Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1907-01-16
authority over very many.

De WOrtu aI leaSG 9l,UUU,UUo,oOU
The immensity of these fortunes
which have been accumulated in the
past few years, can scarcely be an,
derstood without some comparison
or illustration. According to the
Hebrew text, if Adam had lived un.
til this time. he would be about
5000 years or 100000 days old
Now let us suppose that Adam hac
actually lived until the present time
and had worked every day OF his life
Sundays and holidays included, ant
had never spent cent of his earn,
ings, how much would he have had
to earn each day to be i'll the Rookie
feller class? The problem is an easy
one. Divide Mr.. Rockefelfer's re-
puted wealth by the number of days
since the creation, and the answer is
1862. In other words, Adam
would have had to earn and save
$456.G2 every day since the begin.
ming of the world to be worth as
much as Rockefeller, or $22S.3l
each day to have as much as Mr.
Carnegie.
1t requires no argument to demon
strate that this country's immensely
rich men never honestly earned
their colossal fortunes. The great.
er part of the wealth which they
call theirs was produced by the
country's millions of workmen.
Glass legislation is largely re.
sponsible for the grossly unjust dis
tribution of wealth in this country
According to President Roosevelt s
recent message to congress, the cir
culating medium of this country in
1896 was in round numbers only
81, ,400,000,00O, and at tie present
time fully S2.6O0,000,O0O. 1t was
class legislation dictated by the
money power which created the
scarce money period Of ten years
ago.
Money is measure of values,
and the prices of labor and the pro-
ducts of labor are largely determined
by its volume. When the per
capita of circulating medium in
creases, prices go up, and the value
of money is correspondingly de-
creased. And when legislative
schemers reduce the per capita Of
circulating medium, prices fall and
panics and financial disasters follow
as natural result. Our circulating
medium was only S2l per capita in
1896. AT the present time, accord
ing to the presidents message, it is
$33 per capita, and when it is in
creased to S42 per capita, if it ever
Eis, the purchasing power of dollar
will be reduced to one half Of what
it was in 1896, or, to state it in an
other way, the prices of all com
modities will be doubled.
That is the quantitative theory of
money which was taught by Mr..
Bryan in 1896; and observed by
every republican administration
which has been in power since that
time. Mr.. Bryan was not elected,
but in teaching that one lesson he
rendered greater service to his
countrymen than that Of any other
man now living. Largely on ac-
count Of the teachings of Mr.. Bryan,
the money question should at pres
ent be closed issue; but the
struggle for supremacy in American
life between the masses and the
classes is just as fierce as it ever
was in the history Of the nation.
On the battle ground of the pres
ent, natural persons are desperately
contending with artificial persons.
God-made men are fighting for
their rights against artificial mon
sters created by the law. The state
creates these artificial persons, and
clothes them with all their power,
and has the right to require them to
do good, and to destroy them when
they persist in doing evil. And
blame the favoritism of the stat, for
the existence of these monster cor
porations which rob the people after
they have destroyed competition.
And the people themselves are to
blame for not preventing these cor
porations from buying elections.
The fellow who defined the United
States senate as body of small
men surrounded by Standard Oil,
might have gone further and added
to the surroundings nearly every
thing desired by the classes and
special interests.
Greater, however, than all Other
class legislation is the exemption Of
wealth from the payment of any par,
of the expenses of our national gov
ernment.
The hundreds of millions collect.
ed annually are largely derived from
tariff duties and internal revenue
taxes on things like whiskey and
tobacco. These are taxes upon the
consumers Of the country, upon the
masses Of the people who use the
articles taxed, and have little or nc
reference 10 wealth or property
The poor working mechanic witt
half a dozen small children, may
pay more to the support Of his
country than the rich man with a hal
dozen millions. And that is but the
smaller part of the injustice. Under
the guise of taxation, tariff schedules
are made prohibitive, thus enabling
the trusts to form combinations anc
charge extortionate prices for theil
products.
!; All this can and will be remedied
The wealth Of the country should
pay an income as we'll as an inherit
ance tax. And tariff taxes SHOULD
be lowered in statesmanlike man
ner.
Everyone knows that all tarif
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