The Washington herald., 1907-01-06
SOCIALISM A REMEDY
Washington Mans Plan for
Dealing with Trusts.
GOVERNMENT TO TAKE CHARGE
Henry Laurens Cali Declares SwoI-
len Fortunes Are Due to MOnop-
OIies Brought About ny Corpora
tiOps and Must BE Controlled by
Municipalities Debt IA Burden.

Ninety-five per cent of the national
wealth is in the hands Of the capitalists
according to an estimate made by Henry
Laurens Can, Of Washington. assistant
secretary Of the national child labor com.
mittee, before the social and economi,
science sections of the American Asso
citation for the Advancement of Science
which met at Columbia University ia
its fifty-seventh meeting. MIR. Can wa,
speaking on The concentration of wealth
In America" He said that, basing an est
mate on his present income, John ID
ROCkefeller's fortune probably aggre
gated One-fortieth of the national capital
and that to-day I per cent of the popu
latiOn owned about % per cent of tn,
entire wealth of the nation.
In his paper Mr.. Call continued a.
follows:
AS a result of this wealth concentra
ton industrial society is practically di
vided into two classes Of the enormously
rich and the miseTably poor. our 1900,
900 wage-earners receive an average o
only 800 a year: nine-tenths Of our bust
ness men are VIGOROUSLY failures; ou
clergy receive an annual average salar,
of about $500. The average for the edu
Gators of the land Is even lower. and tn
income of other professional men in pro
portion. while Of our 100000 farmers one
third are tenants and the homes of one
third of the remaining two-thirds ar
mortgaged, and debt burden Is aImos
universal
A Nation OF Debtors.
I'VE are in fact a nation Of debtors
our public and private mortgage, bond
and general Indebtedness alone reaching
probable total Of $4,000 oJO.000, or $40 pc
capita: in other words. an amount equa
20 10 II times our per capita money cir
culatiOn and - times cur savings-bank dc
pOSits But the stocks Of our industrial
financial, and public service corporation
are expected 10 draw dividends. and con
stltute as truly an Indebtedness upon IN
part Of the public 10 the owners OF wealth
as do mortgages and bonds themselves
and these, under their present enormous
OverCapitaliZatlOn, would swell our IN
debtedness TO a probable total far in ex
cess Of the $4,000 90 90 estimated as tn
total aggregate wealth Of the nation. IN
whole being a first lien upon the toll ant
property of the nation, with the powe
given TO these corporations TO levy wha
tax they please thereupOn.
These conditions are not norma! no
the result of natural law or causation
but are instead the result Of a m0nopOl,
OF land and mineral resources, of money
OF transportation. and other public Utiii
ties. as also Of industry This m0nOpOl.
fas. moreover, been brought about b,
means OF the rporation-industrial
fnaTci-l, and public service II is thus Ia
work of human law alone, the product O
vicious institutions.
Law Needed for Correction.
But If the conditions outlined are tn
result Of unjust and vicious institutions
then to law must we look for their cor
rection. The corporation should yet b
be made cooperative; social, instead OF
as now. the instrument OF private greed
In the first place. the ownership Of pub
lie utilities. such as railways. street rail
ways, and the like, should be in the pub
lie, as also the control and distribution
OF money. The corporation principle an
function should likewise be extended q
mines, as also TO land in cities and else
where required for joint use and occu
pancy, with, perhaps, a reasonable re
striCtion upon nOnoccupant ownership O.
land And. finally. the trust. like publ
utilities. should be- made cooperative il
the workers; a public, not a private, pos
session.
Moreover. in this taking ch9rge o
these properties by condemnation proceed
ings some restitution should be made L
the public OF these enormous and inqui
tous accommodations Of which IL has bee
despoiled In the complex situation man
ifestly the most just as we'll as the mos
feasible solution would be to TX som
maximum limit as the amount which an
man can be said TO have acquire
honestly OF which he could have &C
CURED under just condiuons-aI abov
such limit reverting 20 the public iron
the holdings In the corporations. Thi
would at one and the same time tax
the water out Of the STOCK Of these cor
porations, restore To industrial societ
the wealth of which it has been defraUde
and effectually prevent its further spolia
ton at the hands Of concentrated wealth
1t would conform our institutions 10 III
present social cooperative nature Of in
dustrial society and inaugurate In III
most practicable manner the one solu
ton of our present social and industrial
problem-practiCal, scientific socialism"