New-York tribune., 1900-03-26
TEACHERS OF ERROR.

Doubtless DR.. Rainsford was sincerely per-
suaded that he helped his fellow men in Sc
curing an audience mainly of workngmen to
hear the Populist Swallow denounce the con-
duct of employers as robbery. If efforts to stir
up bad feeling between labor and capital which
can thrive only by mutual cooperation, help
men toward better and happier lives and render
them more useful to their generation, he may
be doing good service. Mr.. Swallows asser-
tions are such that to help him to hearers can
not be called in any sense spreading the gos
pei" or dissemination of truth. Thus he says
1.-THE sugar king adds quarter of a cent to the
pound on sugar" but the year before the Sugar
company came into existence, 1886, standard
granulated sold for 6.31 cents on April 1, and
now sells for 5.15 cents, so that the sugar king
has not added, but has taken off more than u
cent, and the difference between fair refining
and granulated was then A cents, and Is now
less than half as much. Mr.. Swallow said: The
"Oil king adds penny to the price of gallon
"of OIL" but refined oil commanded 80 cents a
gallon in 1870, and as late as 1880 sold at II
cents, with crude lower than 81 barrel, while
incomparably better refined oil now sells for
less than 10 cents, with crude costing 81 6S
barrel. Andrew Carnegie makes steel sell for
So ton more than it did before" says this dis
semnator of untruth. 1t is notorious that steel
rails have risen much less than the steel making
grades of pig iron, and that Carnegie resisted
obstinately the rise in steel, knowing that it
would bring into the field other competitors for
his work.
These are only samples Of untruths which
crowd an address designed to make the work
ingman believe that he is robbed because 1.-The
"men who work with their hands do not make
10 per cent on their investment or their labor
E1,pl fha ifaIiS tyin foh
1856 per cent" To reach the root of this un-
truth one has only to ask on what investment
or labor the laborer could realize 10 per cent
He invests nothing. Were the enterprise de-
stroyed he would have just what he had before
his muscles and his mind His faculties are
not invested nor spent in being used. The man
lives longer if employed than If idle, is more
healthy and happier. 1t is cheat TO speak Of
work for which he Is paid as an investment
The ablest man, for whose work great corpo
ration would gladly pay $4,000 year. can
draw his pay, but not cent of dividend on his
services. The capital which makes it possible to
employ him or the day laborer is a very differ
ent thing. 1t takes risks, and he takes none
1t can get no wages, and in bad times can draw
no dividends. But when it gets in a good year
enough to cover years that yield nothing, some
enemy of civilization. peace and goodwill crieg
out that the gain is robbery.
Great fortunes are the result Of great ser
vices TO the people. The exceptions are scarce
enough to prove the rule Pick the men whose
wealth is colossal, and then see what their work
has done for others. The men who refine oil
were able thirty years ago to supply this coun-
try at about 80 cents gallon for refined when
the crude cost about 21lh cents, and sent abroad
100,000,000 gallons. In the last ten years alone
they have saved the people 1000 100000 in the
reduced cost of refined oil consumed here, and
enabled them TO bring in S515,000O 900 for oil
sent abroad in spite Of the new competition of
Russia. Mr.. Carnegie has a great fortune To
him as much as to any other one man, since
he personally broke up the old rail pool and the
beam combination, it is due that last year the
country able to over thirteen million
tons of pig iron, most of 1t sold at less than
$12 ton against So and over before the war
and late 1888, and over two million two
hundred thousand tons of steel rails t less than
$40 ton. against $50 before the war and $40 in
1890. The Vanderbilts have made money To
that family as much as to anybody else are due
the progressive economies in transportation by
which two-thirds Of the cost has been cut off In
thirty years on the New York Central from SS
cents TO 81 cent a ton q mile so that the
freight movement now costing 81 $50 900 900
would have cost at the rates of 1870 at least
SO, 100000.
1t Is tiresome to have to teach the very alpha
bet Of civilization to men who profess TO in
struct the people and are invited 20 instruct
those who look to DR.. Rainsford for guidance
Modern civilization is not based on robbery. but
on hearty cooperation. Its richest prizes are
for those who give greatest practical help
to mankind, 1t pays in some great concerns
many thousand men the best wages they ever
had and better than they could get anywhere
else. and then pays millions to the man who
teach the world how TO pay such wages and
make II profitable. II gives higher wages TO him