Rocky Ford enterprise., 1907-11-15
enterprise. but has come of speeuis-
tive tricks and artificial valuations.

But u ID absurd TO suppose that lc-
climate productive enterprise will
not suticr large share Of the unior-
tunate effect and produce q period ot
positively hard times. Money that
comes easy goes easy and the people
who have won out on speculation
have been buying without asking the
price. So the combines kent putting
up the price. getting like the rail-
roads. all that the traffic would
stand The price was the same to
those who earned their dollar as i
wss to the fellow who got Il out n
the jack pot. II the price of living
had gone up only for the gambling
spectators. there would have been
some sort Of equity in the game. But
il went un for everybody. So the
wage worker was compcllcd to make
his tyrannicai Combine" also. But
his is combine which only sticks in
places. Wages are the last thing TO
The only way to make trades union
strike sure success - to kill of
half the wage workers In that trade
before calling the strike. u the
Western Federation did any killing q
began business at the wrong end 81
the line. The result il that there arc
just about as many mouths TO- feed
as there were beforehand only .
few Of the tradesmcn arc getting
wages equivalent to tho profits Of the
combines. Whenever workman
turns out S. worth Of product and
only gets wages enough to buy pack
$,.so Of il the employing manuiae-
turcr Is bound to have some OF Il left
50 whenever the army Of non-produc-
ing promoters and s-cculators have
blown in their pilc and are also driv-.
en- into living more cheapIy.
The student Of economic causes and
effects is bound to take into account
to be sure the cvcr-incrcasing produc-
tive power. that is the result Of in
vcntivc skill and scientific discovery.
But the anomaly is that this extends
only in limited measure the area OF
general human comfort. while Il does
LARGELY contribute to the producing
Of colossal fortunes for few. For
those who do not live entirely ov
speculative schcmcs-who are not
merely gamblers. first last and all the
time-but have the wealth to control
the mbsi modern machinery. the most
prolific means of production. these
improvements : mechanism become
only another source OF cxtravagant
and speciai nrofits. Add to this
customs tariff that shuts out his for.
cign competitor and we give him still
another and purely arbitrary. and un-
natural cinch. No wonder Mr.. Car.
ncgie is able to erect library mausa..
icums to himself in every town Of
the country. The only wonder is
that he fools the people into taxing
themselves 10 per cent to keep the
moss off his monuments.
The cinch of all the cinches, how
ever, is the one we give to John D:
and not a few others when we sell
out to them all the oil, all the coal
and all the timber there is in the
earth-all the raw material of subsist-
cncc, for a dollar and quarter per
surface acre. Or worse than that. al
low them to steal great deal Of il.
Leaving to ourselves and our child
rem the inalienable right to nay tol!
for standing room and the chance OF
working for living. But instead OF
studying the problem it does seem
so much easier. If we only have 4
little ready cash and streak of luck
to get rich by joining the ranks of
the gamblers in monopolistic chances.
Still when too many of us get into
the game and too many of our notes
on the deferred payments get to fall
ing due about the same date, as thev
naturally will when there are so
many of them out, stringency in
the money market is bound to come.
1t isn't that we have lost confidence
in anybody so much as the fact. tnat
and want their stakes. Then /. j.
i,:-d -e T,h,, n ,od fa1Io,yc IF h;e ;tt