The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-01-06

imports. The fact that total gross rail-
way earnings have doubled in seven,
teen years Is far less significant than
that they are IN excess OF tho total vol
ume of our exports OF merchandise.
produce. coin and bullion. But Of even
greater Interest IS the fact that the an
iinal volume OF bank clearings at about
eighty cities throughout the United
States. Indicates a grand total Of do
nestle and foreign trade probably forty
times greater than the total value OF
exports and Of Imports, There remains
only to be recalled the Increase OF our
Interior commerce TO thlrty-elght times
the volume OF our business with foreign
countries. over and above which Is the
picture Of the total wealth OF the couu-
try-nodrly seventy-hve times what 1t
was ut the beginning Of the century"
LegiSlation "statute-Mad."
Mr.. Gordon then cltea the cOnsolida-
tion OF power in business, and claims
that ltas reflected in similar ten-
uGuCy OF tua BONeIulheAe'
Hand In hand with industrial con-
solldatlon goes legislation. statute-mad.
There is no evil that cannot be cured
By enactment. The police power Of the
state IS exaggerated IN all directions.
sumptuary legislation. labor laws, pro-
tective tariffs, pension laws, homestead
exemptions, stay laws, poor debtors
laws, all emphasize the tendency. The
spirit Of governmental protection has
become domInan. factor in the eyo-
tuition Of modern society"
"Eaving opened the school-house and
enacted protection for the laborer, the
legislative department of government,
ever ready to lend helping hand to
those in trouble. on behalf of his en1-
ployer confronts him in his extremity
with statutes against strikes and I'M
proper combinations and associations;
while the courts meet his collective ef-
forts to help himself in his struggle
against aggregated wealth. with conye-
nient judicial DEGREES of injunction"
Capital and IRbor.
while there can never be war be-
tween capital and labor in the sense
that either IS economically hostile to
the other, yet the conflict between
those who own and misuse the one, and
those whose very existence depends up
on the continuance OF both, has al
ready begun; and we who stand here
to-day are in the midst of the tumult
and the noise Of the struggle.
"Dreamers and prophets and Seers
have arisen, seeking with words Of
Utoplan promise to point the way TO a
solution Of a perplexing and ever
threatening situation. The air is rife
with the jargon of the new conflict.
Men tell US that the money power is a
corrupt alliance between property own
ers and the forces of government,
whereby the poorer are robbed under
cover OF the law for the benefit Of the
richer: and they seek to hang the tat=
tered garment Of their discomfort upon
the frst visible peg. Yet the remedies
that are proposed to curtan and curb
the powers Of associated wealth and
sovernmnet are Of a singular If uncon-
scious kinshIp to the evils they would
end. The socialist dream. differing in
detail with the personal views of the
Individual exponent, hut uniform In It's
principal idea OF collectivlsm, is that
the already too powerfully centralized
government shall stand In loco paren-
lis to the citizen. and shall protect"
him from the ills of a protectIonism
that is already overwhelming. Social
ism, rampant in the European nations.
where the strong arm of government Is
supreme, is q new conner Of late years
upon American soil. and its advent has
been contsmporaneous with the latest
and largest development of civic and
private wealth and power"