The labor world., 1900-09-22

Richer ana the Poor Become
Poorer.
There is one workingman in the
United States at least who has MASTER
ed the trust problem, rather who
sees the direction which the so-cailed
OF the past three years has
taken. He makes this suggestion in a
recent communication:
If you will have picture of a work.
ingman with a small dinner pail in
his hand with 1900 on it, and a large
dinner pail sitting on table with 1897
on it. the workingman is soliloquizing
as follows: They say the workingnlan
is enjoying a season of prosperity.
don't understand it. I could fill that
big dinner pail for 25 cents: now %
cents will only fill this little pail l
worked 26O days in 1897 at $3.50 per day,
Which amounted to $500. Our expenses
We're $3.50, leaving balance of $40.
worked 20 days more in this year, or $50
days, at an advance of 25 cents per
day, which amounts to $4.90. Our eX-
penses during the last year We're $525,
so I have labored 20 more days this
year than in 1897 We lived just as
well then as now. That year I saved
$40; this year am in debt $S5. John
Can you unravel it? Wife-Why, Ger
tainly I can, John. Your increase in
wages is about 20 per cent and the
trusts have run up the materials we
have to buy fully 33 per cent. So you
hr ifc tho fc hof
joying the prosperity at the expense of
the workingman.'
There has been an increased indus
trial activity; there has been an iE-
crease in the production of gold equal
to the combined production of gold and
silver in any of the years up to 1896,
during the past four years, and as
result prices have advanced in all de-
partments of industry. 1t is COM
plete vindication of the contention of
the advocates of the free and unlimited
coinage of silver, that an increase in
the volume Of money would advance
prices and put a stop to the period of
depression.
The difficulty is, however. that after
series Of reactionary periods, dur
ing all Of which time the price of the
dollar, has been advancing, the indus
tries Of the, country have been forced
into great trust combinations. and the
laboring man has been unable to COM
pei a just distribution of the increased
profits upon the output of his labors.
1t costs SO much more to live than it
did in 1897, and the wages of labor have
advanced in so few instances, that the
trusts have been prospered to the ex-
tent of hundreds of millions of dollars,
but the masses of the people are in no
better but in a worse condition than
they We're four years ago, and this con-
dltlon must continue So long as a false
economic system is pursued A few
people will revel in luxury, the many,
upon whose labor depends the indus
trial fabric will continue to grow III
want and wretchedness. in the pres
ence Of so-called prosperity.
An officer of one of the great trusts
said to ME the other day: What is
the future to bring us? There is not
meeting of our board of directors that
we are not offered a machine which
Will displace from one to a half dozen
men. The future holds out no oppor-
tunities except to those who have capi-
tai / suggested to him that perhaps
solution Of the question lay in the
recognition of the fact that the produ-
GERS of the capital had some equitable
rights in the premises: that few peo-
pie had no ethical right to appropriate
to themselves all of the opportunities
Which had been evolved out of the sacri
flces Of the laboring man, but the idea
probably fell upon barren soil. 1t is
encouraging, however, to note that. the
head Of an important trust has reached
the point where he is willing even to
raise the question of the future; where
he is willing to concede that there is
DO future opening to the great masses
CT the people: under our present indus
trial system. If the president of "a
great trust may question, we may hope
that the rank. and file of the faboring
men and Women of this country are be-
ginning to, think, and that out of this
aggltatiGn @of Thought may come the
Wisdom of intelligently directed action
toward "a hatter dlstTibutfon. of the
wealth Of the country An industrial
policy which makes the few very. rich
ana the many excessively poor; which
cloaks the future in darkness, offering
no nope to the millions yet unborn out
side of menial employments, afforGing
put bare existence. is not the birth
right of American citizenship. and
some day the people will. get to a point
where they will do their own thinking.
viii hn
peaceful, let us hope, but a revolution
none the less certainly.