Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-05-04
RICHANARCHISTSARE
MORE DANGEROUS THAN CON-
MON CRIMINALS
0lnlonaires and Monopolists Editors
and aohers-Power Behind the
Throne = The People Bribed and
blinded by q show OF Charity.


that there are more criminals now
than there were fifty years ago; we
mean that there are more-and a
great many more-in proportion to the
population. This is not the wall of a
speculative pessimism but the cold fact
presented by the U. S. census reports.
According to this practical and conser-
vative authority one person out of ev-
cry 3,442 in the United States in 1850
was a prisoner. By 1860 the ratio
has increased to one out of every 1,647.
In 1870 the ratio was one to every
LII: in 1880, one to every S55; in
1880, one to every 757. Judging from
our general knowledge of the times,
the census of 1900 will show a still fur
Their increase of criminals relative to
population. 1t is practically certain,
at any rate that it will show no de-
crease from $780, Taking the reports
covering the forty years from 1850 to
1880, inclusive, we find that there were
four and half times as large per-
centage of criminals in the latter year
as in the former! Is there not some
thing in these statistics to shock us
into thinking?
Criminals, however are by no means
our only dangerous classes. They are
not even the most dangerous. Crimi-
mails fall below law, and become its vio-
1ators and foes. There are those who,
Nm aprfain MOI n pQt
above law. and to use it for their self
ish and anti-social purposes. They
are the makers, molders, manufacture
ers and manipulators of law and law
markers and law-executors, the power
behind the throne of law. These con-
stitute the most dangerous class. In
this class belong our millionaires and
ulti-millionaires, the upbuilders OF
monopolies, the promoters of trusts, the
procurers of Cour dAlene outrages.
criminals, for society and state are on
guard against criminals, but these men
guard and guide society for their own
ends.
All possessors of vast and uncon-
trolled power are dangerous. Buckle,
i'm his History of Civilization in Eng
lang" rightly says: There is no in
stance on record Of any class possess
ling power without abusing it." This
was true when written, fifty years ago.
ut is no less true today. In order to
see that millionaires and multi-Inil-
qionaires belong to our dangerous
classes, it is by no means necessary
to imagine that they are demons, or
even to suppose that they are moved
by bad motives. They are moved by
the same passions and desires as those
which move other men-good and bad.
noble and ignoble But they are dan
of vast and unearned power, the very
possession of which blinds and intoxi
Gates. In fact, while these men are
good and generous, many OF them,
they are far more dangerous to society
than though they were all bad. Were
all millionaires misers, society would
soon cause millionairism to cease. The
fact that such men as Carnegie and
Rockefeller allow large percentage Of
their ill-gotten gains to percolate
through their fingers for the support Of
churches, colleges and other institu-
tions, acts as bride upon the public
conscience and as binders upon the
peoples eyes.
4 Among the dangerous classes must
he enumerated our editors and preach
ers. We are not joking. These are
dangerous because they occupy posi-
tons of power and responsibility, and
vet they are so often like men sleep
ling upon a volcano or like blind
guides who lead their trusting follow
ers over precipices. They cry, Peace,
ipeace!" when there is no peace. They
Iare so liable to take the side of the
Glasses against the masses, and do de-
grade both culture and religion into
mere pillars to uphold conventionalism
and wealth. The man who steals food
IOr clothing is as innocent as a new
born babe compared with the editor
who sells his brains in advocacy Of
opinions he does not hold, or the
preacher who thinks one thing in his
study and breaches another in his pull
Dit. Yet, alas! we fear that editors
and preachers of this sort are neither
few nor far between. We make no
railing nor wholesale accusations, but
1--WE believe that there is vast peril to
humanity in the insincerity and cow
ardice of those who should be its chief
educators and inspirers.
The worlds greatest danger is not
from its bad people, but from its
good peoplc-its cowardly, selfish,
superficial, unearnest or stupid good.
II we could only convert the good into
the Christlike, we could soon convert
the bad into the good! The power Of
the bed consists chiefly in the sleep
of the good. Let us wake up!-Peo-
pies Paper.