The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1906-07-27

need TO tGQlire how much poorer the
poor will got. II they are to live at
all they can get much poorer. What
greater burden Of poverty can we put
on the four million American fam,.
Her who today with their best tSsl oan
gather less than four hundred dollars
Is year. What raoro can we take from
them than we have already taken?
The Massachusot It's Bureau Of Labor
has collected statistics showing how
the poor families spend their pittfui
incomes. 1t appears that 90 SO aac
week goes for food. Shall we cut that
DOWN Or shall we cut down the
%. OIL q month they spend for cloth
inRp or the 81 so r year they speua
for f-rntture and household furnish.
mgr Or the 81 a month they pay
for foul, dark rooms In o tainted ten
ement?
And these are not the poorest of
ths poor, these are sell. prospecting 10
Dorers, producers Of the national
wealth.; there are millions of others
whose lot Ia worse than theirs,-ten
million, Robert Hunter estimates, In
helpless poverty. out of work, out Of
health, out Of heart with the world,
broken ~driftWood, Migrants, tremps-
what shall we take from them?
Sixteen years ago Thomas G. Shear
man, q distinguished corporation law,
yer and brilliant wrltor on economic
questions. prophesicd that within
thirty years the United Sta toa will be
Substantially owned by less than one
n live hundred OF the malo populs.
tlonI"
In the United States today there
are 40 larR Industrial, franchise an6
transportation trusts with e clpital-
ization OF over twenty thou, aud mil
lion dollars. Which, Gays the "Wals
Street Journal" is "on6-dith Of the
wealth In the country and the most
powerful part OF 1t for IL Ia wealth
under such concentrated control that
1t practically Saaya tho ~bUlo.n
1t may ba objected that the chill.
drcn OF millionaire lines have a per
feet right to dispose as they please ,f
their fortunes and their liyas. If they
choose to follow the Improbable ways
OF steam yachts and motor cars, why
after all, this Is a free country. TO
which we might reply that no man
has a moral right to tquander mil.
lions on show and selfish pleasures
while Thousands OF his fellow men are
p%eriSbiDg Of want, while tens OF
thousands by their utmost labor anG
pain can barely secure the necessities
or life. Reminder the vast toiling
army enslaved in our factories and
mines, mon, ONE and children,
millions OF thcUl, giving the strength
OF their bodies and the hope CT their
souls that f.w thousand rich men
may draw handsome dividends on in,
vestmeats, dividends which they have
dUne nothing to earn and which II
bcr5S tnem 10 spend.
Extraordinary he openings arc al.
ways unexpected yet Obcs In a cen.
tury or SO, like the adYcnto Of O. mighty
conquoror or reformer, they do come
10 pass. Aud IL there should arlss
In this land a man OF thirty or f1rty
who, starting with two or three bill.
lions Owned or controlled by him,)
should be great enough to brush as q
the francis Of Incidence aud tcm,ta.
zion, great enough to see that never
IN modern times has there been CHER
ed 10 q man, not eve to Napoleon, 90
StupendOuS q chance rs this to WELD
absolute despite power, grea6 enough
finally to use his two or three bill,
lions TO Its full pot6ntiality tnen,
we'll there would sursly be interest,"
ing history nade in that mans life.
time! We have had our iron kinps.
railroad kings, copper kings, sugar
Kings ana Others, but there is one
KIND OF king we have not had yet. A
real Elrg? Yo', Tor how long, pray,
wCuid this republic stand againet
the aRgIe.5siOns Of such a man, O. gras1
minded ds3pOt without conscience or
bounds to bis ambition, d In com.
parlson TO whom cur Rlckfellors and
C~arnegieH would sgam Ike blunderinp
beginn&rt? Already our mlilloQairn
m~aBnates have begun to buy our
caurls and legislatures, to corrupt
our cities, to dCbauch the public con.
science; he would finish the work and
90 1t thoroughly, he would make the
laws, own the newspapers, subsidies
churches and colleges, mould public
onlnlon, direct the machinery OF
Justice, control the Industries, the
banks, the insurance companies, tho
conditions OF labor, regulate supp.y
Ind demand, liz prices, absorb pro
hIa, cehJralizo everything, be every
tNIug.