The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-05-04
HAVE We A GOVERNMENT

HAVE WE A GOVERNMENT?
If the Morgans, Hills, Rockefellers
Vanderbilts and half dozen other
multimillionaires own and control all
our lines OF transportation, and all our
mines, and all our staple industries,
besides controlling all our banks, what
is there left for the people? asks John
e. Finerty in the Chicago Citizen. If,
by a stroke Of the pen, these financial
magnates can make or break the pros
perity of any one section of country,
can take from this town and add to
that, can ruin one district to build up
another; if they can name the prices
we must pay for every article we con-
sumo, can establish rate at which
we must sell our products, if indeed
they leave us the privilege Of produc-
ing anything we can call our own;
and if they can make q schedule of
rates Of transportation to all points,
for freight and passengers, which we
must pay, we may fairly ask what
functions are left to the government
of the country? A government is sup
posed to be organized for the purpose
of securing the greatest good to the
greatest number of those under it's
Jurisdiction. But If every avenue once
open to individual effort is now closed
by the combination Of those, who by
questionable means have accumulated
enormous sums of money; If competi-
ton is killed, and willingly or unwill-
ingly. we are forced by our necessities
to buy from and sell to the same syn
dictate, then liberty is throttled; an enc
my has grown up in our midst more
dangerous than he who comes thun-
dering at our gates and demanding
surrender. If this state of affairs is
to continue, If these financial magnates
are to own the earth, and all the fruits
thereof, the rest of us had better get
off the planet and let them run the
world themselves.
A government that cannot regulate
the commerce of the country, that can
not control the lines Of transportation
to points within it's Jurisdiction, that
cannot secure to every man in business
fair field and no favor, that cannot
control greedy corporations directed by
men whose avarice has made them
practically insane, is no government at
all.
Men like Morgan and Rockefeller
are practically insane. The instinct of
acquisitiveness, the salient character
istic of the hog has got possession of
them, body and SOUL and notwith-
standing that they now possess wealth
that almost battles computation, they
are scheming, plotting and toiling to
accumulate more land to sweep into
financial ruin all and every one that
stand in the way of their greed. Do
these men ever think that tomorrow
or next day they will stand before the
judgment seat Of God while their bo-
dies will be food for worms? Their
w III pdlSS luIO OUlAVlOl, VI DG IT,
called only as examples of human van
ity pushed to the limit of absurdity.
Fools they are in very truth. But what
must be said of government which
permits these financial madmen. to
dominate the commerce and control
the public utilities of the country?
What kind of government is that
which, within the limits of it's juris-
diction, permits the existence of an
Emporium in imperio' that threatens
the stability of every individual indus
try, that discourages the investment Of
money in individual enterprise, that
makes it's own interests superior to the
interests of the nation at home and
abroad. 1t is no government, it is a
| farce if it is not fraud.