The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-07-08
SYSTEM FEEDS ON
PEOPLES HOARDS
Continued from First Page.

Lawson said, people were told that they
need have no fear, for 'one Thomas r.
tied Hyde SOP shares Of the Equitable
stock for $2,500,000 and that he would
see that no one else got away with the
hundreds Of millions Of your savings
which the great Equitable company
holds. You must know that these 502.
shares for which Ryan was willing to
pay $2,5OO,000 are only entitled, legally,
to receive $4,000 per annum, in diyi-2
d sshs and are sstqb italy SS S Boo s.
his representative, Mr.. Ryan appoint
ed Paul Morton, the rebate giving
vice president of the Atchison railroad,
to manage the corporation and to see
to it that you policy holders are given
a square deal. Who are these two men
to whom you are asked to trust the
support of your wives and children and
sonally know neither Of them, and in
their individual capacity am told they
are good fellows Mr.. Ryan, they say,
is generous and whole-souled gentle
man, who gives back to the pe2Sle in
charity, just as other good fellows do,
mill on each Of the dollars he takes
from the people in business. Mr.. Nor
ton, read the other day, is a frst-class
man, and the man who said it said he
for me-for he is one Of Dame Fortunes
pets, one of nature s. pickings, the best
man in the country today-President
Roosevelt
In explaining who Thomas F. Ryan
was, Mr.. Lawson rehearsed some tobac-
cotrust history, and told how a New
York bank examiner pounced on Ryan
for a loan Of $2,000,000 from one of
his trust companies to one Dan Shea.
Shea was his 14-year-old office boy on
a salary Of $3.50 a week. d.
People Have Created It.
Mr.. Lawson then took up his explain
alton of the system. He declared that
the present surplus and wealth of the
nation belonged to the people who
labered to earn it. If at the end of
such period Of labor the people them
selves do not have the surplus in their
Pe s eoarg IS ou e. he
created in this country all the people
have consumed, and billions besides.
Yet the enormous accumulation of
wealth is found in the hands of GER
tain individuals. "Let us look,' he
said, whether there is anything in
our laws whereby possession of these
billions could be secured without steal
ing them. - r -.s
Before the eyes of the American people
today stand forth a little handful of men,
risen from their own ranks, who within
the last thirty. years have grown richer
and more powerful than the kings,
princes, earls and dukes Of those lands
where the people are not free and equal.
| In the ownership of these men is more
! money than all the rest of the people have
gathered and SO potent have they be-
come thru the application of their
| riches that they can buy and sell the
Lawmakers and law administrators and
the courts of justice which the people had
created for the administration of their
| laws and the defense of their equal rights
| What is smore, these same men have sc
entrenched themselves upon the banks OF
! the channels Of commerce that they con-
| troll the production of all the necessaries
and luxuries Of the nation SO absolutely
that when the people buy they must pay
| the price they fix, just as tho these mer
were the overlords Of all the people, as
| the car and grand dukes of Russia are
| lords of the persons of the subjects. What
| is more, they dominate also the banks
\ and trust companies in which the savings
| Of the people are earning but 3 and
per cent, and with these savings they
earn for themselves 100 to 1000 per cent
In the pride of their powers and posses.
sions these same men grow daily more
insoent in Haunting their riches ant
their superiority to the law Of the natio,
in the face of the people, for they know
that by the operation Of the financia
mechanism they have created the tim
must come when the ownership Of all thu
| wealth Of this great land must fall int,
their hands and the people be reduced t.
actual servitude. ~ '.r--s--+'