Evening journal., 1906-08-23
Thursday, August as. 1906.
wEALTH-PovERTY-A CONTRAST.

ONE Of the New York newspapers which is
~ the petted organ Of the wealthy and pre-
datory classes, on Sunday printed some admir-
able illustrations giving glimpses of life in the
tenement districts of New York aud how the lit
tie ones who are to be the future American citi-
zens to serve the country in peace or in war il
needed, manage to exist during the torrid sum
mer spell. II shows, and the article states, that
the only playground many of these children have
in the sitting season is the fire escape on the ten
ement structure where they must pass wretch
edly large share of their young lives.
In the same paper we are informed of how Mr.,
Hartman in a single day. by manipulation in
the stock market, sheared the lambs of Wall
street OF twenty-five millions OF dollars This
vast sum Of course was not earned by Mr.. Har-
rinan by the production Of useful wealth or any
particular service.
1t is striking contrast, this accumulation by
the railroad magnate on the one hand and the
actual picturing of life of little in the ten
ements. And yet it is but the truth, for hum
dreds and thousands Of the young live under just
such conditions. Yet they are expected to grow
up to be good. law-abding, industrious citizens,
to accept their lot humbly and meekly.
Marx declares that the accumulation of wealth
at one pole is followed by the accumulation of
degradation, poverty, misery and exploitation at
the other. He had in mind such conditions as
those pictured from real life And while we are
far from accepting the Socialist doctrine the
remedy for such evils in the grotesquely absurd
distribution of wealth as that portrayed, it must
be admitted that civilization or an industrial or
an economic situation which permits the excess
sive and inordinate amassing of wealth on one
hand and the EXTREMIST poverty in the midst of
plenty on the other, is not one of which we can
be proud. Such condition is not the work of
nature or of the Creator As De Laveleye SAYS,
the maladjustments are the work Of man and
mans laws.
We may read great deal about the boundess
crops, and our wonderful prosperity. 1t may be
true Those like Speaker Cannon who pretend
to believe that prosperity is merely the hand
maiden of production may be satisfied. But real
prosperity of a nation depends upon distribution
and distributive justice is the keynote of sound
and wholesome national n4e. There is hardly
ever famine of production so long as men are
willing to work. But it is the distribution Of
the produce Of their labor that is at the founda-
ton of nations economic existence
Defenders Of the Harrimans and the Rockefel-
lers have not yet advanced a moral ethical or
sensible reason why they should have so much
wealth, while thousands Of children are impris-
oned in FIRE escapes or hovels simply because
their parents are unable to secure sufficient of TIE
wealth they themselves produce to keep theu,-
selves out of the wretched condition that III
New York paper 50 vividly lays before its read
ers
We have yet room for Improvement And It
will come as certain as night follows day AS
men are educated and enlightened, they will call
into question even more seriously than they ara
already beginning to do an economic condition
that allows a Pittsburg or any other sort of a
vulgar millionaire to squander in a fast and bes
tial way while hosts of his fellow countrymen arc
doomed to the direst poverty, misery and dis
tress