The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-02-11
LESSON FOR LABOR IN
AMERICA AND RUSSIA
Continued from Page One.

land, mines, shops, factories, machin-
cry, ETC., and at their command the
judiciary legislative and administra-
tive branches of government will ride
over human rights as rough-shod and
display no more mercy than Russian
Cossacks.
And as the wealth of the few grows,
SO their power of oppression increases!
Nowhere in the world-not in Great
Britain, Germany, France, Russia or
any other country-has the wealth
concentrated so rapidly in the hands
of a few, has economic and political
power been conquered by ridicul-
ously small crowd of capitalists, as
right here in free America.
Senator Depew, the "TaIkins" Dele.
gate.
1t is only two or three years ago
that Senator Chauncey Depew, of New
York, the talking delegate of the VAN
derbilt house, made a grandiloquent
boast Of plutocracy's power during the
cource of speech. There are fifty
men in New York city," said he, who
can, in twenty-four hours, stop every
door of all our manufactures, lock
every switch on every telegraph line,
and shut down every coal and iron
mine In the United States. They can
do this because they control the
money which the country produces.
The control of the money clothes its
possessors with absolute power over
a nations industries"
If 50 men can make beggars of 3d.
100000 human beings, where is the
freedom Of the latter, how can this be
a government Of, by and for the peo-
pie?
Senator Depew's startling declara-
ton is confirmed by Mr.. Thomas w.
Lawson, man who served at the
throne Of Rockefeller for a number
of years, and who knows whereof he
speaks. Mr.. Lawson says:
Power Of Wealth Centraiizing.
1T is only matter of simple matlle-
mates to ascertain the day, and that
only few years away, when ten men
will be as absolutely and completely
the legal owners of the entire United
States and all there is of value in it,
as John D. Rockefeller is the absolute
legal owner of the large section Of it
OF which he is today possessed.
WHEN THAT DAY IS HERE,
THE PEOPLE WILL LEGALLY BE
THE SLAVES OF THESE TEN
MEN,
How can America be for Ameri-
cans when a few men control the
great capital now and will be the legal
owners Of all wealth in a few years !?
Mr.. Lawson. who has turned states
evidence against his own class and is
today the most thoroughly hated man
in the universe so far as that class Is
concerned, does not theorize merely or
make claims without presenting tan
gible facts to substantiate them, as
the professional parrots and ignorant
jingoes are accustomed to do. He
produces facts and figures, names men
and institutions and exposes methods
and gives testimony that must hold in
any court Of public opinion.
To give an idea of how the great
financial institutions of America are
interviewer, we reprint Mr.. Lawson's
description of the manner in which the
three leading insurance companies-the
Mutual Life, the New York Life, and
the Equitable Life-are manipulated
(slightly edited for the sake of brev-
tty). These three companies form the
magnet, with the Standard Oil trust
and its brood of combines, that draws
the nations wealth into the possession
of p1utocracy. Follow the threads and
observe the connections between the
groups Of ulti-millionaires. SAYS Mr..
Lawson:
Insurance Companies and Banks.
First, the three companies have alb
solute possession of property and mon
ey in the form of assets of over
81, 000, 600, 000-more than half the COM
bined assets of all the insurance COM
panies of America, and indirectly
through their affiliated institutions of
an additional sum, the aggregate of
which is much greater than all the ma
tional banks Of America and the great
financial institutions of Europe, such
as the banks of England, France, and
Germany. The three have a ready cash
surplus Of almost s200,000,00O, which is
greater than the combined capital of
the banks Of England, Russia, France,
and Germany The income Of these
three companies is, each year, $780,
100000 greater than the combined cap
itals of the banks of England, Russia,
France and Germany-about $780,
100000, $200,0o0,000 of which is taken
each year from their policy holders in
the form Of premiums. Yet from out of
this income there is returned to their
policy holders each year in dividends
less than $15,oo0,0o0, and in total pay
ments of all kinds not over 500, O0O, 900.
And yet these three companies pay out
each year in what they call expenses to
keep the concerns running $50, OO0, 900,
paying to the officers of the companies
100000 in salaries, almost 81, 10000 to
their lawyers, and a number of mill
ions in various forms of advertising.
Steering the Big Companies.
Second, the three companies are alb
solutely steered and controlled from a
common centre, and the men who do