Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-12-26
HEPBURN ROASTED BROWN
Benny of New Jersey Supplies the
Fuel and Stirs the Fire.

benny OF New jersey supplies the
Fuel and Stirs the Fire.
Congressman Hepburn of Iowa, the
political oracle of the Republican party
in the house, whose dignity and i'm
pOrtance will not tolerate Il question
from any new member of that body,
was roasted to a turn on Dec IL by
Mr. Benny one of the new congress
men from New Jersey. On Dec. 1 Mr..
Hepburn said in congress:
To-day every man in the United
States who wants TO work finds en-
ployment in the great labor fields of the
United States and at IL compromising
wage"
To show that neither of these state
ments was true Mr.. Benny said:
Il live in the city of Bayonne, u city
of 10000 inhabitants. Every morning
at the gates of our great manufacture
ing eStablishments-the Standard Oil
company. the Babcock * Wilson Boiler
company, the Safety Insulated Wire
and Gable company and other large
concernS-hundredS of men congrcgate
and beg for work Across Newark bay,
at the works of the Singer NIanufac-
turing company. other hundreds gath
or, also looking for work. Every large
factory in Jersey City, New York and
in every other city that | know of will
furnish a similar sight each morning.
Every man in public life. if he lives
i'll city and is known to have a heart
in him. can testify that he is overrun
with applications of deserving men
looking for work. And the men at
these factory gates are men who really
want and who deserve work In addi-
ton TO this evidence, do not the news
papers almost daily contain accounts
Of works shutting down. certain rail
road companies laying off 10000 men
within the last three months, and so
On?'
The great Hepburn also said on
Dec. /:
when has there been a time when
the distribution of wealth was as great
as it is now and when the humblest
and poorest had so large a share of the
accumulatiOns of each year as now?
There never has been a time
In reply Mr. Benny said:
Has the gentleman not read the fig
ures in the United States census of
1900, which show that $50 per cent of
the people own 1857 per cent of the
wealth of this country? Has he never
seen the estimates of Mr.. Charles B.
Spain, whereby it appears that l per
cent of the people own 54.S per cent of
the wealth. another 100 per cent of the
people own 32.2 per cent additional.
which added together shows that 11.9
per cent of the people own 81 per cent
OF our wealth, the other Is per cent of
the wealth then remaining being
owned by 3S.1 per cent of the people?
Add all these items up. and you will
see by these figures all of our wealth is
owned by just 80 per cent of the PEG
pie. the other 80 per cent of our people,
or in round numbers 100000 souls.
owning absolutely no part of the coun-
try's great wealth.
Has ii not been stated over and
over again without contradiction that
when the board of directors of the
steel trust meets the twenty-five men
who there sit down own one-t twelfth of
the entire wealth of the United States?
Does that show the present to be
time when the distribution of wealth is
greater than ever before and that the
humblest and the poorest have larger
share of the accumulation of the year
than ever before? Shame on the sug-
gestiOn."