The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-06-07
GULF BETWEEN POOR AND RICH
Is Being Rapidly Widened by the
Trusts.
NO. ".
Communicated.

At one time Lazarus and Dives were
not far apart, for we are told that Lazarus
lay at the rich mans gate. but afterwards
there came time when the rich man
prayed to Father Abraham that Lazarus
might dip his finger in water and cool
the rich mans parched tongue, and Abb
raham replied, between US and you there
is great gulf fixed, so that they who
would cannot pass over from us to you,
neither can any come from you to us.
Fifty years ago in this country the rich
man and poor man, the laboier and his
employer, we're near together. In the
majority of cases the employer and his
employee worked side BY side in the field
or factory, and, in many cases sat down
together to eat their meals at the same
table. They knew each others families;
in many cases they visited as social
equals, and in practically all cases. they
reciprocated acts of neighborly kindness
in times of trouble or affection. There
was no permanent class Of employers or
employees they were constantly chang
ing; the employee, by industry and econ
omy, i'll a few years could buy little
farm or start little shop of his own and
himself become an employer, and the
employer might easily by lack of energy
or economy, soon become an employee.
Then no man was so rich but he might
by extravaganza or bad management be-
come poor, nor was any so poor but he
might by industry and thrift become rich
But now the owners of a trust take no
more interest in their employees than III
a piece of machinery; they do not know
their names and in some trust establish
ments, already, the employees have no
names, but are numbered and are known
by their number, just like the thieves in
the penitentiary.
1t is we'll nigh impossible now for such
all employee to pass over into the tanks
of the employer as it was for Lazarus to
go from Abraham's bosom to where the
rich man was in torment He can't be-
come an employer i'll the business of the
trust for which he works, or i'll any bus
mess controlled by any trust, and this
shuts the door Of every opportunity which
he is fitted to embrace, even supposng a
trust to pay its laborers enough to permit
them to save anything.
One employee here and there may ad-
vance from one position as employee to
anothar position paying more wages or
salary, but he can no more become an
independent proprietor than subject in
a kingdom can become a sovereign. He
may become higher subject but lie is
still a subject, and so an employee of
trust may have his wages raised but he is
still an employee, or i'll the expressive
language of the law, he is servant, and
if he INDUCES in thoughts of the future,
he has no reasonable hope that himself,
his children, or his childrens children,
will ever be anything but servants.
Not the least of the evils of the trusts is
the tendency to make great gulf fixed"
between the poor and the rich, between
the servants of the trusts and the trust
magnates, so that they who would can
not pass over either way. To the great
mass of the people there is as little pos
sibility of becoming rich as there is of
the common subjects of monarchy en-
tering the ranks of aristocracy. And on
the other hand, there are more families
in the United States so rich that they
could not by any extravaganza even
spend their incomes, than there are titled
families in monarchy. The House of
Plutocrats in our country is greater in
number and far greater in power than the
House of Lords in England. Class dis
tinction, says Mckinley, has no place in
a republic, but the trusts are fast giving
it a place i'll our land. Will our land be
republic when the process is complete