Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-02-07
BIG FORTUNES A PERIL
Wisconsin Educator Sees Men
ace in Unequal Distribution
OF Wealth
POINTS TO SPECIFIC REMEDIES
Professor Edward A. Ross Tells Mem
bers of Chicaso's City Club Cure
Reefs With Society and tho Govern
n,ent-Fsars Growth of Fortunes.

neSt8 WIN ooCi0ty ana tu0 0oVeTn'
ment-Fears Growth of Fortunes.
"If the inequalities of wealth distri.
button In this country increase during
the next fifty years as rapidly as in
the past economic inequalities will be
reflected in our social and political in
stitutious."
Thus spoke Professor Edward A.
Ross of the University Of Wisconsin
before the City club in Chicago the
other day in an address on The Prob
lem of Individual Accumulation of
Wealth In the United States" says the
Chicago Record Herald.
1T is of Fundamental Importance to
determine the conditions under which
future fortunes will be created" he
continued. Make these conditions
more equitable. and the great noun
tains OF wealth will gradually disap.
pear.
Not only is 1t the duty Of society by
abrogatlng privilege. bursting monop-
oily. safeguarding common interests
and clearing the paths of opportunity
to hinder the accumulation Of great
fortunes by means other than unique
and transcendent social service, but
enormous existing fortunes and for
tunes certain to be amassed in spite Of
socictys endeayors should be planned
down to wholesome proportions by Il
graduated inheritance tax"
Some Of the specific remedies advo-
Gated by Professor Ross are:
THE withdrawal from entry and sale
of government oil and coal lands
Protection OF the independent bust
ness man from brutal trust methods.
establishment Of postal savings
banks and public utility commissions.
publicity for corporation affairs and
government regulation Of stock and
bond issues"
The distribution, recent and present
of property in the United States was
such as to aggravate inequalities OF
possession. Professor Ross declared.
Small fortunes" he continued, may
be regarded as the naturalization of
productive ideas To hinder them
would shackle genius and discourage
the production Of wealth. Very great
fortunes have something back of them
besides personal ability or individual
ideas. They root In social situation
among the principal factors deter
mining the number and magnitude of
great American fortunes are social
growth. increasing land and franchise
values, social institutions like land
ownership. the recognition Of vested
interests and freedom Of incorporation.
social policies such as tariffs, grants
to railroads. unequal taxation and re-
linquishment Of governmental func-
tions to private hands. social negli-
gence. permitting tax lodging, land
stealing, adulteration, promoters swim
dies. rebating. mismanagement of In
surance companies. monQpolistic COM
binations and other abuses.
millionaire families are not tending
to extinction nor great family fortunes
to dissipation. IL present tendencies
continue, in half century 80 per cent
Of the wealth in the United States Will
be owned by not more than hundred
carefully organized and intermarried
family groups.
1.-THE suffocating luxury and ostenta-
ton Of the ultra rich foster class bit
terness, arouse the spirit of mammon-
ism, commercialize matrimony, destroy
character and prompt the middle class
to race suicide.
THE hereditary transmission of large
fortunes leads to degeneration in the
family thus exempted from the strug.
gle for existence.
ut is foolish to say that the govern
ment should be an idle onlooker at the
struggle for wealth. The government
takes and always has taken n part in
the struggle. and without the govern
ment these great fortunes would be an
impossibility. Fortunes owe their ex-
istence to the protection Of the phys
ical might of organized society,""