Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1907-07-25
OPPRESSION in FOREIGN LAMBS.
Laborers Reduced to Slavery Through
Systems of Land Holding.

Americans should De thankful for
the liberty that their form Of govern
ment allows. 1t is only necessary to
study into conditions as they obtain
in many of the European countries, to
learn how enslaved are the common
classes of the people of those coun-
tries. The holding of vast estates by
the nobility has reduced the peasant
classes to a condition of serfdom.
In these countries it is also notice
able that the artisans, and the work
ers in the mills, receive wages that
are barely sufficient to buy them food
and clothing. In many of the CONT
mental countries of Europe the farm
laborer receives as compensation from
81 to $3.50 a week. In Silesa, where
there are large cotton factories, expert
weavers receive from $2.2S to So per
week, and women employed at like
work earn less than 81 per week.
Even in Old England, where labor is
paid the best of any European coun-
try, in the cotton factories the scale
for labor runs from S4.S6 to 5000 a
week. Where wages are so low it is
impossible for the people to save
money, and it is necessary that they
live upon the plainest and cheapest
food in order to make ends meet.
In comparison with these countries
how grand are the opportunities for
the laborer in the United States! In
America there are homes for all who
would build them. In no part of the
earth is there such reward for indi-
vidual effort. 1t is said by some that
there is a tendency even in this free
country toward oligarchy. That the
tendency towards the concentration of
financial power and business in the
densely populated districts is a men
ace that is too lightly estimated. The
preventive remedy for this evil lies in
the hands of the masses. There is
great need of the people in general
studying more deeply into economic
subjects. The simple principles upon
which business rests appear to be lit
tie understood by the average citizens.
The remedy for the prevention of the
building up of one section of the
United States at the cost of another
section is readily at hand, and each
and every citizen can do his part in
administering this remedy.
For many years great insurance
companies have maintained their
headquarters in large eastern cities.
Millions upon millions of dollars annu-
ally were contributed to them by the
people in all parts of the United
States. The vast funds built up for
the protection of policyholders had to
seek profitable investment. The great
captains of finance evolved means for
the employment of this capital. A
dozen small industries independently
conducted would be combined into one
company, capitalized far up in the
millions and the money contributed
to the funds maintained by the insur-
ance companies utilized in carrying
out the plans of the great combina-
tions. Thus it can be seen how
trusts have been built up and the
money of the people used for this pur-
pose, and too often to Cypress the
very classes that contributed the
funds which made it possible for
bringing into existence these combina-
lions.
1t can be understood how essential
it is that industries of this kind be es-
tablished in the different states, and
how the money contributed by the
people of a state to a company in
some other state works directly
against the contributors. What holds
good in the insurance business applies
equally to other industries. By keep
ing the earnings of a people in the
community where these earnings are
produced, is to the best interests of
the people. If it is necessary that they
be sent from the community, as far
as possible keep the earnings within
the limits of the state, for what assists
a state to greatness makes lighter the
burden of taxation upon all the people
within it and materially helps every
community within the state.
The student can plainly understand
how the concentration of business and
of money can be prevented by a sim
pie rule which involves the patronage
OF local institutions and the retaining
in each community as far as possible
all the w~alth produced within that
community. If this principle be close
ly adhered to it will be impossible for
any requirement of such vast power
as will Cypress the American people
as the common classes of many of the
European countries are oppressed.