The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-02
RIGHTS OF THE AVERAGE MAN.
A Matter Little Regarded by Capital
 istS and Labor Unions.

Chicago lnter-Ocean.
 The statement is made on good author ity that 1.so0,O00 persons in Chicago liv, in fiat buildings and hotels. The numbe ten years ago was about 5O0,000. As to the effects of this change ther, are various opinions. As to the cause O. 1t. however, there Is but one opinion worth considering. It was tersely stated by ole woman who approves of flats. Fl is cheaper to live in flat than in ( house." And that is the truth. The av- craze man has been driven to become 2 tiat-dweller in Chicago and elsewhere fol no other reason that that, under the pc culiar conditions that our abundant pros perity has produced, the average mar cannot afford to live in a house. The average man is neither capitalist nor q member of a labor union. His bus mess or profession is such that ne ana his fellows cannot form trust to reduce expenses and increase incomes-neither capitalistic trust nor a labor trust. But he is the man out of whom, in the long run, the trust takes its larger profits and the labor union its higher wages The average man would prefer as rule to live in a house with a piece of land under the executive control of himself and family. But along comes the coal trust. for instance, and makes 1t harder for him to keep warm, and along comes the labor union, for instance. and raises the price of every service for which he has to pay. Thus, ground between the upper and neither millstones. the average man has but one way of escape. That is to join with other average men in an apartment house, that by thus getting to- getner they may divide the necessary ex- penses of maintaining homes-expenses which have become too heavy to be borne individually
 The average man, as a rule, does not like this way of life. It constrains his lsbersonal freedom and it makes more diffi- cult the rearing of his children. But he feels, as rule, that his only choice is to live in that manner or not at all
 The most curious part of this situation is that these average men are the ma jority of the American people. There are about 3OOO0,000 persons engaged in gain- full occupations. Of these 10, 600 are III agriculture. Not more than 100000 be- long to labor unions. Of capitalists, great ana small, there are not at the very ut- most more than 100000. All the rest are the average men, at whose expense the gains of the trust and the labor union al e made.
 There is an incessant clamor of discus sion over the rights of capital and the rights of organized labor. There are reams of legislating to secure these rights, and the courts are always at work defining them.
 But how about the rights of the ave, age man? Nobody in particular seems to think about them. agitate for them or leg islate for them. And yet the average men are the majority of the public, and, while capital and organized labor pros per, they are finding life ever harder.
 In view of the facts, the great task of this nation is evidently to secure and ill., crease the welfare of the average man, without whom trusts would have little to exploit and labor unions little to or ganize for, and both practically nothing worth fighting for.