Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-07-24
Villas SPEAKS
Continued from second page.

pour into the watts of these marvellous
wealth.suckers. We have at last
reached a stage in this oppression
where their exactions lie upon almost
every article of human necessity and
comfort. The American people, boast
ing independence which had its root in
resistance to unjust taxation, now find
themselves bound hand and foot in
practical slavery TO great contedera-
cies which more eXactingly enforce
taxation for private gain than ever tax
collectors for public use; harder mas
ters than a hereditary aristoCracy, for
they at least acknowledge the maxim
nOblesSe obH0e. Not a so-Called free
man in our land can build house to
shelter his wife and children, cover
them with clothing, buy food for their
hunger or Goals to cook it; can pro
cure the very necessaries of life, spar
ing it's comforts or Injuries, but he
must put in extra days OF labor TO
earn this iniquitous eXaction.
And the worst of it is not the money
outrage, gross as that has come to be.
Our entire business, social and politi-
cal systems are, through this means,
undergoing a menacing change. Every
considerable town now contains many
who are dependent for livelihood on
the will of the manager of some great
combination; salaried dependents, and
not infreQuently on Capricious favor,
whose Independent business enter
priSes have been eXtinguished. In
many lines of trade the suppression of
competition has become so perfect,
that the consumer finds he can no
longer negotiate; he must buy on the
iron terms decreed to him, or go with
out SO enriChing are these methods,
that more objects of need and use are
continually being brought within their
compass. At the pace the movement
has attained, it can be but few years,
if it go unchecked before substantially
the entire range of manufacture, min
ing, trade and transportation, will
stand composed of a few masters and
millions of employees, the latter con-
strained to trade only at what may be
called practically company stores;
and all agriculture will be helplessly
ensnared as it already is to no small
extent. Liberty in the pursuit of live
lihood will well nigh have disappeared,
for, with the devices of our modern
invention, it is unnecessary longer to
manacle the condemned with ball and
chain.
These are not pictures OF speech.
They are melancholy facts. Nor do
they half tell the story This is but a
summary suggestion Of the evil to
business life. while the consequences
entailed upon all it's aspects, as well
as on our social life and political con-
ditiOns would require volumes to de
tail. The facts are in sight of the peo-
pie every day in some shape, but many
have seemingly become so habituated
to them as to inertly suffer without
thinking of relief, as they who dwell
by swamps accept ague as a dispense
ton of Providence.
The Anarchy Of Socialism.
We have recently heard much dis
cussion of Trusts, learnedly profound,
sometimes, with phrases which mean
little to the ordinary reader; possibly
to no other. The necessity for aggre-
eating wealth to accomplish great
ends is also expounded, and the heresy
of socialism denounced IL is all wide
of our mark. There is no heartier
antagonism to socialism, and it's twin,
paternalism, in every form, than Dem
ocratic principles demand, opposing
line by line every doctrine of that false
philosophy. The Democratic creed af-
firms NOT tha Currandnr but biob
est uplifting, of individuality, and OF
every right of the individual man; pc
culiarly, his right to hold and enjoy all
the honest fruits Of industry, brains
and personal achievements No safer
foundation for the rights Of property
can be laid than the principles of Dem
oCracy; none so safe, in truth, because
they are imbedded in right and Justice
to all In my poor opinion no cause
more perilously tends to the anarchy
of socialism than Protection, arraying
the masses against those who profit by
unjust laws. and inviting social disor-
der by its iniQuities. Let them who
would accumulate all the business
property of the country in few hands
remember how easily the lands of the
church, the acquisition of centuries.
were confiscated in the French revolu-
ton, and that too before its days of
terror. and reflect whether those are
not the safer laws of property which
COMFORT with popular justice.
Nor should we be led off to assail
the wise concentration of capital for
just objects. So long as it is left to
the chances Of business freedom under
equal laws, there will be little cause
for apprehension, for these will rene
dy evils in a natural way II NAV be
often highly beneficial; and If special
action be needful the circumstances
of the particular case will point the
treatment due.
All this is but distraction from the
injury which Protection has done, is
continually increasing. That rests
upon the fact that the enormous power