The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-06-19
THE SOCIAL PROBLEM.

There Is great weight in the ar
gument of the socialists. that the
distribution of wealth and the re-
wards of labor under our present
economical system are unequal and
in no sense commensurate with the
requirements of society or services
rendered
That the spirit of real dem
ocracy has been sadly neglected
in legislation for the past forty years
is equally true and its effects can be
seen in the inequalities that are
everywhere apparent.
1t is not the fact that the frugal
and thrifty are able to accumulate
and the dissolute and shiftless are
unable to acquire, that is the basis
of the unrest that today is more
apparent among all classes OF indus
trial workers in this country than at
any time in its history for it has
ever been conceded that the idle
and vicious man who refuses to ac-
cept the opportunities offered and
blames social conditions for his in
ability to accumulate, is unworthy
of thought or consideration and is
parasite that society is well rid Of.
But to the willing worker, who
accepts the conditions as they are
and makes the most of them, who
perhaps while possessing the faculty
of building house or converting
iron into steel, or who can till the
soil, with skill and profit, who can
80 into the factory and turn out the
various commodities that are useful
and necessary for human consump-
tion whose efferots are directed into
the channels of commerce or tnal
of the skilled artisan. The man with
the hoe and the man on the section
VINO under the scorching sun labors
from dawn till dark, the man who
in every avocation of life is doing
his duty to himself and to society
1t is here that the inequalities of
the distribution of wealth and remu-
neration for services are the most
apparent 4 man who conceiyos an
iInn ~ rsu Inv Tho anp1i.
cation of little accumulated capital
starts some industry, that Is profit.
able to himself employs labor and
enlarges the field of human indus
try is a benefactor to his race. and
as such should receive a reward IL
reasonable returns on both his idea
and his investment commensurate
with its Importance. 1t does not fol
low though that because of this the
government should bestow upon him
special privileges that will enable
him to gather unjust and inequitable
returns and In a few years become
immensely wealthy at the expense
of oppressive burdens placed upon
the great mass of people who un-
fortunately may be placed at the
mercy of such a system.
1t does not follow that the bene-
fits so given should be of such
nature that millionaires are turned
out with such rapidity and freqeunce
that It dazzles the country and ere
ates an abnormal desire to get
rich quick" by any sort of a scheme
that will produce the money and a:
the same time allow the operator
to keep out of the penitentiary.
1t is a strange anomaly because
a man happens TO be the favorite of
the modern Croesus, through per.
haps some peculiar faculty he has
for organization or improvement OF
methods. shall in a few short years
De in possession of such wealth as
20 enable him to squander with
prodigal and lavish hand the monies
unequally and unjustly acquired on
the gaming tables of Europe or
flaunt in the face of offended decen-
cy his disregard for moral rectitutde
b. the desertion of his home for the
fevered fancies OF painted actresses,
whose notoriety and accomplish