The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-02-23

of the country's wealth will continue
before a proper solution is found. 1t |
has been said that we have sixteen I
million families with an income of less
than six hundred dollars a year. True. |
And we have four million families with
an income of less than four hundred |
dollars a year-less than eight dollars
week-on which to raise, feed, clothe I
and house family. 1t should not be
understood that these are the poor.
Far from 1t. These are the great
laboring classes, tynes of American
workingmen, the producers of the ma
tonal wealth The rest, ten millions |
or more of families, are in the direst
of poverty. in the slums, ill-clothed.
ill-fed, indeed. starving. Migrants. |
tramps, the notsan and jetsam, iloat- /,
ing on the great sea of our prosperity. |
And the end is not yet. Who has any
conception of the tremendous resources
of this country. Already we produce
more than ne-third of the coal used |
in the civilized world. And we pro-
duce one-third Of it's grain three
fourths of its cotton, and moro steel
and iron than England and Germany
put together Our manufactures are
more than double those of Great Britain
and Ireland combined And our rail-
roads carry twice as much freight as
all the other railroads in all the rest
Of the world put together. This last
fact alone is sufficiently grave to war
rant the attention of the best thinking
men, for though 1t be a fact that hum
dreds Of millions of acres of our lands
are individually owned, the actual pros
iducers, the actual owners of these
lands, are at the mercy of the nine men
who control their output, through con-
trolling it's distribution and debating
tho prices, not only at which it shall
be sold but at which it shall be bought.
1t Is a fact that Rockefeller, Morgan,
Gould. Hartman, Vanderbilt, and less
than half dozen other railroad mag
mates could. If they wished, starye this.
country to death unless the railroads
We're operated by physical force and In
defiance of what might be conceded as
a legal right.
The leading financial authorities
agree to the following facts: That
there arc ten fortunes In this country
aggregating ten billions of dollars,
that there are four hundred and nifty
fortunes aggregating three billions OF
dollars and that there arc four thou
sand FIVE hundred fortunes aggregatinE
ten billions OF dollars, making total
of five thousand fortunes which aggre-
gate fifteen billion dollars. This is
ownership, absolute, not control ana
1t means ownership of one-slxth or the
entire national wealth, including build
ings, mines, money, industries, personal
belongings, in fact, everything II
means ownership without work, owner
ship among u little band of men VINO
may sit down ali the days OF their
lives and leave this wealth In any wise
they may see III, to be used or not
for the public veal or tho public woe;
| If It were turned into gold It Woula
give them, according to the figures OF
Mr.. Moffat, all the gold In the worid,
| nil
| still owing to them. Truly the dangers
and dollars of cur milllonaires Is a
startling story far stranger indeed
than fiction. The wealth and power OIL
Monte Cristo is but q trillo by COM
] harrison