions of human
beings The former alone are possibly
punished by law if they are of the poor
The latter are encouraged by law and
form an integral part Of the life of the
nation. And the whole business strata
of modern nations rest. on dishonest
processes, contrivances. combinations
and devices essentially dishonest
wrong, immoral: shifting the wealth
from producer to gambler or schemer,
from the one who works to the one
who lOafs: all because-because laws Of
monopoly rule the whole fabric of CIV
lilization, regulating all industrial man.
ifestations in their grand ensemble and
as an ultimatum in all important re-
| suits. The individual as an isolated
business man or in any small concern
is but a soap bubble wheeling under the !.
|inexorable network of large concerns
entitled by law to rob and crush right
and left. And this is what we call pro-
gress. evolution. prosperity, the full
dinner pail-fssl with taffy and rags
and despair. with empty brains on top 3
! In the presence of the constant. bitter
and profound disagreements which con-
stitue the order of the day between
| large armies of honest employees. anx-sx
lous to make a bare living through
hard work. and small groups of greedy
employers and monopolists. the latter
backed by billions of wealth. the for
mer, with the vision Of nothing but
dire provery when at work and rapid
starvation or beggary when not: with
factories and mines every now and
then shut up for weeks and months
although 80 per cent of the people at
least are wanting the bare needs Of
life and boundless wealth is locked up
somewhere. enjoyed by sbme-the few
who never produce anything worth the
mention-in the presence of all that
the whole panorama Of human life Is
the greatest farce that this planet of 4
ours has ever exhibited. 81
And the few fellows who enjoy life.3#
or think they do, refuse to look around:
and see the product of their own blum
ders, and the many in the coils Of the
anaconda of modern greed are. unable
to see anything but possibly their own ]:
absolute or relative poverty. All the 4
same, the hour is coming when q rad
ical change shall take place.-Jose
Gros. - 5z4 5s
Sign the Scals.
All bosses s IS but two in Akron, o., have
a son Ia ~ ~