The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-03-29
Should Wealth Have a Linn.
itatiOn?
Communicated.

There Is IN the government OF
human affairs one order that is best
for all. What that order is and
how it is tC be attained should be
the great problem for all who have
at heart the improvement of the
human race.
Never in the history of our coun-
try were the people confronted with
greater social problems than they
are to-day.
The strikes, boycotts and general
discomfort Of late years prove con-
clusively that there is yetmuchroom
tor improvement in our social order.
What mean the great outcry and
muttering OF the masses? What
means the cry from the vast army OF
discontentcd which swclls up from
the very heart of the nation unless
it signifies the rumbling which is
often heard before the storm.
Smooth it over as we will, the
fact stands out as prominent as ever,
that there is something radically
wrong with our present economical
System. Many remedies have been
suggested, many reforms have been
inaugurated with the purpose Of re-
lieving the poverty and misery
which press so heavily upon large
majority of the people. Prohibit
immigration and invention, exclaim
some. The population is increasing
too rapidly, reply Others, and 50
many reforms are advocated, all OF
which are discussed with more or
less fairness; but whensit is suggest
ed that wealth is becoming too ''3Gn.
centrated, that limitations should be
placed upon it; the outcry immedi-
ately goes up that he who suggests
such remedy is. an anarchist, and
one whose name should be synonym
ous with whatever is dangerous,
lawlcss and subvcrsivc.
Nevertheless, he question OF
wealth Limitation cannot bc dismiss
ed with threats, epithets or snecrs.
1t will not dismiss itself, and we
cannot dismiss it. Every obscrvant
person must admit that the great
concentration of wealth, whether il
be in corporation, trust or lndlvl-
duals, has reached APPOINT dangerous
to the prosperity Of the nation.
Millions Of people idle, wealth
piled up for the few by the toll OF
the many, paupers and millionaire,
on every side, and the condition
growing worse and worsc,-thesc
things are enough TO make even the
most optimistic painfully apprehcn,
sivc Of the future. Ourgovcrnmcnl
ia some respects is in no better con,
dition than was the old Roman en-
pire Just before its fall, as desrcibeC
bv James Anthony Froudc. If ",
are to believe ihat eminent historian
the Roman empire was crushed by
the same power of unlimited, con.
centrated wealth that is to-day de.
stroying the life, the liberty and hap.
piness of the many in the Unitec
States. In Mediaeval Italy, toe
popular freedom was lost through 1
moneyed oIigarchy and proletarlat
So in every country where individu.
al wealth has transcribed the bound,
of justice, the people-the toilers-
have eventually been enslaved. Our'
is fast becoming a moneyed nation
and a moneyed nation is generally ;
weak one. Superhuity of riches
like superAuity of food, causes weak
ness and decay. Individual pros
perity or the prosperity Of com
munity does not mean general pros
perity Or the prosperity of a nation
Thus it has been shown that in New
York and Massachusetts, and thos'
states IN which the greatest wealtl
is concentrated, the largest proper
tion of paupers are to be found. Ii
1888 when De Tocqueville visiteC
America, he was struck by the equa
distribution of wealth and the alb
sence of capitalists.
Halt a century later, when Jane
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