Evening star., 1901-09-06
Rise of the Common People.

The most commonplace bid for the ap-
plause of malcontents and the most dema-
gogic appeal to class prejudice yet made
by Mr.. Bryan was that presented by him
in the course of his Labor day address at
Kansas City, when he said: Each decade
of our history shows greater production of
wealth, and yet the men who produce 1t
have less to show for it." Here Is a shin
ing and delusive bait of words cast by
an angler for public favor.
The first clause Of the sentence from Mr..
Bryan Is true. Each decade in our his
tory does show a greater production Of
wealth. 1t Is a self-evident truth which
all men may recognize. 1t Is the fly with
which the political angler fishes. The Sec
ond clause Of the sentence quoted from
Mr.. Bryan is equally as self-evident an
untruth. The men who contribute to the
production Of wealth do not have less to
show for their labor. This is the destructive
falsehood which Mr.. Bryan conceals under
the self-evident truth in the hope that
both may be taken as one by the unwary
man. The first clause is the fly, and the
second Is the hook.
Who is there to defend the statement
that men who work have less to show for
their labor year by year? In this declara-
tion is denial Of the fact which most men
know and of which most men are proud,
that the human race is evolving upward.
The vast majority of men work to live, and
to say that this majority is going steadily
down In the economic scale is to say that
republicanism or democracy Is waning. and
that all the struggles which the mass Of
men have been making through the centu-
ries for civil liberty and for equality before
the law, have been fruitless No man who
Is a democrat In conscience can believe
that the majority is growing weaker and
the minority stronger. Century after CEN
tury the common man has been winning his
victories; not without defeats it is true but
after each defeat his subsequent victory
has been the greater. This development
has proceeded until today the common peo-
pie Of this and Of other countries exercise.
as inalienable rights, liberties and degree
Of participation in the fruits Of their toll
which five hundred years ago 1t would have
seemed madness to predict for them. The
great mass of men will resent a speech
which says that those who work are going
downward in the scale of life instead of
upward.
Perhaps what Mr.. Bryan thought he was
saying is that the labOrer and skilled arti-
san are receiving now a smaller percentage
Of the value, to the creation Of which they
contribute, than was the case decade
ago. But the truth Of this Is questionable.
because the Iaborer's personal contribution
to the creation Of wealth Is less. The great
contributant Is machinery. 1t Is probably
true that the wage cost OF production has
been lowered and is still being lowered and
will continue to be lowered. But all the
world. as well as the laborer Immediately
concerned. gains by this.
But no matter what the relation Of the
wages earned to the value produced may
be, the man who works to live is better OF
than he ever was. He wears better clothes,
eats better food, sleeps in a better bed and
works fewer hours a week than the man
who worked to live century or two CEN
turtles or three centuries ago. The common
necessities of the man who works today
were the luxuries OF the gentleman Of leis-
ure a century ago.